When 30, What Age Did You Plan For Retirement?

[Gumby]

I had always planned for 55, but then the Great Recession of 2008-09 came along when I was 50. Suddenly, I had substantially less money and a realization that I should build in a bigger buffer. I will retire in less than 10 months at age 60.

 

[shortstop14]

I don't think I was even thinking about retirement at 30. We were raising our kid, had been living for years on tight finances but with no debt, and had just bought a house. But I was still putting money routinely into employee stock purchase plans and IRAs.


But I suspect those days were when I was thinking that all I needed to do was save $300,000 and live off $30,000 a year investment returns. I had a bit to learn. The germ of early retirement might have been in my head, but I had no idea of how to execute. Figured it out eventually and retired at 56.

 

[Out of Steam]

At 30, I thought I'd retire at 55. Actual will be 60, late next year or in early 2020, probably with some part-time work after that.

 

[cooch96]

I didn’t have a clear plan at 30, but I’m sure I wanted to retire well before 59.5. Probably 42-50. At 35, my plan was to work enough so I wouldn’t have any null years in my SS calculation, which would be FIRE at 51. Now, I hope to semi-FIRE very soon, perhaps even next year before I turn 41.

 

[Scout]

45

 

[GR111]

Absolutely knew I was working past 70! The reality-- 2019 at age 56.

Life’s curve balls sometimes result in our freedom.

 

[Just_Steve]

At 30 my target was 55. This was based on our govt pension and retiree medical eligibility.
Missed my target by 27 days.

 

[Koolau]

I planned on FI by early 50s (minimally, that's when pension would vest.) Retirement was any time after that, but likely 62 or 65. I hit the FI mark at 51 (more or less on schedule) but had started really having "fun" at w*rk, believe it or not. When it wasn't fun, I left at 58 with more than FI - enough to move just about any place I wanted to, including Paradise. YMMV

 

[GR111]

Planned on 70. Reality is 56. Life’s curveballs can set you free!

 

[DrRoy]

At 30 I did not have a firm age target. My retirement benefits hit an inflection point at 58 and that was a soft target. It ended up being 57 3/4.

 

[I was misinformed]

Wow I am impressed with how many here at 30 y.o. were thinking about (even planning for) retirement/ER. At that age I was focussed on getting to a secure career path and I really doubt I had ever considered retirement at all. I had a very modest amount in a 401K-type account, but thought vaguely that was for the distant future when I would be unable to keep working. I know the first time I thought seriously about anything like ER was at age 51. Finally acheived ER at age 58.

 

[RE2Boys]

At 30, I had a vague target of 55 as that is when normal civil service retirement was set (55 years old and 30 years service). But was always LBYM and tracked my net worth since about 25 years old. Reality.......got married at 44 years old, first son at 46, second son at 48, retired at 50 as my agency ended their early retirement program. Became a soccer dad complete with minivan.

Fast forward, now retired 18 years and net worth is 3X what it was when originally retired. The power of compounding! It helped that I've always had part-time jobs that brought in maybe $10K per year and never spent more than $22K on any vehicle and chose to live in low cost of living areas.

 

[iloveyoga]

I did not think of retirement for myself at age 30. But I worked in the retirement business for 34 years and somewhere along the way I decided that I could take my own advice and the advice that we gave to DB plan investment committees. In my 50s I think I started planning for age 57, but then I got a boss I did not like and left at age 54. One of my best decisions ever.

 

[ER Eddie]

It wasn't even a part of my thinking. I think I was still in student loan debt at the time, trying to get out from under that.

 

[athena53]

Now that I think of it, I DID start tracking the total value of my investments when I was 38. Not as rigorous as spreadsheets or Monte Carlo models, but it was a motivating factor. It also helped put things into perspective: if anyone remembers the crash of October, 1997, it seemed like a catastrophe at the time. Now it's barely a blip in the graph. When I can see a graph showing years with bear markets followed by a recovery it keeps me from panicking.

 

[MarieIG]

At age 30, I was not thinking about retirement. I went back to school; and spent my 30th birthday taking a makeup exam in Crim Law. (Had a stomach virus - violently ill for regular exam.) So, I was thinking ahead toward my career.

I probably initially thought about retirement (without any plan of how to get there) as being age 70, based upon social security.

Then, due to nagging from DH, I lowered the goal to me 65, him 66 since we would then both be covered by Medicare.

After attending a Union meeting with DH regarding retirement benefits, I learned that there would still be able to get (subsidized) healthcare through the Union, and told DH he no longer had to work to 66, just till he "maxed" out the percentage portion of his pension, which was age 58. (It is a percentage x the number of years worked.) I was still thinking of me at 65, although DH wanted me to leave earlier.

I then had a battle with C - which included two surgeries and left me exhausted; and lowered the age again to 60, although that makes me nervous.


In spite of starting off with some low paying, crappy jobs, (when I was interviewing they did ask about families, and having - at that time - five small children - seemed to have the same effect as me saying I had an infectious case of the plague), I did manage to pay off the mortgage in seven years, put five out of six kiddos through private school, pay for my kiddos (who wanted to go) through college, and compile a retirement portfolio. To be clear, this would not have been accomplished without DH paying other bills and expenses.

So now, it's getting closer. DH wants to go April 1st, and wants me to leave at the same time. I am looking at August of 2020. We are not exactly aligned as to spending strategy. I am willing to work after he retires. So, we'll see.

 

[ncbill]

Not long after that age I left full-time employment with MegaBank to take care of mom.

That lasted far, far longer than I had anticipated.

Please don't do what I did - in hindsight there were too many negative impacts on the rest of my family.

Got a little money when my family business (part-time for health insurance) was sold.

But now looking for outside employment with a very skimpy resume.

 

[VanWinkle]

My plan at 30 was for 55, but life happened and it ended up being 61.
We ended up with 2 more children after age 30 (4 total) and it changed my
perspective.

 

[Dash man]

My vision at 30 was I would never retire. My ex kept us in debt. Fast forward to age 42 with current DW, I set a goal of 55, made it at 56.

 

[MRG]

At thirty I'd been at Megacorp doing programming for three years. In my first year a senior guy put on a presentation about the generous profit sharing plan Megacorp had.

He took an low starting salary and used contributions and returns from the past 20 years. He claimed if all was equal we could all be millionaires in 20 years!

It didn't quite work out that way, the tech bubble was a drag. But after 29 years we had saved way more than I'd ever dreamed. Yeah, thanks Megacorp and "Chet". He really made me think. I watched him retire before 50.

 

[Anna J]

I learned about compound interest at 19 while in college. I opened my IRA right away and have always contributed (sometimes small amounts and other times larger amounts) monthly. I wrote myself a note that I would retire at 45.

I joined the Navy at 21 and thought I would make a career out of it and retire at 45. My DW was kicked out of the Army for being gay and so I decided to not reinlist in the Navy and chance getting kicked out as well. So at 25 (me) and 27 (DW), we both got jobs with the state of CA. After moving around the state several times for promotions and job changes, 4 years ago with my DW's last promotion and relocation, we decided that I could stay at home and she would work a few more years until she reached 50. She will we 50 in Jan 2019!

We will have our $ we have been investing, her pension (that includes healthcare) and our rental property.

So I quit working at 43 and DW will ge gone in a few months at 50

 

[Alan]

I did not think about retirement until age 38, right after I started my 4th job and 4th DB pension plan after graduating college. At that point I started a 401k with my new company and did not have a target age except maybe “before 60”.

 

[nash031]

At 30, I figured on 65 like everyone else. Had planned out my investments and such to have $3M or so by then. Then at 35, Dad was diagnosed with cancer a little over two years after retiring (he was 76 when he retired), and I got serious about retiring before 50. Target age now (at 41) and with new life circumstances is 49, but that all depends on if I enjoy what I’m doing by then or not!

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

I was 28 when we decided the year of when I was going to retire.

At that time, I had served 6 years in the US Navy, I was a vet just completing my degree. We decided that I was going to re-enlist to serve another 14 years and get my pension.

As to the OP, when I was 30, we were stationed in Scotland. I had 8 years of Active Duty behind me, with 12 years to go.

We had formed our plan, and we were working our plan. We had our second apartment complex [a five-plex] filled with tenants. My wife and I had both taken budgeting courses and we were certified budget counselors. And we were both certified tax preparers. We had tweaked our household budget as tight as we could, to lower our income tax burden, and to maximize our investment contributions.

Looking back at that time in our lives, we were pretty much 'on-track' with our goals.

 

[DEC-1982]

At 34, I planned to retire at 60, and actually retired at 59.