Congrats! Now don't die within a year! I know lots of folks who died within a year of retiring.

I don't work a real job now, and if I can keep it up, I'll never have to retire

I'd been semi-retired for a few years and then totally retired since 2014.  Its been scary at times because I found that even with the best of planning you're not totally sure how you'll do in retirement.  It truly is a lot like prepping for survival as you try to cover all possible scenarios but you know you'll always be lacking somewhere.

The biggest problem I found is that everything has been more costly then what you think it will be.  This seems to be from every expense from health care costs on down.  I had to do the dreaded Obongo care for a few years until I was eligible for medicare and that likely the worst shock.  Even downsizing to a cheaper/smaller home was more costly than I had anticipated.

Bottom line--just be sure everything is paid for as making payments on a fixed income would make it difficult to keep up financially.  We retired without a pension and just a modest 401 and SS. So living within our means is absolutely mandatory as we also have very modest investments as well.  Still its been well worth the effort to get out of the rat race.  The only true regret was not getting out of it sooner.

Were you in the subsidy range or over the cliff for the full cost?  That cliff is ridiculous, you either need to make sure you are below, or way over to be able to afford the full rate.  That's a big planning requirement for early retirement.

Unfortunately well over.  We'd been on my wife's health insurance plan but she's a few years older.  So she went to medicare first and I went to Obongo care.  I have to admit the first year wasn't too bad. However, by my last last year using it it I was paying a bit over $1,300 a month with high deducts after all the insurance carriers except for one dropped out here in Arizona.

We had started our retirement before Obongo care was in but realized it might be coming.  So we had planned for the some high premiums for a period of time.  However, we were shocked when the premiums become so astronomical.  Our county in Arizona had 9 insurance carriers in Obongo care when it started but a couple of years later it was down to only one.  Not much competition when that occurs.

Thanks.  We are looking at 10-15 years before medicare so managing it is a big part of planning, and a big source of uncertainty.  But all you can do it go with the current rules, and save up some extra to be flexible if needed.  State-level differences are a factor in choosing a future home base too, all things considered.  We have a few years to go until pulling the ripcord, but not that long, so I need to do more homework.

GoCurryCracker has a bunch of good posts on working through the numbers.  His record on minimizing taxes has been impressive.
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/obamacare-optimization-vs-tax-minimization/

Yeah, I think the big thing I was trying to impart was, that despite doing diligent planning, there always seemed to be surprises along the way in retirement cost wise. That's why its seems to me that retirement planning is kind of like prepping because despite your best efforts you can never really cover all possible contingencies.

I never would have thought we'd be paying far more for a monthly health insurance premium than we had ever paid out for a monthly mortgage payment.  Then on top of that the coverage had extremely high deductibles with no co-pays.  Most everything else the last several years has been higher than we had planned for as well although nothing has been as bad as health care costs.  About the only thing that has gone down has been consumer electronic goods of which we use very little.

Many good points in here...

The thought/rule to plan on only 2 of 3 possible income streams during retirement is huge. I'm one of the lucky few working a job that has a defined benefit plan, plus I'll have my 401k/IRA accounts, and what is left of SS. I'm hoping to get a 4th income stream squared away as a fall-back plan. I hope/wish to retire as early as possible because my job is higher stress but it has great pay and remarkable health benefits (that I can elect to continue into retirement, I just have to pick up the full premium). I'm still early in my career but as of now I may be forced to continue the rat-race just to ensure the continuance of the health benefits. My wife's job offers no realistic retirement. There's a deferred compensation plan but so far, over 10 years into her career, and she's built up enough balance that she will see about $50/mo benefit. I anticipate she will bring in $500/mo at best.

One wise thing point out in the thread earlier was to watch the tax-deferred vs tax-paid retirements (Traditional vs Roth). You will likely be in a lower tax bracket during retirement so for many cases it will be beneficial to have tax-deferred (traditional) 401k/IRA balances to draw from, but at the same time, the versatility of some Roth will also be good. There are no RMDs for Roth so if you find you don't need the income and/or you need to keep your income levels lower you can stop withdrawing from the Roth. Or, if you want to maximize withdrawals while minimizing taxes you can draw on your tax-deferred accounts right up until you would push into a higher tax bracket then take the rest as tax-paid (Roth).

Last point I would like to make. Don't completely rule out SS. SS is still very alive and well, and while the boomers will definitely draw it down, it's doubtful it will completely go away, the benefits will just steadily be reduced over time to keep it solvent. IIRC, the mass publicizied insolvency of SS isn't because it's out of money, or because the government stole from it, it's simply because the payouts have begun exceeding the payments in. That means from here on out the balance in the pot will be dropping from it's peak, it isn't going negative. That being said, I want to point you to the first part of this response. Only count on 2 of 3 income streams. I have a pension, 401k, and SS. If SS isn't paying out much I still have the other 2.

And oh yeah, the government won't nationalize 401Ks. Won't happen. The would much rather nationalize your bank account because there is realistic value in that. Your 401K owns a piece of paper that entitles you to the earnings a company or a debt. It does no good for the government to nationalize it; they wouldn't be able to sell the holdings and make money from them because the act of nationalizing them would immediately cause the real value of those holdings to plummet.

Retired at 58 1/2 after +32 years at Boeing in late 2012.  Wouldn't have it any other way.

Can't believe it's been almost 7 years!!!!

Congratulations buddy, I'll do exactly what you want to do everyday the rest of your life!

Not a bad read.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/dont-believe-these-social-security-myths

surely, you forget the brilliant financial minds in Congress like AOC

I retired January 1998, age 54.  A large part of our time has been raising our grandson.  We don't live high on the hog but we travel a month out of the year, Vermont, Maine and Europe.  Just back from a month in France.  I go to the gym each weekday morning and try to stay healthy.

The message is, as soon as possible start saving money, get a little emergency fund and invest the rest.  Manage your own money.  Like my CPA said "you are smart, no one will take better care of your money than you".   I inherited nothing.  I wasn't able to start saving until I was almost 40.  Up until then it was all I could do to keep my nose about the water level.

Figure out how much you need to retire and work toward that, diversify, take some risk but don't bet the farm.

Every weekday morning for 32.5 years the alarm went off at 6:20 am but I would almost every day wake up a few minutes before.  I figured I'd continue to wake up at 6:20 but no I never woke up at 6:20 again.  As a friend said the only thing I miss about work is lunch with the guys.

Plan ahead and enjoy life!

Thankfully all just empty campaign blabbering bc you and I both know she would never be able to actually do it...