[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Craig Vernon

I made a post on here earlier this year about my decision on whether to retire at 55. I listened and learned much from many who gave advice and thoughts on my situation. Short recap, I had to retire and take a pension by December 1 or I had to continue working until September 2024. Many Villagers told me they retired early and only regretted not retiring sooner. Others told me I better have millions and expressed the expenses of retirement. I played golf with a couple in May on Bonifay they told me he worked until 70 and she said plainly 55 was too young to retire. My friends and family told me if I can do it why not. My wife said the decision was mine. In November my contract was renewed which gave me stability until 2026. I decided to continue to work until 2024 and here are the reasons that swayed me most. Most who were telling me to go for it were not only still working but are older than I am. The cost of housing in TV raised my home expectation level from 350k to above 500k. Three years closer to death raises my numbers significantly, I wonder why. Thanks to all who gave input. My wife and I will see you around TV's for a month in May. Peace!

People tend to focus on one issue at a time. "My home expectation level from 350K to above 500K." We all need to face REALITY. Yes, prices of homes have gone up in the villages. Assuming, readers own another home, that has also gone up. It is either a wash or a partial wash.

"Older than I am." That has always been the case. When your were 12, 18 year olds were men and your parents and teachers, they were ancient.

Retiring is a big choice, especially if it is not reversible. It is YOUR CHOICE. If, you ALLOW others to make any choice for you, you give others power that should be yours.
Vested interest? Realize those others with their OPINION should it not work out will say sorry to hear that and will go on to give their OPINION to others.

I do not do marriage advice but I think communication is often not what we think it is.
I suggest all parties involved in the decision to retire and where, write there reasons down on index cards and then switch piles. Writing things down forces people to think and to commit. Often that is lacking in family discussions.

No place and nothing is perfect. Perhaps, to annoy my wife, I became aware of an island for sale of North Carolina. It was several acres, with a nice house and a herd of wild horses and it was for sale at one million. Proposed, I would be King and she would be Queen. Huh, we had an immediate revolt. Teasing a little bit. but it did seem it was not her dream. Thus, we are in the villages not my dictatorship.

As an adolescent, we all went through a tortuous period trying to decide what am I going to do with my life. Retirement we go through it again. This time the question is what have I done with my life and what do I want to do with what time I have left.
This time with the reality of what can I afford to do.

Early retirement. You cannot get on to medicare till you turn 65. You cannot collect Social security till 62 and it will be less than if you wait longer. We are now on medicare.
We took cobra for 18 months and then had to get private healthcare insurance or self insure-pay bills out of savings. Wife won that one, FORTUNATELY. The cost was 24,000. I figured we should self insure as we never spent 24,000 on medical care in any year..
SURPRISE, I spent one week in the hospital. The bill was 50,000. Which is what a person who elected to self insure would pay. The insurance company paid the bill in full. We got the paperwork. They, the insurance company, paid the bill, IN FULL, for half of the bill amount