When 30, What Age Did You Plan For Retirement?

[LauAnn]

When I was 25 years old, I planned to retire at 50. In actuality, I retired at 55.

 

[athena53]

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.

Ah, a genuine partner is a blessing! I had the financial train wreck the first time around and also got someone who shared my priorities the second time.

 

[Scuba]

At 30 I was hoping for early to mid 40’s. My life changed a lot and then planned for 50. However 50 for me was in the middle of the Great Recession so ended up working 5 more years. Retired shortly after 56th birthday.

 

[Walt34]

Ah, a genuine partner is a blessing! I had the financial train wreck the first time around and also got someone who shared my priorities the second time.

There are many of us on the forum who have that experience under our belts. A few years after age 30 I was divorced with much better prospects of retiring free of any debt and I did.

 

[gerntz]

At 30, generally 55 to 62. At 40, definitely 55. But interesting opportunities came along at 53-54 at smaller companies, took one at 55, and then GR came & I felt less safe. So wound up 64. No regrets.

 

[eytonxav]

Never thought about it at 30, when I was ~45 started to think about retiring at 60, actually retired at 54, got bored and went back to work and tried retiring again at 57, got bored again and finally retired for good at 63.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

At 30 I expected to retire at 50, when my stock dividend flow would be enough to live on. I hit my number at 46 and retired at 48 in 2006.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I started grad school at 30 and had a baby at 34. The saving didn’t begin in true earnest until I was back at work f/t at 38. My ex scarcely ever earned any money, and only when I sadly inherited some money from my younger sister, who died at 47, did I think I would ever be able to put my daughter through college and retire some day. Now at 65, I can do it, but I’m semi-retired and doing some work in the house, and putting away more for LTC and contingencies before I take the plunge.

 

[TimSF]

Plan was 50 actual was 50.

Me too

 

[kcowan]

55 then got a golden handshake at 49 with immediate DB pension. Got into consulting and was having too good a time at 55 so actually did it at 59.5

 

[pb4uski]

I had 55 in mind from a young age... principally because that was viewed as "retiring early" for my parent's generation... deferred a year due to the great recession... in the year I turned 56 we moved into our rebuilt lakefront home and sold our main home... as a result our expenses went down a lot and I was comfortable pulling the trigger.

 

[youbet]

Did not even really plan for retirement.......... Just wanted to save and have a lot of money for financial security.

+1.

Never really planned for early retirement. Just saved and invested for financial security after DW and I both grew up in very financially strained circumstances. When MegCorp booted my sorry ass out as part of a huge RIF, I decided I was FIRE'd and not fired. Collected unemployment benefits, a decent severance package and happily joined the ranks of the long term unemployed. (I've been unemployed for 12+ years now!)

 

[38Chevy454]

Some great stories, thanks to all for sharing your information.

 

[skipro33]

Planned for 50 back then. 3 months prior, we lost it all to a wild land fire. We had a choice; take the insurance money and retire, playing general contractor and build our own home, retire to some exotic island now that we were free of, well, everything, or continue to work for the tax. You see, I had over 4 years worth of income now exempt from income tax due to the write-off for the fire. I worked until 55 and was amazed how BIG my checks were after filing exempt on the W-2.

Hired someone to build our dream home and was able to furnish it as well.

 

[PandaBear]

At 30 I had my first child. Never even thought about retirement. I started a 403b when I first started working but had no idea what it really was. I’m not sure I knew I had a pension either. Was absolutely clueless. The only thing I had going for me was my aunt taught be how to manage a budget when I finished grad school (the old fashioned envelope system) which I use to this day and that my parents taught me to live below my means.

 

[deserat]

After reading Paul Terhorst - before 50 was the goal, made it at 53. But then retire to me was really FI and not necessarily not working....I need some type of work for intellectual challenge and like to get paid for it. However, I pick and choose what I will do and can turn down activities if I don't want to do them. Different mindset from 'must.'

 

[B0bL0blaw]

I started working my real career at 27, and pretty early on knew that I wanted to retire "early" but I didn't know exactly what that meant or if it was possible. I was just working as a young associate at a large law firm and I looked around at the old-timers and decided I didn't want their lives.


When I was about 29-30, I had a little bit better idea of budgeting, saving, and investing, and somewhat arbitrarily picked age 50 as a nice round number to plan for.


I am now 36 and I think I'm aiming for 48.

 

[NgineER]

I didn't start working until age 32 after grad school. Had fun getting there. Had no thoughts about early retirement until my wife called it quits with three kids at home. Set the goal for 55, could be earlier if I put in a lot of effort, or i could cut back the hours and retire at 55. We'll see.

 

[Out of Steam]

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 knew pretty young that a conventional office job didn't agree with me all that well, and did several different things to get through. In the end, jobs with some part that kept me on my feet worked best, whether the work was laboratory, shop floor, or outdoors.

Overall, I think I've been fortunate to have gotten through a full career. There were times when I thought I'd be lucky to be able to stick with it until my late 40s.

 

[Dreaming of Freedom]

At age 30 I calculated I could retire at age 45 in early 2022. I might still retire before that date, but I am on track to retire by that date if individual health insurance policies don't completely implode in the US. I don't have much faith anymore about the current and future states of individual health insurance policies though, so who knows when I will retire.

 

[foxfirev5]

At age thirty I didn't think much about retirement. Fortunately I maxed out my 401k from the age of 24 so I was easily able to ER at age 59 and 364 days. Working in a cyclical industry with wild swings in income, I learned early to save for a rainy day. Should have retired sooner but hindsight is always 20/20.

 

[jollystomper]

At 30, married only 5 years, 2 kids aged 3 and 1 and more on the way, retirement was not on my radar. In addition, Megacorp was going strong, they had great retirement benefits, so I figured retirement would take care of itself. We were saving but not a a great rate, and were not yet committed to LBYM. My retirement eligibility date was 2009, so I planned to wait until then to think about it.

It took various actions in the 1990s (realizing how much debt we had gotten into, Megacorp upheaval, changes to retirement benefits, beginning serious equity investments, etc.) to get me more focused on retirement, but not until the 2000s did I consider retiring before 65.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I can't remember what I thought about it at 30- I was still enjoying my job. Fortunately I work in the financial industry and since i always told clients to save at LEAST 15% for retirement, I did it too- often a lot more. Then we got a new CEO who radically changed the direction of the company (not in a good way), and then 2008-2009 hit which made work a miserable experience. THAT is when I decided I was going to retire early, and since I continued to contribute when the market was down, it was looking more and more doable by the time the market righted itself. So by 37 I decided I'd be done at 50 and I'm a little ahead of schedule.

 

[uncaD]

My plan for as long as I can remember, probably since 6th or 7th grade at least, was 45. And I made it.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

At 30, I was already halfway through my military career. Ended up "retiring" at 40. Already knew my 21 year pension could not support spouse and 2 youngins so not really retiring, just changing jobs. Since then, always assumed I'd be working till at least 62. It wasn't until last year that I calculated my annual historical expenses and future income that I realized I didn't have to work till then. In searching for how much of a buffer is appropriate, I came across this site. With the help of everyone here, I've ran all the recommended retirement calculators and they all say I'm good to walk out at 57 in 2021. Have been maxing out my 401(k) for the last 14 years, including the catch-up the last 3 years and will continue that the next 3 years. It's funny how it has all worked out.