Lainey

John/silvershadow, sorry to hear about the job loss.

Grannyrod

This will get me out of the door quicker than anything else, money or no money. My nerves are bad and can't take these know-it-all kids and their attitudes. Whatever happened to people skills?

But I'll probably teach piano until the day they lower me in the ground so there's probably no retiring from that. I agree with the statement that when you do something you love, you never work a day in your life......well, for the most part. My special needs kids take a litlte bit of "work" but even that is such rewarding fun, I forget how hard it is until they leave, then I crash.

MsPerky

Well, if your plan holds out and mine does, too, we can at least have lunch for the next seven/eight years.

mns2k

Now 62.5. Going to go @ 66 for "full" SS payments. Wife is already drawing hers. Down sized the house about 2 years ago and the new one will be paid off by the time I retire. Moved into an over 55 gated community.

Have worked full time for the past 40 years so doing the next 3.5 years should be easy.

Grannyrod

Groan! Don't think I can take much more of this closet but time will tell. I could always drive down to have lunch with you at Union Station.

MN, I'll be checking out over 55 gated communities while I'm in Texas. There's also one in Myrtle Beach where you never have to do anything for the rest of your life, not even change a lightbulb and if you need extra care as you age, they've got that covered so you can stay on the premises. Of course it comes with a hefty price tag but the idea is great.

silvershadow

My mother is in a facility like that in central TX. You can live independently in an apartment, with access privileges to the care facility on premises. A nurse comes by to check on the apartment dwellers daily, but otherwise they are on their own. They can buy meal packages from the onsite dining room, or make other arrangements.

When the time comes, they simply move to the care facility on premises. My mother has many friends in the facility that she has known for 50 years or more, so it was important to her and us that she be able to stay close to her friends as she transitions from independent living to the care facility.

Harpoon

There is a website - www.financeware.com - that helps people calculate if they can retire. You can run multiple "what-if" scenarios. The software is much more comprehensive, flexible and conservative than much of the free stuff from Fidelity, Schwab, etc. The charge is cheap and they aren't selling anything other than the basic software to the public. (They are selling all kinds of services and products to financial advisers, but the public based system is on a different platform).

I'm not affiliated with them, but have used their software for over a decade.

FLA-Vyk

Staying till 66 myself. Since I got the new Jaguar-XF, want to be debit free.

Grannyrod

[QUOTE=silvershadow,Jul 31 2009, 08:26 AM] My mother is in a facility like that in central TX.

Grannyrod

[QUOTE=FLA-Vyk,Jul 31 2009, 09:22 AM] Staying till 66 myself.