Retirees, Those Soon To Be and the Hobby

Very interesting stories everyone! We have people retired a number of years, those like me dreaming of it, those very close to it...

Greg, having a weekly gathering of railroad friends at a coffee shop, or by me maybe a diner, sounds great. I think that is something I would enjoy.

Tom

I'm inside 4000 days; officially 565 weeks from now. It's like being a 1st grader watching High School seniors graduating.

WHEN I retire, I fully expect to continue with all of my hobbies including Boating, Golf, Hunting, Cars, and Model Railroading. I have activities in all areas to occupy my time year-round.

For now, work and do what I can, when I can.

Gilly

All great advice!

As Tom asked in the initial question, I too have 7 1/2 years before I am 66 and can collect full Social Security. That is the plan, however I could find myself retired or semi-retired before that.  If the company I work for gets bought, I would probably be pushed out.  My work is with old technology, so finding another job at similar pay may not happen.  Both my wife and I have had health issues, and could find health pushes us out of work early.

With that in mind, we are consciously buying bigger ticket items now.  For my hobby, that means locomotives, power, and track.  And I don't mean many either.  Just enough to run some trains in a 12 x 12 room.  I am trying to find the right fit for me in O gauge, since I only started in O gauge about 3 years ago after over 40 years in HO.  I sold all that to help pay our daughters' tuition.  So I started in O at the ground floor money wise.  If I have a small budget in retirement, I will have enough that I can still run trains.  I do have other low cost interests that take varying degrees of physical activity, so I think I am doing well.

Watching how my dad has managed retirement has been a good example.  He retired at 22 years ago, and is now 84.  He has good health but part of that has to do with staying active but knowing how to pace himself.  He and my mom who is the same age have paced themselves well financially, considering only he worked, and at skilled labor wages.  Dad was a good example as a young father, and he still is today.  I have been blessed.

I could retire next January, at age 56, but due to the fact that I like to eat three meals a day, will probably keep on working until my 62nd birthday.

When I retire, we will have my social security, my pension, my wife's pension, and my retirement savings.  Two years later, her social security will kick in.

With the house paid for, as well as my daughter's college loans paid off, I figure that we actually will have more disposable income that we have now. 

Hope to move someplace where I no longer have to worry about the cold weather keeping us inside the house. I'm trying to convince my better half that we should consider the Pacific Northwest.  Been driving her nuts the last week, by telling her that while we have had single digit temperatures, it has been around 50 degrees in Seattle!

Jim

 While the Pacific NW is a beautiful area, and the weather can be mild, be aware that you will have to get used to many days of rain. Like the old saying goes "residents don't sunburn...they rust".

Pappy,  you have hit the proverbial nail squarely on its head.   Unfortunately quality of life for any human being can change in a millisecond.  You think everything is hunky dory then blooey everything changes.  I must admit that I have been blessed and thank God every morning and night for my good fortune.  I am 67 years old and have been retired for a little over 17 years.  I was a criminal investigator with the U.S. Treasury Department and was ever so fortunate to be able to retire at age 50 after 28 years service.  I made up my mind when I hung up the holster that I was going to keep the pedal to the medal every hour of every day for as long as I could because I knew things could change quickly.  Consequently,  I have been able to enjoy hunting, fishing, hiking, cycling as well as my beloved Grandchildren and trains since I retired.  Things are  changing now that the ravages of age have begun to rear their ugly head in the form of a rickety spine and advanced arthritis so I am slowing up but I continue to push myself as much as possible.  I am fully aware that the days of being able to do just what I wanted to are closing fast.  Like I said I have been blessed because things didn't change for me in a split second but rather over time so I have had the opportunity to emotionally adjust.   

I believe that a person should take the time to ensure that he or she enjoy every minute of every day and do everything they can to get the most out of life whenever possible.  In essence, take retirement by the scruff of the neck and squeeze every bit of life out of it that you possibly can.  So, as Sean Connery said in the film The Untouchables, "So endeth the lesson."        

I retired at 55 last May after 37 years on the railroad. Started right out of High School. The job was an adventure. Loved it 90% of the times. Dealing with derailment, and injuries and the normal BS that comes with being a supervisor accounted for the other 10%. 

I had a layout for 25 years, and sold majority of it off before we moved back to NC. The wife said "I spent the last 24 years in the cold and snow of NW Ohio, you are going to spend the next 24 years at the beach!" I am now stating a Carpet Central and enjoying that very much. 

I have a good friend who is a banker and has made sure I have enough resources to retire. We use to trade quotes and messages back and forth. A couple I remember:

"No one ever wished they had spent more time at work" 

"Make the most of the day, make it count, cause you will never get it back"

He also had me do the following:

Make a list what you want to accomplish before you retire.

Now make a list of what you want to accomplish when you retire.

Best two lists I ever made. You will be surprised in two ways, how much you get done and how much other stuff comes up.

7.5 years will be here before you know. Enjoy life, enjoy what you do. Make it day count. We are never promised anything.

Gene

Gene

I retired in January 1992 and immediately proceeded to build an "airborne" 5-track, twin shelf, 14x32 operation in the 18' high kitchen/breakfast room of our Mountain retirement cottage and much to the Domestic CEO's delight moved track up off her Den carpet.

I was able to run trains by the end of February 1992 and for 15 years this became my principal O-gauge operation until March 2008 when I dismantled it in contemplation of a health-related move to our Condo in Greensboro.

In 1997 when we were living in the Mountains we had sold our "empty nest" Greensboro home in favor of a nearby Condo as a future "final abode", I had immediately built a 15x23 layout upstairs in it and had it wired for railpower operation by mid-1997,[ but no scenery, structures ,etc]. However until '08 we continued living and railroading in the Mountains. Unfortunately as my wife developed more serious health issues we were forced to relocate to the Greensboro Condo near better medical facilities..

In October 2009 I dismantled the upstairs 15x23 Condo layout in favor of a rehab/exercise/TV space for her, plus installing a stair lift.  I then moved down the hall to a 9x19 attic space where in February 2010 I built and wired for operation of a simplistic 9x16 round-the-wall layout. Unfortunately I only enjoyed running trains for a short time when at age 79 I developed a health problem that soon became disabling.

Since that time I have been up and down healthwise and done very little railroading or layout work[became a Forum "Groupie"]. However today at 83, although I am not exactly frisky and a workaholic, I am enjoying the best health in four years and beginning to visit the layout with a plan and a slow work agenda[very slow].

My message is to take care of yourself and build while you are able even if everything you plan for, your druthers, is not immediately possible. Building and running trains is where the fun is---dismantling layouts ain't.

Dewey,

   Sounds like a very good plan for the rest of us. Glad you feel good enough to get back to thinking about the layout.

Tom

I can tell you it takes a LOT of planning. I've been into a few hobbies over the years and collected trains as a nest egg. I found in recent years I have lost interest in the layout thing. I enjoy buying basket cases and bringing them back to life and making a few bucks selling them.

I am about 3 or 4 years out yet, but I have been working on liquidation slowly. I was going to put this off for a while longer, but changed my mind after a cross country driving trip which was in part a search for someplace to retire. I had been selling one of my collectables for 5 years already and selling the duplicate trains for the past 2 years. I can tell you this, you collected and gathered them over a long period of time, and if you want to do well when selling them, expect to take just as much time to sell them off.

I have set aside a few items that were my favorites with the idea that I'll probably display them for the most part. My "keepers" pile will shrink before the big day arrives. Who knows, maybe everything will go. The time factor is critical as I mentioned above. Do not wait until the last minute, start liquidating early unless you want to just dump them to a dealer or consign them to an auction and take what you get. While on our trip we found a place we liked a lot and some land that was ready to build on. But we were not ready financially. That is when I realized I need to kick this into high gear now and be ready sooner. Its a lot of time and hard work, but it is paying off nicely. My investments have for the most part paid off. Its interesting to see what sells fast for good money and what languishes waiting for a buyer. I was surprised more than once.

I still have a long way to go. My trains and train related stuff are only a few of what I have money tied up into and everything must go. In the end, I want to have paid cash for my retirement home, or at worse case have a very very small mortgage so I can afford to live off my SS and pensions. I plan on escaping the rat race and settling someplace tranquil, maybe do a little farming, take some trips in the car.

I'm 66 [last Dec.] looking to retire in four years so I get the most from SS, Wife is four years younger than I, with some back problems, she teaches preschoolers. We both love our jobs but time is coming to back off, specially the wife having to keep up with the little ones. One of our son's and his wife and two Kids lives with us, He says I will never retire because I work with my hobby. I guess he thinks I don't know how to use a phone or the internet to stay in touch. Time for him to stop free loafing on us [he only has a part time job and the wife just lost her part time job, but was going on an interview today]! Now I am trying to get our finances in line so we can get on a wait list [2-3 yr.] to get into a cottage [with a basement] in a retirement community and down sizing. Even if we don't get on the list for the cottage we will have to move to a cheepper place [less upkeep to the Approx. 100 yr. old Sears prefab house and less taxes]. If we get the cottage I will have time to build a lay-out in the basement and maybe start a community club plus time to do some reading. If we don't get the cottage and we have to buy another house all bets are off time wise! Trying to buy about a dz. peices to fill in missing spots in my collection before the money runs short. 

I retired eight years ago at 62. Luckily I worked for a good company that worried about their employees even after retirement. Once a year for three years before I retired a counselor would come out and we talked about options. One of the most important things she kept saying is don't retire and move all at once. It takes awhile to adjust. I traveled all the time on my job, that alone was a big change. Just sitting down on a nice sunny day and reading a book was a challenge. As for the layout, I worked on it about the same as when I was working. If I feel like working on the layout I do. When we finally did move, we took our time finding the right house and location. I took up other hobbies. Scuba again, kayaking but no golf even though we are surrounded by courses. I thought frankly I would be working on the layout more but I think I do better work when I'm in the mood to create something. Retirement is good. Keeping active is great. Helps keep you young. Don

Nope, I am a carry out. Doomed to work to the day I cannot get out of bed anymore.

Just do the best you can is my motto and have fun on the way.

My advice. Don't wait to build your layout, do it when your young!

Off to pull more wire. 

I didn't know you were an electrician?

George

Lots of good advice to take away from this thread.

I have been very fortunate (and lucky) to be retired for 10 years now.  

Based on my retirement experiences I'd like to offer some interesting things that I have encountered upon retirement.

- It seems like I had a lot more time to do things when I was working. Now that I am retired there are just not enough hours or days in the week to accomplish what I would like to. I still haven't figure that one out

- It seems that the amount of time I think a project would take actually ends up taking

2-3 times longer and costing  2-3 times more than I thought.  Plan for that.

- For some odd reason, working on the layout, or any other project for that matter, gets harder and takes longer with each year. As they say time catches up with every one so don't put off starting the layout. I found that out the hard way.  

- The best thing I learned when I retired and got back to model trains was  to be content with what I had or could afford with the space I had.  Don't get sidetracked from the fun by getting cranked up over the ever present threads about high prices, low quality, accuracy, orange, purple, etc, etc.  That is not to say there isn't some merit to some of these discussions, just don't let it get in the way of enjoying your trains.  

For me, even in spite of all the medical setbacks, retirement and model trains are still the greatest things since sliced bread.  Hopefully it will be the same for you.

Ed 

I actually retired Jan 6 of this year at age 60.  It's a little too early to be settled in. 

I started saving at age 20.  Totally worth it.

I just retired last June at age 60.  I was a late bloomer and returner to model railroading.  I am in the process of building my first layout.  For me, I'm glad I waited to build my layout. It actually gave me time to design it and buy most of the materials, track, power, locomotives and rolling stock ahead of time.  This way I am just taking my time...and enjoying other things like my wine cellar, photography, fly-fishing, working out at the gym on a regular basis, home projects, my grandchildren, my wife...and...being a housewife!   

I also have 6.5 years to retire: Another two-three years of intense work, then 3+ years of less than full-time.   If all goes according to plan, or at least close to plan.

I have two O-gauge layouts that I am (slowly) working on: one is 6.5 X 12 rectangular, the other is 8 X 12 "L" shape, which will carry me to retirement.   Then, I will have an option to build an 11 X 20 layout cannibalizing at least one of the smaller layouts, but we shall see.   But my wife and I plan more travel, and camping so I will have other things to enjoy.

Besides getting our finances in order, I am working on getting myself in shape so that I will last for a while make the most of retirement.   We are also trying to work-in some travel and adventure and fun times now, not knowing what the future may bring. 

Retired 5 years ago, spent a lot on money on a couple of RTR Trains and a Vision line Hudson, plus a ton of track and 8, 036 switches that don't fit my  072 and 084 track plans.

In short plan a little, I did not plan at all, just jumped in but I have had a BLAST building and changing as the layout continues to grow.

Told the wife last year that the VL Big boy would be the last purchase for a couple of years, did not realize that the upper deck to run 084 track would cost 600. O well live and learn

Brent