Countdown’s at 32 (calendar) days. 23 working days if there’s no shutdown, so that number could wind up being a bit less.
Cool.
Have you signed up for Medigap yet? If not, consider monthly cash flow versus possible big cost hits. We signed up for a relatively expensive no co-pay policy (probably not available any more) and have been happy with it, but the monthly cost was not an issue. It is problematic if we are ahead at this point, but it’s been only seven years and not hassling with co-pays at the desk is a good thing.
No, I’ve got a year or more to think about it. And in the meantime, my family and I are fully covered by our Federal health insurance, which we will be on through at least 2029.
Even if I decide Medicare + Medigap is the best route long term, no point in paying double any longer than I have to.
Just picked my date - April 30 2024.
I will have a bunch of deferred holidays, so I expect to be getting paid until the end of July.
In talking to cousins of around the same age as me, I was amazed at how many of them have no idea of when/how they will retire. They are going to have to figure it out at some point. They have no idea what their CPP will be (Canada Pension) They have no idea of how much OAS is (Old age security). They don’t know how much is in their company pensions. These are not stupid people (one is an accountant for a large firm, another handles a billion dollars of procurement). Yet their personal finances are just a big mystery to them.
All they know is “Oh, I will have to keep working forever because… reasons.”
I’m not an accountant, but I have an excel workbook set up that shows me all I need to know about my assets, income, pensions, CPP, OAS, expenditures etc. over the next 5 years.
This week is my last full time schedule at work until I leave for good in early January. It’s been almost 20 years, and most of them have involved being on call 24/7. (Network operations)
I’ve been burned out, and with a recent change in senior mgt, I decided it was time to go. I have some mixed feelings about it, but it is definitely time.
Congratulations. You’re going to love it
Those last few months before retirement were really good for me, because it was a time for wrapping things up. I’d been impossibly stressed and overworked for years, and it was good to let go of all that.
We’d always just said we’d have to work forever as well, but things started improving financially for us when we were in our 40’s, and by the time we were in our mid-fifties, we realized that all the bits and pieces of money we’d been able to sock away were starting to add up. Because we knew how bad we are with money, we hired a financial planner and he helped us with planning. I still can’t quite believe it, but barring disasters, it looks like Wal-Mart greeting won’t be part of my old age after all.
Congratulations, and welcome to the club!
I can’t stress enough how much this move helped me. Well worth the money.
Note: Make sure you get a fiduciary CFP, someone who does not have something to sell you.
mmm
Maybe this deserves a separate thread, but I’ll ask it here anyway. I’ve always handled my own money, seeking sage advice from my BIL and former boss, both of whom know how to invest. But now I’m 70, and I’m ready to turn the reins over to somebody to handle my funds for me. I’ll be meeting (via phone and/or Zoom) with Fidelity and Fisher shortly after the first of the year. Any comments on either or both of those firms?
P.S. I met with some local folks shortly after retirement six years ago, and I wasn’t impressed.
One of the things my CFA advised was to consolidate my money. I had funds in 3 credit unions, a bank, and assorted retirement funds.
He recommended a few, but I noticed that he uses Fidelity for his own finances. That was good enough for me, so I have everything in Fidelity now (except a local credit union, where I keep an account for the few things that I cannot do through Fidelity).
Anyway, I am very satisfied with Fidelity. Their website is nicely designed and very functional and their phone support has always been excellent (I have called them several times, they will stay on the phone and walk you through anything you need help with).
They do have advisors, which I think they provide at no fee. You can go in person if you have a branch near you. I have not used this feature.
I will note that I get a voicemail message from “my” Fidelity advisor once every month or two, asking if I want to meet and go over my finances with them. You could probably opt out of this.
I use a semi-retired local Certified Financial Planner who works out of his home office. He has been outstanding.
mmm
And don’t wait until you are almost ready to retire to do it. Planning should come way7 early. I got one 30 years before I retired, and he was helpful when I got a buyout for changing jobs. I have a different one now, but we’ve done lots of safe investments I’d never have done myself.
I’m working on a transition plan, because my managers seem truly confused that I’m leaving, even though I’ve given them 6 months notice.
“No, I won’t take on that committee because I won’t be here next summer”
“No, I can’t cover for you then because I won’t be here next summer”
“Have you thought about when you’re going to post my position? Because as you recall, I won’t be here next summer”
< deer in the headlights look >
Yeah, managers sometimes don’t believe anyone will retire. Especially in tech, where we people old enough to do so are rare.
I documented everything, though I doubt anyone ever read it since no one commented on the jokes I put in.
When I did retire, and they weren’t ready, I worked out a deal where I went in one day a week. Just remind them that after you retire you are no longer bonded and probably not officially allowed access to the files and computer systems.
I’m reminded of a friend of my father’s who took advantage of his oil companies “enhanced retirement plan” (they were trying to shed higher salaries during a recession/low oil prices). When he retired they were like “Oh. We didn’t actually mean YOU.”
He was an expert in a highly specialized field of geology. During his retirement planning meetings, he wrote a (large) figure on a piece of paper and explained that this would be his monthly consulting fee after retirement, should they wish to have some advice in the future. He kept working for a couple of years at TWICE his former salary, while collecting a generous pension package.
Good for him! I’ve been offered significantly higher wages for my return to work also, but I’m still too burnt out to even consider it yet. And I stopped working over 17 months ago now.
And welcome to our ranks (almost, anyway) to you and @krisolov. My stress level is so much lower. I hope yours will be too.
good so …
i mean unless you really NEED the money, it doesnt make sense swapping (ever more precious) time and qual.o.life for more dollars.
Ha ha, I did the same thing. I left a few funny Easter Eggs in my work, haven’t heard a peep about them yet.
mmm
I wrote a detailed manual for my duties before I retired, subdivided into sections by type and cross-referenced by when each thing needs to be done. Then I uploaded it to the administrative Google Drive and granted admin rights to everyone who might conceivably end up needing to do my job.
In the first couple of months after I retired, I got an average of three calls a week from my former bosses asking how to do something that was in the manual. I would tell them how to do it, then refer them back to the manual. I never got one question from my replacement, though, and when I visited the office about three months after she started, I asked if she’d had any problems so far. “Oh, no,” she said. “It’s all in the manual!”
Such a good feeling!
One the morning of my last day an engineer came to me and said, “I heard that you’re taking care of blah blah project”.
I said, “you’re mistaken. This is my last day of work.”
It just didn’t compute. “well then who’s going to do it?” “I have no idea”
“But it’s really important” “I don’t work here anymore, brah”
As someone who used to write a lot of documentation and always wondered whether anyone ever read the damn things, this is giving me a warm fuzzy on your behalf 