Retirement $$$

Holy Moli Canoli am I glad my weekend is starting in about a half hour!! This week has felt like a month. Work is crazy busy and I’ve had three night meetings this week. Yep, I’m ready to sleep late and do something I want to do.

I met with my financial advisor today. I always feel totally at sea in these meetings. I make decisions and it appears that my deferred comp accounts are doing OK, at least relatively speaking since no one made any money this last quarter. I did two little changes that I hope will be alright. The good news was that we talked about numbers at retirement, and I got my first look at what it might be like. I felt really good about that. I never really understood how my retirement worked, and at least now I have a very small understanding. The really great news is insurance, I always assumed I’d have to work until I died because I wouldn’t be able to afford the insurance. No so! I’ll get a great deal on that through my plan. Who knew!!

Now the question is do I go out at 60 or 65? I can’t believe I’m even getting to think about this. If the economy picks back up and can stay strong for the next 9 years I can hit the door at 60 and do pretty well. I know, pie-in-the-sky, but to even think it could happen is a comfort. Of course there are several things that have to happen to get me to retirement:
-- I have to restrain myself from going postal
-- Ride out any lay-offs in the future
-- Stay healthy
-- And, put away enough money to get through the time I retire and the money starts coming in.

That was the crazy thing. You can't file your papers until your 90 days out, then it will take 90-110 days to do the paperwork, then once the paperwork is done it will take 45 days till the first check. Social Security will take 6 months. Why can’t it all just start when you retire if you’ve submitted all the papers? Of course with social security we all know not to expect anything reasonable or rational. These are the people that denied an amputee benefits because they said his condition might improve.