I love this thread. It gives me so much hope!
Mrs APK and I have been working through retirement planning for awhile now. The situation is pretty simple — we are 49 years old, with twin kids who will be juniors in high school this fall. All the math would say that we can simply be done somewhere around age 51-53, if not today.
I’m highly risk averse financially, and have strong incentives to stay in my current job another 2 years (April 2026), which lines up well with kids going to college. So nothing will happen before then.
But…..I can’t figure out what is giving me pause about calling it quits in 22 months. Loss of perceived status (wait — I’m a FBG. Isn’t that status enough?), fear of being stuck in the house with my wife 24/7, lack of clear vision for what retirement “looks like”, worries about running out of money due to a shock loss in the markets, etc etc etc.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at. This thread is amazing and really is helping me process all this stuff. Thanks to everyone in here.