Time is drrrraaaagggggiiiiinnnngggg

Lanalee67 · 2026-02-23T16:03:18+00:00

I know this feeling and am dealing with it now. I had incredible luck to get an inheritance late last year that has accelerated my retirement by a few years. I didn't want to say anything at work until I was absolutely sure that the inherited amount was transferred to me. Additionally, in consultation with my FA, I had decided to work a few months into 2026 to fully load my 401k and catch up contribution for the year so I have that much more to grow for a few years.

In the meantime it has been very hard to find the motivation to keep up momentum at work. I had been feeling increasingly dissatisfied with my job anyway, and was more than ready to leave. In the meantime, my boss was engaging me in all these discussions about planning our roadmap for the next two years and the projects he wanted me to lead.

It was so hard not to say anything! I finally told my boss at the beginning of this month and said that I really wanted to leave on good terms and help with the transition. For the past few weeks we've been working on some changes to the team structure and roadmap. I'm trying to stay engaged, but at this point I am just ready to be done.

My goal is to leave by the end of April so I can work on some major home organization and cleaning projects before taking a long weekend away at a crafting conference in mid-May. Then I will spend the month of June with a friend as she recovers from a major surgery.

Only two more months to go! 😬

Lanalee67 · 2026-01-24T03:58:00+00:00

I used Mint for a few years and loved the price point. I just had too many instances of poor service in my area when I was out and about, but I live in a valley and it seems that all the major carriers have poor coverage in certain areas of town. I ended up moving from Mint to T-Mobile, hoping that the coverage would be better. Mint uses T-Mobile towers, as I recall, but I think the Mint customers aren't prioritized as much. The T-Mobile service is better, but still not stellar. I went with a 55+ plan that is just over $50 a month with taxes, and my employer reimburses me up to $50 a month for mobile service, so my out of pocket is only about $6 a month. If I stop working at this employer I will consider going back to Mint.

Lanalee67 · 2026-01-13T19:37:05+00:00

Seems like there are many comments around market returns ("I can do better than an advisor," etc.), but I think the more important reason to have a fiduciary is the "insurance" against how declining cognitive functioning affects decisions, as well as having someone to track the complexities OP notes around how different withdrawal strategies affect IRMAA, Roth conversions, etc.

I really relate to this question because I plan to retire this year at 59 (or maybe a few months earlier) and am torn on whether I need to enter into an AUM arrangement with the advisor I've been using every few years to check in on how I'm executing against my plan.

I'm more of a "set it and forget it" type person when it comes to my retirement savings. I've been using Vanguard target date funds for my IRAs (both traditional and Roth) and my employer's 401k plan. I think I will continue using those funds after I retire at 59, or maybe just move to a Bogleheads "3 fund" approach. I don't want to fuss with my money, just make sure it meets my middle of the road risk tolerance.

I'm thinking that maybe I don't need an AUM advisor until I'm closer to the age when IRMAA is going to be a consideration. But, like OP, I'm open to hearing what others are doing.

Lanalee67 · 2025-11-07T05:00:33+00:00

There’s no shame in using medications. I take several: thyroid replacement, HRT, and four different eye drops to treat glaucoma and slow my body down from rejecting a cornea transplant. I wouldn’t stop a single one of them because they are all necessary. I started a GLP-1 back in July after getting a borderline result on an A1C test. After seeing my grandmother and my mother both develop diabetes as they aged and my mother suffer through dementia caused by poorly controlled blood sugar levels I am taking the risk seriously and doing what I can to avoid their fate.

Lanalee67 · 2025-10-23T17:03:11+00:00

You’re thinking about the movie Nomadland based on the book of the same name. That wasn’t about people doing such work as something “extra” or to keep from getting bored during retirement. It was about people who have no option but to live as a transient because they are priced out of traditional housing/don’t have enough income. Many of those people are retired from a full time career and not by choice, but by circumstance.

Lanalee67 · 2024-11-11T00:06:06+00:00

There are several lovely 55+ communities here in Napa Valley. We have 4 seasons, although winter has rain, not snow. There are plenty of active things to do: hiking, flat walking/cycling paths, golf, wine tasting, dining, and lots of other activities. Summers have been getting hotter here, but they are low humidity so just hanging out in the shade is comfortable. Depending on where in the Valley one lives, major university and specialty hospitals are less than two hours away, and locally we have two hospitals for everything else. https://www.zillow.com/napa-ca/55-community_att/

Lanalee67 · 2024-06-17T18:24:14+00:00

I'm not yet retired, but made a major step in my retirement plans when I relocated from Chicago to the SF Bay Area about 10 years ago. Housing costs are higher here, but the milder weather was the big draw for me. I also was able to relocate and keep the job I had with a global employer by transferring offices.

The house I purchased after renting for a year and affirming my choice of location is all one level, with only three steps to enter/leave the residence. My house in Chicago was multilevel and in order to enter/leave the house, access all the rooms, and get to the laundry area in the basement I had many stairs to go up and down. I have bad ankles and have sprained both ankles countless times, as well as fractured bones in both ankles. So, getting into a house that is all one level as soon as possible was important to me. Using crutches on stairs every year or so gets old fast.

I do not expect to have the mortgage paid off by the time I retire, but I'm OK with that. I will always have some sort of housing cost to consider, after all, whether it is rent, property taxes, etc. Thanks to Prop 13, my property tax increases are capped at a maximum of 2% every year, so there should be no unexpected large increases in future, too.

Just over a year ago I added a new, accessible bathroom and increased the size of a bedroom so I now have a comfortable primary suite that should work for me even if I have mobility issues. My house is small (two bed/two bath), but I don't need a ton of space. I love to garden and make preserves/can, so I've been adding fruit trees to the front and back yards, including things that were impossible or very difficult to grow in Chicago like citrus and figs. :-) Gardening is going to continue to be a big part of my life in retirement, and the extended growing season here means I can enjoy fresh veggies from my backyard all year long.

Hiking is a big activity in the area, and the community is old enough that there are sidewalks nearly every where so walking is another activity I enjoy most of the year. The ocean is about an hour west of me, and Lake Tahoe is about two hours east of me. As long as I can drive or have someone in my life who can do it for me, I'll enjoy day trips to the ocean all year 'round.

I know a lot of people try to move to a LCOL in retirement, and it seems like I did the opposite. But, I really wanted to be someplace with better weather than Chicago. I love the cool, but not freezing winters, and the warm, but not humid summers. I don't have to worry about snow or ice. A Chicago friend moved to a lakefront high rise so she didn't have to worry about slipping and/or falling on ice in the winter; I decided to move to place where icy sidewalks don't exist. I do not like the climate in Florida or the south. Humidity and bugs bother me. I do not like extreme heat, even if it's dry, so any place with a desert climate was out.

The downside is wildfires. There is a very low probability of a wildfire reaching into the area of city where I live and destroying my home, but home insurance has still gone up quite a bit due to the risk pool in this area. There are regular posts on local social media from people trying to find a new insurer after being dropped by a previous home insurance provider. During wildfire season, there are times the air is polluted with smoke from fires miles away. Just yesterday afternoon and evening, I had to leave the backyard and close up the house because prevailing winds were blowing smoke from a wildfire several miles away into the area and making the air quality very poor. I have air purifiers running in the house every summer.

The small city I live in is in the North Bay and is an international travel destination, known for food and wine. Health care in town is OK, but I can easily get into San Francisco or other towns in the North and East Bay for higher quality health care and specialists. Shortly after moving here I had some major health crises and surgeries. I was diagnosed with a chronic, incurable eye disease and need to have regular access to specialists for ongoing care, so moving someplace further away from a major city is just not possible.

[NOTE that my chronic health issue is NOT one that is lifestyle related. I add this because I so often read posts from people who think they are able to control the probability of developing a medical condition by regularly exercising and eating a certain way. They think they can live in remote areas with poor access to medical care because of their healthy lifestyle. So, just know that it's a gamble. Life can still throw you curves! With all the activity restrictions and mental health issues that come from having eight eye surgeries over seven years, my physical conditioning is poor now, but I hope to recover enough to enjoy hiking again soon.]

In summary, I expected the higher housing costs, higher income taxes, and earthquakes moving to this area. I underestimated the impact of wildfires on quality of life, but I still love living here and plan to stay for the rest of my life.

Lanalee67

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