Gemini Rising

Retirement Thoughts

Retirement is two years away for me, so I decided a retirement seminar at work. Mind you, it was on the off time in the middle of sleep cycle so my body's a bit annoyed with me right now.

I thought I would learn more about what to expect, but I've been to a retirement seminar before so for me it was a tune up. I'm in pretty decent shape, but there I need to make sure my retirement system for the city of LA (we call it LACERS) needs to make sure I'm "married." Can you believe it? For the past 25 years they thought I was single and I've been married for 33 years now. Sigh... City govt snafus, right?

I plan on retiring in 2 years on 28 FEB 27. I'll have 27 years with the city of LA and after buying 7 years of my military time, I'll have a total of 34 service credits. Just means more $$ in my pocket when I retire. Right now I'm looking at a rough estimate of $8,000 monthly when I retire and that's not counting what I'll get from deferred comp. And if I wanna collect Social security when I hit 62 that's another $800. When I retire, I'll be 59 years old and I'm ready to enjoy it, trust me. I could retire tomorrow if I wanted to, but the hubby doesn't retire until FEB 28 so I'm going a year before him.

We are not staying in California upon retirement. The state is absolutely INSANE with it's taxes. We are moving back to New Hampshire. It's a long story, but the hubby said we're moving out of state when we retire. I said, Okay, I'm willing to go to Nevada or Arizona. He said he wanted to go to Idaho because that's were all the cops go. I said Idaho has 4 seasons and snow and if you're willing to do that, I'm going to New Hampshire were all my friends and family live so I can spend the rest of my years around my family and enjoy the tax reprieve. Shockingly, I didn't get any blow back and he was looking at houses in Canterbury the next day.

There are lot of benefits, but I need to organize the madness and get my duckies straight. haha.

What are your thoughts on retirement? Do you have plans? Cruise the world? Fish? Move?