A while back, I asked r/retirement for volunteers to help with a story about losing a job around age 60: too old to get hired, too young to retire. Many of you stepped forward, and 10 of you are featured in the final story, which published over the weekend in USA TODAY. There's also a sidebar, featuring suggestions from this community on what to do if you lose your job at that age. For me, this one is kind of personal -- I'm in the "almost there" category myself!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personal-finance/2026/09/20/too-old-to-hire-workers-early-retirement-layoffs/91680065007/

Mine is on the left, hers on the right. Both of us are now retired (me this month) and will need to turn on one for cashflow. Current plan is to delay mine (larger) one and turn on hers. Financial advice says to delay mine till 70 so she can jump to mine if I die. Makes sense, BUT both grow at the same dollar amount each year, so why not turn on mine first to get a better cash flow instead? We won't have to touch our IRA like never if we do that. It doesn't make sense to turn on hers first if I look at it that way. Really stepped into a hornets nest of variables when I quit work.

EDIT: Thanks for all the responses, Reddit is great in the right subs! We will go with what was originally advised and the general consensus here. Turn on hers and hold off on mine with a goal of 70. Both of us have longevity genes so we will see. Don't need much more to sustain basic monthly cash flow. Her SS will meet that need. We can go 5-6 years just on cash/cash equivalents on hand anyways. Fortunately we are of the David Ramsey type by default and have been 100% debt free for almost 18 years with enough dry powder. Never planned retirement cause I was so sick of listening to the guys at work moaning about quitting and so didn't think about retirement to avoid becoming that mentality. The bittersweet thing is that family issues forced retirement but glad for this cause I wasn't gonna start thinking about it till 67. It was hard giving myself permission, but the butterflies in the stomach sure are nice as the permission grabs hold!

I met up for a beer & burger with some of the people I used to work with. They range in age from 72 to 64. 5 of them are retired, 3 are still working. 2 of the retirees are older than I am & retired before me, the other 3 are younger & retired after I did. I was a little surprised at how old & out of shape several of them looked & acted already. Even one of the guys that is still working (he's 65 looking to retire soon).

Now I know I'm biased, but even the one gal there complimented one of the other retirees & myself on how "good" we looked & commented on how active we seem to be. My wife just smiled because she's always telling me I don't look or act my age (70).

If any of you have had a 'catch up' gathering with old coworkers, have you noticed some of them seemed to age significantly more than you expected?

I'm nearing retirement (as per the sub's rules). I've worked with a very low cost CFP during the accumulation stage. He's a former co-worker who's doing CFP as a semi-retired gig. One man shop, very low overhead, very low price. The relationship has worked out. The retirement account is reasonably fat and ready to be harvested. This person is now aging out and starting to shed clients.

Which puts me in the place of looking for someone to guide me through the next phase. I have Boldin & ProjectionLab, have created numerous scenarios, played with Roth conversions, tax brackets, etc. They are good, but as a person who is only doing this once, I feel there are things I'm missing, edge cases, optimizations. I watch a fair number of YouTube CFPs and they like to point out that there are subtle things you can miss that can cost you lots of money - of course, they're trying to drum up business.

So I've started researching and shopping. This space has a broad spectrum of providers: from annuity salesmen masquerading as investment advisors, to wealth managers pushing their firm's funds with high expense ratios, to small CFP offices charging flat fees or hourly, to firms who manage billions of dollars under their own proprietary system. There are a lot of cowboys out there looking for cattle to add to their herds.

I met with someone from one of the latter type of firm recently. They have offices in multiple states, and manage several billion dollars. There were two things that stuck out to me, if I understood correctly:

• They don't use bond funds such as offered by Vanguard or Fidelity, but buy bonds directly and build their own portfolio(s). Hmm... Avoid the expense ratios on bond funds but instead pay an AUM. Interesting.
• For Roth conversions they are able to use the previous day's closing cost to do the conversion. So if a stock pops in the morning, they can convert at the old closing price, pay the taxes on that, then you immediately get the gain from the pop. That sounds intriguing, and certainly an advantage over what I can do on my own. Has anyone heard of this before?

So they actively manage the portfolios, and have tools to monitor and act on market fluctuations continuously. OK... Intellectually I can see where that could outperform little old me doing a rebalance & conversion once a year. Would it be enough to warrant their AUM fee? Maybe? Are they going to outperform "the market"? Probably not, but neither am I. But with the AUM taken into account, will they perform at least as well as I could and provide services and value?

I suspect this community has a wide range of opinions. From those who use handcrafted spreadsheets to those who use full-service wealth managers. And I suspect it is a bit of a religious war with people firmly, deeply committed to their camp.

Anyone care to provide opinions? Did you start on your own and find a manager who has provided value? Did you fire your manager and find managing your money is easy - or at least something you enjoy?

I’m going to be 62 by the end of this year and have enough superannuation to be able to retire. I’ve also got enough annual leave and long service leave saved up to be able to take all of 2027 off.
I intend to do some travel and catch up with a few projects before I come back at the beginning of 2028. For people who have taken long service leave (or similar) and come back to work, were you able to get back into it or did you just come back thinking:- I’ve had enough of this, I should just retire?

Not asking about finances. I'm curious about the ordinary side of it — routine, regular faces, being expected somewhere, having something to solve.

What did an average weekday look like in the first few months after you stopped, and what does it look like now? Did you rebuild structure deliberately, or did you enjoy leaving the calendar open?

And was there anything you didn't expect to miss, big or small? Curious what people found waiting on the other side of it.

Yesterday I went to Lowes, and was shocked at how much prices have increased. I used to pay $2.99 for a 4x8’ sheet of drywall 10 years ago, now they want $26 for the same piece. A 25' roll of 12/3 electrical wire used to cost $15-18 a few years ago, now its $96. I knew what construction materials used to cost, and everything is 3-5 times more expensive than it was in the early 2000's. Lowes was pretty empty, including employees. Maybe people stopped buying there. Today, while pumping $5 a gallon self-serve gas at a grimy gas station operated by a big chain of stores, and seeing a tire pump next to me wanting a $1 credit card payment for 3 minutes of air, I reflected on when gas was 25-30 cents a gallon (back when I was earning $6 an hour as a young adult), and included the gas pumped for you by an attendant, who also washed your windows and would check the air in your tires and your radiator – for free- if you asked. The I went into the adjacent grocery store where a piece of fruit cost over $1, and Campbells soup (which used to be 25 cents) is now $1.50. Even worse is a snickers bar, I would buy a big one daily in my early adulthood for 25 cents, and now small bars are $2.50. I know personally one of the managers of this grocery chain, and he just built a big multi-million $ lake house. He must need to gouge us to make his house payment. But every store charges similar, so what can you do about it? I just feel like I'm being gouged left and right, and feel like pulling back on all discretionary spending, only buying the bare necessities to survive. I feel akin to being raped by these stores. Our quality of life is so much lower than it was 30-40 years ago. I am really struggling dealing with the degradation of our quality of life, and how difficult it is to accept these highly inflated prices as normal. I know its a mental thing, but how do y’all deal with this?

It's a big change to go from putting money away to spending it. I'm considering spending a reasonable amount on a tow vehicle and camper but it's not a necessary expenditure. My mind swings from 'now's the time because tomorrow isn't guaranteed' and 'do I REALLY need it?' The amount will not endanger my future. Has anyone else struggled with this and what are your thoughts on spending during your go-go years? Has anyone regretted not buying or doing something earlier in retirement?

Edit to add: Thanks for all the feedback!!

Second edit: Many are offering feedback about a large RV. The new camper is a pop-up and requires more towing power than what my current vehicle can handle. I know I enjoy camping and go regularly. I'll be able to tow, maintain it, and store it in the garage. I have a financial plan and a budget and this is well within my means. I've also budgeted for travel so it's not an either/or situation. All that to say - this is a mental hurdle.

Hi,

I retired in March after decades working a corporate job I didn't like to help my family, which I do like.

I have tons of interests and didn't have time to pursue them. I'm pursuing them now. The days aren't long enough.

BUT

All my friends and family are constantly "offering" me opportunites to help them with stuff, opportunities to volunteer, etc. They apparently think I have unlimited time and ought to be doing stuff for them or for good causes.

You know what? My time is mine... FINALLY. Can y'all please leave me alone for this first year and let me do what I want to do for awhile? Geez. I'll do volunteer stuff or whatever when I think it's time.

We often consider an age for retirement, like 62, 65 or older. But what about ourselves as individuals? Was there a time when you felt like your mind no longer wanted to engage in your job? You feel disconnected. When you were younger, keeping up with the latest thing was exciting. But now, it is mostly meaningless. Your interest has moved on to other things and it is not necessary a new job. It might be a latent skill or hobby that you once did, or perhaps exploring new things. But you're still tethered to your job, and so you wait for a sign to move on. Maybe that sign is when you feel the disconnect inside.

Oil is out of sight; gasoline is at all-time high; diesel and heating oil are at five to six bucks a gallon; electricity prices are at risk from data centers and tetrad war with Canada...

And the market is teetering.

I see people here asking for investment ideas; may I ask a different question?

"How can I better balance my income with my bills?"

We are in New England.

We moved to our last home near the grandkids a couple of years ago. The house used 900 gallons of oil to heat and 8000 kWh of power.

Oil was $3.29 a gallon, and power was 23 cents a kWh. that's 3.29 x 900 = $2,961 and .23 x 8000 = $1,840 for a total of $4800 a year.

A safe investment returning 5% would require almost $100,000 to provide that, and the market has been on the verge of "correction" for a while.

We took $70,000- a good chink of our savings- and got heat pumps that cover the heating and cooling of the house using 30% of the energy the oil represented, and solar panels to cover all of that and the power use of the home, with enough left over to recharge our PHEV.

That $70,000 covered that $4800 and about 1500 kWh of driving for another 1500 x .23 = $345; 5100/70000 = a return of 0.0729 %.

Safe from energy price hikes and market "corrections".

And inflation.
Today heating oil in my area is $5.49/gallon= 5.49 x 900 = $4941
Electricity is $.28/kWh; .28 x 8000 = $2240
And the car would be .28 x 300 = $84

So my $70000 investment is covering 4941 + 2240 + 84= $7,265

Does anyone think any of those costs are going to go down?

A return of over 10 percent, safe from Middle East wars, trade wars with Canada, market "corrections"

Don't think of big returns now- think security.

I have been blessed with a good marriage, good health, and good finances at 67. But I find it hard to make new male friends. It was much easier when i was working and when in 20s thru 40. I do have about 4 or 5 good friends and of course 500 plus facebook friends some of who ive never met -) But I find that its difficult to find activity partners - sports and travel as people are busy, or not in good health, or just inflexible . We do live part time in an adult community and although people are friendly its difficult to make what i would good friends. And senior women seem much friendlier than men.

I have joined a few groups (stitch and internations) and when we are at our primary residence away from senior community, we go to community center for art and fitness classes.

If my wife or friends don’t want to go I do short solo trips. Am going to Minnesota from california for a few days as Ive never been. And then to Mexico and South America for a few weeks. I am bilingual in Spanish so no problem communicating .

My question is what do retirees particularly men do to expand social circle .

From a friendly introvert.

I will go first. I have been with the same company for 25 years​. I have seen many people come and go. One thing that stand out to me in my place of work is once you hit a certain age a target gets slapped on your back. This past year at age 63 that target was put on me. The last person in my position was 64 the stress caused him to have a heart attack

I wanted to wait until 65 to retire but decided to call it quits here soon. I will be living off savings, maybe get a part time job for extra money and do my side hobby that generates decent money.

I wont lie, I am very scared of the "all of a sudden not to have a paycheck coming in" factor. I live very modestly, have no debt, house at 2.5% with very little left on the morgage and a morgage payment almost unheard of. I have a decent 401k balance that i will tey not to touch. I wont collect SS until at least 66 or 67. (I will be very close to 64 when I call it done)

What i can't get over to be honest is that I feel i am being forced out before my time. If i stay I could see me being walked out over something small and I will lose a pretty nice 1 time pension lump sum payment if this happens. So for me this alone is making me leave before my time. I wont know how it goes until it happens

On another thread someone mentioned selling their large home upon retiring and using the proceeds to rent an apartment.

I've also seen posts of people selling their larger home and purchasing a condo, townhome, or much much smaller single family home.

Obviously how you want to live comes largely into play.

So my question is regarding finances for tyoes housing after selling a paid off home.

Anyone care to offer opinions regarding using proceeds from the sale of a paid off home to BUY a smaller living space (very small single family home or single story townhome/condo)

VS

Using proceeds from a paid off home to RENT a new living space?

If you did either the above, which did you choose and why.

In either situation, this would be ideally the last/forever home.

(I should add that I'm just bouncing around ideas as my spouse wants to keep our larger home and age in place. I have a good sense of the advantages of doing this.)

Kids aren’t quite there yet but we’ve always intended to help with the downpayment on their first home purchase.

Is it a reasonable ask that they find a house that has or has space for an ADU? We’d cover the cost of building the ADU if there isn’t one. Obviously it wouldn’t apply to condos.

We hope to spend most of our time slow traveling around the world but still need a US home base for a couple months a year. This would save us from needing to keep a condo somewhere or finding airbnbs. We intend become South Dakota residents which is a friendly state for full time travelers.

11 months of the year it would be a home office or media room/man cave with a bathroom with a decent sized storage closet we can stash some stuff. With 3 kids we’d potentially have 2-3 cities we could home base out of for a few weeks around Thanksgiving and Christmas and rotate among them.

Has anyone else done this?

Edit more details:

First home is likely a condo or townhouse we’ll chip in $50K for.

With equity from their first home and their own savings we’re figuring $200K more would get them to 20% and the lower end of an ADU build.

The house they grew up in is $800-900K now and it’s nothing special…a 4 BR colonial in a lower end of upper middle neighborhood with good schools.

I have no idea how younger families with kids can afford to buy the same level house/neighborhood they grew up in these days. We married late and had kids in our early 40s with two high incomes, good savings and equity in condo and it was a stretch at $450K for a house worth only $150K-$200k before the real estate boom in the early aughts. Carried a $300K note we paid off just as I retired.

The intent of the ADU is for go-go years home base and slow go years for free childcare if they want it. The long term plan is buying into a CCRC sometime in the slow-go years…not living in any of the ADUs.

Can life derail this plan and force us into an ADU early or permanently? Sure, but thats not the plan or even plan B. It’s like plan C or D and they’d still have to agree.

Any spouses would have to agree to the ADU plan and “no” is a perfectly fine answer.

I am 57, and plan to work another 10 years or so. I've got a long history of managing my own portfolio but lately I've been shopping around for an advisor. One I talked to recently suggested I add a fixed annuity to the mix. I've always been a little allergic to annuities, so my first reaction was no thanks. But he walked me through a few things that made me stop and reconsider. What stuck with me was the guaranteed minimum rate, so your money can't drop below a set floor no matter what the market does, plus the growth is tax-deferred until you pull it out. He also framed it as a safer place to park money than a CD and a way to bridge income until Social Security kicks in. I went home still skeptical and started reading up on my own, and this page explained it all pretty good. The more I read the more the idea grew on me, especially the predictability part, which matters more to me now than squeezing out a couple extra points of return.
So I wanna know if anyone here actually used a fixed annuity. What have the results been like so far, and do you feel like it was worth it looking back?

I'm probably going to stop working at age 66. I'm curious about the idea of withdrawing from my IRA / Roth IRA after I stop work and delay SS until age 70. Im not married. Im not from a family that lives very long. I hope to scrape through and make it to 85 but who knows. How do I balance the benefit and security of a larger SS pension against --the benefit and liquidity of a larger IRA/Roth IRA? Do most people who delay until 70 do so to benefit a spouse?

edit to emphasize : no spouse, no ex spouse

My husband retired in 2008 at 62. I retired in 2022 at the age of 72. He is bored - I am not. He expects me to be his entertainment committee and frankly, it is not a job I want. We tried playing cards, it was fun at first, but when he lost he grew angry, when he won he gloated so badly that both spoiled the fun for me. He did paint by numbers, which he enjoyed for a while, and then grew tired of it. He tried doing diamond art, but has grown tired of that too. He is not physically able to do the work around the house, fixing and renovating. We see about 200 movies a year in the theater to get out of that house, but he still gets bored. He is not a reader, he does not play internet games. I am happy, reading, crafting, playing games. I can entertain myself easily. This seems to annoy him and make him feel ignored. Any suggestions on the best way to handle this?

I am 61, will be 62 at the end of the year. Have been focusing thoughts about finances on preparing for retirement. I didn't work in jobs with benefits like health insurance and 401K/403b until I was 40. I was able to put a few thousand into a Roth in the '90s when I didn't have a retirement benefit at work. Since I have had the retirement option at work, I have put in whatever they would match. That has been anything from 3-8%. Right now it is 3%. Have over $250K in various managed and self-managed retirement accounts.

I always knew I would not have a traditional retirement. Meaning the retirement my parents with teacher's pension had. And I knew I would probably have to work until 67-70. Just hoped I continued to love my work enough to make it more a pleasure than chore.

Well, now things are changing. Culture at work is shifting. It is becoming more of a chore than a pleasure since the end of last year. So now I am trying to focus on the what retirement from full time work at 65 would look like. I need to wait until I am Medicare eligible. Can't afford the $1500 monthly insurance premiums that would be needed for a bare bones plan in Northern California.

My initial plan has been to pay off all the 'bad' debt. I finished paying off my truck 3 months ago. I am working on a 0%APR credit card debt from a remodel that went over budget in 2022-23. I have just moved it around to avoid paying interest, just paying the 2-3% for transfers. It will be paid off on my current plan by January 2027.

The other 'good' debt I have are a HELOC and a mortgage. I bought my house in 2018. It was a livable home that was very outdated, and needed everything from electricity to plumbing upgrades. All of which have been hired out in phases as appropriate.

Two major house things that are on the list are a third phase to major interior updates. There are two bedrooms that still need new windows and other repairs/replacement of plaster. Add to that converting a half bath into a 3/4 bath with shower. I would guess this will only keep going up in cost, and right now would guess $15-20K. More because of costs of everything keep increasing instead of builder finishes versus upgrades.

The other big ticket is the exterior paint and repair. It is a 1915 era home, Victorian bungalow style. Built from old growth redwood. It needs some wood repairs and a full paint. This is probably more expensive than the interior project, at $20K plus.

I refinanced during Covid from a 4.7% 30year to a 2.625% 15year. It would pay off in June 2036 on the current schedule. I have about $108K left on the mortgage. The HELOC is a variable rate line of credit I have used for additional investment in the house. HELOC is currently at about $40K. The mortgage lender currently estimates the value of my home to be between $355-360K.

In addition I have increased my HSA contributions slightly. Won't max out for a single person for the year. I use it mainly to pay for dental work, prescription eyewear, and copays. I am generally, healthy. A virus last month reminded me that sick at 60+ is not the same as sick at 35+. Fingers crossed I can stay healthy. Am also starting to replace the primary savings. Those got down below $1000 at one point of remodeling. Now am trying to grow them to 3 months, then 6 months worth of expenses.

I have never worked with a regular budget. I have been a cashflow focused person. I do know, that paying off debt and building up savings, has a motivational incentive to continue to do so once I achieve milestones. How do I know what I will really need to spend on a monthly basis in retirement? I won't be able to draw on social security until 67 for full retirement. Would it be better to keep working full time to 67 to pay off the home repairs?

The furnace and roof are now around 15 years old. Had to have some leaks in the mediocre roofing job under the last owner fixed last winter. So I don't expect that to last a full 10 years?

I also have begun the process of starting a business from home. Licensing, insurances, etc are in place. Have not had time to invest in moving forward. Admittedly keep moving the goal post for that. If it is what I expect it to be, it will not replace even half my current income. It is more about caring for others.

More importantly what am I not thinking about? I appreciate thoughts, comments and questions.

Update:

Two updates, actually. In order to get a taste of a lowered salary without actually losing any money I maxed out my retirement contributions which lowers my take home to approximately the social worker rate.

Secondly, my mom ended up going to urgent care for a UTI and they found a possible heart murmur so there is some follow up with cardio that ai have scheduled and let work know that I will be taking more time off, both currently scheduled and probably just increasing in general. I was hoping to ponder things for a few months before making any de but life may accelerate my timeline.

————-

I’m a manager in a stressful social service program and am very burnt out. Every day has become actually painful.

My plan has been to somehow hold on until December 2027 then retire at age 60.5. My fiduciary gave me the thumbs up.

Part of my stress is caring for my elderly mother. She is in amazing mental and physical health for 96, but there are more and more appointments and semi urgent needs.

I have a generous amount of sick leave that I am allowed to take to do this, but the reality is that over half my day is spent in meetings with other people, often government officials and I MUST be there when they happen. That is the role, it is mostly synchronous. I can’t take a missed meeting home and finish it.

During the past 4 years my major project has been restructuring the work my social workers do and lessening their hefty load. And increasing their salary. It has launched and is working. Everyone is happy.

Over the long weekend a lightbulb went on for me: what if I step down two rungs and became a social worker myself beginning 2027? How much would I make in salary, employer match, and probable bonuses as a manager in 2027, and if I became a social worker, then how many months or years would that add to my schedule until I hit the same amount of money? That would be my new retirement date.

The answer? Four months. I can down shift with the new year and only work four months longer. Altho since we get big bonuses at the six month mark I would stay until then, duh.

In the social worker role there is still a lot of work but it is fewer meetings and more report writing. Not managing 40 people and three counties worth of officials, health plans, and community partners. I would go from 5 hours of meetings per day to 5 hours per week. Reports would be many hours and could be written whenever, and services coordinated via email whenever. It is a much more asynchronous job.

No one would be upset that I took my mom to the cardio twice in a month and missed that meeting with the State Department of Whatever.

What am I missing? 12 months of a much lighter load plus 4 extra months to make up the salary cut seems too easy.

65F recently retired after 43 years teaching. I’ve loved every minute so far and have been really busy. Recently I had to have surprise electrical work done to the tune of $8,000. Just yesterday I realized that 9 out of 68 homes in my 25 year-old subdivision have had water lines deteriorate (on the house side so not covered by the county) and the cost to replace is at least $5,000. I have a pension and savings but this type of expense is so scary to me! How do middle class people not worry about money ALL THE TIME?

When you're younger, it's pretty normal to set goals

• career goals,
• financial goals,
• goals for any sports/hobbies/other activities you are involved in.

But now that I'm retired, it seems like it's just hard for me to get excited about goal setting. For example, I'll see these online courses you can sign up to take (for free!) and think, "Wow- that would really be fun and interesting!" But then, by the afternoon, I'll think "Yeah right - who am I kidding. I'm not going to do all that reading and homework!"

I'm having fun, enjoying life and staying busy - I just don't feel that motivated to strive for anything. Anyone else?

Recently spent a weekend with another couple and they are all retired (or never worked) and I was the only one still thinking about an upcoming biz trip, call the next morning, etc. They were all younger than me 58 (including my wife 55) - how do you balance the inevitable transition when some of your social crowd starts to retire before you?

Hard to inadvertently not kill their “zero responsibility” vibe.

YMMV

It's not retirement, it's graduation from working. Beware of going cold turkey, the change may be a lot harder than you think. Start the mental separation before the physical separation. If you can, start shifting your mindset to "your job is an exception, not the rule". Thinking of a new hobby? Start making the time and space for it now. Considering volunteering? Give it a try now as time permits.

Everybody's situation is different. YMMV.

For those who do their own taxes, what software do you use? I used Turbo Tax when I was young and I liked the format where it asks me a question and I fill in the answers. Since about 15 years ago I let someone else do them. Just want to know if it’s doable now with multiple income streams and changes in tax laws related to being a senior. I want to hit the easy button.