Gave notice informally last week, formally in January. Last day is April 30. I'm 64, single, I've been at the county assessor's office for 19 years. 401(k) of about $610,000, a little Roth IRA, no pension except a tiny one from an earlier job that I need to find the paperwork for. House is paid off.
I've read half this board in the last month. I know the big decisions in theory (I'm planning to claim Social Security at 67 and bridge from savings). What I don't have is a list. Everyone here seems to have one thing they wish they'd done before they left, so I'm asking: what's yours? What did you do in the last few months that paid off, and what did you skip that bit you later?
Live on the retirement budget BEFORE you retire. I didn't, and my first two months I spent like I was on vacation because it felt like one. Then November happened and I panicked about the market, as anyone who reads my old thread knows. If I'd spent three months living on the planned number first, I'd have known what normal felt like.
Medicare. You're turning 65 next year, so look up exactly when your enrollment window opens relative to your birthday and your April 30 last day. The window starts three months before the birthday month. I've watched people at work lose a month of coverage because they assumed it was automatic, and it is NOT automatic if you aren't collecting Social Security yet.
Get every account login, plan phone number and account number written down on paper while you've still got an HR person to ask. I'm two years into untangling four old accounts and the one that was hardest was the one where the company had been bought twice.
Beneficiary forms. Check every single one. Mine on the old 401(k) still named my first wife until my planner spotted it this summer. Beneficiary forms beat wills, so that would have been a very unpleasant surprise for the woman I've been married to for 31 years.
#6October 31, 2026, 9:25 am Marcy, the replies above are the list most planners would give you, in better words than mine. Let me add the order and a few things specific to your situation. General information, not a plan for your household.
Health coverage comes first because it has the hardest edges. If your employer coverage ends April 30 and you turn 65 later in 2027, you have a gap to bridge, whether COBRA (generally up to 18 months) or a marketplace plan, and your income from IRA withdrawals will affect marketplace premiums. If you turn 65 around then, Patty's point applies: the Initial Enrollment Period is 7 months, starting 3 months before your birthday month, and missing it can mean a lifelong Part B penalty.
Second, use the last paychecks. In 2026 you can put up to $32,500 into the 401(k) with the 50 plus catch-up, and from January the same applies for 2027 at whatever the new limits are. Make sure front loading won't cost you any employer match.
Third, the tiny pension. Find it now, while you can still ask HR at the earlier employer if needed, and ask whether it offers a lump sum or monthly payments and when the election has to be made. Those elections can have deadlines.
Fourth, taxes. With no pension of note and Social Security at 67, your income for three years will be almost entirely IRA withdrawals that you choose. That is a planning opportunity (low bracket years) and a withholding job (nobody does it for you). Decide both before May.
Linda just published a checklist that follows this order month by month, the year before you retire, and the health coverage options are in health insurance before Medicare. With a paid off house and that balance you're in a strong position. The planning is about not wasting it on avoidable mistakes, and a fee-only advisor can turn the list into numbers in an afternoon.
Printed the checklist, found the pension paperwork (it was in a box labeled "taxes 2009," naturally), and started the trial budget this weekend by moving my paycheck into savings and paying myself a fixed amount from it. First week was fine. Ask me in February.
Richard, I checked beneficiaries yesterday. One of mine named my sister, who died in 2018. So thank you.
