Hi I'm 54. Wife is 2 years older. Both of us are employed. We have one son who is a senior in high school and we plan to pay for his college expenses.
I'm a public employee and work for city government. Ordinarily I would not be eligible to retire for another 2 years with about 65% of my pay, but because the city wants to reduce the number of employees they are most likely going to offer an "early out" proposal that would allow me to take the 65% retirement this year.
I am pretty much on the fence about this. My original intention before this "early out" thing came up was to keep on working until at least my mid sixties when I could get closer to 80% of my pre retirement income.
The reason I am posting is that I thought I might get interesting feedback on the issue. I lean towards keeping on working. I think I would have enough money to get by on if I retired early so this is not primarily a money question. I just feel this is an opportunity I need to consider.
If anyone has been in a similar situation of considering an early retirement offer and cares to weigh in in would be glad to hear from you.
Some more info about my attitudes: My job satisfaction level is about a 5 on a ten scale. Some days are stressful and I hate my job. Some days I'm glad for the structure of having a place to go everyday.
I do have hobbies, etc. but another consideration is how I would make use of all the free time.