I LOVED my job, home hospice nurse. It fulfilled my need to have a purpose and a life of service (although I was renumerated for the work). Out of all the types of nursing I tried, this was the perfect fit. I didn't make much but saved for retirement young and IMO fairly aggressively. Single mom, 2 kids, lived way below our means. When I had enough in Vanguard Index funds that you get free financial planning help, I told him I wanted to retire at 62 (was worried about cost of healthcare). He said I could easily retire at 55 if I looked into Obamacare. Retiring that young had just never, ever occurred to me because I really thought I needed to wait for Medicare. So that would've meant 10 yrs more of work. That was a lot to think about. I ran every retirement calculator available on the internet, I could see it but could not believe it.
well, that was all shot to shit when I got sick in Sept and just kept getting sicker. I refused to accept that I was not going back to work "in a month", so I did not listen to my doctors telling me to apply for SSDI NOW. I finally "got it" NINE months later, and applied. So I put myself behind the financial 8 ball there. When I did get it and realized the odds of me ever going back are zero, I was panicked and spoke to Vanguard and the 403B guy at work. I forget everything now but I do know that I should be ok and able to draw from investments enough to get by frugally without touching the principle.
But I need to confirm that now that I am not panicked and post here for advice if you guys think I am on track and investing well.
Leaving a job I loved so much was at first extremely hard to deal with and not at all because of money, I could not accept that I would likely never be able to do the one thing I know I am good at (I'm not bragging, I just found my niche and it was a perfect fit). So if I couldn't do that "one thing" ever again, what am I going to do? I have some volunteering ideas, nothing I can remotely do now. As time has passed, I'm accepting it better and trying to see it as I had a good ten yr run with hospice, met amazing people and worked my butt off to help and I learned so much from them in return. I worked with a team of social workers, chaplain, and doctors of a caliber I had never seen in my other 13 yrs working for the parent company. So who am I to complain, how many people get to love their jobs the way I did? I was very fortunate. Time to work on Life Phase II.