jimijr
Member
I did weather for nine years in Duluth MN. There's nothing wrong with the North Country if you like cold and snow and darkness.
Veering back on topic here is my retirement story.
* I went on 12/31/10
* My final pay check 1/10/11 was a doozy with two holidays a Sunday a bunch of nights 12 hours OT and a cash award going-away present thank you Fred.
* I turned in 434 hours AL and was paid on the next following pay day 1/24/11.
* I heard from OPM with a pin # etc 1/18/11. I have not yet visited their site, why bother?
* On 1/31/11 I mailed the Thrift Board a completed Form 70 for 100% withdrawl and on 2/15/11 the $$ landed in my IRA with RBC Wealth Management.
* My final FERS-factor was 0.265 including 24 yrs 1 month NOAA, 2 yrs military 71-73 and 5 month credit credit on ~2000 hrs SL.
I will make no withdrawls from the IRA this year as I spend down the severence instead. My pension plus SS plus an annual withdrawl of 4-5% from the IRA will equal 85% or more of my High-3, considering that I will pay no payroll tax and SS is only partially taxable.
The disposition of the IRA is underway. We want to be shareholders of record on April 1st for dividends.
The idea is to hold maybe 10% cash for withdrawls and emergencies, 15-20% long or reinvested for inflation protection, 70-75% income producing via corporate preferred stocks. Therefore 6% production is necessary on that fraction, to yield the 4-5% (overall) anticipated cash withdrawl.
My plan is to withdraw next year what I make this year, on down the line. If there is any left over, let it ride. If I go broke in the 4th quarter, I'll grab a little extra.
My immediate goal is to get caught up on all the things I let slide during the last 6 months of 2010, when I was concetrating purely on getting to the end of the year. I worked every day of my schedule with zero days off for a full year. I filled in for others on their days off and vacations. I worked outreach and overtime for a little comp time once in a while. The final pay period was a sprint which ended my marathon -- all the holidays, nights, Sundays, OT and then I issued a TORNADO warning too!
So I just sat on my assets for a week and got my breath. Then first up, working three days a week, clean the house from top to bottom. I did the top the easy part in Jan now I'm in the middle of the bottom the hard part. Tomorrow I shampoo the carpets. We live in a filthy world my friends.
By March I will take the show outside and commence surface prep for a quick paint job on the siding. Fear not, one gallon covers the whole thing it is not that big a job so long as the surface is okay.
Then April and it will be time to prune and fertilize, got lots of that to do.
By summer this place will in shape to leave for 6-8 weeks while I tool up north in the vintage Benz to visit brothers nephews daughters, perhaps returning via New Orleans.
That is as far as my plans go. Each morning I walk a mile at the ball fields, in the afternoon take a 5-mile bike ride to the sea wall and back or (soon) take a swim at the pier. Once again I sleep at night 8 hours at a stretch and I'm lean tanned and fit.
I spoke to my bud today and he says they're all in a lather about furloughs and even RIFs in the NWS. It is hard to describe my emotions. I feel like the soldier felt who watched his buddy take one -- there is definitely a guilty joy.
Veering back on topic here is my retirement story.
* I went on 12/31/10
* My final pay check 1/10/11 was a doozy with two holidays a Sunday a bunch of nights 12 hours OT and a cash award going-away present thank you Fred.
* I turned in 434 hours AL and was paid on the next following pay day 1/24/11.
* I heard from OPM with a pin # etc 1/18/11. I have not yet visited their site, why bother?
* On 1/31/11 I mailed the Thrift Board a completed Form 70 for 100% withdrawl and on 2/15/11 the $$ landed in my IRA with RBC Wealth Management.
* My final FERS-factor was 0.265 including 24 yrs 1 month NOAA, 2 yrs military 71-73 and 5 month credit credit on ~2000 hrs SL.
I will make no withdrawls from the IRA this year as I spend down the severence instead. My pension plus SS plus an annual withdrawl of 4-5% from the IRA will equal 85% or more of my High-3, considering that I will pay no payroll tax and SS is only partially taxable.
The disposition of the IRA is underway. We want to be shareholders of record on April 1st for dividends.
The idea is to hold maybe 10% cash for withdrawls and emergencies, 15-20% long or reinvested for inflation protection, 70-75% income producing via corporate preferred stocks. Therefore 6% production is necessary on that fraction, to yield the 4-5% (overall) anticipated cash withdrawl. My plan is to withdraw next year what I make this year, on down the line. If there is any left over, let it ride. If I go broke in the 4th quarter, I'll grab a little extra.
My immediate goal is to get caught up on all the things I let slide during the last 6 months of 2010, when I was concetrating purely on getting to the end of the year. I worked every day of my schedule with zero days off for a full year. I filled in for others on their days off and vacations. I worked outreach and overtime for a little comp time once in a while. The final pay period was a sprint which ended my marathon -- all the holidays, nights, Sundays, OT and then I issued a TORNADO warning too!
So I just sat on my assets for a week and got my breath. Then first up, working three days a week, clean the house from top to bottom. I did the top the easy part in Jan now I'm in the middle of the bottom the hard part. Tomorrow I shampoo the carpets. We live in a filthy world my friends.
By March I will take the show outside and commence surface prep for a quick paint job on the siding. Fear not, one gallon covers the whole thing it is not that big a job so long as the surface is okay.
Then April and it will be time to prune and fertilize, got lots of that to do.
By summer this place will in shape to leave for 6-8 weeks while I tool up north in the vintage Benz to visit brothers nephews daughters, perhaps returning via New Orleans.
That is as far as my plans go. Each morning I walk a mile at the ball fields, in the afternoon take a 5-mile bike ride to the sea wall and back or (soon) take a swim at the pier. Once again I sleep at night 8 hours at a stretch and I'm lean tanned and fit.
I spoke to my bud today and he says they're all in a lather about furloughs and even RIFs in the NWS. It is hard to describe my emotions. I feel like the soldier felt who watched his buddy take one -- there is definitely a guilty joy.
I tried for two years to get transferred to Garmische from Rhein Main.
In 22 years of military service, about half was cold weather places and the rest was hot weather.............one year in Germany we never did have a summer which was depressing to say the least. Have you ever been in Kansas in the winter, I was stationed in Witcatha and Topeka........not to include Langley in Virginia which I saw the bay completely iced over! Germany was hell due to the fact we could not even open our TABVEE doors to get out our F15s or the rails of the AIM 9s and AIM 7s were glazed over with ICE> It sucked there and that is being nice.
