Date based retiring instead of money based?

[Cassius King]

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?

 

[COcheesehead]

I did, but I also have been managing my money with that date in mind, so they somewhat go hand in hand.
I picked the date about 2-3 years ago and have been positioning my asset allocation accordingly.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I retired full time at 55 with a lot less, admittedly DW did work till I was 60. No regrets here.

 

[Bamaman]

'I live back in the woods, you see
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun and a rifle and a four wheel drive
And a countryboy can survive, country folks can survive"

. . . . Hank Williams Jr.

 

[RetireAge50]

In college I planned for the money to be there by age 50. It worked out.

 

[HenryD]

Since our RE plans involve relocation, I initially picked a date on the basis of our youndest DD's college grad, figuring we'd need to stick around until then. With that I checked to see if we could save enough to reach my number by then. So 2025, hopefully with $2M which was always my number, was the initial plan, ages 56 and 54.

But DW's far more date than number driven, feels less obligated to see the kids through college, and less patient. She'd pick 2021 regardless of our number at the time.

I expect we'll end up being date driven with a floor I can stomach, but we need to get a better handle on the post-RE budget because I don't know what that floor is yet, but maybe $1.2M?

 

[Aerides]

We knew our expenses and the lifestyle we wanted to retire without feeling unhappy. We don't live large, but we are nicely comfortable and have no worries. We ER'd in our late 40's.

I would never have put a stake in the ground on a date under 50 without the money being right. But at 60, with SS and Medicare far closer, in your shoes, a less than perfect Firecalc might be ok for you, as long as you're clear on where you can wiggle where needed.

 

[brett]

No.

When the stars aligned I went. It was a combo of being financial capable of FIRE and having the opportunity to get out with a healthy severance package.

I thought of taking time off and then going back to work. That thought lasted three months or so. I knew that it was time to move on to another stage of our lives. We are thankful that we had the resources to be able to make that choice. Looking in the rear view mirror....this was the right decision for us.

 

[Katiek]

I've certainly used dates as a general measure (for example, wouldn't retire until I hit the age where I could buy retiree medical), but I've always considered the amount of money I would need as well.

 

[gayl]

I wasn't going to leave county until 50 bc that's when I'd be eligible for retirement medical/dental/vision. Pension is nice too.

My NW is considerably higher than when I retired.

 

[pj.mask]

There is a minimum/maximum I think I’ll need at current savings rate/projections - those 5 years in between will likely be set by a date (kids graduations, wanting to travel with them, etc.) once in past the minimum it won’t be about money buy just timing.

Although could be kind of cool to work enough to buy a boat!

 

[Dtail]

Retired at 57, but due to discovering couldn't get work and the numbers worked.
Probably would have worked to about 61 if I could have and didn't know better.

 

[Kabowest]

Retired at 57, but due to discovering couldn't get work and the numbers worked.
Probably would have worked to about 61 if I could have and didn't know better.

I wonder how many people continue to work without knowing better.

Last day of work is tomorrow at age 58!

 

[W2R]

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 that. Back in the year 2000 I decided that I wanted to retire on the first date that I was eligible to officially retire and get retiree benefits (including availability of retiree health insurance). That date was 11/7/2009, at age 61 and a half.

It turned out that 11/7 was a Saturday, so the office would be closed that day. Therefore I moved my retirement date and last day of work to 11/9/2009 to make sure that there was no question about my retirement eligibility. To me it was pretty much written in stone "from the get go" even though I didn't announce it to my chain of command until about March of that year. I had revealed my plans to a two co-workers that were my closest friends, a couple of years before then.

I had an alternate date of my 62nd birthday, 6/8/2010, just in case, but didn't have to use it. And, I never even considered retiring after 6/8. My original username here was "Want2Retire", and if anything that was an understatement.

Setting a date like I did, instead of a dollar amount, sure motivated me to kick up the LBYM and save every penny I could for retirement. By doing so I managed to exceed the dollar amount by that time as well. Then at the last minute I unexpectedly ended up with a moderate sized inheritance when my mother sadly died; I had never felt I could count on that, though, for sound reasons, and so it was never part of my planning.

 

[ncbill]

FIL retired early 50s w/ not much savings, but a paid-off home, kids out & on their own, pension & nearly free retiree healthcare.

He & MIL spent almost the next 20 years doing whatever they wanted, but then health issues set in around age 70...he ended up on dialysis, fortunately then receiving a kidney transplant.

Still goes to church but that's about the extent of his getting out of the house nowadays...he even had to skip his grandkid's graduation this year even though it was only a few hours away by car.

 

[braumeister]

When I was still a teenager, I set a goal of retiring at 55 if I could afford to. The reason was simply that I saw 65 as the "normal" retirement age (that was the FRA back then) and I wanted to beat it by ten years.

For me, it worked out.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I set 58 and went. But I didn’t realize that my husband would get laid off and not be able to find a job or I would have worked longer. He was 5 years younger and planned to work until 60. He was the higher earner so our savings suffered. I did have a high paying part time job for 6 years that helped.

 

[Chapter 3]

Not really. Regardless, there has to be enough money - whatever that is for you. Once you know where enough is then it can be a date. A decade or more before RE I had an age window 58-62 that I estimated was going to be reasonable financially. Could have RE at 58 but decided to do two OMY and go at 60. No regrets. Well, maybe that I did not save more younger so I could have opened that window a little sooner.

 

[joeea]

Has anyone set a date for retirement that wasn't strictly money based?

Most people I know choose a retirement date based on many factors - money being just one.

I don't personally know anyone who said "I'm going to retire as soon as I have $x million, no matter how old I am."

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.

 

[Cobra9777]

I always had my eye on 53 since that was when the youngest would finish college. We had no 529s. Paid for 2 kid's college with regular cashflow. So I would not have been comfortable retiring prior to that. Turns out the numbers made sense at 52, while DD was in her last year of college. So that's when Megacorp and I parted ways. I don't think I would have worked past 55 regardless of the nestegg.

 

[scrabbler1]

While I hadn't picked an exact date, when I switched from working 20 hours per week to 12 hours back in June of 2007, losing my eligibility for employer-sponsored health insurance and going on COBRA, I already had a good idea that I would be able to retire by the end of 2008.


What I really didn't want to do was to work but have to buy my HI on the individual insurance market after COBRA expired 18 months later. That gave me an unofficial deadline of 12/31/2008. I beat that date by 2 months, retiring at the end of October at age 45, despite the late 2008 market downturn. Or, because of the market downturn!

 

[Bir48die]

I was really looking that maybe it would be when I was 62 because that’s when I thought I’d have the house paid off. Had a number of healthy income years so it was when the president of the company pissed me off that I gave my 18 month notice. Luckily the markets and my bonuses kept increasing and did it at 60. House was paid off way prior to retirement. Just had to piece together the health care thing which in 13 months will be Medicare eligible

 

[NW-Bound]

I think that as people approach their ER target, which is usually in their 50s, they already have a feel of what their financial situation is, and will be when they throw in the towel.

The above allows them to set expectations and to plan accordingly. So, it is a mix of both age-based and asset-based plannings.

 

[Brdofpray]

Sometimes, important decisions are based on the most unexpected circumstances. Ten years before we retired, DW, (teacher), had placed an order for her favorite yearly/calendar/planning/notebooks. As it turns out, this product was no longer going to be produced. She could only procure ten. She announced that after she used the last one, we will retire. That would put her at 33 years of service at age 55, and for me, 30 years of service at age 56. Now, I had been following our finances carefully. I knew with two defined benefit pensions, we would be fine, regardless. I whole heartedly agreed.

When the notebooks ran out, we hung up our careers, and moved south to the Carolinas. After ten years of retirement, we have not looked back!!

 

[HillCountry]

Yes. It’s ten thousand days for me in the industry. Happen to be aligned with my younger kid graduating high school.