I’d look into refinancing NOW, if you can - you’ll find it easier now while you’re drawing a salary than later when you’re on pension etc. Throw some cash in as well if you can spare it, to further reduce it.
Your note about not having enough savings to make it the year w/o Social Security suggests that maybe retiring right now is NOT the best option. Of course, you can draw on your 401(k) etc. right away.
Any chance you could go to a part-time schedule? 3-4 days a week would be a great compromise - slightly reduced salary, slightly increased free time.
Also has the advantage for your boss of weaning off dependence on you. For the two days you are not around, they learn all the things you need to teach someone on the three days you are there.
Yeah, when I read more of the thread, I saw you’d already made that decision - congrats!
That (or the part time option) seems like the perfect compromise! Oh, and if you’re definitely thinking of doing a refi, I’d urge you to do it now vs waiting until you are living on your retirement income. You’ll look better to the banks now.
One comment on the part-time option: I can’t collect my pension from that company while I’m still working there, even part time, so that would mean a serious reduction in my income, which I can’t afford.
Good point about the refi, MZ, but in fact I’m just holding that in my back pocket as an emergency measure. By the time it would become necessary, I would have a lot more equity in the house so the loan amount would be smaller, and the goal would be to take the existing (say) 10-year remaining mortgage amount and stretch it out to 30 years, to get a much smaller payment. In that way I would be able to afford to stay in the house until I’m dead, after which time I don’t much care what happens.