Considering retiring in 6 months to a year

Great questions ! I retired last year at 54 and here are some things I did:

  1. Practice living on your retirement income. Since you are 62 then I assume your income will come from Social Security, Pensions, Investment Income, etc. Set your current income aside.

  2. Figure out where you health insurance is coming from and determine what the real cost will be. You have 3 years till Medicare so you will need to factor this into your budget. The ACA has been a total disaster and the cost of healthcare has exploded. If your insurance is currently subsidized by your employer then you are going to experience sticker shock.

  3. If you don’t already have a monthly budget, you need to create one. This will help you see what you have to work with on a monthly basis.

  4. You need to find something to occupy your time. This took me awhile to do because no one in my friend group is retired. My wife and I now travel 4 months out of the year. I picked golf back up again and play tennis multiple times per week when I am home. I also go to the gym now every day that I am in town. In my opinion this is a very important aspect of retirement.

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