Retire or keep working

[Wharf Rat]

I retired at 62 and have never regretted it.

It strikes me that your assumed rates of earnings / interest are way too high by a factor of 2 or 3. I’m not saying that you can’t find somebody who claims they can make that. But, it’s likely too risky to be prudent. For comparison, a 90 day Tbill gets a little over 4% and dividend stocks might pay 2% to 10% depending on risk.

When you are working, you have new money coming in every month to spend or invest. When you retire, you largely don’t and you need to protect your capital because there’s no way to make it back up. So, there’s a psychological change that’s necessary. What sounded like a hot but risky investment idea no longer makes sense.

Best of luck!

[G G]

Originally Posted by Wharf Rat

I retired at 62 and have never regretted it.

It strikes me that your assumed rates of earnings / interest are way too high by a factor of 2 or 3. I’m not saying that you can’t find somebody who claims they can make that. But, it’s likely too risky to be prudent. For comparison, a 90 day Tbill gets a little over 4% and dividend stocks might pay 2% to 10% depending on risk.

When you are working, you have new money coming in every month to spend or invest. When you retire, you largely don’t and you need to protect your capital because there’s no way to make it back up. So, there’s a psychological change that’s necessary. What sounded like a hot but risky investment idea no longer makes sense.

Best of luck!

I don't think I ever really figured I would make those kinds of returns either. It certainly hasn't returned anything since we put it in. In fact right away it lost a ton, and slowly made its way back, and now is down at the moment. I have thought seriously about buying gold and or silver with it. I don't really know much about(as you can tell) about investing as we are newbies but should have been doing it for decades. I am leaning towards keeping the job cause it's the easiest job I have ever had and I am pretty much on my own with no supervisors following me around, the owner has treated me better than any job I have ever had so it's not a hard call to keep working, since it's basically part time and most days I probably make anywhere from $50 to $75 an hour if we were going by hourly rates. So it's really a no brainer. Plus the fact that I doubt very seriously I would find enough to do for the whole month to keep me from going crazy. LOL.

I appreciate all the advice so I imagine I will stay with it at least until 62 and may even put off drawing SS at 62 if I am still able to work.

[Porch Dweller]

Originally Posted by G G

I don't think I ever really figured I would make those kinds of returns either. It certainly hasn't returned anything since we put it in. In fact right away it lost a ton, and slowly made its way back, and now is down at the moment. I have thought seriously about buying gold and or silver with it. I don't really know much about(as you can tell) about investing as we are newbies but should have been doing it for decades. I am leaning towards keeping the job cause it's the easiest job I have ever had and I am pretty much on my own with no supervisors following me around, the owner has treated me better than any job I have ever had so it's not a hard call to keep working, since it's basically part time and most days I probably make anywhere from $50 to $75 an hour if we were going by hourly rates. So it's really a no brainer. Plus the fact that I doubt very seriously I would find enough to do for the whole month to keep me from going crazy. LOL.

I appreciate all the advice so I imagine I will stay with it at least until 62 and may even put off drawing SS at 62 if I am still able to work.

That's a great reason to keep working; I'd probably do the same. I was pretty unhappy at my last assignment so it made the choice to retire very easy for me.

[jledou]

Originally Posted by G G

I don't think I ever really figured I would make those kinds of returns either. It certainly hasn't returned anything since we put it in. In fact right away it lost a ton, and slowly made its way back, and now is down at the moment. I have thought seriously about buying gold and or silver with it. I don't really know much about(as you can tell) about investing as we are newbies but should have been doing it for decades. I am leaning towards keeping the job cause it's the easiest job I have ever had and I am pretty much on my own with no supervisors following me around, the owner has treated me better than any job I have ever had so it's not a hard call to keep working, since it's basically part time and most days I probably make anywhere from $50 to $75 an hour if we were going by hourly rates. So it's really a no brainer. Plus the fact that I doubt very seriously I would find enough to do for the whole month to keep me from going crazy. LOL.

I appreciate all the advice so I imagine I will stay with it at least until 62 and may even put off drawing SS at 62 if I am still able to work.

If you are new to investing, I would recommend trying to read a book or two, and potentially interview an advisor or two. There are a lot of differing opinions and views, fees, structure etc for advisors so doing a little pre-work on different thoughts before talking to someone can help you figure out what is more comfortable in your mind.

My personal example, I managed all of my own until a couple of years ago when it hit me that my wife would not be comfortable continuing to manage it if something happened to me so we started working with an outside advisor who had the same philosophy as us. For context, we are very close to 100% in ETFs and mutual funds but we have a longer time horizon to retirement (10-15+ years).

I am enjoying all of the discussion, I look forward to thinking about the same in 10 years.

[BigDawg]

Originally Posted by G G

I don't think I ever really figured I would make those kinds of returns either. It certainly hasn't returned anything since we put it in. In fact right away it lost a ton, and slowly made its way back, and now is down at the moment. I have thought seriously about buying gold and or silver with it. I don't really know much about(as you can tell) about investing as we are newbies but should have been doing it for decades. I am leaning towards keeping the job cause it's the easiest job I have ever had and I am pretty much on my own with no supervisors following me around, the owner has treated me better than any job I have ever had so it's not a hard call to keep working, since it's basically part time and most days I probably make anywhere from $50 to $75 an hour if we were going by hourly rates. So it's really a no brainer. Plus the fact that I doubt very seriously I would find enough to do for the whole month to keep me from going crazy. LOL.

I appreciate all the advice so I imagine I will stay with it at least until 62 and may even put off drawing SS at 62 if I am still able to work.

Sounds like you've got a good plan. I "retired" from 40 years of teaching when I was 62 and started collecting my pension. I had an opportunity knock on my door and I picked up a remote working job where I actually made more that I did when I was teaching. Like you, with little supervision.

I'm 68½ now. Last time I looked, if I wait until 70 to start collecting, my check jumps about $800/month. So that's the plan for now.

On the other hand, one of my best friends was a union pipefitter/welder and retired at 60. He has his pension, which added his projected SS benefit until he turned 62. He just turned 62 and is now collecting both pension & SS. He has never looked back.

So, it can work quite well either way as long as you plan well and have a nice rainy day fund set up for emergencies.