What month do you plan to retire?

[Al18]

I'm within 2 years of retiring early, and have decided I will retire in April. Compared to retiring on Jan 1, this will give me a few months to build up the fun money stash, and enjoy the spring weather outdoors without being tied to a job.

I know 12/31 and 1/1 are popular retirement dates, but to me, they're not a good choice. Living in the Northeast, the only thing I have to look forward to in January is snow, Christmas card bills, real estate taxes and timeshare dues. If I retire then - the only one I can complain to is my wife - never a wise move!

Share your thoughts.

 

[WestcoastRN]

December 31st, 2014 for me, only 6 more days of work. I am already feeling the euphoria!

 

[W2R]

I retired on Nov 9th, 2009, the first day I was eligible for retirement benefits.

 

[Helen]

I went on my birthday in May. It was when I qualified for retirement benefits. It was also a great time of year for hiking. By the time (fair weather) backpacking season started I was in prime condition.

 

[Texconsin]

4/14 ===> 12/27

I'm within 2 years of retiring early, and have decided I will retire in April. Compared to retiring on Jan 1, this will give me a few months to build up the fun money stash, and enjoy the spring weather outdoors without being tied to a job.

I know 12/31 and 1/1 are popular retirement dates, but to me, they're not a good choice. Living in the Northeast, the only thing I have to look forward to in January is snow, Christmas card bills, real estate taxes and timeshare dues. If I retire then - the only one I can complain to is my wife - never a wise move!

Share your thoughts.

I plan to return my key sometime between the day before I turn 65 and the last paycheck of that year, depending on stock vesting, but I would love to do it before the family reunion in August, so I can linger or just head out in any direction and not necessarily home.

 

[Sea Kayaker]

I retired this past September... so I have yet to experience a "Summer of ER". I did manage to skip out of a month of PNW monsoon season by heading down to the Baja. In hindsight, I would probably retire in the Spring so that my post-career decompression phase would occur during the Summer months. But really, there is really nothing for me to complain about.

 

[Evergreen]

I hope to bail out in June 2015, we should have some warm sunny weather by then. No point in leaving in mid winter (I live in England).

 

[jerome len]

If vacation becomes due at the 1st of the year I'd pay my Christmas bills, go on vacation in early January, go south for a few weeks and come back at the end of your vacation period and retire! It all depends on the various effective dates for vacation, mega corp retirement contributions, etc.

 

[Alan]

I also retired at the earliest date that gave me retiree HI and pension benefits. That happened to be March 2nd.

 

[Senator]

As in my signature says, on 7/5/16.

FIRE in 7/5/2016 at 56, after bonuses, maxing out 401K, Maxing out HSA, picking up 1,000 hours to get another year of pension, July benefits, and the July 4th holiday).

 

[Gumby]

The young wife and I will retire in one of the next few years. It will almost certainly be at the end of June, since she is a teacher and would never leave her students in the middle of a school year. I would like to work it so I retire on July 3rd. Then I'll really celebrate Independence Day.

 

[stepford]

Mostly this is just a matter of whenever I decide I have enough saved, but as in all matters ER there are some detailed personal vs. financial considerations:

I can officially retire with a pension on my 55th birthday next July. But...

My Megacorp pension freezes 6 months after my 55th birthday. Each of these months I can tolerate remaining will compensate me significantly better than any thereafter, so Dec. 31, 2015 may be optimal.

Finally, if I'm being greedy then lasting a month or two into 2016 just to max out the next year's 401K and HSA might make sense.

Then again, one can always make excuses to stick around and make more money - so I'm sticking to the July 2015 option (for now...)

 

[scrabbler1]

I retired 10/31/2008. The pieces of my ER plan were falling into place rapidly during the 2008 summer, so when the last one had fallen into place at the end of September, I gave my notice.


I was working on one last, big project in 2008, working only 2 days a week, and felt that I would finish it by 10/31, which I barely did that day. Outside of work, my personal life's activities begin picking up in October so freeing up those 2 days I had been working meshed well with my increasingly busier schedule.


The markets were crashing in late 2008, as you will recall. However, this was becoming a terrific boost to my ER because my company stock's value, evaluated only quarterly, had not taken a big hit yet, while the big bond fund I planned to use the stock's proceeds (I had to liquidate it) had its NAV dropping fast, pleasing me greatly. I would end up buying about 25% more shares of the big bond fund than I had originally anticipated, providing me with a bigger monthly dividend than I had anticipated without having to transfer other assets into that part of the portfolio.

 

[kgtest]

I am planning on my birthday in July 2031 if I have "enough" of course, if things get rocky I hope to be done no later than 2034.

 

[Niuatoputapu]

June 5, 2015 is my target. My youngest is still in high school, so it coincides with the end of her junior year. My wife is a teacher so it almost coincides with the end of her work year. It gives me enough time in the calendar year to max out another year's 403(b) contributions, but hopefully early enough to avoid much of the 41.95% marginal tax rate (25% + 9.3% + 7.65%) that many of us in California suffer in the second half of the calendar year. The date also allowed me to give my boss a six month notice so he can search for my replacement. Am looking forward to summer fun.

 

[pb4uski]

My last day of work was the last day of work before Christmas in 2011 but I was on payroll until February 1, 2012. I was on holiday/vacation in between. I upped my 401k contributions to 100% so I ended up topping up my 401k and had no taxable earnings for the year since everything was deferred.

I used the winter to line up our new health insurance, rollover my 401k to my IRA, etc. and do a little skiing so by the time spring rolled around everything was all set and I was able to enjoy the summer.

 

[Taxman59]

July 1, 2015. That is a vesting date for a deferred comp plan, a vacation accrual date, and I will have attended a big client event in June where I will likely get a great send off in spite of some members of management !


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[Lakedog]

I'm within 2 years of retiring early, and have decided I will retire in April. Compared to retiring on Jan 1, this will give me a few months to build up the fun money stash, and enjoy the spring weather outdoors without being tied to a job.

With similar thoughts, I retired at the end of March (2008). Those 3 months allowed me to max out the 401k (TSP in my case) for the year and still enjoy nice spring weather at the start of retirement.

 

[foxfirev5]

Likewise July 1st is the latest date on my radar. That will get me within a few months of 59 1/2, yet have enough nice weather before next winter. The greedy side of me wants to wait until January 2016 for a few more perks. But you've got to draw the line somewhere and I'm quickly becoming toast at work.

 

[Sanstar]

Planned date of retirement is end of March 2015. Will have maxed 403B with employer match by then. And have time to get annual and summer vegi gardens in.


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[rodi]

There are financial reasons to retire a few months into the year...
- Divert 100% of salary (if the plan allows) into 401k.
- Some places have bonuses that require you be an employee at payout of bonus for the previous year. (My old employer had switched to that policy when they realized folks were leaving the first few days of the year - after earning the bonus... but before the payout.)
- ESPP plans often have windows that are not even with the beginning or end of the year... Ours was May/November. If the stock has had a big runup - you might want to stick around to get that discounted stock.

That said - none of it played into my retirement date. I'd reached the point of having enough of a stash to support ER... but was in OMY mode (sort of) when I realized I was going to have to travel a lot to handhold a customer... I gave notice. (There was no actual business need - just trying to give the customer warm fuzzies at how attentive we were. )

I know under our old policy there was also an advantage to quitting on the first of a month - you had paid benefits for the entire month. They changed that also -my benefits ended the day after I terminated.

 

[Ronstar]

I retired 4-2 so that I could enjoy all of the spring and summer off of work


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[Philliefan33]

My plan is work until March 31, 2015. I'm eligible on February 28, but will work in March so I am eligible to participate in the ESPP.

I will have some vacation time for 2015. I haven't decided whether to use the days or get paid for them after retirement. The monetary amount won't be significant so I'm leaning towards burning vacation to shorten my work weeks.


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[robnplunder]

December or August (after cashing out stock options).

 

[nash031]

January 1st.