You're middle aged or older, the kids are grown or growing, you're established and you own the car you've always dreamed of owning. What's next? What is your next move? What are your plans?

 

Another great question from Rob. For me, its planning the early retirement so I can enjoy everything while i am still in good health and feel relatively "young" physicaly. I'm hoping to be able to kick back some where around 55. By then, I want to have my last house, my 5 or 6 car garage and enough money to do some foreign travel about a month out of the year. I also want to tour the USA, but not in one of those motor homes. It will be in a nice car with stops at nice hotels.

 

I'm not fully finacially prepared but I'm already there. My job of 30 years will come to an end next year sometime and I really don't have any insentive to stay where I am. At 45, I will have to hit the road and look for a job. I feel I am equipped to do so but it will be scary. I am single but in a relationship, the kids are all on their own and I have little overhead, tons of equity in my California home and my cars are bought and paid for. I have all the stuff I want, money in the bank, A+ credit and a huge line of credit against my house. So what now? I have never been this free and ready to do anything. It's kind of wierd. My gal friend is a real go getter when it comes to work ethic and we both want to experience new areas so I guess we will just rent the house out and hit the road. My house will give me a nice income every month and it will always be here if I want to come back. It is really strange being so spontaneous. I've lived here most of my life and have had my nose to the grindstone most of my life. I know I need to keep earning and saving for retirement but feel like I am starting over. I guess I will end up working someplace that I like, not having to earn as much in the past but needing to do something more about retirement some day. I still have 20 years or so! I see us opening our own business whereever we decide to put down roots. I guess it will be a matter of acclimating to an area and finding a business opportunity. My gal friend amazes me. She worked in Protel design for about 5 years designing computer boards and chips on a screen all day. That drove her nuts and she quit her $50K a year job with full benefits. She applied at Border's book store in order to get out of the house and keep busy. She started 3 weeks ago putting books on shelves and helping customers. She came home yesterday with a key to the place, alarm code, safe combinations and a new job title. She is now a shift manager and office manager with a substantial raise to boot. Blows my mind. I guess it can be done.
I reckon we will be ok regardless of where we end up. First stop will be the Netherlands early next year. We are going to see my gal friends daughter that will be studying there next spring. After that, who knows? Live and work in Maui for 6 months and then get serious?
To be continued!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Next doesn't come for about 10 years. Adam, our youngest is only 9. E.W.A. and I waited for quite a while to have kids. We were driven in the early days of our marriage to make sure that we were financially secure before we brought kids into the world. As a result we worked long hours, no vacations, and no extravagances for many years. Now we can take it a little easier, but we still have two kids living at home. The oldest is 15 and the youngest is 9.

When next does arrive we might move back into New York City. We are city people and have missed the "noise" since moving out to the suburbs. We'd like to do a motor tour of the country taking the "blue highways" and traveling at our own pace. We just want to see what there is to see. It might be nice to spend a year doing this.

I'd like to go back to China and visit with E.W.A.'s cousins in the old country. We were there in 1987 and I enjoyed it. I was treated like royalty as I was the first "Westerner" that most of the village had ever seen. E.W.A. has no interest in going back.

Maybe we'll spend a few months in Europe. I've never been. E.W.A. was there a few times in her college days and loved it.

If we don't move back to Manhattan, we'll probably stay here. We sort of put down roots and got comfortable.

Some of the future probably depends on where Andrew and Adam end up. If they end up far from here, that would put pressure on us to move. We like being near our kids.

Fortunately, E.W.A. and I still have 10 years to think about this. So for now, we're set.

 

To push myself away from the computer and way-to-numerous sports car activities and get back to doing oil paintings. When I retired I promised myself I would start painting again. Starting this winter I plan to keep that promise.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dlq04
To push myself away from the computer and way-to-numerous sports car activities and get back to doing oil paintings.

 

This is a real teaser Dirty ol' ralper....always like that little conscience "bird on the shoulder"

We talk about this a lot and I like parts of the blueyes plan...especially the travel part I'm 10 years older than him and could probably stop working with a little down-sizing, but do I want to? Do I have enough interests to keep busy? Can I afford individual health insurance at 6-10k per year?

Maybe the "move elsewhere" and buy a business IS an option sometime...let it all hang out! We've thought about a B&B on some seasonal coastal spot, but that's a sh!tload of work

The idea of renting our house for income is a different one...I had not thought of that...sort of keeping one toe in the pool My other problem is a healthy 90 year old mother-in-law who could easily live another 10 years, so we won't be moving while she's around..

 

This is a BIG one for me. I've spent the past 10 years building this business. For the past 2.5 I've felt it's time for me to do something different. Without boring you with all the details, I'm a builder...not a maintainer. Once the foundation is laid and we are rocking, I lose interest. Soooo...for the past 2.5 years I've been struggling with what to do. I could secure my investment by selling the business. Or I could hand it off to my partner which is the way I'm leaning. I'm close to pulling the trigger on our "non-crisis succession plan", which will elevate my partner to President and CEO and I would only retain my Chairman title. I'll still draw a salary of some sort and collect profit distributions. But he would assume day-to-day management responsibilities. I'm nervous-excited. I've never been able to answer the obvious question, "what would you do next?" I am one of those people who is focused to the point of having blinders on. So, I haven't been able to let other thoughts of what I would do enter my mind. Knowing myself like I think I do, I am not a "grab a fishing rod kind of guy". I need to be doing something I consider "productive". I've never been able to get into "recreation". It's a flaw of mine.

Having said this, now that I am getting ready to pull the trigger on this transition, I've begun thinking about the "what comes next" question. We have #2 son in high school still, so we are not moving anywhere anytime soon. I've thought about what "blueeyes" said about getting a job doing something for the fun of it, and not to necessarily to make money. For whatever reason, on the way to the office today, I was thinking about being one of those guys who drives cars between dealerships...LOL. What the hell? You get to drive new cars around. I should get off my ass and volunteer too.

 

OhioRacer, while hobbies have consumed my life and work was always been just a means, I would strongly suggest you transition over to other things while you are still working or you will go nuts when you stop.

Think about things you loved to do when you were small - before money and success became the goals. Good luck.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dlq04
OhioRacer, while hobbies have consumed my life and work was always been just a means, I would strongly suggest you transition over to other things while you are still working or you will go nuts when you stop.