Turning 52, and hoping to retire by 60. So 8 years - which, honestly, goes by in a flash.

I find that nowadays I have a strong desire to not have "stuff". I don't mean I live in a bare-bones house, but I would much rather have 2 or 3 things that mean something to me rather than a house full of clutter. I've started recently getting rid of a lot of stuff I've kept from my teen years forward.
One item I treasure more than anything is our "travel books" -- back in 2018 I started just collecting small items in a small notebook of our travels. Stickers, stamps, postcards, ticket stubs, etc. We find this gives us a lot of joy in flipping through it and seeing and remembering the places we have been!
We have saved pretty aggressively for retirement, and are lucky to be able to look at leaving the workforce with about 1.5 million in retirement savings, plus another million or so in assetts. We plan to use that money to continue our adventures. We have made it well known to family and others that if they are expecting an inheritance they going to be in for a sad reality -- we plan to spend it all on ourselves! We both see absolutely no reason to save, save, save to leave it to others to spend.

Curious what others have discovered/are discovering as they enter the final decade of working life. Are you finding more joy in memories and adventures rather than stuff?

On a sidenote, remembering the first WWIV board I logged into around 1989ish (WWIV 3.21d), it's crazy here I am in 2025 talking about retirement on the same type of BBS system!

-dmxrob

   
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

Hi, Rob.

First of all, congratulations on the fat wad :)

I've never been much of a "stuff" guy and, to be honest, most of the stuff I do go after now is either practical (tools and the like) or I'm a sucker for saving old tech when I see it about to be thrown out. I think both of these can be traced back to me not liking waste.

The wife spends more than me but she's not some flashy bragger, if anything I could probably do with spending more on myself but, as I say, very little interest. We have always been happy to spend on trips and experiences, though, and I guess that will happen more often when my son moves out later this year.

BobW


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--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Friday,August 08, 2025 at 10:07 PM, Bob Worm wrote:

RE: Re: Looking down the road at retirement
BY: Dmxrob #1 @130

First of all, congratulations on the fat wad :)

Thanks. It' been a slow build, for sure, but I'm happy I set aside as much as practical during my working years. I could kick myself for taking out a loan against my 401k when I was younger to splurge a bit -- but then again, you only live once!

very little interest. We have always been happy to spend on trips and experiences, though, and I guess that will happen more often when my son moves out later this year.

Same here -- we don't have kids, but we do enjoy our trips. Every weekend we try to find some adventure -- whether down the road from us, or sometimes a road trip! It's fun seeing new places, and meeting new people -- I love the diversity of folks we meet. Just one of the joys of traveling!

-dmxrob

--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)