Sounds amazing.

We're grinding right now in our early mid 30s with 3 small youngsters. But I'm enjoying all the stages in life.

What a an angel.

Congratulations!

Do me a favor and pet that baby for me. [/Claude, probably]

What a blessing! Congratulations!

No papers?

infinity ag said:

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stonksock said:

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I retired earlier this year. Early 40s and could lose a few pounds so I have been better at going to the gym and taking my dog on walks every day.

I have a ton of airline and hotel points from all my work travel so I have gone on 4 relatively cheap vacations this year and will likely be out of town again next month. It's nice I can plan things last second.

I did try to garden a little this year and grew some peppers but I got bored with it and let them all die. My house is cleaner than it's ever been and I my yard looks better too. I am a little embarrassed that I play spend a few hours a day playing video games but I don't really watch much TV anymore.

I love running errands during the day when people are at work or seeing a movie in an empty theater at 1pm on a Tuesday. I actually don't like the weekends much because there are too many people out and about

I have a feeling my next big adventure will be to move but I am still trying to figure out where I want to move to which is part of the reason I have been traveling so much.

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40s is quite early, you must have done well $$$ wise.

You didn't mention or maybe I did not catch it. Are you married? Or have a girlfriend? Do you have someone to spend time with?

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Married but no kids, so dual income plus no kids helped us get there sooner than expected. We thought we were going to have kids so we saved early expecting it but it never worked out and adopting wasn't an option for various reasons I would rather not disclose publicly.

DINKs

Enjoy your money!!!

Congratulations

Retired July '23 at age 58. Best move I ever made. Doing lots of fishing and hunting. Working on our house that we pretty much neglected while raising kids.

I'll second the notion of shopping and going to stores during the week, especially early in the morning. I refuse to go to these places on weekends now.

I'm hyperactive so I don't sit still. Constantly working on something or repairing things. I love it.

Pron blasts on Texags.

I love Saturdays, so I plan to not retire. In retirement, every day is like Saturday, so it feels like you'd never have a day to look forward to. I don't want to live like that.

Financially, I could consider retirement in the next 5 years or so, but I love my job and the people I work with.

If things change, I'll let you know. Every day is a winding road.

Become a Texas Master Naturalist thru TPWD.

Sheryl Crow - CONFIRMED!!

Though I'm eligible this April, my target date is Dec of 2030. I'm in IT (network engineer). I'll be 58 then. I'd like to teach personal cybersecurity habits to those who will listen (it's hard to get people to approach this proactively). I'd also like to write songs, golf and make videos, all of which I've done a lot of. Looking forward to it! Just hope we'll have an economy then that will support the retirement life.

billyjack2009 said:

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Become a Texas Master Naturalist thru TPWD.

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Interesting - I'll keep that in mind if I can live to retirement.

Retired guy here that disagrees with you.

deer corn said:

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DINKs

Enjoy your money!!!

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I guess we are NINKs now because we don't have a steady income now outside of our stock returns

ToddyHill said:

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I officially 'retired' from my job on July 31, 2023. Given the technical nature of my former role, I still work 10 hours per week remotely as contract (1099). It's provided a few extra dollars but has also helped me ease into full time retirement, which I plan to do this coming January.

There's always a lot to do at our place. Right now, my primary focus is cutting/splitting wood as we have a wood stove and rely on it heavily for about five months a year. Beyond that there's always stuff to do as we have acreage and a few farm animals that need to be tended.

Presently, our biggest issue isn't finding something to do...it's finding a capable house sitter to tend to our brood while we're away. In our case, 'down-sizing' is taking on a whole different meaning.

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I retired last year too! Greatly enjoying the life. Never bored.

Looked for you at the Trinity/ Southlake game!

The number of people on this thread who look at retirement as an escape makes me sad. I enjoy what I do and have a great time with the people I work with. I feel like work is my escape from reality half the time. I just turned 49 so maybe I'll feel differently in 5 years, but right now I'm having the most fun I've ever had working. Living in NB helps because we can enjoy living in a vacation town and we spend plenty of weekends at the coast. Work has never caused me to feel like I'm missing out on leisure time and enjoying life

jja79 said:

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Retired guy here that disagrees with you.

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I'm glad to hear that, and I hope I'm wrong about not looking forward to weekends. I'm not ready to test it anytime soon, though.

Every day is Saturday for me but weekends are still special.

A lot of pickle ball

Unfortunately, work is a grind for most of us. It's what we have to do.

I will have no problem filling my time. I just don't think I've saved quite enough so I got another couple of years to go. I'm only 62 also.

My wife is younger, so for quite a while, part of my job will be having a nice dinner on the table and the house cleaned. And I have no issues with that.

fc2112 said:

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I will have no problem filling my time. I just don't think I've saved quite enough so I got another couple of years to go. I'm only 62 also.

My wife is younger, so for quite a while, part of my job will be having a nice dinner on the table and the house cleaned. And I have no issues with that.

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Nice humble brag.

FIDO*98* said:

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The number of people on this thread who look at retirement as an escape makes me sad. I enjoy what I do and have a great time with the people I work with. I feel like work is my escape from reality half the time. I just turned 49 so maybe I'll feel differently in 5 years, but right now I'm having the most fun I've ever had working. Living in NB helps because we can enjoy living in a vacation town and we spend plenty of weekends at the coast. Work has never caused me to feel like I'm missing out on leisure time and enjoying life

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I don't hate my job. I just prefer doing lots of other stuff. Lots of people put their whole identity in their career. Not me. It's just a means to make money to provide for my family. I don't dread going to work, but I don't bring my work home with me either.

I had an awesome job: International Airline Pilot. Pretty much a permanent vacay - except for passengers and airports.

There's a time to move on to the next phase. Some of you will embrace it. Some of you who are self substantiated won't.

Some of you don't have anything else to make you happy.

I'd recommend before you HAVE to retire to start setting up your life in retirement. It's coming.

I agree with Philo and even told my wife when you're retired, every day but one is Saturday (the one being Sunday with church and all), but I disagree that it's a bad thing. If you do it right, you have something to look forward to every day, not just that one day.

I retired in the Fall of 2019. Not exactly planned, but it worked out because I was more available to help my aging parents until they passed in '22 and '23. I'm really only sorta retired because my wife is still working, so we get up early every morning, and since she's working, I get to take care of the house - groceries, laundry, dogs, plants, etc. But she's retiring at the beginning of '25, and then IT'S ON!!

My "retirement gig" has been my love of wine. I have a fledgling wine blog (The Everyday Winers, check it out please) as well as wine certifications. My wife is dead set on the idea that after she retires we turn it into a podcast.

We plan to buy a beach house on the Tx coast and spend lots of time there, and AirBnB it when we're not there to help with the taxes/insurance/upkeep, etc.

Also we're going to by a Class B camper van and use it for traveling - down to the beach house, to visit the kids that live on the east coast, and other fun places like Gulf Shores, Myrtle Beach, Mt Rushmore, stuff like that. And maybe some just general camping.

We also have a bucket list of longer distance travel - the UK, Hawaii, Tuscany, maybe a cruise or three.

And when we're not traveling, we love to just sit out on our patio, which is our at-home oasis that we created, and read, tend to plants, watch TV, or do whatever.

Oh yeah, and on some of our travels, like to the Amalfi Coast, we learned some cheffy cooking things that we want to try our hand at.

So none of this idle hands stuff here.

I'd have to get a part time job to afford all the guns and ammo I plan to buy and shoot.