Crossroads- Retirement and cruise or continue to work?

[BruceK]

Simi,Looks like I was being Sydney centric. But often the family location sets where the kids will buy. That said, I wonder where $871K comes from, it buys a 2, maybe 3 bedroom apartment, not a house, in most of Sydney.

 

[jimisbell]

p.s Who said retirement was boring ?
You've gotta be joking I've never been so busy I don't know how I ever found time to work !

This is the difference between living and dying after retirement. If you retire to a chair,you will die. if you find yourself so busy that you wonder how you ever had time to work, you will live. I had the same feeling. Been retired 20 years now and loving every minute. BUT in the beginning I had to learn that it was not good to take on too much volunteering. Its easy to do until you realise you are working harder than before you retired and you are not getting paid for it. Could have stayed working and making money....LOL. Then you need to start doing things for yourself.


I think the difference in people is that some have NO HOBBIES before retirement and they tend to just sit and die. Those that had many hobbies and interests will survive well in retirement.

 

[Group9]

Tell us when you plan on dying, or getting too old to do anything, and we can tell you when to retire. Since I didn’t know, I retired and started cruising at 52.

I’d rather lose money than years.

 

[jimisbell]

Tell us when you plan on dying, or getting too old to do anything, and we can tell you when to retire. Since I didn’t know, I retired and started cruising at 52.

I’d rather lose money than years.

I thought I would be dead at 55 since my father died then (genes) but I couldnt retire then because I would have starved. Then when I reached 56 I realized I wasnt going to die after all. I retired 6 years later at 62 and am now 82 and planing on 191 years as my goal. I want to immigrate to Mars and die there.

 

[Simi 60]

.
Be aware the economy can change, taxes can change, etc.What do you predict with the economy. Are we approaching a 2008 GFC Mk.2? Maybe not, but I`m seeing credible predictions of a recession in 2020. Govts are fond of moving the goalposts after you carefully set yourself up for the future under the rules they said/lied would continue..

And on cue, the thieving <insert VERY rude word here> are proposing just that
Fken livid


Snipped from article

Tax bills could date back 30 years
Ms Cooke's biggest gripe is that the legislation is retrospective.


For decades Australians living abroad have been able to claim the capital gains tax (CGT) exemption on the family home. This exemption is available, so long as the home was rented out for no more than six years at a time.

Now, he or she would be hit with capital gains tax — regardless of whether the home is rented out or left vacant — and the tax bill would date back from the time the owner purchased their home, not the point at which they moved overseas.

For a family who purchased in the late 80s — the CGT main residence exemption dates back to September 20, 1985 — that could mean a very hefty tax bill.

Ms Cooke said it runs contrary to the Coalition previously voting against other laws that were retrospective.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10...-gains-tax-bills-under-proposed-laws/10382814

 

[swampu]

The tread is long but the markets are high, sell and buy rentals. Live off of the rent and give the kids houses when you die

 

[rjwilliams11741]

Have you ever seen a trailer hitch on a hearse?

 

[koliver]

Simi,Looks like I was being Sydney centric. But often the family location sets where the kids will buy. That said, I wonder where $871K comes from, it buys a 2, maybe 3 bedroom apartment, not a house, in most of Sydney.

Bruce, you could easily be comparing prices in Vancouver, BC, now Canada's most expensive real estate.

I recall buying my first house in a Vancouver suburb for $37,500.00 in 1972. At he time I financed all but $300 of it, the bank of Mom & Dad (hers, not mine) helped with loan guarantees, but not cash. In the city proper, I could not have bought, as prices were then and stayed always out of my reach. At the time, wages were low, comparable to the present gap between wages and house prices. University tuition was $457 annually. Most things are 10 or more times as high now, as are tuition and house prices.
Correcting for inflation, however, brings things into better focus.
My own 2 sons have bought in Vancouver, as their wages will allow it. I helped, but only a little, and have been fully repaid in a reasonable time. Their careers are going well, so I don't need to be at all frugal in my retirement, and can hope to go on SKIing (Spending Kids Inheritance).

 

[ben2go]

Have you ever seen a trailer hitch on a hearse?

Yes, my cousin installed one on his custom Hearse so he could tow his companion trailer on vacation.



Anyone know what a companion trailer is?



A custom trailer that matches the car. His was for carrying luggage instead of risking damaging the $10,000 interior of the car.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. B2g. Who, pray tell, needs luggage if they're a passenger in a hearse? I thought you couldn't take it with you?

 

[ben2go]

Greetings,
Mr. B2g. Who, pray tell, needs luggage if they're a passenger in a hearse? I thought you couldn't take it with you?

My cousin was a custom car guy. He converted a hearse into an auto door audio system for events. The back was all audio equipment. No room for luggage. He drove that thing all over the US in the mid 90's.:lol:

 

[SoWhat]

Been retired 20 years now and loving every minute. BUT in the beginning I had to learn that it was not good to take on too much volunteering. Its easy to do until you realise you are working harder than before you retired and you are not getting paid for it. Could have stayed working and making money....LOL.

Same here. Ended up working more hours volunteering than before retirement. Once I wised up I retired again. Having a lot more time is far more relaxing even though I really enjoyed the volunteer work.

Drove up to Gloucester this morning to pick up some exhaust hose. Invited the wife and we made a day of it. Island time every day. If I don't get the exhaust fixed today, well maybe tomorrow.

 

[ksanders]

The last dollar on the last day.....My Dad's mantra and he almost made it. I didn't expect his money, and my kids don't expect mine. If you raised your kids well, they'll be fine and make their own way. If not, well you can be wracked with that guilt and plan on leaving them YOUR retirement dollars. My kids are gonna be fine, with or without any money that may be left in my estate...

Thank you for a bit of old fashioned wisdom!

 

[ksanders]

I do not buy into the whole failure to launch because things are tougher now balogny.

Things were tough for my generation too. I remember as a recent college graduate having to really pinch pennies. Cheap apartments, fixing my own clunker trucks, etc...

I think now days we coddle our kids too much and as a result we have kids still living at home during a time when we should be thinking about our futures, not our kids.

My son just turned 35 today. He moved out at 18 to go to college. College wasn’t much fun for him and he ended up active duty coast Guard. His wife is a e-6 right now and he makes a hundred grand a year at his career. He is also finishing his Bachelors in applied mathmatics in December and will use that knowledge to advance his career in RF engineering.

He never asked me for a dime from the time he left. Because of that I have had 17 years of empty nest life, building my net worth, and having a great time spending money on boats. Partly because of his launching on time I can retire at 58 and lead a good life. I get my golden years worry free because I managed my son’s upbringing in a way that ended his dependance at 18.

Oh, and yes we are very good friends today! Yes, he is raising his kid the exact same way!

 

[mpstan]

This is way to good of a thread to let die. My father died at 65; his at 38. I'm 60 and am just getting the last nestling out of college. Hoping to retire at 67 and cruise extensively between WA and AK...... if it is meant to be. My wife and I just fell in love with the water this year and put on 100 hours on our new to us 30 Tolly in our first season. This thread has given me much to contemplate.

 

[RossWilson]

I bought my first boat in 1988, a brand new Sea Ray, when I was a mere 39 years old. Having a good, but new business, I was able to afford it. However, a very mean and vindictive wife, from whom I was divorcing (long story), went to great lengths (including fraud) to deprive me of my fair share of our matrimonial assets, including my express cruiser. I was left virtually penniless. The judicial system is misnamed, for there is no justice.

Well, it took nearly 20 years to recover and re-build, but I made it. And along the way, I learned how to retire by seeking harmony in my life; not balance, but harmony, since if one has balance, one is not succeeding at any of life's pillars. I devoted a considerable amount of time to developing personal interests and hobbies whilst I was building business. As my 60th year marker approached, I began to slow my work efforts and accelerate my play efforts, and prepared to buy my retirement boat.

For the past few years, with a comfortable investment income, my wife of nearly a quarter century and I have enjoyed the cruising trawler lifestyle with no concern for money.

To retire successfully, that is with physical, mental and financial health, I feel it's of utmost importance to lay the groundwork, that is seek wellness and sound money-management early in life. We're not here to work until we drop. As they say, we don't live to work, but work to live .. until we don't.

 

[Group9]

This is way to good of a thread to let die. My father died at 65; his at 38. I'm 60 and am just getting the last nestling out of college. Hoping to retire at 67 and cruise extensively between WA and AK...... if it is meant to be. My wife and I just fell in love with the water this year and put on 100 hours on our new to us 30 Tolly in our first season. This thread has given me much to contemplate.

My father retired at 62 and died at 69. I was always so thankful he didn't wait until 65 or 67 to retire. It took him about a year to transition to full time hunting and fishing, but after that, he had a blast.

 

[JustBob]

OTOH, I have a friend that IS a financial manager. He takes the money from wealthy individuals and “manages” it taking a percentage of the asset value regardless of whether his clients make money or not. I’m personally not interested in hiring his services. He happens to own a 120’ crewed yacht. Like you, I think it was paid for, not by the growth of his own portfolio, but by collecting a percentage every year all his clients portfolios. Nothing wrong with it, it just isn’t a service that I want to pay for.

See:

 

[JustBob]

My son just turned 35 today. He moved out at 18 to go to college. College wasn’t much fun for him and he ended up active duty coast Guard. His wife is a e-6 right now and he makes a hundred grand a year at his career. He is also finishing his Bachelors in applied mathmatics in December and will use that knowledge to advance his career in RF engineering.

He never asked me for a dime from the time he left. Because of that I have had 17 years of empty nest life, building my net worth, and having a great time spending money on boats.

Good job DAD!

 

[MurrayM]

My advice is too late for everyone here (unless there's a 17 year old out there reading this) and that's to travel, go adventuring, and explore your limits while young.

I worked summer or contract jobs in the bush when money was needed and hiked, sea kayaked, rock climbed, and went to art/photography schools until I was 32 years of age. I call them my early retirement years.

It did come at a financial cost; having limited purchasing power compared to my friends who went straight to work after high school or straight from university into careers.

The question is; how important are 'things' compared to memories of exploits while in the physical prime of life when youthful optimism is at its highest, not ground down by time and the realities of the world?

Our house (1/2 of a duplex) vehicle and boat are bought & paid for, we have savings, and our daughter is off at college (natural resources management) with us having saved for her first two years. She will be earning enough in summer jobs after that, augmented by gymnastics coaching if she wants, to pay for further schooling if she feels that's needed. After school she intends to volunteer/work around the planet wherever her interests take her...before career, mortgage, or kids. Good plan

Because I started where I work at 32, and it took about four years to move from casual, to part time, then full time work, it will take me until the age of 67 to get a full pension. The earliest I can retire without a major hit to the pension is at 60 years of age which is less than a year from now.

Am I going to work another 7 years? No way!!!

We can't sea kayak anymore due to a car accident, so we'll boat the north coast of BC extensively until age makes it too difficult. We recently bought a 5x8 insulated cargo trailer with a roof vent, side door and egress window to trick out into a micro trailer for when the time comes to swallow the anchor.

Point is, we'll hopefully finish our lives as we began; exploring places we love in a frugal manner where the emphasis is on the experience, not the level of luxury in which it can be done.

 

[Group9]

My advice is too late for everyone here (unless there's a 17 year old out there reading this) and that's to travel, go adventuring, and explore your limits while young......

I agree 100 per cent. I had a boat I could have gone cruising on when I was 26. Instead, I jumped right on the gerbil wheel, buying useless thing after useless thing, (and six houses, losing money sometimes, making money sometimes), because that's what we all thought we were supposed to do.

If I could go back in time. I would go do the things I do now, and start my career whenever I got back, even if I had to eat beans and rice for five years (or the rest of my life).

TIME. NOT MONEY, IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSET.

You can always make more money, but your time is what you got.

 

[BandB]

I wish this solution was more commonly available as it's one we've found works incredibly well for some of our employees. It is something many of you contemplating future retirement might look at and even discuss with employers as well as something for any self employed to consider.

For those employed by others, picture this. At 40 years old, vacation and holidays add up to 6 weeks or so and you work 46 weeks a year. At 70 years old you want to work 0 weeks a year. So, what if you could cut back a year and a half every year. Even if just one year it would help. At a year and a half, you'd be working 31 weeks a year at 50 and 16 at 60. Unfortunately most employers are blind to the benefits. They don't see the value of experience and that the knowledge is there even if less time spend working. They don't grasp the value of a gradual changeover as the years pass where the senior employee is mentoring the next generation.

If self employed, start training of your successor early, of a manager who ultimately can run things, and each year give them a little more responsibility, so that as time goes by you're mainly needed for your accumulated wisdom.

It's a shame retirement so often has to be an all or nothing thing. My wife and I retired 7 years ago, yet others see all we do and laugh that we call ourselves retired. Retirement to us is the freedom to do what you want. We read and occasionally respond to company emails five nights a week. We remotely attend meetings about twice a month when cruising. We call as requested. We go into the office about 20 days a year. We follow up on our Foundation spending about an hour a week and perhaps 5 full days a year. We visit an orphanage in which we have an interest 4 weekends a year, so 12 days. Oh and we got involved with some schools this year and spent about 40 days on that but now it's down to emails and actually going on site about 12 days a year. Yet we consider ourselves retired and think of none of that as work. We're not required to get up and go into an office or school 5 days a week, 40 to 50 weeks a year. We both loved our jobs, but they had a restrictive nature to them. I guess we work the equivalent of about 17-18 weeks a year but to us it never feels like we work.

We have a 39 year old employee who works now 37 weeks a year, decreasing a week each year, but working less as she chooses. We picture her at 50 working perhaps 12 weeks a year, but we'll take whatever she is willing to give. We have a 53 year old employee working 140 days a year. Then a 68 year old who came out of retirement to work for us 6 years ago and we'll let set any schedule he wants. If he wanted to work 12 weeks a year we'd be happy. This year when we talked, he wanted to work 40 weeks a year, we suggested 26 and we agreed on 35. As long as he's physically and mentally able, I know he'll continue to work some. Thing is, some of these employees are worth more working 25 weeks a year than anyone we could replace them with working 46 weeks.

I know that more time off isn't even an option for many, perhaps most. Still I'd suggest giving thought to what you'd find ideal at each stage of your life and then try to figure out if it's possible. I ran across a man in his 60's working at a marina in MA last summer. He was an attorney and approached the law firm he worked for about reducing his work schedule. They refused. He now works 6 months a year to earn less than he did in one month working for them, but he loves what he does and has all winter to enjoy in FL. He's also healthier than he was 3 years ago when he started this new routine.

 

[Group9]

I still do occasional contract jobs for the G, which is perfect for our lifestyle right now. I have to travel, usually to south Florida, and usually for about a week a month.

But, the great thing is, we can leave on a cruise, stay a year, and when we come back, pick right back up if I want to.

It's amazing how much time we waste accumulating things that we can't take with us, anyway.

 

[boathealer]

Another approach to the "slow taper" is what we did. For 35 years of work immediately out of school we both put aside 50-60% of all money coming in. No exceptions, without fail. We feel we did not miss out on anything 'real' doing this. Yeah, the Jones' were driving a Porsche and had 5000sqft while we drove a Hundai and lived in 1200sqft, but that was just fine with us.

This "fast and furious" method allowed us to retire and move aboard at 55 and 58 years old. We are a year and a half in so far and having a blast.

Neither of us is interested in doing ANY work now - part time, contract, or anything. Period. We are (at least for now) content with cruising and minding our own affairs....

 

[JLD]

There is no best time to retire. Best time is based on an individual's (or couple's) personal circumstances and/or choices.

I turn 60 in January and my wife is two years younger than I. We have planned and saved for retirement our entire adult lives. I could have retired when I turned 56, but we are both in good health and we will be financially comfortable when I retire at age 62.

Our adult daughter, 25 years old, is a college graduate with a good paying job. She currently lives with us, and we are quite happy she does. We love having her around and she is saving a large portion of her salary, for her future. I hope that she stays with us for another year or so.

We have sold our house of 25 years, moved into a rental, and plan to do some extensive international travel when I retire. We will then buy another home somewhere, and then our retirement boat to fit wherever we retire.

This is our retirement plan, based upon our wants and desires. I am glad to read that others are living their own (and different) retirement dreams!

Jim

 

[jdscott3]

I'm 59 and retired in May and have no regrets about retirement, if anything I regret working so hard for so many years. We bought our dream boat 2 years ago, and have been using it more and more. I don't have money to burn, but enough that we have not had to change our standard of living and can afford the boat and our house. I've always had a fishing boat but my back is tired of the banging of 2' seas at 20+ knots. The trawler is a wonderful way for us to keep on the water, I still have a 16' aluminum for inshore fishing and duck hunting. I am sure I am like many of you, I worked since I was a teenager, for about 10 years of my life I worked the trades, half of it outside in Michigan weather. For the last 28 years I was a chemist for a large agriculture company. I should probably mention I have a pronounced curved spine; scoliosis. This prompted my decision to retire as I want to enjoy an active retirement while physically able, and this is real for me. It really helped that I was a pretty extreme saver, I've bought only one new vehicle in my life, and it was a $10K S10 truck I got when I graduated from college. All other vehicles I bought used with cash. I have found there are plenty of things to work on and learn about now that I'm retired, I am much happier that I expected I'd be. Good luck and be at peace with whatever you decide.

Jim

 

[Group9]

I keep saying that I would have retired at 18, if I could have figured out how to do it!

Right now I'm on the Travis Magee plan.

 

[rslifkin]

I'm a lot younger than most on here, I think. So I'm nowhere near retirement, which means it's always a balancing act of how much time we can take away from work to travel and what we can spend traveling now vs more money to have later (allowing earlier retirement).

Of course, when traveling by boat, there's always some concept of trading money for time. In my case, having a faster boat than some on here, that trade comes in the form of shoving the throttles forward a bit and burning more fuel to get to a good cruising area at 18 kts instead of 7. With somewhat limited time to cruise at this stage of my life, being able to get to the interesting parts of the trip faster is well worth the extra cost.

 

[Fletcher500]

Like many others, I started working at an early age. One of my first jobs was scrubbing 40 to 80 ft. Fishing boats at age 14, and that eventually got me a deck hand job. Too much time in the sun and the associated skin maladies, but great memories.

I will be retiring next year at age 57. I am really looking forward to it. More boating is at the top of the list, but I also want to learn to paint (zero creative ability), taking Spanish lessons on line (3 years in High School, so I forgot most of it), Museums, longer walks, reading. Simple things that I enjoy.

 

[jdscott3]

To Fletcher500

I like your plans for retirement, it’s great you can do it at 57.

Jim