What's the number?

[El Chupacabra]

Annual bump. Another year older...

[GiBo]

This.

I don't have a 'number'. I'll have some retirement income and a little defferred money to draw on.

My friends and family think I'm kidding, but at 55 I'm eligilble for retirement and I'm retiring. I'll figure it out. I don't see the point in trying to maintain this lifestyle. I'm only maintaining it for my kids. When they're on their own (which will happen to be about 55 for me), I'm out of this rat race shit hole. 9.5 years to go...

3.5...

[iceman]

Annual bump. Another year older...

...and deeper in debt.

[El Chupacabra]

[Danno]

I don't know the number. But I do know I am so fucking far from it that I should be crying right now. Late 40s, with a kid in kindergarten, so I'm pretty much fucked. Only saving grace is that I am working for the state and the pension could save my ass if I work long enough. But I need to stay at the state until my late 60s to make that work.

A year later, nothing has changed.

[El Chupacabra]

A year later, nothing has changed.

Damn. Sorry to hear about your kid having to repeat kindergarten.

[Danno]

[iceman]

That's gotta be disheartening.

[Danno]

[Shredhead]

I hit my # this year @ 59.
So far, so good.
31 days on the hill already.

[Marshall Tucker]

Damn. Sorry to hear about your kid having to repeat kindergarten.

Damn that was funny.

[Mudfoot]

I keep reading that even with Medicare you should anticipate $250,000 of medical expenses after the age of 65, but the Republicans are now talking about shaving Medicare back. I retired 4 years ago at 62, kicked in SS and have averaged 100 ski days a year since then. Things are going well because of the raging stock market, but if Trump starts lobbing nukes at N. Korea or something equally as stupid and the market tanks, according to my financial guy I'll need a cushion to allow for a 30% drop in the market to stay on track. So you need to pick your target lifestyle number, figure in inflation, and then how much cushion you'll need.

[GeezerSteve]

Damn. Sorry to hear about your kid having to repeat kindergarten.

heh

Annual bump. Another year older...

and on track, thanks to the stock market [bubble?] and just enough (1/4 time max) work to keep me treading water -- well, actually a bit ahead of treading water thanks to the stock market [bubble?]

Honey, who is 8 years younger than I, has been talking about retiring in 5-6 years, selling the house and hitting the road. 6 years out puts me 2-1/2 years until I start taking max SS at age 70 and she starts taking SS at age 62. That's the smart play for us: When I kick, she gets my higher SS check. Our combined SS checks will be more than we currently spend (unless Paul Ryan and Koch brothers fuck it up).

[liv2ski]

I hit my # this year @ 59.
So far, so good.
31 days on the hill already.

WOW!!! Congrats. We are at least 3-5 years away from retirement. Just hoping my body can hold together for a first ever 100 day season.

[liv2ski]

Our combined SS checks will be more than we currently spend (unless Paul Ryan and Koch brothers fuck it up).

I am banking on not getting my SS benefits that I have paid into for 42 years (from age 17). Hope no one else is counting on it. Told the wife her Calsters pension will likely be cut in half in the next 10 years. But I am a half empty kind of guy. Hopefully YRAB

[Mudfoot]

If skiing is the goal then you also need to factor in age and the kind of skiing you want to do. We all know a few guys who are 65+ and still ripping, but realistically what kind of skiing will you be doing at that age? When will you reach the point when the goal of skiing all the time stops making sense? The other issue is having the $ to do good skiing. There is a group of retired guys that are at first chair every day at our lame local area. They are skiing as much as they want, but it is quantity over quality. Having enough $ to travel and chase good snow (old guys have too few ski years left to wait out a bad season) but accomplishing that while you are still young enough to ski everyday on something other than groomers puts the target age and needed nut at a younger age and higher amount than you may think.

As someone who is retired and seeing what it is like for all types of old skiers, IMO the best plan is to set up your lifestyle to ski as much as you can now at whatever age you are. We all dream of a retirement of heli-skiing as much as we want, but betting on the come financially and physically is probably a risky proposition. Carpe Skium!

[Benny Profane]

I keep reading that even with Medicare you should anticipate $250,000 of medical expenses after the age of 65, but the Republicans are now talking about shaving Medicare back. I retired 4 years ago at 62, kicked in SS and have averaged 100 ski days a year since then. Things are going well because of the raging stock market, but if Trump starts lobbing nukes at N. Korea or something equally as stupid and the market tanks, according to my financial guy I'll need a cushion to allow for a 30% drop in the market to stay on track. So you need to pick your target lifestyle number, figure in inflation, and then how much cushion you'll need.

Well, first of all, buy supplementary insurance with Medicare, take really good care of your teeth, exercise and lose weight and cut back on drinking. And, on a much more morbid note, if you're diagnosed with fairly advanced cancer, especially lung or skin, find a hospice instead of giving your estate away to the medical industry trying to stay alive. It will be miserable and really expensive, and you'll probably die anyway.

As far as a nuclear war, your last concern will be the stock market crashing. Learn to enjoy human meat if you survive that event.

The Republicans aren't going to touch Medicare. They got what they wanted with this tax cut for the rich. Old people vote. The incoming Democratic congress will prop it up somehow, along with SS, but the latter is in pretty good shape, anyway.

[GeezerSteve]

I am banking on not getting my SS benefits that I have paid into for 42 years (from age 17). Hope no one else is counting on it. * * * But I am a half empty kind of guy.

All my life we've heard the fearmongering of SS going away or getting gutted, but it hasn't happened because SS is the true third rail of politics. When the Dems take power, they will lift the payroll cap, which is a simple fix to keep SS healthy for decades. The GOP won't dare to slash SS because old angry white folk on SS comprises 40% of its base.

ETA per Bunny's cross post:

The Republicans aren't going to touch Medicare. They got what they wanted with this tax cut for the rich. Old people vote. The incoming Democratic congress will prop it up somehow, along with SS, but the latter is in pretty good shape, anyway.

Like a broken clock, every now and then Bunny nails it.

[Benny Profane]

If skiing is the goal then you also need to factor in age and the kind of skiing you want to do. We all know a few guys who are 65+ and still ripping, but realistically what kind of skiing will you be doing at that age? When will you reach the point when the goal of skiing all the time stops making sense? The other issue is having the $ to do good skiing. There is a group of retired guys that are at first chair every day at our lame local area. They are skiing as much as they want, but it is quantity over quality. Having enough $ to travel and chase good snow (old guys have too few ski years left to wait our a bad season) but accomplishing that while you are still young enough to ski everyday on something other than groomers puts the target age and needed nut at a younger age and higher amount than you may think.

As someone who is retired and seeing what it is like for all types of old skiers, IMO the best plan is to set up your lifestyle to ski as much as you can now at whatever age you are. We all dream of a retirement of heli-skiing as much as we want, but betting on the come financially and physically is probably a risky proposition. Carpe Skium!

Yup. Get it while you can.

Good friend of mine who is a better skier laughed at me when I was 50 and told him I was planning on "retiring" to a ski town, and he was right. You're not going to be ripping at 65 so much all day, and, besides, you'll be 70 in five years. Not a great place to grow old.

[St. Jerry]

I've thought about this. $5.0M is my number. Though frankly it will be more of a F.U. in my back pocket, meaning I wouldn't quit (think I would be bored without some structure) but would make changes to improve the work/play balance (move the franchise to Colorado (Florida?), etc,..., less travel to third-tier clients in Cleveland and Akron, etc,...). If the company don't like that, then F.U.

(nice blog)

[Marshall Tucker]

I retired 4 years ago at 62, kicked in SS and have averaged 100 ski days a year since then.

Dahyam.

[XXX-er]

don't have hudge amounts in the bank but zero debt and 40-50K steady income per year is making for effortless retirement its all about the income IME

[iceman]

^^^ and being able to count on not going broke because of medical problems doesn't hurt.

[The AD]

Good friend of mine who is a better skier laughed at me when I was 50 and told him I was planning on "retiring" to a ski town, and he was right. You're not going to be ripping at 65 so much all day, and, besides, you'll be 70 in five years. Not a great place to grow old.

Why isn't it a ski town a good place to grow old, though? Seems like the mountain is there when you want it. Get in a few runs a day and you've still got time for your day-to-day chores. I have a feeling that when I'm 70 I'm not really going to want to drive an hour and chain up to chase powder.

[Benny Profane]

Why isn't it a ski town a good place to grow old, though? Seems like the mountain is there when you want it. Get in a few runs a day and you've still got time for your day-to-day chores. I have a feeling that when I'm 70 I'm not really going to want to drive an hour and chain up to chase powder.

Youth centric culture, generally vapid culture, mud season, distant hospitals and generally crappy health care except for trauma and orthopedics, again, youth centric and vapid culture, and, in my case, pretty bad road biking, which is my warm weather activity, and is a longer season than ski season. Oh, and pretty expensive housing near good mountains.
I'm good with renting for a month or two up there and spending the rest of my life elsewhere.