When did you retire?

[rocket rich]

1993 disable, wasn't ready but no choice,

[fishingpox]

You mean to tell me you can't work period?

Earl is right about sitting down with a financial advisor and figure out what you need to do to retire. It may be too late if you haven't done this already, if you are just a few months away from retirement. I retired at age 54 in 2001, or I should say I got retired. I got disabled on the job and had to retire. We have to watch things a little closer than we use too with the price of CD's what they are, or aren't. EB

[rocket rich]

that's right, Fishing pox. can't work, missing a lung . It's hard to get a breath sometimes, And many other things.I''d gladly work if I could have my lung back.. It's really Dumb to smoke and take that chance of cancer. Yes I'm a Surivisor . The Man didn't want me yet.

[yankee doodler]

I have my target set out at 1 1/2 yrs. Wife will be 60 at which point her pension will kick in to cover health insurance that she can get. I contracted a financial advisory firm (Ron Blue and Assoc.) out of Atlanta a few years back and have since rolled my 401K over and put several IRA's under their guidance. I have been very please with the results since they took over. Also have a pension from Johnson Controls that I can convert in 2016. Mortgage should be paid by then and that will put long term debt load at just about nothing. In the mean time I'm being mentored on how to enjoy life and drink lots of beer by the biggest and best gewber I know...Billbob!

[kycreek]

Great thread & interesting input from all of you. I currently plan on working for 3 more years at which point I'll be 55 years young. I've been fortunate enough to have worked for a company (Coal fired power generation coop) with a pretty good defined benefits plan & a 401K. At least one of the best in my area. I sacrificed when I was younger and loaded up the 401K instead of driving new trucks & having expensive toys. Hopefully barring a stock market crash that is getting ready to pay off. At 55 they will pay for 1/2 of mine & my wife's health insurance for the rest of our days. Everything I own will be paid for at that point. I will have 35 years of service in. I may work longer but 3 more years & I'll be pretty independent. I actually like my job for the most part. If I have to work that's the place for me. But I have had several good friends pass away either right before or shortly after their retirement date. I don't want to be one of them.

[fishingpox]

EB is missing a lung as well?

If I could give you a lung I would; I'm saving them for family members if needed or if I stroke out I told my wife to part me out to whomever needs what.
Yessir I quit smoking 20 years ago and have the gut to prove it. I' m working on the gut now, I've lost 20 pounds in the last 2 months.

Hang tough, you will be GREAT.

Oh I'm sorry. I don't plan on retiring. I'm going to work as long as by body says or I'm still useful.

that's right, Fishing pox. can't work, missing a lung . It's hard to get a breath sometimes, And many other things.I''d gladly work if I could have my lung back.. It's really Dumb to smoke and take that chance of cancer. Yes I'm a Surivisor . The Man didn't want me yet.

[Eager Beaver]

You mean to tell me you can't work period?

I had a rotator cuff ripped and had surgery on it. The surgeon didn't completely repair the shoulder and sent me back to work with no restriction and it didn't take long and I couldn't work. Went to a different surgeon and took the MRI's to him and he showed me where the tech that read the MRI circled and wrote that the shoulder wasn't completely repaired and needed to be redone. He knowing this released me to go back to work with no restrictions. The second surgeon went to finish repairing the shoulder and found the cartiledge was ripped from the shoulder. He had to repair that before he could repair the rotator cuff. I was in therapy for several months and would get so far and the shoulder would tear out again and have to start over again. After the 3rd time they decided that they couldn't repair the shoulder anymore. Not much you can do with one arm. EB

[steve in so la]

What a great spectrum of answers here ! I retired 18 years ago at age 53. In the school system (Arizona state) one can retire fully when your years of work plus your age totaled 80. We have no stocks, no 401K type stuff, no nothing but savings and no bills. Once we made it to Soc Sec it lightened up.

My idea of life is - 1/3 grow up and learn a job -1/3 work the job and 1/3 play. We are playing in the boat now

Do it as soon as you can, we bit the bullet the last 5 years of working and paid off everything we owed.

Steve in so la