Retired now what?

A couple tips on how I decided when to take SS. SS website lets you calculate what your monthly benefit payment will be starting at age 62. It also lets you see how much was contributed by you and employers over your working career. I for sure wanted to get every penny of that back and divided that amount by 12 (months) and it gave me a baseline. I also had decided based on our household budget how much was minimum I wanted out of SS each month taking under consideration my FULL retirement age was age 66 + 8 months. I ended up taking it at 64 + 4 months.

You also need carefully look at the various retirement "professionals" telling you to maximize monthly payments by waiting until 70,,,,, but what if longevity is not good in your family like mine? If you wait to 70 you could die before then and not see a penny owed to you! I think the gov counts on that for large % of people. Also keep track of the projected date of the SS trust fund running out (2032 right now). They predict a huge ~23-28% benefit cut if Congress fails to fix and extend the plan. I'm not betting they'll get it done on time or completely based on their record.

So basically, I looked at my calculated benefit amount starting age 62 and then how long until 2032 I would be collecting to arrive at my actual starting date while hitting my monthly desired amount. Also remember Medicare takes a cut directly from your SS payment for your Part B medical premium too. Some years the SS COLA doesn't even cover that Part B deduction.

I hate that shit. Used to be that when you meet up with old friends there was lots to catch up on. At our age the conversations seem to always revolve around our health issues we're presently dealing with. Best of luck dealing with the cancer and other shit. Fuck Cancer!

TM

I hear ya! Thanks for well wishes. I'm actually pretty lucky in this case as I went to ER Christmas Day 2022 for abdominal pain that was diagnosed as Kidney Stones. The Radiologist that read the scans went above and beyond pointing out a blockage where the tube from your kidney connects to your bladder. Bladder cancer is 2nd leading cancer in men over 50, behind Prostate cancer. I've had a couple surgeries since Sept 2023, the biggest being removing a Kidney and the tube that both tested for cancer in Dec 2023 but we got them in time before anything spread 👍 Have to keep doing the regular checkups and every 3 months they look in there with a camera to visually verify still gone. Had several rounds of Immuno and Chemo over the years that worked enough to stop it. 

If I could make 1 suggestion for you guys, don't wait to get checked out by a good Urologist if you pee blood or have other weirdness related to everything flowing normally. I had to go through 4 DRs before finding the exact right guy who is brilliant and works like a partner with me to determine best path forward anytime there is a hint something might be off. I've had basically no evidence of disease returning for 2.5 years now and Doc is largely responsible for that. I have no limitations from it except no NSAID pain relivers allowed, but can ride bikes and anything else I would otherwise be doing as 68 year old guy in decent shape 😉

^Oh dude, NSAIDs are the only things that work for me. I'd be screwed.

Yeah, Fuck Cancer.

Been told I'll die with it, and probably not from it.

Still sucks knowing there's a ticking time bomb inside you.

Treatment definitely slows you down.

But if you stop, you might as well just dig a hole.

Nuts,

You are actually in luck right now. The new regimen for bladder cancer is likely curative. Keytruda +EV. They pretty much started that treatment this year. Last year at the conference, after presenting results, they got a standing ovation for the success. My brother in law was however one of the .00001% that got very bad side effects. However, after 2 cycles only, metastasis in the surrounding muscle, lymphnodes, prostate, and bones. After last PET, doctor literally said, "that's fucking amazing, I can't find any evidence of the cancer anymore" after only 2 infusions of The Keytruda.

Ask your doc!

Informative thread. 

Sharing is learning on display.

That’s insane. 

One of the reasons I can’t leave Texas, tax structure. I don’t pay for my license, vehicle registration, and no tax on my domicile. No sales tax on food. 

Thanks for sharing TM. I really feel for you and your family This stuff is as much a mental burden as physical. Tough on the loved ones supporting those with the disease too. So glad you've found things that are helping! I was following your posts on it and thought about reaching out but didn't really want to broadcast my own situation on the forum. 

Yes, I'm aware of Keytruda. It was discussed with my current Urologist at our initial consultation but not pursued after some research and choosing to follow established treatment protocols for early-stage NMIB cancer like mine. I have no family history which helps. Keytruda is very expensive and my medical plan wasn't going to pay for it. That along with side effects that would likely affect me sealed the deal. As mentioned before my 1st surgery was to remove a blockage that had to come out whether cancerous or not. Pathology reports confirmed it was a specific common type and treatment options varied wildly and 2 Drs in a row wanted to go directly to life altering major surgeries and lied to me about options I knew weren't appropriate due to exhausting research I had already done. New advances are coming online all the time.

Then I had the good fortune of being accepted as a new patient by my current guy. He was educated at both USC and UCLA then moved on to Mayo clinic for advanced medical degrees and residency in Urology. He was part of the small team that invented minimally invasive robotic surgeries and went into private practice in Scottsdale area while maintaining surgical privileges at Mayo in AZ, eventually decided to move to Durango to take over the Urology group at Mercy hospital and has been critical in coming up with the right programs/treatments exactly for my situation and over 3 years got me cancer free nearly 100% of the time with a few corrections to the plan as needed and the target is 5 years showing NED- no evidence of disease at which point my probability of a normal lifespan is 95%. I'm really happy with where I'm at knowing I'm getting the best care I could hope for and super vigilant oversight to keep me on track. As long as I can stay non-invasive with no metastasis, I'm good to go 😊

Best of luck to your family!

I am at a crossroads myself.

About to turn 63. Have been self employed for over 30 years. Last 10 I have not been contributing much in SS tax so not much there.

However, I did buy 65 acres 25 years ago and the area that it is located is absolutely going nuts. Got an offer from a developer I am considering. Never thought I would have to worry about capital gains

Have no kids, so no grandkids coming, I have no intention of living to be a hundred.

I have been helping my girlfriend at her 80 horse stable for 12 years. Maintainance, waste disposal, and feed logistics. Pretty secure here and don't want for anything. 

Well, anything except a good relationship that I don't think about ending at least once a day. I have become just an employee. getting harder and harder to enjoy each other's company. Need to start letting a bucket list decide what I am going to do instead of a "to do list". I am not making long term plans that include anything horse related.

I have to start getting rid of stuff in anticipation of a life change. I am a third generation packrat and it is hard to break that.

I have a KLR 650 and have been putting together a kit for long travels like various BDRs and maybe the TAT.

Also bought a 31' thomas school bus with a wheelchair lift. Plan to use it for loading my motorcycle in the rear garage until I need it for a chair. want to do the whole skoolie thing. Bus has a low mile rebuilt engine and transmission so I am good there for about 150-200k miles. Will eventually hope to have a solar setup so I can be self contained.

My mom bought a chinook motorhome when she retired 22 years ago and just sold it last year, at 85 years old. The year before that she drove from SC to AZ solo. She is a good role model.

I will probably be sponging parking spots off friends and family for a while.

Might buy a couple acres when I figure out where I want to have a homebase.

I will definitely be following the adventures of the rest of you and welcome any advice shared.

I know several people that have bought new class As and the build quality had them wishing they had bought a bus. Some sketchy stuff out there going for big money.

 If you look for a rust free bus and do the work yourself it is doable, and the chassis will last my life time, as will the cat engine and allison transmission. I don't need much more than reliability and a 78" interior roof.

I do see some crazy prices for skoolies on FB. $50k and they still have the old sliding windows in them..

Let's not forget this exciting activity

Reading a book outside, loyal friend by your side; looks like a pretty good life to me…….

Waiting for the bananas to be harvestable. (Is that a word?) There was some work involved, just manicured the mango tree. 😁

You’ve got to pace yourself. I’ve always been a if it needs to be done, it needs to be done today kind of guy. Manana (tomorrow)!

What happened to the Honda bike build thread?  I enjoyed it but cannot find it now. 

Didn’t seem like anybody was interested. Other than talking trash. There’s enough threads here where people can standby their petty jealousy. 

Honestly, I lost a lot of interest in this Forum on my “forced” break. Same five guys posting the same replies, to the same threads, ad nauseam. I’ve changed one posters name to, “wall of text”. 

That’s another great thing about retirement, if I don’t like it, I ain’t doing it and will remove it from my life. 

My dad used to call that "listening to the grass grow." 😄

Sounds like your dad had many words of wisdom. 

TM

Us Dairy farm boys got screwed , start working at 3 yrs old 7 days a week.  With no pay . 1st farm cut cabbage,  apples that was easy , feed pigs, cows, hefers, calf’s , chickens. 

Haven’t spent much time relaxing this week, but I got in 51 miles of single track and over 7,800 feet of climbing on the emtb. I’m digging having time off in the middle of the week when the trails are mostly empty. 😎

When I was approaching my retirement date of turning 65 I asked my wife Jan, who was 3 years battling cancer if she wanted me to retire. She said yes so it was an easy decision and i'm glad I did as I was able to be with her 24/7. Was not able to travel much in the RV that I had purchased the previous year with the hope of traveling with her as her chemo was taking it's toll. November will be 2 years since she's been gone and it has been a tough road going on without her... losing parents and good friends is very sad. But losing your spouse is a whole different level of pain. 😢 I've been told it's harder for men than women and I believe this to be true.

Been with a nice easy going gal, who is also a widow and we get along great and have fun together. But now she too has been having health issues and it's like deja vu for me..... finally got to go on an RV trip with her but she wanted to go home instead of staying an extra day.... Something Jan would have never done.

So at 68 retirement has not been what I had hoped it to be and I've been in a funk since my wife passed. I can't seem to be motivated to get home projects done as I'm not good at doing things myself, I always like having a partner with me. One day I hope to snap out of it and get my house and life in order. But for now, i'm just trying to stay busy playing billiard tournaments 3 to 4 times a week and now that its starting to cool down, get on my mountain bike, motorcycles and playing pickleball as well. 

As far as finances I doubled down on principal payments on my home and paid it off In twelve years. I listened to Dave Ramsey when I was still working. And went by his motto on "if you cannot pay for anything with cash (homes exempt) you should not buy it as interest is money down the toilet!"

 The only bills I have are utilities and insurance ( crazy costs) on the many vehicles I have that I can't seem to get rid of. 🙄🤪

My investments at this stage in my life are on the safe side and are mostly in CD's with Charles Schwab and they have done very well.

Much like sitting out in the driveway, predawn, listen to the world wake up.

Sorry for your loss G-man. Fortunately, you don't have the additional burden of financial distress adding to the trauma and you have hobbies. We did similar early financial planning taking full advantage of whatever employer retirement plans we had and focusing on keeping recuring monthly bills as low as possible. We keep our vehicles long after any loans were paid off and keep up the preventative maintenance too. Ramsey drops some valuable nuggets sometimes and 1 has to do with paying off your mortgage early or eliminate credit card balances and other loans 1st. He asks what the mortgage rate is and what the credit card interest rates are: then points out cc rates are well over 20% and mortgages even today are like 7% so the math is clear that maintaining an affordable mortgage (and not borrowing equity) and paying the cc off completely and trying to pay any monthly balance in full puts you way farther ahead over the long term. We DO pay the cc balances in full every month and add extra $200.00 month in principle on our small mortgage to take 10 yrs off our 30 year loan. So far so good...

be careful on AZ unless it is Northern. The major metropolitan cities are having a water problem which is about to get much worse and AC bills in Summer with kill your budgeting. Google the Colorado River Compact which under renegotiation and AZ is 1 of the Lower Basin cities and gonna get hurt bad by their drastically reduced allocation of Colorado River water going forward.

have fun!