Poll: Did you retire too early, too late, or about right?

[grasshopper]

Mostly individual tech stocks of companies I had worked at. Not that unusual in Silicon Valley. I was in the right place at the right time.

In the mid to late 90's MsG was working with several VOIP companies, I was buying some interesting soon to be worthless stocks. I think she was just a head of her time.

By 2005 she retired and I in 2006 life is good.

 

[SecondCor521]

I think it is notable that at this point in the voting the vast majority think they retired at about the right time.

 

[Carpediem]

One year in - 58. Definitely waited too long. Realistically could’ve retired ten years earlier. But caught up in the drive for more financial cushion. Now significant out of the blue health issues that seriously crimp activity level, including bed ridden for extended periods. Canceling many trips DW and I had planned. My advice is, when you have enough, endless OMYs can be a big mistake. Remember it doesn’t just happen to the other guy or gal. Sometimes disease has you in its crosshairs. Get out and enjoy life. Don’t sit in an office, at your computer screen, travel endlessly for work or whatever your search for more financial security involves. In the end it may not matter...

PS. Please no pity responses. I don’t feel sorry for myself and will fight through this as long as the body holds out.

Great post and an excellent reminder for this particular worrier and fence sitter. Thank you.

 

[Eagle43]

Retired at 60. Fifteen years later, I'm still breathing, and have more loot than when I walked. About right.

 

[Calico]

One year in - 58. Definitely waited too long. Realistically could’ve retired ten years earlier. But caught up in the drive for more financial cushion. Now significant out of the blue health issues that seriously crimp activity level, including bed ridden for extended periods. Canceling many trips DW and I had planned. My advice is, when you have enough, endless OMYs can be a big mistake. Remember it doesn’t just happen to the other guy or gal. Sometimes disease has you in its crosshairs. Get out and enjoy life. Don’t sit in an office, at your computer screen, travel endlessly for work or whatever your search for more financial security involves. In the end it may not matter...

PS. Please no pity responses. I don’t feel sorry for myself and will fight through this as long as the body holds out.

Excellent reminder and good advice.

 

[Dtail]

I think it is notable that at this point in the voting the vast majority think they retired at about the right time.

Agree. Perhaps the stories behind the ones who feel they retired too early would be the most interesting/cautious.

 

[Gunny]

I retired 3.5 years ago at 52. Had not planned to retire just then, but things just fell into place. I was growing more and more unhappy with work and my agency offered early retirement to a few high grade folks. So....here I am not worry about drinking too many beers on a Sunday night while watching the Superbowl. I guess it was just the right time.

 

[rodi]

Almost 5 years in and I retired at the perfect time, for me.
After the first year or two of worries about whether the market would tank, whether we'd saved enough, whether it was a mistake.... I realized we're doing fine.

LV_Travel's advice is important. One of my motivators to pull the plug earlier than originally planned was seeing my mom get a dx of ovarian cancer 6 months after she retired... (Her 5 years of retirement were spent mostly doing chemo.) ...Watched my dad get his second cancer type - and die 2 weeks before a planned round the world trip with my stepmom...Watched my brother get an aggressive cancer at age 48 and die 3 months later... two months after our dad died. None of those were planned, and they drive home the adage "life is short".

I'd say retiring at 52 was the right age/time for me. No regrets about too soon or too late.

 

[Lewis Clark]

I know that. When I asked about it, the range said ">10" only. Alan changed it after reading a discussion about it.

Sorry. Didn't catch the edit. : )

 

[SecondCor521]

If they are exactly 10 years retired, they could wait a day and pick the >10 year option.

Y'all might like to know that @RetMD21 retired exactly 10 years ago. I don't know how s/he voted.

 

[Retire52]

I would have retired earlier if I could have. I had to put in enough time to fully vest in my military pension. I needed to get 3 years in after my last promotion to make it stick. It was a no brainer to me that retirement would work for me. I was 48 and have been retired about a year and a half with 0 regrets.

 

[ychuck46]

Just right

Retired five years ago at 60. Loving life and feel it was the right time. Any earlier and I would have missed some good earnings, any later and I would have felt cheated out of some great times the wife and I experienced while we are still feeling good physically.

 

[Leo1277]

If they are exactly 10 years retired, they could wait a day and pick the >10 year option.

Anyway the change to ">=" fixed things. But you don't have to wait a day, just transform "10 years" into seconds, and then if you still find it's exactly 10 years, just wait a sec. Or express 10 years in milliseconds

 

[brett]

It has been 7 years.

Planned to go at the earlier of 60 or a golden handshake. The handshake came at 59 so that was it.

Looking backwards I could have gone at 55 or 56. The numbers were there. I was simply too financially conservative. No regrets, it worked out very well for me.

 

[S103462]

Things can sometimes work out exactly as planned. We planned our retirement date many years earlier -- both planning to retiree at 55y/o in 2010. We hit our "number," were debt-free, everything we had planned to have in place at that time was aligned. She retired a week after her 55th birthday on 1/1/2010; me six months later (10 days after my 55th birthday) on 7/1/2010. We'll take SS in a few more years. (I did work somewhat part time for the past 8-3/4 years -- I ran for elected public office and most recently served as Mayor of my city. Now term-limited, I'm really retired!)

 

[dtbach]

I wasn't given the chance to decide as megacorp showed me the door about 5 years early. Still did fine, but sure would have loved to have been able to keep adding money into the 401K in 2009 and 2010.

 

[2lhasas]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so I can say now that I wish I'd FIRE'd at 50 instead of 55. Then again, even with recent reversals, we are still near a market high after 10+ years of growth. Another crash/recession and my FIRE at 55 might start looking about right again.

Our goal was 55 but our portfolio made 50 quite do-able. I decided I wanted to spend those few years with my son before he left for college and have not regretted it one bit.

 

[Dreamer]

I always planned on retiring at 55 years old, but six people in our small office retired beginning 12/31/2004 and I took an early retirement at age 53 6/2/2006. Our office manager was one of the people who retired and we a manager come in who had never been a manager before this time. She was a nice person, but she was not cut out to be a manager. After I retired, she left management and went back to the same job title that I had in her hometown. This was from my career job. I am glad that I retired when I did.

I later worked a part-time job, 3 days per week, for 5 years, in order to finish earning my social security credits. I started 03/10 and quit 5/15. I did finish earning my social security credits. The job started off earning $8.50 per hour and I think that I was earning $12.00 at the end. I regret that I ever worked this part-time job. The schedule limited me in doing exactly what I wanted to do. The 401K was in a variable annuity, that I was putting 90% of my salary into the last year or two. It was a silly goal of mine to finish my credits and I do regret it. I have been enjoying my being completely retired again.

 

[yakers]

Loved my job but a night in the cardiac ward at 56 and decided to retire at 57 in 2008. Work was good but retirement is better.