Speaking of retirement…

I’m amazed how many people on Ido that were young, hard core, energetic fisherman one day and today are in their 50, 60 and 70’s planning on retirement. It really is like a switch was flipped (for me) that I’m actually thinking about moving into that chapter.

But anyway…

Our plan/dream when we retired was to buy a motorcycle and tour the country. Something like a Goldwing with the nice comfy ladies back seat and helmet with intercom and music.

Sometime back we rented a mustang convertible and drove from Denver to Pike’s Peak. We realized the convertible was much more comfortable than an open air scooter (more so in the rain). So our dream changed.

Now, after my FW’s idea to get a floating camper, it’s changed again. Fishing while moving to a warmer climate and coming back to good ol’ Pool 4 (and Favorite Granddaughter) in the summer months is what’s on the radar now.

Disclaimer: We reserve the right to change our mind again with or without notification.

What’s your retirement going to look like?

Have you left yet?

Lots of experimenting.

Summers in Minnesota – fishing, golf, Town Ball games, gardening, traveling the U.S. to see friends/family/amazing things in North America.

Fall – mostly in Minnesota hunting, preserving food from the garden, being outdoors. Nothing more glorious than October in Minnesota.

Winter – Start in Minnesota, spend the holidays with family and friends. Head south mid-January for 4-6 weeks, a different location each year. We don’t want to own, would rather rent.

Spring – back to Minnesota. Turkey hunting, getting the yard and garden prepped, fishing and traveling the upper Midwest. The second best time of year after Fall.

Whenever we are in Minnesota I will teach,learn and do. Teach Firearms Safety, take classes from community ed and local colleges that are interesting to me, make furniture, work with disabled veteran outdoors experience groups.

I don’t anticipate being idle.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

What’s your retirement going to look like?

29 years old… so lots of changes to come but fun to dream.
April – October: Home in Minnesota living a normal retired life, garden, fishing, family.
November: Camper/Cheap Motel/Cheap House Rental in South Dakota to chase pheasants every day, or whenever I want.
December: Early ice in the Upper Midwest
January-February: Short term rental down south, maybe chase some desert quail.
March: Return for late ice.

i’m 2 years away………..and i dont plan on leaving minnesota…i like my ice time!!!!!

munchy wrote:

Have you left yet?

You are on a roll Munch!

munchy wrote:

Have you left yet?

apparently he changed his mind already!!!!!!

I’m a couple years away also and haven’t a clue.

I truly never really thought I’d be in this position.

Plan is to cut back to 30 hours a week operating the equipment then spend the rest of the time in the camper on Pool 4 or in the man cave building my man toys.

I pretty much have my plans made. I purchased 113 acres of land a couple years ago. Leased logging rights to 50 acres to offset the cost. I’m 41 now and about 9-12 years away, but I don’t see anything changing. We are beginning to build our retirement home there this spring. We have pretty much stuck to the plan we laid out almost 20 years ago. The only real difference was back in the day we wanted waterfront then. Once we actually started looking we quickly realized that waterfront wasn’t realistic for the amount of land we wanted and our budget. My wife and I both enjoy doing things year round here so we never saw a need to look anywhere else.

We bought our retirement home in Utah about 5 years before we both retired because the housing market had hit rock bottom and interest rates were low. When I retired, 3 1/2 years ago, we sold our house in Sacramento, CA and moved full time to Ogden, Utah. As I mentioned in the other thread, we drag the 5th wheel and the boat to the lake for the summer and have our cabin of sorts June through August. Spring and Fall is when we book our destination/bucket list trips. Last year was Tarpon in Florida in the Spring and Dorado & Tuna in Mexico in the Fall.

As for day to day, my wife loves to volunteer at the animal shelter walking dogs every day while I’m more of a piddler in the yard and garage.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
Have you left yet?

You are on a roll Munch!

Just lookin out for you. Sitting around all day isn’t healthy.

Retirement is a long ways off still but one thing is for sure, when I retire I will be DONE, not a chance in heck you see me doing this part time stuff, I see so many people I know older than me that have done that and end up working just about full time again.

Really the biggest thing I look forward to is getting to fish whenever I want and hunt whenever I want instead of only when I am able to.

I’ve been retired for 3 years now it’s the best and I highly recommend it. There hasn’t been one day that I woke up and thought gee I miss working. Although I do miss the people I worked with. Golf, fish,nap along with a few chores around the house pretty much sums up my days. I’ve been battling pancreatic cancer for last 10 months which has thrown a wrench in to some of my plans but do intend to beat it. So my advice is to retire as soon as you can because tomorrow isn’t a given.

Funny, but mine and my FW’s idea of retirement are still pretty different. Since grandchildren started to appear 4 years ago and my son moved back from Montana with 3 of them, Momma no longer wants to move up the the farm near Fergus. I am hoping to pull the pin in 7 years and hope we can agree on something by then. Maybe a lake home between Fergus and Mille aces.

I’m 37 years old and doubt my plans now will match what they will be in 20-30 years. Hopefully summer near Nevis, MN and winter near Nevis in the Caribbean.

I went from full time driving to part time driving April 2019, after 39 years and 4.6 million miles in a tractor trailer. Thought it would work out much better with my guide business. Working less and fishing more has been great. 3 more years and I’m going to be done trucking for good and fishing whenever I can. The river has been a challenge the last few years with the pool levels and flow but it just put fish in new spots…anyway, 3 years or 5 million whichever comes first will be my goal. Eben though I hate the winters here, especially driving in them, I’m not going anywhere. We love the Mississippi River and can’t wait to see what it throws us next!!

BigWerm wrote:

I’m 37 years old and doubt my plans now will match what they will be in 20-30 years. quote]

Same. Mrs. Crappie wants to be a snowbird…IDK. at times it sound appealing but most of the time not so much. Im sure when my bones are old I will like the idea more. Wouldn’t mind having some money put aside to do a fair amount of traveling. Used to travel a lot as a young man but 3 kids and a mortgage will put the kybosh on that pretty quick.

crappie55369 wrote:

Same. Mrs. Crappie wants to be a snowbird…IDK. at times it sound appealing but most of the time not so much.

Yeah I did a 180 on this topic, when I was young(er) and single I spent all my vacation time going to LOW/RED/Leech etc., after getting married and spending my PTO travelling to warmer climates it sho is nice! We’ve done all inclusive’s, AirBnB’s, and staying with family/friends and they are all great. I’m sure I’ll eventually grow more of a preference for one route or place. But seeing the $hit eating grins of a plane full of Minnesotans/Sconnies as they step off a plane into 80-90 degree weather in Jan/Feb really opens your eyes!

I want to spend a late summer into fall and travel around visiting college football and NFL stadiums. Show up in a motor home on Wednesday, tailgate for two days, watch NCAA, NFL, pack up Monday and off to the next stop.

Thinking Michigan/Detroit, OSU/Cleveland, Army-Navy Game/Philly, Clemson/Carolina, FLA-Georgia/Jacksonville, LSA/Nawlins, Texas-Oklahoma/Dallas, ASU/Arizona, USC and whatever team is left there in 2030.

poomunk wrote:

Retirement is a long ways off still but one thing is for sure, when I retire I will be DONE, not a chance in heck you see me doing this part time stuff, I see so many people I know older than me that have done that and end up working just about full time again.

Really the biggest thing I look forward to is getting to fish whenever I want and hunt whenever I want instead of only when I am able to.

I am old enough and think about it, my wife just retired and is enjoying it. I think maybe for me the answer to this is two fold. ONE is the high cost of getting insurance. I can safely say if it wasn’t for that cost right now, I MIGHT not still be working. TWO is maybe they just want something to do. I still enjoy my job and think even when I retire I might want a part time job just to have something to do on my NON fishing hunting days. Of course once it happens I might just say – NOPE done working. Ask me next year

Dave –
I’ve done a couple of your football games, the Big House in Ann Arbor is fantastic. My nephew played for Michigan, we went and saw them destroy the Gophers his senior year. Columbus is football insane. I was there on business a few years back in the fall, wanted a weather report on Wednesday morning. All I could get for a forecast was the Saturday forecast for the OSU game.

College buddies travel to games each year. Next fall the Army-Navy game is our destination.

I suggest you add Madison to your itinerary. Football Saturday is a gas.

The challenge with fall travels is that it gets in the way of bird and deer hunting.

Brad Dimond wrote:

College buddies travel to games each year. Next fall the Army-Navy game is our destination.

We do the same but for NFL games, it’s a lot of fun. I’d also add Notre Dame/Chicago to your list Dave, Notre Dame is awesome and Soldier Field is pretty fun too.

DaveB wrote:

I want to spend a late summer into fall and travel around visiting college football and NFL stadiums. Show up in a motor home on Wednesday, tailgate for two days, watch NCAA, NFL, pack up Monday and off to the next stop.

Thinking Michigan/Detroit, OSU/Cleveland, Army-Navy Game/Philly, Clemson/Carolina, FLA-Georgia/Jacksonville, LSA/Nawlins, Texas-Oklahoma/Dallas, ASU/Arizona, USC and whatever team is left there in 2030.

I’m a bit surprised. I thought you would be volunteering your time to save Mother Earth from lead?

It’s always an interesting conversation. I turn 58 in a month and have had 8-10 friends/neighbors my exact age retire in the past year alone. However, I also remember a number of people that retired relatively early in 2006/2007 and then the recession hit. Saw a lot of people have to come out of retirement, and a lot of them never really recovered well.

If I could retire soon I would, but I think the next 1-2 years will be very telling..

I have kind of an interesting situation, Mrs. Grouse is the product of a mum from New Zealand and her father, of course, was British and we met in the UK.

I very much enjoy both of these countries so our initial plan is to buy or rent a small place in New Zeland and live there during the NZL summer, which happens to be our MN winter.

It’s a long way down there, but I have to tell you it is the most fantastic place I’ve ever visited in many ways.

Obviously the first is the trout fishing! It’s like Montana except that the fishing is all public and there are NO people. I’m telling you, it’s the strangest thing I’d ever encountered, here I was sight fishing BIG trout on the Matara, which is about as world-famous as a trout river gets.

I walked for miles and miles and fished ideal pool after ideal pool on a perfect late summer day and eventually, it got weird for one reason–nobody else is there!

It’s like being in an angling paradise and being the only one they let in the gate that week! New Zeland’s entire population is roughly 4 million, but less than 1 million of those people live on the entire South Island and over 500k of those people live in 1 city on the south island.

I repeated that experience day after day. I fished the best water on the best rivers and nobody else was there. I met famers checking stock, I met 2 hikers, and I met one other angler. He was from San Francisco and he, too, readily admitted how weird it was to NOT see any other people.

As an added benefit, the New Zealanders are the nicest people on the face of the earth and on the South Island, they seem almost surprised that you’re there. Outside of the major tourist hotspots, 99% of the foreigners never venture more than a mile away from Queenstown or Christchurch’s city center.

So that’s where we’re heading.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I have kind of an interesting situation, Mrs. Grouse is the product of a mum from New Zealand and her father, of course, was British and we met in the UK.

I very much enjoy both of these countries so our initial plan is to buy or rent a small place in New Zeland and live there during the NZL summer, which happens to be our MN winter.

It’s a long way down there, but I have to tell you it is the most fantastic place I’ve ever visited in many ways.

Obviously the first is the trout fishing! It’s like Montana except that the fishing is all public and there are NO people. I’m telling you, it’s the strangest thing I’d ever encountered, here I was sight fishing BIG trout on the Matara, which is about as world-famous as a trout river gets.

I walked for miles and miles and fished ideal pool after ideal pool on a perfect late summer day and eventually, it got weird for one reason–nobody else is there!

It’s like being in an angling paradise and being the only one they let in the gate that week! New Zeland’s entire population is roughly 4 million, but less than 1 million of those people live on the entire South Island and over 500k of those people live in 1 city on the south island.

I repeated that experience day after day. I fished the best water on the best rivers and nobody else was there. I met famers checking stock, I met 2 hikers, and I met one other angler. He was from San Francisco and he, too, readily admitted how weird it was to NOT see any other people.

As an added benefit, the New Zealanders are the nicest people on the face of the earth and on the South Island, they seem almost surprised that you’re there. Outside of the major tourist hotspots, 99% of the foreigners never venture more than a mile away from Queenstown or Christchurch’s city center.

So that’s where we’re heading.

Grouse

will you still be able to enlighten us here with all your infinite words of wisdom.

Grouse –

Does Mrs. Grouse have a sister? Never mind, my wife would object.. Then again, she may not object…

My son works for Delta, has stated that he wants to go to New Zealand next year with his girlfriend and Mom & Dad. Early days in planning but I am very interested.

7 years and 11 months.
We’ve decided that we will for sure be snowbirds, and most likely taking our legal residence to another state due to the MN taxes.
Our plan at the moment is to rent a place in NW WI or Northern MN and stay there from June to Mid-October. Come the end of October we will head down to a southern destination for the other 7.5 months. We’ll probably try AZ, Texas and Florida the first few years and see what area we find the most preferable for our interests. Haven’t decided if we will own/rent/condo down south, but nothing is being ruled out.
I am really interested in being able try my hand at inshore salt water fishing (which would rule out AZ) but we’ll see when the time comes. I just know that the older I’ve gotten, my tolerance for winter has decreased at a similar rate