Olde Tyme Banker, the comment was not directed at you. I had sat through the CFP program and it was intense and interesting. (In banking 30 years at that point and figured investing would be a snap. Everything I knew was covered in the first hour of the first class!) Just passing along general information.

There is a radio personality Clark Howard who provides some fairly easy to understand financial information. (He is also referred to as "America's Cheapskate" because of his thrifty advice.) He came out with a full explanation of Fiduciary Financial Advisors which I found informative, Link attached.

https://clark.com/personal-finance-...tm_term=0_afa92deb83-9424a747b0-72871525

Thank you. I will confess that for years I have paid zero attention to Medicare info, reasoning that it would most likely change 10 times before I was eligible. Now our insurance advisor has given us 3 books on it. Yipes.

The most dangerous thing that you can do is not sign up and pay for your chosen Medicare coverage when you turn 65 if you delay drawing SS. To sign up later can involve significant penalties.

Congratulations Skittles. Green with envy! My retirement date is written on an index card under my desk mat. It is in 2026, which seems far away, but the last two years have gone by incredibly fast. Hope the next few do too. I'm still hoping that my darling husband can find a way for me to retire sooner via our investments. We recently signed a purchase agreement for our retirement home and are waiting for it to be built. It will make for a longer commute, but it will be well worth it. Something to look forward to.

Here's to RETIREMENT!!

I'm joining the retirement club! I'll be retiring at the end of 2021. I decided I just couldn't hold out to 65! Even so, I'm still surprised at how excited I am getting about it!

Congratulations DEL! I know exactly how excited you are.

Congratulations DEL! Excited for you.

Sleeping late, breakfast whenever, shopping when everyone is at work, napping when you want and everyday a Saturday is not as cracked up as everyone expects. (It's better)
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S

Congrats DEL, I can't wait to join the club. If my plan works, less than 2 years.
Enjoy

Thanks everyone for all the good wishes!

March 1, 2023, or earlier...

<<<taking the under

I can tell you - 6 months in - that I do not regret early retirement. I’m enjoying the extra time with my husband and traveling to visit my siblings and son more often.

You'll have to come back part time to pay for the gas...

Was just talking about this...it's costing me around $9 bucks a day just to get to work and back home (that's not counting the crazy amount i'm spending on lawn mower gas).

I drive 90 miles round trip 3 days a week, 5 miles the other 2. I drive a honda that gets 42 MPG highway, so 3 days i'm about $10 per day,. the other 2 it is negligible. i bring my lunch 4 days a week, but have noticed that where i normally go on Friday has increased prices about 10%, but they also told us they were doing it because of inflation and rising costs to them. I don't understand people that eat out 5 days a week for lunch, that is $90-100 easily.

DQ - good for you on the looming retirement, i was hoping to get out in 5-6 (which would be early for me), but if this current economic trend continues, may be closer to my full retirement 10-12 from now.

so.......a retirement celebration/reunion in Atlantic City?? ::

I was teaching a financial literacy class for homeless so they can get subsidized apartments. Had to explain in basic terms, only 2 of 14 had a bank account, and the one credit card was secured. They were "amazed" how much they spent, annualized. A daily soda and snack ran close to $1,000 a year, when most had total income of $7,500 ($150/week) (13% for daly snacks!). Yikes!

I plan to retire at 67, 5 years from now. I really like banking and working with people to achieve their financial goals. But I am met with skepticism by many of the younger generation that don't like the idea of down payments on vehicle purchases or paying their parents rent, or investing in their future by paying into a retirement account every month, the audacity of my suggestions. Not to mention the stifling mostly irrelevant regulatory environment we work in because we are all apparently stupid and crooks, is wearing on me. I drive 40 miles round trip 5 days a week and talk about a food desert I drive 60 miles round trip just to buy groceries, no grocery store anymore in the town I work in. Some days I am sure I can't do his anymore and then I get a young couple in my office eager for advice.

I have the same plan as one deer - retire in 5 years at 67. I too am feeling the stress of every day and keeping my motivation up. We are a very small shop, so if a teller is gone or the phone operator is out we all have to chip in.

And it doesn't seem that many of the questions we get are "slam dunks" anymore. Everything requires research and nobody wants to give you the time to do it. I am compliance, but being constantly pulled into fraud because we don't have a fraud department.

Is is a bad thing that I'm 34 and am already stressed out and having a hard time staying motivated? Just 32 years to retirement for me

I am right there with you. I am 35 and not excited to go another lifetime of work in order to stop working enough to work to find peace.

Good news (sigh) I am not sure retirement is looking like a possibility for a lot of people so I will not be alone.

other end of the line and I haven't nor do I have any immediate plans to retire. Compliance, being appreciated and working remotely have all factored in to my continuing past the time when most of my contemporaries have already retired. And with the financial debacle going on around me where your gasoline bill = what your groceries used to cost and your groceries = your old costco bill and that costco bill is now nearly as much as your mortgage payment, AND the government keeps trying to cut my SS, I'll keep plugging along and saving the income. I certainly can't afford the world travel I thought retirement would include for me.

I just turned 60 and hoping to make it to 65 or 67 based on what circumstances are happening at the time. It seems like there is more stuff and it never ends. I enjoy my job and do not mind working, but some days are easier than others. I applaud all you are retiring and starting that new chapter in their lives.