[graciegirl]

Is The Villages right for everyone? If someone is on a limited budget and are watching money closely, should they avoid the approximately $150 monthly amenity fee and live closeby?

How old is the right time to retire? What would be your advice as to when a person is ready to retire financially???

We were in our sixties and Husband was still working and I had just finished chemo and radiation or I would have been working too, when we retired as snowbirds in 2008. Hubs worked until last year..

[VApeople]

There is no "right" time for us to do anything.

My wife and I are totally free spirits and we can do anything we feel like doing, as long as it is not too expensive. Today our choice was to work in the yard and remove some shrubs. Tomorrow, who knows?

[CWGUY]

Glad I got to read that one!

It's true. Not everyone can afford to live here and there are other options close to here. I think if I had to worry I would not have retired. It takes a lot of planning. ( I also find I have more money now that I don't put my 2 cents in so much )

[dewilson58]

One of my golfing buddies (who had 15 years on me) always told me, "Retire as soon as you can, you never know."



I have watched many people die too young and only enjoyed a few years of retirement.


My first visit to The Villages was in my 30's. I watched it grow. I made a plan and executed it.

$150/mth is not much for what you get, but there are some who just can't afford it.

[Chatbrat]

Retire when you no longer enjoy, where you are living, you no don't need you're salary & or income where you are living

I hated all the jobs and the businesses I owned-- retirement really gave me FREEDOM--I was a slave to my customers,

Thank God I made enough $$ early and really enjoy life--alot of people worry do I have enough $$ to retire

You're lifestyle --determines what $$ U need--we are blessed we are beyond all worries

[Trayderjoe]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

One of my golfing buddies (who had 15 years on me) always told me, "Retire as soon as you can, you never know."



I have watched many people die too young and only enjoyed a few years of retirement.


My first visit to The Villages was in my 30's. I watched it grow. I made a plan and executed it.

$150/mth is not much for what you get, but there are some who just can't afford it.

One person I knew at work retired at 70 as he waited almost 2 years for a buyout after a merger, but decided not to wait any longer. He said he had enough saved, could afford to retire and wanted to spend as much time as he could with his family. Unfortunately his wife passed unexpectedly 6 months later. At least he had those 6 months with her versus staying at work.

Another sad case was of a colleague who did retire, but chose to not have a survivor benefit on his pension. Literally two weeks after retiring, and before his first pension check was even processed, he passed away suddenly from a previously non-diagnosed cancer. His wife, who was a housewife, did not get one pension check and had to rely on collecting social security.

There were other cases as well, some who had choices that others did not. I consider myself blessed every day that I was able to retire early and can live here in the Villages.

[ureout]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

One of my golfing buddies (who had 15 years on me) always told me, "Retire as soon as you can, you never know."



I have watched many people die too young and only enjoyed a few years of retirement.


My first visit to The Villages was in my 30's. I watched it grow. I made a plan and executed it.

$150/mth is not much for what you get, but there are some who just can't afford it.

I agree I've been here 18yrs. and have seen many friends who worked into their late 60's early 70's not get to enjoy retirement very long before passing.. but everyone has a different story.. I was lucky i retired at 49 working 30 yrs. in an auto factory.. I loved my job but hated the weather.. I lived in Syracuse for 49 long cold dreary years.. I couldn't wait to get to fla. I was just lucky to find TV and all there is to offer

[manaboutown]

As a child I developed a philosophy that considers the time I have to spend however I like during my life is my most valuable and cherished asset. I have always tried to get "the mostest from the leastest" as I used to phrase it. This basically translates to the highest yield on time spent "slaving away". In my early adult life I tended to view my work as what I needed to do to provide for my family and myself; later on my work evolved into something I also did for the sheer the joy of it as I would have engaged in it for free, even in preference to most recreational activities. I feel I have been lucky. Most of the time I have enjoyed my work.

Now all that being said I first retired at age 35. After a few months I found myself pretty bored. One Wednesday morning I ran into a high school girlfriend in the pro shop of the country club where the golf pro, another HS classmate, was fixing me up in a foursome with retired guys, 65 -75, to play a round as all my contemporaries were at work. She asked me what I was doing. I told her I was retired. She started laughing, and told me I was too young to retire. Anyway, I soon found myself making another deal. I tried retirement again at age 41 but had a great opportunity at 48 which I accepted. At 52 I semiretired and it took. Since then I have traveled to 79 countries and enjoyed many recreational activities. At age 77 I still enjoy my work and spend as little or as much time as I choose at it. I think I will hang in there until my health won't let me

[vintageogauge]

If you want to try the lifestyle rent for a year. No amenity fee or water/sewer bill, no landscaping, no bond or taxes, you only pay for gas/electric, cable, and wi-fi.

[NotGolfer]

We hadn't planned on retirement as soon as it happened but work climate changed drastically and the "R" word was attractive. We'd already visited AZ and had done the life-styles here. The latter won out due to all the amenities and we've never looked back. We did the life-styles in fall of '08, went home and soon decided the retirement gig was attractive. Came down in Feb of '09 and bought a house and moved here in the fall of '09. Never thought about renting---which might have had a positive spin on it. Everyone is different in what they're looking for in life. One thing I do know is, we only have today as tomorrow isn't promised and yesterday is already gone.

[Dond1959]

Everyone is different. Some love their work. I retired at 56 (4 years ago) and have LOVED it. We were lucky to be financially prepared to make the leap. But that was based on 30 years of sacrifice and living way below our means.

Once you retire you just need to find what you love to do and not sit around and get bored. My weekdays are pretty full here and the week ends are open to whatever we want to do. It is a great lifestyle and I am blessed to have it at such an young age.

[Schaumburger]

As others have said, everyone's situation is different. I have been working full time for 36 years now. If I could afford it today and did not need my employer's health insurance, I would retire from full time employment and get a part-time job (20-25 hours a week) just to stay out of trouble.

I am 2 years and 11 months away from being able to start collecting SS, but I really don't want to start collecting at age 62. I'm hoping to wait until 65 to start collecting SS, even though my full retirement age is 67. I don't know if I have inherited more of my mother's genes (she passed away at 67) or my father's genes (he is 89), but I really don't want to wait until 67 to start collecting SS as tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. In the past few years, two friends of mine died unexpectedly. One at age 56, and the other at age 64.

And then the wild card in all of this is my job...my manager quite often brings up the topic of automation and elimination of jobs in my team sometime in the next few years. And I know whose job will be gone if automation/robotization comes to pass...mine.

[Chatbrat]

I never enjoyed work either for others or when I was self employed-- what I really craved was freedom-- retirement gave me the freedom I always wanted-- made more than enough $, to retire before we finally gave up the rat race in 95--I was 53--and the and the Admiral was 47

The most precious commodity is time, everything else is secondary--retire ASAP, no one can buy tomorrow or the next minute

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

We're dealing with a forced retirement situation at my house. We would have retired in 2022, when he'd be eligible for social security, and his employer would have covered his health insurance until Medicare kicked in. They shut down the plant, and he's a skilled tradesman in an almost-obsolete trade so it's not likely he'd ever make even half of what he was making before they turned him out. Unfortunately, if he DID go back to work full time, we wouldn't qualify for ACA subsidies and our health insurance was $2000/month. Currently we don't earn enough for subsidies, but neither of us is the right age or disabled so we don't qualify for medicaid either. So I'm going back to work part time, gladly, and will happily accept a low wage. And then, we'll be able to get health insurance. Til then we're just hoping to stay healthy.

[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by Chatbrat

I never enjoyed work either for others or when I was self employed-- what I really craved was freedom-- retirement gave me the freedom I always wanted-- made more than enough $, to retire before we finally gave up the rat race in 95--I was 53--and the and the Admiral was 47

The most precious commodity is time, everything else is secondary--retire ASAP, no one can buy tomorrow or the next minute

One of the ladies I used to work with at a previous job did not want to retire when she reached her mid-60's, even though Pat did not need to work for financial reasons.

About 5 years ago, Pat started to have serious problems with undiagnosed diabetes. Her doctor told her she needed to go to the hospital for a few days to get her blood sugar under control. She insisted that she had to go to work "I'm so busy at work. I can't go to the hospital." Finally her doctor convinced her of the severity of the situation. Flash forward about 4 years. A cancer that Pat thought she had beaten several years before had reoccurred and spread. A few months after the cancer returned, Pat finally retired at age 72. Pat's retirement lasted 1 month; two weeks of that month were spent in hospice. Then she died. I often told Pat she would die at her desk at work, and she almost did.

RIP Pat, I sure hope your employer appreciated you. Most employers don't appreciate their employees; for most employers their employees are just names and salaries listed in the HR database.