A guy I worked with used to talk about how long it was before he would retire. “326 days and a wake-up!” “275 days left!” and on and on.
When he retired, he took his retirement buy-out, and invested it in a sandwich and coffee shop. And he put that sandwich and coffee shop next to the biggest Starbucks in the city.
3 months later, he had lost his entire retirement. He is now back to work for my company, as a contractor.
My sister’s father-in-law was well off when he retired from dry-walling. He took his IRA money, and opened a small tile shop in Redding. It took two years for that tile shop to bleed him dry, but it did. He ended up living with my sister.
Quoting the film “Lost in America”, I will say “Protect the Nestegg!” I may go back to work after retiring, but I will not open my own business if it means jeopardizing the nestegg.