If u had an extra $500/month...

[Bster13]

.... how would your fulltime life change?

- Just save it for future costs (long term care insurance, new vehicle, etc.)?
- Stay in more campgrounds with full hookups and enjoy the facilities more?
- Put on more miles seeing the sites each year? Visit more friends across the country?
- Add more solar? More batteries? More water storage for extended boondocking?
- Purchase a different vehicle?
- Return to a more static life and rent/buy a house or apartment?
- Save up for an overseas trip per year?
- Buy gifts for your family around the holidays?
- Fly to see extended family across the country more often?
- Upgrade your healthcare plan and/or do more medical work?

Reason I ask... I'm still working.  I could pull the trigger now, but I wonder if there are things I'd be missing out on if I had a more limited budget vs. having my freedom now.

Thanks!

 

[SoulRaven]

For me, any extra either goes into savings or to help others. I make about 10x what I spend each year, and I'm usually not even especially trying to save money.

 

[Almost There]

Mine would go in to extra savings but then I lived on far less when I was raising 3 kids so I'm used to living on the economical end of the scale.

 

[mayble]

I like the question, Bster, and will be following with interest.  I'm also debating the question of whether to jump early and live on less, or keep working and have fewer years of freedom.
I have that nagging fear of waiting until it's too late.  We've all heard of folks having a stroke or heart attack two weeks into their long awaited retirement.  I sure don't want to be one of those stories.

 

[SoulRaven]

I like the question, Bster, and will be following with interest.  I'm also debating the question of whether to jump early and live on less, or keep working and have fewer years of freedom.
I have that nagging fear of waiting until it's too late.  We've all heard of folks having a stroke or heart attack two weeks into their long awaited retirement.  I sure don't want to be one of those stories.

Arranging to either have a reliable income, or adequate savings FIRST, is one of the most important things needed before starting this lifestyle in my humble opinion.

Once that has had proper planning, almost everything else can be figured out while on the road.

While making money or getting jobs while traveling isn't really that hard, it can require a different skill set, and a different mind set, than is the norm for most people.

 

[gcal]

Right into the Scottrade account and invested in widows-and-orphans stock. We are retired. We have social security and a pension, but no more dental insurance just as we are beginning to really need a lot of work done. There are more things that are harder for us to do and that we want to pay others to do. We regularly add to our account, which slowly but surely raises our income (dividends) slowly but surely. We try to buy low, but we don't worry too much about share cost fluctuations. We are after the divvies, and they don't change much.

 

[mayble]

The way I see it, I'm trading years at the job for more money in retirement.
Trading today's days for tomorrow's dollars.  How much is enough, on either side of the equation?
I can make more money, but I can't make more days.

 

[rvpopeye]

My only regret is not starting sooner.

Now about that $500 ,,,,where do I sign up ????

 

[Bster13]

I am a passive index investor and living a frugal life while I am in my working years. But my biggest worries are my healthcare costs as they are growing faster than inflation (please do not turn this into a political thing)  I can plan for inflationary costs like housing, gas, food, etc., but when something like healthcare grows faster than inflation, I worry about it eating into an ever increasing percentage of my retirement income I draw each year.

My other concern is will my future self enjoy this lifestyle?  I'm certainly not into the same hobbies as I was in my 20s.....i don't need to own a Porsche and stay in 5 star resorts in retirement, but I worry about the unknown there. Folks in early retirement talk about always having the ability to go back to work if need be, but the likelihood of me catching a job/income like I have now is slim to none.

 

[Reverse Engineer]

I use my excess FRNs to fund my websites, to try and wake as many people as I can up to oncoming Collapse of Industrial Civilization.  I'm not loaded, but I live very cheap and became disabled when I broke my neck last year on the job.  I cannot walk well anymore, my right arm is paralyzed and I have numerous other neurological problems now as a result.  SSDI finally approved my app, and now I have enough income to keep myself fed and housed and keep my websites running.  All my additional income beyond what I need to live goes to my educational websites on the topics of Collapse or to the non-profit SUN Foundation, to help develop more sustainable ways of living.

 

[gcal]

I am a passive index investor and living a frugal life while I am in my working years. But my biggest worries are my healthcare costs as they are growing faster than inflation (please do not turn this into a political thing)

Not poltitical. More like biological.  As we age, parts start to wear out. We, ourselves, no longer have dental  insurance,  but oh boy, could we use it. Get everything you can done while you have it.

No, you will not be the same person  in the future  that you are, now. No, you are unlikely to land as good a job if you take early retirement.  Make the best decisions you  can based on your own situation and be as honest as you can with yourself.  I retired early and I am not totally thrilled with that decision.  I have spent a lot of the last 2 years restless and  bored and missing my job and the feeling of purpose and the social connections it provided. I  did not have a lot of friends that were not people I worked with. There is no way I could get back into my old profession and make what I was making when I retired. The lower social security payment is locked in for good. Yes, there were reasons that early retirement was a good thing for me, too. We planned. We live well. But for most of us,  early retirement has "forever" consequences. Don't do it unless you can deal with those consequences.

 

[Bster13]

Those are exactly some of the worries I have. Thank you so much for responding. How old are you when you retired? Did I read it correctly, did you retire with a spouse? I feel like if I had a long term partner with me who is retiring early and living the nomadic lifestyle, this be so much easier.

 

[gcal]

Those are exactly some of the worries I have. Thank you so much for responding. How old are you when you retired? Did I read it correctly, did you retire with a spouse? I feel like if I had a long term partner with me who is retiring early and living the nomadic lifestyle, this be so much easier.

I was just turned 65 when I retired. That was early for me, as I had planned to work until 70. I liked my job and the people I worked with. My full retirement age would have been 66. DH retired earlier at full retirement age, and has health issues that meant we needed to get started and do this while he still can and not wait those 5 more years. He is thriving. Gor more active, lost weight, no more diabetes meds. Other weight related issues have improved. Me, not so much. A lot of this lifestyle is good. Some of it isn't. Mainly the boredom and the feeling of uselessnes. I eat when I am bored and I put on most of the weight that he lost.

Had intended to try getting a job for a few months in Florida where we are wintering, but DH has a clean bill of health and is itching to get moving, again. He will finish up a couple projects on the RV and we will be on the road. 

It's not really as bad as I have made it sound, really. I am just frustrated right now because I had to turn down a temp job that sounded interesting. I could not commit to the time frame. Next week, I will find something else to occupy my mind and smap out of it. The kids are already campaigning for me to landscape their front yard around their new driveway extension. The grandsons have been offered as slave labor and they will pretty much give me a free hand in the design.

 

[Sabatical]

We are thinking about these same issues. We are in our mid 40's. I work, she doesn't need or want to. We like it that way. I could buy military time to be applied towards years of service and receive a pension early (48 vs. 51). The downside is health insurance. If i stay, i can have health insurance in retirement. If i pull the chute early, no health insurance. This would seem like a no brainer for many, but i am struggling with it. We can never get these years back. The trade off for the time would be the requirement to buy insurance on the market with high deductibles and lower level of care or face the penalties. We don't use health care, but it is inevitable that at some point in the future we will need it. The decision is further complicated by the fact that the only thing that changes from year to year in collective bargaining agreements is the level of health insurance. It is trending away from premium care (at a premium price) toward mediocre care (same premium price). Retirees in the city where i work were just forcibly switched to a plan that is not widely accepted because of payment issues. I can't change these things, i can only plan for them. A big factor in my thought process is, if i'm gonna have crap coverage when i go, what's the point in waiting.

 

[gcal]

Those are exactly some of the worries I have. Thank you so much for responding. How old are you when you retired? Did I read it correctly, did you retire with a spouse? I feel like if I had a long term partner with me who is retiring early and living the nomadic lifestyle, this be so much easier.

BTW, this is our second time around. The first time, we were in our 40's. After 4 years, I had had it. I could not stand there being no real reason to get up half the time except to take the dog out. I come from a long time of workaholics and I have inherited the gene. Some people "are" their stuff. My people "are" their work. We traveled, I did temp office work, DH free lance computer work during those 4 years. Work wasn't hard to find. Not belonging anywhere, not being part of a team, was hard on the nerves.

 

[Reverse Engineer]

Once you no longer HAVE to work because you are collecting on Pension or SS or 401K and investments, you have to find something else which occupies your time and you feel is worthwhile. For me, it is informing others on Collapse issues, but you can pick whatever floats your boat here.

 

[gcal]

We are thinking about these same issues. We are in our mid 40's. I work, she doesn't need or want to. We like it that way. I could buy military time to be applied towards years of service and receive a pension early (48 vs. 51). The downside is health insurance. If i stay, i can have health insurance in retirement. If i pull the chute early, no health insurance. This would seem like a no brainer for many, but i am struggling with it. We can never get these years back. The trade off for the time would be the requirement to buy insurance on the market with high deductibles and lower level of care or face the penalties. We don't use health care, but it is inevitable that at some point in the future we will need it. The decision is further complicated by the fact that the only thing that changes from year to year in collective bargaining agreements is the level of health insurance. It is trending away from premium care (at a premium price) toward mediocre care (same premium price). Retirees in the city where i work were just forcibly switched to a plan that is not widely accepted because of payment issues. I can't change these things, i can only plan for them. A big factor in my thought process is, if i'm gonna have crap coverage when i go, what's the point in waiting.

People these days live well into their 80's and 90's. That's a long time retired. What is inflation going to do to your pension in the next 30 or 40 years? What kind of savings do you have? Do you have marketable skills that would get you side jobs or temp work? How about her? Never mind what she needs or wants, now. You could drop dead or find yourself ill and unable to work,and somebody has to buy gas and groceries. It's tough if you go unprepared and it doesn't work. Weboth ended up having to make major career changes after our first time out, and never did regain where we should have been if we had not gone on the road. In fact, we ended up making around two thirds of what we would have made if we stayed put. That affects your social security, what you can save, and what kind of rig you can buy and have paid off. Forget financing it. Debt is a prison.

 

[Sabatical]

I appreciate your experience gcal. You make great points. I was talking about the soc sec aspect last night with my wifes uncle. He is trying to retire (mid 60s). His wife has alzheimers as does my father in-law (the 2 affected are brother and sister). Others in thier family have it now too. Anyway i realize that by "retiring" early, i am reducing soc sec. With almost 20 years to go before i'm elegible, i'm not counting on it for planning purposes.
As for taking care of my wife should i pass before her, i'll take the pension option that would continue paying her until her passing. Firefighters typically live shorter lives, but i'm hoping that by leaving early and reducing my exposure to the things that try to kill us, that she and i can live to the end together. I envision an ending somewhat like the movie "The Notebook".
We both have skills that can be used to earn money should there be a need. To try and keep that from happening, we are reducing our overhead now. I knew i'd never be rich and didn't want to be. I knew i didn't want to work away my life. So, i reasoned that the only way to make it work was to reduce our overhead.
We'll be debt free next year and are living in such a way that our monthly expenses are a fraction of those in our age group. We bought property with her parents and i built them a smaller house to help them live more comfortably. This year i built us a tiny house on wheels on the same property. Doing this avoided all the red tape and expense of a conventional home and so it costs us pennies to live here. I built our last home (which will be sold in the spring) so equity in it will provide a nice cushion for us.
I read Helen and Scott Nearings book several years ago and i liked the idea of 4 hours of "bread labor" a day. I can spend a small amount of time each day taking care of our meager needs and spend the rest of the time with my best friend (my wife) and our dogs doing things that will help us stay healthy and be happy.
I remember Bob saying to a group of people (paraphrasing here), that he wasn't giving all that much thought to the end of his life. That lack of planning is not for everybody, but in order to achieve happiness, risks are inevitable. It may seem irresponsible to some to not have every aspect planned out, but needing to have it all set in stone would only serve to hold us back. We are responsible people and we do our best to live a healthy life knowing that it will benefit us later, along with helping us feel good now. One of my favorite quotes (author unknown) is "get busy living, or get busy dying".
I believe that we will have more than we need to be comfortable now and the excess will carry over to the future. Meanwhile, investments are building and if soc sec is still around when we get there, that will provide more comfort. That's the best planning i am capable of especially considering that everything changes and it is difficult to plan for the unknown.

 

[gcal]

I appreciate your experience gcal. You make great points. I was talking about the soc sec aspect last night with my wifes uncle. He is trying to retire (mid 60s). His wife has alzheimers as does my father in-law (the 2 affected are brother and sister). Others in thier family have it now too. Anyway i realize that by "retiring" early, i am reducing soc sec. With almost 20 years to go before i'm elegible, i'm not counting on it for planning purposes.
As for taking care of my wife should i pass before her, i'll take the pension option that would continue paying her until her passing. Firefighters typically live shorter lives, but i'm hoping that by leaving early and reducing my exposure to the things that try to kill us, that she and i can live to the end together. I envision an ending somewhat like the movie "The Notebook".
We both have skills that can be used to earn money should there be a need. To try and keep that from happening, we are reducing our overhead now. I knew i'd never be rich and didn't want to be. I knew i didn't want to work away my life. So, i reasoned that the only way to make it work was to reduce our overhead.
We'll be debt free next year and are living in such a way that our monthly expenses are a fraction of those in our age group. We bought property with her parents and i built them a smaller house to help them live more comfortably. This year i built us a tiny house on wheels on the same property. Doing this avoided all the red tape and expense of a conventional home and so it costs us pennies to live here. I built our last home (which will be sold in the spring) so equity in it will provide a nice cushion for us.
I read Helen and Scott Nearings book several years ago and i liked the idea of 4 hours of "bread labor" a day. I can spend a small amount of time each day taking care of our meager needs and spend the rest of the time with my best friend (my wife) and our dogs doing things that will help us stay healthy and be happy.
I remember Bob saying to a group of people (paraphrasing here), that he wasn't giving all that much thought to the end of his life. That lack of planning is not for everybody, but in order to achieve happiness, risks are inevitable. It may seem irresponsible to some to not have every aspect planned out, but needing to have it all set in stone would only serve to hold us back. We are responsible people and we do our best to live a healthy life knowing that it will benefit us later, along with helping us feel good now. One of my favorite quotes (author unknown) is "get busy living, or get busy dying".
I believe that we will have more than we need to be comfortable now and the excess will carry over to the future. Meanwhile, investments are building and if soc sec is still around when we get there, that will provide more comfort. That's the best planning i am capable of especially considering that everything changes and it is difficult to plan for the unknown.

Different people have different risk tolerances. Even the same person will have different risk tolerances at different times in his or her life. My own risk tolerance is a lot less, now, than it was 30 years ago. You have to make the decisions that work for you. I understand that some forms of Alzheimer's are genetic and can be determined with genetic testing. You may want to do this to see what your wife's chance of developing this disease is. It can be exciting just shooting from the hip. But this information can be helpful in making decisions that will give you the best life possible for as long as possible, like whether you should plan on a larger rig to eventually accommodate medical equipment and what things you might want to do and see together first and which ones are lower in priority.

 

[Sabatical]

I understand and agree gcal. Some of our plans may seem carefree but those are only equal to our tolerance for risk. Some plans are more fluid also, like this tiny house. We know it isn't forever and that makes us more open to follow our hearts. We both feel drawn to follow paths and opportunities that present themselves along the way. Currently we have the opportunity to help our parents be more comfortable. When we are not needed anymore (hopefully many years from now) we will move on. We will live the fullest life we can and fully expect and desire some discomfort along the way for it is from overcoming adversity that we feel most alive. I think we constantly strive to be far from the norms of today, which is why i enjoy this forum so much.
The guys i work with shake thiers heads at me when i share with them that i would much rather have time to live than money to buy things. They crave extra income to pay down debt from buying toys and or to sustain a lifestyle full of stuff. Our stuff, the little that we have kept, is paid for. We do spend money, but not to buy things that make us more worthy in others eyes. We buy them to help us be better prepared and more comfortable while we are out there living.
If I had $500 more a month, i would save it.