What is your "weakest link" to ER??

[Enuff2Eat]

Well, I meant is what causes you to unable to reach Early Retirement? Most of the reading that I found are usually based on poor planning, spend too much... but what I am looking for is "other" factors that contributed to your delaying retirement. It might be..

1) Love your job too much
2) Grown children unable to take care of themselves
3) Sickness
4) Low paying job
5) Divorced
6) Health insurance
7) Too conservative in investing
8) ...

... it's amazing how careful you can plan but some of these factor are totally unpredictable and uncontrollable. A friend of my is facing with number #2.

 

[sengsational]

One kid still at home is my impediment.

I work from my home office, make great money, and generally like what I do, so, if I'm going to be tied to the house to "finish raising" the DD, I might as well collect a paycheck. But in August she's off to school and it's going to be time to pull the trigger!

 

[obgyn65]

7) only for me, from the list you have given.

 

[Enuff2Eat]

One kid still at home is my impediment.

I work from my home office, make great money, and generally like what I do, so, if I'm going to be tied to the house to "finish raising" the DD, I might as well collect a paycheck. But in August she's off to school and it's going to be time to pull the trigger!

if you like what you do and it's relatively easy. Why pull the trigger? My sister is having similar problem. She and her husband are afraid of being bored and therefore, continue to work. Work is there retirement.

 

[keegs]

none of the above....taking the decision isn't going to be easy though, especially when/if it involves moving.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

1) and didn't save enough from the start due to unrealistic ROI expectations.
and a little of 2).

 

[sengsational]

if you like what you do and it's relatively easy. Why pull the trigger? My sister is having similar problem. She and her husband are afraid of being bored and therefore, continue to work. Work is there retirement.

Because there are some awesome things that I can't do, like spend a couple of weeks at my uncle's farm and spend a couple of weeks on a friends sail boat and, and, and. If they'd give me 20 weeks of vacation instead of two, we could talk. Otherwise, I'm outta here!

 

[eytonxav]

This may not be the typical answer you would expect, but since I have attempted RE 2x already, at 54 and 57, my weakest link was probably being mentally prepared, given the fact that I basically enjoyed work, but sometimes got sick and tired over a few unpleasant aspects I had to deal with (riffing subordinates, more work with fewer resources, and reporting to an executive management tier that was incompetent, lacked leadership skills, coupled with a sense of ethics that I could not go along with). Now, I'm 63 and will leave for good at the end of the month, but again, my reason for leaving this time was not the work, but the commute through several DFW construction projects.

That said, I'm now much more prepared mentally as to how to make this retirement a permanent and enjoyable one.

 

[heeyy_joe]

I was way too aggressive in investing (back in early 2000's).

 

[Live And Learn]

may I suggest (8) afraid of pulling the trigger too soon. This causes alot of people to get sucked into One More Year syndrome.

As for me personally, nothing is impeding me - in fact I'm ER'ing with much more risk than most on this forum would be comfortable with (only have an 85 - 90% success rate of my portfolio lasting to age 90)

 

[MooreBonds]

but what I am looking for is "other" factors that contributed to your delaying retirement. It might be..
8) ...

...I'm still single.

I'm looking for a future Dear Wife that can live a simple life yet enjoy some nicer things (so still need to grow the portfolio a bit)...but things are difficult enough in the dating world without answering the occupation question with "professional investor" or "Oh, I'm retired".

Most women (and men) simply spend too much and have no concept of what it would take to retire on a modestly fun budget, and would incorrectly assume that I must be a trust fund baby with $10MM in the bank to be retired at this age...and probably would act however they need to in order to convince me they're the right gal just long enough to wind up married.

One real-world example: one woman I dated, I merely said that "I made a lot of sacrifices in my 20s so my future wife and I could have a more secure life later on". Later on in the relationship, when we shared some financial info, she was shocked to learn I "only" had $800k or so (this was at March 2009, at the very bottom of the crash). She assumed that when I said "I made a lot of sacrifices" that I had about $2MM in the bank - despite being only about 32 at the time! I never told her how much income I earned, but even if I invested like Warren Buffet, I would have had to had earnings of about $300k/year every year straight out of college to amass $2MM in my early 30s! Many people have no concept of
what it takes to invest or amass wealth.

If I retired today, I could draw off 2.75% of my invested net worth and have double my annual 'basic needs plus some decent fun times'....but add in a future wife and kids, and some kickass trips around the globe, and my current stash would be lucky to just barely fully fund that at a 2.75% WR.

 

[Maenad]

Property taxes. I inherited (and remodeled) my childhood home, which is on suburban lakeshore. While we absolutely love it, the property taxes are $8K/year more than our previous house.

 

[FIREd]

None of those factors delayed my ER. But some of those factors could still pose a threat to my finances. Health issues, low returns, divorce could still have a devastating impact on my ability to remain retired. I have safeguards in place, but who knows...

 

[Ronstar]

My main delay is that DW is still working

 

[finnski1]

7) only for me, from the list you have given.

Same here.
I know it's a problem but I don't like seeing any balances going backwards. I know I have missed some great returns the last few years but it's hard to change a lifetime pattern.

 

[foxfirev5]

Healthcare is my number one reason to accept a paycheck a little longer. We'll see how 2014 shakes out and take it from there. The other reason is that while we have plenty in retirement accts I feel I'm a little short in taxable accts and savings for future tax planning.
However ER could happen at any time and that would work as well.

 

[padlin00]

2000 happened, sure was nice dreaming how rich you'd be by 55. Current impediment is our income, if we made twice as much we could ER twice as fast.

 

[ER Eddie]

If I stick around another year and a half, I get a small pension and access to retiree health care (which I have to pay for, but it's under a group plan). I guess you'd call it "bronze handcuffs."

 

[seraphim]

Actually, the choice is made for me ( or, more precisely, I made the decision 8 years ago.) I would lose a great deal of money if I stayed past June, due to a deferred retirement program I entered.

I COULD have retired at 48 with a reduced pension of 60%. Would have needed a second income. The incentives offered kept me around for another 8 years, and ensured my ER

 

[HighRoller]

To be honest, my weakest links "were" greed and the OMY syndrome

 

[BuysToys]

Our weakest links have been extended unemployment for DH and the anticipated costs of health care. We live in a HCOL area and have managed to save quite a bit on mediocre incomes. However, DH has not worked at all in 2 1/2 years, so our amount of savings has taken an extreme hit. We still put away enough to be able to retire in ten years, but now the game is: what will the health exchanges do for our insurance costs and how much work can he get? If he works semi-steadily for the next five years, our retirement date moves closer. If not, it stays at the ten year mark. Plan A is that he doesn't work at all in the next ten years and then I call it quits. *shrug* Not such a bad deal!

 

[Enuff2Eat]

To be honest, my weakest links "were" greed and the OMY syndrome

I like your honesty. Some of the folks that I work with always have an explanation why they are not ready to retire but I knew deep down inside it's just greed.

It's take a real man to admit it.

 

[obgyn65]

Please feel free to introduce yourself in the "hi, I am" section. Thanks.

Same here.
I know it's a problem but I don't like seeing any balances going backwards. I know I have missed some great returns the last few years but it's hard to change a lifetime pattern.

 

[W2R]

For me, it was health insurance. I worked two years longer than I otherwise might have, waiting to qualify for retiree medical coverage. Once it was in place, I retired.

 

[Meadbh]

For me it was the lack of a pension. I needed to get all my ducks in a row and be quite certain that the numbers were very solid even in the face of a future repeat of 2008.