Date based retiring instead of money based?

[2177V]

I worked 34 years as a federal government engineer and retired at 55 with a 63% of salary pension. I decided to continue to work as a county engineer for 10 more years and retired at 65 with a 27% of salary pension.

I also qualified for social security and I have a large IRA because I was frugal. I could have retired at 55 but I realized my standard of living at 55 would be average...while retirement at 65 would be first class. I decided on a first class retirement and I am now looking to buy a vacation condo in Waikiki.

I am super healthy and I did the math and I recognize the benefits of retiring at 65. When and how you retire is one of the most important decision in your life.

 

[RobbieB]

I went for the dough and I'm glad I did. I'm spending way more dough now compared to when I was working.

Still I retired 1 year earlier than my plan of 60. No biggie that.

 

[MarieIG]

With increased frequency I've read posts in regards to people wanting to retire and be healthy enough and active enough to enjoy it.
Has anyone set a date for retirement that wasn't strictly money based? Like, I'm going to retire at 60 regardless of not having $2m? I'll adjust my lifestyle to the money I have and enjoy life while I'm young and can?
I've been thinking about this lately. There is an interesting paradox on where that breaking point is for each individual. I've been thinking of setting a date and jumping off. With less funds I could golf, fish, garden, where with more money you could travel internationally, etc.
What are your thoughts/experiences with this or did you do this?

I did put an end date, i.e. not working past the month of my 60th birthday because DH has been hounding me to retire; as it stands, I may not even make it due to health issues and DH hounding me to move my date forward even more. DH wanted to hold out till the end of the year, but his job just took a turn for the worse.

(It isn't that we hadn't been saving; but it looks as if we won't be dotting the i's and crossing the Ts that I had wanted.)

 

[Splash]

In our early 20s, DH and I agreed we would retire when we were both 55. Through the years, we helped each other stay on track when we felt tempted to get that bigger house, nicer boat, etc. We retired when DH was 55 1/2 and I was 55 and 2 days.

While our retirement was definitely date driven, our planning horizon was long enough to make it a reality.

 

[kevdude]

I wanted to semi retire by 50, which I beat by 5 months in Feb of 2013. We used rental property as our main investment vehicle to accomplish it. Although our monthly cash flow didn't cover everything, we had cash and I planned to flip some houses to make up the shortfall. I also aggressively increased our rents so that within a few years they would cover everything, including travel expenses. Our net worth has increased by about 2.5x since then. DW has been out of the job market since our youngest was born.

Our youngest will be out of high school in 2023 and at that point we may sell all the rental property and be totally retired. We could do it now, but since our schedule is based on the kids' schedule I may as well just stay semi retired till then as the rentals only take up about 15-20 hours per month.

So again, date based but have been able to based on finances for a few years now.

 

[kevdude]

And I don't personally know anyone who said "I'm going to retire as soon as I turn x years old, no matter how much money I have."

I seems silly to me to make such an impactful choice based solely on one factor.

I mostly did this. My father died when he was 54 (I was 29 at the time) and my wife's father died when he was 51 (she was 12 at the time). So I decided I didn't want to work past 50 to ensure we would be able to enjoy our time together in the event of one of us died early (as mentioned above, she stopped working after our youngest was born). It also helped that as I approached the date I knew we would be fine financially.

 

[SlowlySaving]

Last day of work is tomorrow at age 58!

Wahoooooooooooo!! Congrats!

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

So, it is a mix of both age-based and asset-based plannings.

It's kind of a mix for me. I feel I've crossed my threshhold needed for basic FI and can essentially replicate our current standard of living but I'm continuing to save to have enough for our stretch goals. However, I've set a retirement date of April 2022 based on my target age (which I was able to revise down) and an employment milestone. Barring any really unique circumstances, I'm calling it quits then and running with the nest egg I'll have accumulated by then. (Even though I plan I setting up a fun side gig to keep my active, I don't expect it to generate a much income at all.) Hopefully, any necessary lifestyle adjustments would be more against activities that fall under our stretch goals versus replication of the core aspect of our current lifestyle.

 

[audreyh1]

I did beat an age deadline as I retired a few months before turning 40. But I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been very sure I had sufficient funds. I would have simply continued working until I did.

 

[atmsmshr]

More goal oriented than date driven.

At 25, goal was 55 with an above average retirement income. Then marriage, kids, lifestyle choices plus a transition of company pension from defined to balance shifted the goal to a later age. DW health, and two big recessions shifted goal further to a max of 60; dam the torpedoes!

Amazing stock run up since 2009, coupled with completion of 35 years of high SS wages, and gaining a company full medical pension in April finalized a reset of my retirement age to 58.5 this summer. (We were very lucky with essentially 100% equity in 401k until last summer and then shifted to a conservative portfolio to guard against SORR.)

I am so frigging happy now with DW - no stress, more fitness, travel, recreation! Improving my golf game and poker skills are biggest concerns at the moment.

 

[EarlyBirdly]

Never set a date. Never set a Number.

Really loved my career which was also my Hobby and my Passion.

Told myself with every job I ever had " I'll do this until I wake up and don't feel like going to work on a somewhat regular basis."

Some jobs lasted a few days. Some lasted decades.

One day I woke up (after a 30 plus year career) and realized that I was mentally and physically "done". So I checked my accounts, smiled, and took my Ball and Bat and went home.



Game Over.