What is your retirement plan? After retirement, what?

I’m 36, lived very frugally in Silicon Valley since out of college and I now have $3.5M liquid saved up, with some illiquid lottery ticket from a unicorn that might not survive this downturn.

Planning to quit by 40 and live a life of peace and quiet in Mediterranean Europe, where I was born and raised. Will spend my time napping, staying close to my aging parents that I really hope will still be alive by then, doing lots of outdoor activities, reading like a maniac, programming for fun, and never have a boss again for God sake.

7-8 years ago I was in the camp of those who thought they’d never retire, my passion for the industry and technology was too real. Well, Corporate America got the best of me and now I can’t wait to get out. Interesting to introspect how I changed over the years.

While it's pretty badly written, the book Die With Zero changed my perspective on retiring a bit. I'm not sure I'd recommend reading it, but maybe reading a summary of the core ideas would be useful.

The main take-away for me is that people tend to over-save for retirement because they a) over-estimate how much they'll want to do in their 70s and 80s and b) underestimate the opportunity cost of saving when they're younger.

In any case, it prompted me to do some calculations around retirement. We could afford to retire early-mid 50s provided we were willing to save aggressively then sell our home and downsize at retirement. In reality, we'll still have teenagers at home at that point, so it's not so practical to downsize. Plus, my wife's career is starting to ramp up and be more interesting, so she'd probably want to work past 50, anyway.

Long story short, we're aiming at something like 60-65, maybe transitioning to fewer days/week over the last 5 years. The kids will have left home, our investments will have had 10-15 more years to grow, which means we can spend more now rather than be in hard-core savings mode.

As to what we'll do? Very likely sell our main residence, move to our place at the beach, have lots of time for the kids and (maybe) grandkids and do a lot of what we already do, just moreso: read, work out, hang out together, and occasionally travel.

I intend on having a fruitful, storied academic career before suddenly going mad. I then would abandon everything and live on a mountain, making jam by day and writing insane ramblings on a variety of topics that nobody cares about. Eventually I'd like to graduate to becoming one of those yogis that wanders around the Himalayas butt-naked in the snow, but that might be thinking too far into the future.

Back when my dad was retiring from IBM, he noted that some statistic said that a disturbing fraction of people dropped dead within a relatively short time of retiring. On the other hand, my dad did not drop dead, but he did end up spending the last ~25 years of his life with little to do other than some light woodworking and a lot of television. I'm not sure which outcome is worse.

So my plan is not to retire, per se. As I become more and more financially independent, I'm simply going to tailor the work that I do and the time that I spend on it to match whatever my desires are. No working on boring projects because it pays well, etc.

In my perfect world, which I will admit is a fetch, one of my side projects will get traction and I'll make enough to pay for a further two decades of unprofitable-but-fun projects. Or I'll win the lottery I don't buy tickets for.

It really helps that I enjoy coding and could happily do it until I croak, I don't consider it work. I keep getting roped into management though.

Who knows. I make descent money, but supporting a family of 4 with it so only goes so far. I save to a degree, but it also seems so insurmountable to ever save nearly enough and with the way costs of everything are rising even more so. Simply healthcare & food are crazy. Then my kids education before too long.

I have almost come to terms with I just need to live now and stop the voices of all the people that put this shit in my head for the last 40 years of "oh just do X and it's easy to retire! then that's when you life can start!". Life was completely different when I grew up- people had jobs with pensions, healthcare was all in, education was cheap.

But it's hard to push that shit away in your head. Plus I don't trust financial markets worth a damn. I work in the industry, this entire concept of "investing" that the rich have shoved into the middle class is absolutely disgusting and not the way the world should work.

So there's that.

I think that planning is the operative word here. I set my retirement date about five years ago and am coming up on it now. So I thought then about what my interests were and what kind of groundwork I might need to lay down then to better enjoy it when it comes. I live in a rural area and found I was passionate about gardening and the like. So over the last number of years I have been planting fruit trees and berry bushes so they'll be established and productive once I retire.

A fail is not planning at all besides the money side of things. I know of people that have retired and are financially sound but without a clue of what they'll do next. The are bored all day and end up looking to get back into the workforce, at least part time.

Currently dumping $20,000 a year into 401k. Planning on a 65 max retirement age with a goal of 55. 7% rough interest over 32 years would net me $3.5 million by 65, or $1.6m around 55. A 9% average return would net $5.8 and $2.5 respectfully.

Overall I expect that I should be able to happily draw $140,000+ a year during retirement and have that NEVER run out. My wife is a teacher and should be able to pull $40,000-50,000 during retirement as well. Medical would be taken through her retirement plan. Household income between $150,000 and $200,000 during retirement.

Honestly? I don't want to retire. Why would I? I love working on computers, from my basement office and working remotely is great. I have a kid, I would expect to take 2-3, months off a year for less money, but that's not a problem to me.

What would I do with retirement? Clean my house more? walk my dogs more? travel more? Maybe? Work is great and just find something / someone you like working for, have enough fuck you money to not care if you get fired and the rest is gravy.

I think I'm far more likely to leave the programming career (web development) and pursue a masters in something like quantum computing or physics than I am to retire.

I'm 55. I plan on working until 70 (that'll probably be the minimum retirement age for full social security by then anyway). In January of 2038, the year I retire, the unixtime bug will show up for anything running a 32-bit OS and I'll charge a shitload of cash to consult to fix the bug for my last few months (from Jan (when the bug happens) until May (my 70th birthday)).

My house is paid off (bought in 1999, paid extra each month, just paid it off a couple of years ago (30-year mortgage paid off in 23 years)) and both of my kids will be finished with college in the summer of 2030, so that gives me around 8 years to save up. I'm not putting any faith in my 401k or any investments. If they pan out, then cool, but having cash-in-hand when I retire is much more comforting.

After retirement, I plan on staying un-injured and not falling for any money-stealing scams for as long as possible. I'll write software when I feel like it. I'll experiment with new tech if and when it's cool enough to pry myself away from chatting up my fellow retirees and drinking excessively.

When I feel safe enough to do so, I'm leaving the engineering field completely. Hopefully I can find interesting work where I can take large swaths of time off when the kids are out of school. Really the job itself is there to entertain the brain and provide insurance.

After I do that for a while, I'll enjoy the world and what it has to offer. Whatever that means, with whatever savings is still available.

Here's a life lesson that was instilled into me early on in my career:

Anything you're waiting to do until retirement you should be doing now. Common example, many people dream about traveling when they retire. When retirement comes they're typically in their 60's and may have health issues preventing them from traveling.

Do you think you're going to pick up a cool new hobby in your retirement? Why not pick up that hobby now?

Do you think you're going to have more time to spend with family and friends? Why aren't you spending more time with your family and friends now?

Stop pushing all these things off "when I retire" and start doing them now. After all, many people don't even live to see retirement. It'd be a shame to have died before you ever started living.

I'm 35, and have a fairly stable income from consulting and contracting. Recently I made the move to south east Asia, where my cost of living is more than halved. I'm working on some businesses here, and have some online income streams as well. My plan for retirement is to work hard the next 5 years, get some real estate, nurture my income streams and then take a step back and delegate it all. Then in 5 years from that, I am hoping to retire from all of the passive income and savings. After retirement, I will likely spend most of my time practicing martial arts, something I already spend up to 12 hours per week doing. Likely will travel around south east Asia as well. I don't plan on having kids, so that also simplifies my needs quite a bit.

I have no plans to retire, both because a major health event scuttled my original plans, and because retirement wouldn't have a large effect on how I live, anyway.

If circumstances arise in which I decide that retirement is a good option, I will live pretty much the same way that I do now, except that I may undertake less activity at someone else's behest. I say "may" rather than "will" because I already do some work pro bono because people ask me to help them with something.

I love legends around mystical objects and places across the world/universe, I think I would become a kind of explorer like Indiana Jones and will share my experiences in the "TikTok of the future" or related social network. Also if in those years humans already are capable to visit other planets, I would use maybe a connected conscious robot to explore all of that... But if not, I think I would be happy too opening a Mexican food restaurant in my city.

I'll probably 'call it quits' from corporate work when I can draw the median household income at a 3% SWR. That's a bit of arbitrary number. It's 2-3x my current expenses, but I want to make sure I can provide a reasonably decent lifestyle for myself and a partner. I'll get them a bit above average. If they want more than that they're welcome to keep working.

When I retire, I'll probably piddle around with open source projects, a small saas business, or writing apps for niche platforms (XR, smart watches, etc). I'm not opposed to 'working for the man' but I'd only do that 2d / wk max, and few employers would be open to that. Throw in some slow travel and remote boondocking in addition to my normal books, games, and movies, and that sounds lovely.

I'm a bit over halfway to my goal. I've passed the point where I need to work to survive, and I've even started setting aside a 'fun money' budget. The hard work was done in my 20's and 30's. I just keep throwing money into index funds and sailing towards the finish line.

Male. 35 years old. Married. Single income. 4 kids. Bought a fixer upper house last year. Zero saved. I don’t think I’ll be able to retire till I’m 85.

If retirement is the idea that I'll work at a job I hate for most of my life, so that in the last decade or two of life I can sit on my ass, I'll pass. Rather use my money to build a life that continues to grow and change. Planning for that requires I figure out how to support myself indefinitely, but absolutely do not plan to stop creating things that support me.

No plans, other than maxing my 401k and IRA. I try to ride the line of saving while also not letting life pass me by. I'm doing enough to where I won't be in dire straits, but I can't suffer in the hopes of retiring early. Just not something I'm willing to do while I'm young and healthy.

Maxing my 401k, and we're trying to buy rental houses whenever we have enough money and credit. Hopefully someday we can get enough that my wife can retire first, and then I can retire. We'll see.

A quick wish list of things I'd love to do when I retire (of course this is a long ways away right now, so it's very tentative): - Focus more on exercise and health. - Hike and camp more, and enjoy the beautiful parks the U.S. has to offer. - Motorcycle around, maybe go on long road trips. - Connect with my kids more, and help them with their own kids. - Be more social, and have people over more often. - Keep contributing to open source. - Cultivate my drawing and writing skills - Maybe move to Europe for a bit. I love the idea of living in someplace like the Irish countryside, with their beautiful culture, history, and landscape.

In principle it's pretty straightforward: put 15% of income into retirement funds for a long time, pay off a house, and stay away from debt (basically the Dave Ramsey strategy).

I'm not really into the sit-around-doing-nothing type of retirement though; I live in a touristy place with a bunch of those types of people, and it really does seem like many are just waiting around until they die, and it's kind-of depressing. I'm hoping to exit the globally-competitive software engineering field within the next few years and focus on a long-term sustainable local business until my body breaks down decades later.

I'm maxing out my 401K match and contributing as much as I can to my IRA. My target date funds are still for retiring at 65 but I would be surprised if by 2060 the age to qualify for Medicare and social security haven't been moved back to 70-ish in the USA. I'm a homeowner but in a state that will likely see water shortages and increased wildfires so I have a longish-term plan to get out before I lose my investment.

My plan is to make sure I retire somewhere in this country there is fresh water and hopefully some protection from food shortages. Probably near the Great Lakes.

I don't really plan on retiring. I'm saving for it, since I'm in my mid-20s and a lot can change over time, but knowing what I know about myself right now, I can't imagine that I would enjoy retirement. I need something to work for, but I've always struggled to motivate myself to work on things without outside influence. I think a lot of my coworkers have felt the same way, since about half of them who retired have returned as contractors just because they enjoy the work.

If human spaceflight is sufficiently affordable 30 years from now, and I'm still alive for it, I intend to book myself a one-way trip to Enceladus to be an ice fisherman.

At 45 I want:

- be working a maximum of 6 hours as a software engineer;

- and start working as a teacher.

At 50 I want to be working 100% as a teacher and only stop when I no longer have physical or mental conditions.

That’s my retirement plan.

I always joke about never retiring and dying at my desk.

But given my family history, it's not ha-ha funny insomuch as 50/50.

It may be bad for the person who finds me, but think how I'll feel.

A detailed monthly budget in a spreadsheet is all you need to make a retirement decision. But there are a few unknowables that will affect things. Most important are future inflation, major medical expenses (at least until you are covered by medicare), and elderly care expenses. If you don't own your home, future rent increases may be trouble. Will you be receiving an inheritance? Where do you want to live? Most people would like to live near their grandchildren if any, at least for a major part of the year. How active will you be and do you plan to travel? You can make great economy by taking virtual trips on the internet or TV. Take a tour of all your local Italian restaurants instead of a tour of Italy.

> What age are you planning to retire?

Plan on retiring before 40.

> What are you doing to get there?

Maxing all retirement accounts, putting leftover money into taxable accounts, and letting compound interest do it's thing.

> What do you plan to do after retirement?

This is definitely an open question, and I sometimes feel uncomfortable when I think about it. Saving for retirement is my life goal and when I achieve it, I bet I will soon feel empty. That multi-decade challenge that took thousands of hours will be completed, and now what? I don't know how I am going to fill my weekdays for another possibly 50-60 years. It will be a great problem to have, I just don't have a solution yet.

No plans, can't even afford to think about it yet.

Initially at least I want to be able to pay off a mortgage and own my own house, so that whatever retirement ends up being, will have to be much less.

As soon as possible. So that I can work on whatever creative urges and projects I have from day to day, as well as pursue whatever hedonism strikes me. And learn whatever I want to learn.

I'm living somewhat frugally (but not with a particular budget), working in a high pay field, and not planning on having children unless I marry a wealthy spouse that enables me to achieve these goals despite the added cost of children.

Still, realistically probably not until at least 45-50 since I started saving relatively late (around 30).

I joined Alcor and have an excellent life insurance policy so my retirement plan is to work until I drop dead and then hope I end up like Fry from Futurama.

58.

Travel, skiing and climbing as long as my body lets me, and bug my kids wherever they will be.

Investing in 401K and others including real estate.

If you don’t own your home, you ain’t retiring.

I have a healthy balance of diligently saving for the future (401k, index funds, bonds) and also living for the present. Human bodies are fragile and the universe is uncaring. That retirement may never come.

No use planning beyond that. When the time gets closer in a few decades, we'll see where the world is, how much money I have, what my life is like.

I'm a postdoc in Portugal who by a mistake - not really mine, although I should have spotted the problem earlier - doesn't even qualify for pensions yet. My contract likely ends before I qualify, but if I qualify my pension would be around 500 EUR/month.

My current retirement plan is to work outside of academia until I die.

I would like to contribute to rewilding projects like https://www.americanprairie.org/ and build software to support them or if possible buy land directly for them and establish more throughout the US.

Whilst I am good at what I do, I don’t enjoy it.

I want to retire early in my 50s, travel and find where I’m supposed to be in this world. I want to be open to whatever bumps into me.

I give it 5 years of searching and if I don’t find anything, my other half wants us to open a donkey sanctuary.

I don't plan to retire. I like intellectual challenges.

I will work less for sure. Taking regular breaks and working mostly in the mornings.

Probably gonna play pétanque in the evening or taking my grandchildren to the park or wherever they want to go.

Nothing. I plan to bank enough to live modestly off the returns and focus my life on my spouse and kid. I'll travel, farm my average and relax. I'll do it when the accounts are full and the bills are covered.

Honestly, I don't ever expect to be able to retire. I've followed financial the advice of my financial planners, targeting retirement at 67 in another quarter decade, and I expect housing costs and inflation to eat up all of my savings to the point where I will still need to work.

I haven't been able to purchase a home due to medical debt and the market conditions when I entered industry and the subsequent surges in home prices, so that's a large part of it, and I'm far too old where a bank will be comfortable giving me a thirty year mortgage, so my options are to rent or be homeless. That's a large part of it.

I implore you, if you're under the age of 30, buy a home now. Eat ramen for several years if you have to. Otherwise you will never retire.

I plan to waste time and laugh at those who say you won't know what to do with yourself when you retire. Don't do it they plead, knowing full well they can't retire and don't want you to have leisure time. Don't work beyond the time you can afford to quit completely. Being a cog in the machine until you die is what they want you to be as it means you can't stop others from being cogs. The more others see their own predicament compared to your own, then the more they will evaluate whether they really need to work.

This is the whole problem with those who disappeared from the workforce due to COVID. There is a shortfall in tax receipts so governments are trying to figure out ways to force folk back into the corporate machine.

currently 21, single, earning 100k in a LCoL city. I'm planning to retire within 3 years, will probably save somewhere around 60k and move to india and live around the himalayas.

Spend as much time with my kids and grandkids as I can. There’s nothing else as fulfilling.

Retirement - sloth, gluttony, and no cash (with apologies to Sir Winston).

Probably i'm going to be the captain of my own galaxy class starship most of the time, while occasionally looking after the fusion reactor in my basement, that powers the neural interface and the feeding machine.

"What age" is biased. You should open the question to include the option of "Never" because if you love what you do, why should you ever stop?

To obey some societal expectations?

I "retired" at the end of 2021, in my mid-40s after a 25-year career in technology, all with a single company (until they got bought out mid-2021). Both my wife and I used long careers with a small company to reach executive positions in those companies. She is still working and plans to continue working until our children are out of high school. While working, we max out our 401ks, HSAs, 529s, and after that, commit a fixed amount of money each month to self-managed investment accounts primarily invested in dividend-growth stocks with DRIP enabled. This combined with a generous profit-sharing 401k plan from my former company and living comfortably below our means allowed us to build up both a comfortable post-60 retirement fund and a transition fund for before those retirement funds will be accessible without penalty. We have lived in our current house for 13 years, and it has increased in value as well.

Our plan was always to work until the children leave high school, at which point we will not be tied to the school district and can move wherever we want. Our mortgage will be paid off around the same time. When the children are out of the house, we will decide whether to sell the house or rent it, but regardless, our plan is to move somewhere else, probably outside of the US in a place that has a lower cost-of-living than our current location. Predicting where that will be now is a little short-sighted, but if it were to happen today, it would most likely be Portugal or Costa Rica (two low-cost, warm, expat-friendly locations). Based on our projections, we won't be rich, but we also will not have to worry about money.

I put "retired" in quotes because I may go back to work. I am in no rush, and I do a little consulting here and there, but I left work to spend more time with my kids and 9 months out of the year, I have a lot of time during the day when I am not doing that. Also, it makes my wife jealous and I want her to still love me.

For those thinking about retirement, the two biggest things that worked for us was paying ourselves first (max out tax-advantaged investment accounts, invest them in run-of-the-mill dividend-paying equities, and leave them alone) and making a profit every month (living below our means, although some months may not be profitable, every year is). Those profits do not include the money you put into investments. We chose stability where possible (almost no job hopping in favor of constant growth within our current jobs, a house in a good school district and then working on it rather than hopping to a new one), and making decisions in light of the overall goal -- retiring when the kids are out of the house.

But, let's be clear, we are very fortunate. We have had a lot of things go our way. We have a lot of advantages that not everyone has. What we find acceptable, not everyone does. What works for us may not work for everyone else.

Woodworking, of course.

If I get kids, then maybe try to help them with the grandkids. Teach the grandkids what I know (if it is even useful at that time?) + babysit them. Babysitting is basically a full time job, but nowadays most granparents cannot do it since they have to work. Also this really improves the quality of life of your kids and grandkids.

If you dont have kids, probably you will die alone in a hospital.

Also if you arent a programmer/doctor on that fat salary (or own a business) there is high possibility that you will have to work until you die, or that you "retire" and watch your account balance sink just to pay the bills. Perhaps if you have investments you can cope with this.

What is a problem for me is that I couldnt find a company where I can become a "lifer". I had long tenures here and there, but somehow work could never become cozy. You know the one where you work at say 70% capacity and can deal with life. I always end up working at 140% capacity. And at some age you should be the guy who "worked here for 10+ years and knows everything/everyone" and works ar 70% capacity. Otherwise the grind will simply kill you. Work at age of 65-70 is very scary. Probably we will have to work at 72 or more, if we are alive then. Realistically the older you get the slower you become, you get various ailments, so keeping that difficult job will be hard.

So if you care about retirement probably should work out more now. To be in shape.

Also Im trying to find a job (even tried on HN), but there is no market for people working in finance from EU. Of course there is "market" for basic jobs, but not the one that lets you retire earlier. Maybe few lucky ones become venture capitalists or CFOs (I try to do the latter very hard). For rest it is just the grind that sucks the life out of you. The retirement age will probably be increased, so you have 2-3 years, you will get sick and then die. Very bleak.

If you plan for retirement join a gym now. And build an extensive network of friends with whom you can chat. Maybe buy a house in some woods/community so you can drive there, rest, do some gardening and chatting with neighbours.

Old people like houses in the woods for a reason - those places run at a lower pace and provide ability to meet similar people. What is the alternative for most? Rot in front of TV or computer. Maybe go to meetups.

Of course there are outliers. For example you can become a teacher and teach kids programming or Excel (I think Excel will still be there when Im old). Or paint / write / repair cars & do a million other stuff. But if you dont like do those hobbies now, you probably wont do them (nor like them) when you are old.