When did the anticipation of retirement really kick in?

[ER Eddie]

When did you start to really anticipate retirement -- in the sense of "pleasurable expectation," really relishing the idea, being able to taste it?


I'm asking because I saw a TED presentation that got me thinking about the joy of anticipation. As a kid, I loved the countdown to Christmas. As an adult, I love anticipating vacations; the anticipation is almost better than the vacation itself, sometimes.


I'm 16 months out from retirement, though, and it seems a little more like this

than this

So I'm wondering, when did the real joy of anticipating retirement kick in for you? When did you really start to feel it?


.

 

[truenorth418]

I was 18 months out. I was at a point where I could not take work anymore. I happened to be on vacation, hiking in Grand Canyon actually, and I had time to really think about my situation. I ran the numbers in my head and knew I was going to be good financially. From that point on there was no turning back for me.

 

[W2R]

I voted "other". I think probably the real joy of anticipating retirement kicked in about 9 years before ER. The closer I got, the more exciting it was.

Have you tried updating the number of days you have left? That was pretty exciting for me. I put that number on a corner of the whiteboard in my office, and every morning I erased it and put up the new number. It was about 2650 or so when I started. So, that would be over 7 years before I retired.

 

[steelyman]

I started planning about 5 years prior. Then the economy tanked and I thought different. But about a year before I left it looked better and it was OK to use a countdown app.

 

[Meadbh]

About 7 years prior to ER. I had received an inheritance and realized that this really was possible. From then on I was secretly planning it. I didn't get into the daily calendar thing but I did occasionally count the months or the number of times I would have to repeat a frustrating task.

 

[omni550]

I was a lot like W2R. I calculated how many w*rkdays I had left and wrote that in my calendar for the rest of the year...subtracting 5 on every Monday. I don't remember the highest number but it was probably about 8 years from my planned retirement day.

It sure helped get me thru some dark days at w*rk.

omni

 

[steelyman]

It gets a little crazy when you hit single digits

 

[ER Eddie]

Well, with nearly everyone answering "other" (more than a year), either I need to work on my anticipation skills or else I didn't really communicate my question effectively.

I didn't intend to ask, when is the first time you began to look forward to retirement. I meant rather, when did the anticipation level really take off? When did it start to feel so close you could taste it?

I made the poll choices under a year because I was confident that the level of anticipation I was talking about didn't happen 5 or 10 years out, but only as you got within striking distance, so to speak, or close enough to start drooling or chomping at the bit. When retirement is 5 to 10 years away, it is too distant to trigger that type of anticipation -- or at least, so I assumed. Maybe a lot of you really were drooling over retirement and chomping at the bit for years in advance.

At 16 months away, I'm still too far out to really "taste" it, in the sense I mean here. I have a small whiteboard on which I track the number of weeks left. 68. Not too bad, but still too far away to get really excited. I do look forward to retirement and think about it nearly every day, but for this poll, I was wondering about a higher pitch of anticipation. I'm just guessing, but I think it'll be when it gets under about 6 months, for me.

 

[MichaelB]

Sorry to disappoint, but no rising crescendo or eager anticipation here either. My transition was slow, steady and very evenly paced, and began more that a year out. A few butterflies toward the end, perhaps, but they were short lived. The ravages of menial tasks of an ordinary daily life overwhelmed my fears in a most satisfying way long before my last day at work.

 

[urn2bfree]

I am just under 6 and a half months and some days it seems very exciting and others it seems still too far away. My situation is complicated by the fact that I cannot tell people for another 3 months, so lately I have tried to get excited about that date. That still seems too far away. When I walk past a sign with my name on the door, I do smile at the image of it being scratched off. I suspect when I can start fielding the inevitable, "but what will you do?" and "how old are you?" and "why?" and so forth, that I will really enjoy the anticipation. But work is still too much of a presence in my life, too much stress and time left to really savor being done with it, yet.

 

[ER Eddie]

Sorry to disappoint, but no rising crescendo or eager anticipation here either. My transition was slow, steady and very evenly paced, and began more that a year out.

That's cool. Maybe I should take a lesson from the responses and just enjoy the anticipation at whatever level it sits, knowing that it'll gradually increase as I get closer.

 

[utrecht]

I'm about 20 months away and the anticipation is really started to kick in for me. I think about it daily. I'm down to counting in months like you do when a baby is born until it gets over 2 years old. I start sentences with "when I retire....". Things at work bother me less because I know it won't matter much longer. Etc.

 

[hsmom4]

We have about 5-7 years to go and I THINK about retirement every single day (and have for the last year or so). But we're still in the planning stages, which has proven to be a bit of a headache. I have a feeling the actual event will be pretty anti-climactic, so I'm planning something memorable (i.e. a cruise) to make sure we actually celebrate this milestone.

 

[xyz]

As others above have already said, my anticipation started about 5 years out. It was a long well planned event.

 

[RockyMtn]

Mine started when I entered the last year of my employment contract. It really kicked up six months out when my replacement was named and I sort of became "chairman emeritus" of my division.

 

[omni550]

Well, with nearly everyone answering "other" (more than a year), either I need to work on my anticipation skills or else I didn't really communicate my question effectively.

I didn't intend to ask, when is the first time you began to look forward to retirement. I meant rather, when did the anticipation level really take off? When did it start to feel so close you could taste it?

I made the poll choices under a year because I was confident that the level of anticipation I was talking about didn't happen 5 or 10 years out, but only as you got within striking distance, so to speak, or close enough to start drooling or chomping at the bit. When retirement is 5 to 10 years away, it is too distant to trigger that type of anticipation -- or at least, so I assumed. Maybe a lot of you really were drooling over retirement and chomping at the bit for years in advance.

At 16 months away, I'm still too far out to really "taste" it, in the sense I mean here. I have a small whiteboard on which I track the number of weeks left. 68. Not too bad, but still too far away to get really excited. I do look forward to retirement and think about it nearly every day, but for this poll, I was wondering about a higher pitch of anticipation. I'm just guessing, but I think it'll be when it gets under about 6 months, for me.

Oh, I could definitely 'taste' it ~7 years out...

When I finally figured out that there was a light at the end of the tunnel....it was ~7 years of anticipation which I could taste...which made it all the more delicious. (Especially because it was my own little secret.)

The last month or two was almost sort of anti-climatic -- finally letting everyone know I was leaving, becoming a 'lame duck', handing off projects, doing my last expense reports, etc.

(Remember, we are the ones who exceed at the marshmallow test.)

omni

 

[Semiretired2008]

I have planned early retirement since I was in my 20s. I always wanted to retire before age 60 and later refined it to about 57 or 58. I went into semi-retirement (reduced hours) around 52 or 53 and got forced out (so to speak) at 56. A little early, but at least I was semi prepared since I kind of saw the writing on the wall a few years earlier...

There are times that I wish I had not switched so early to semi-retirement, but I thought a few transition years made sense. If I had not switched I could have retired at 55 or 56 with no qualms...

 

[RE2Boys]

Did other. When govt agency started downsizing in 1997, was eligible. Didn't seriously consider it until they announced that the early retirement program was terminating. Left Feb 2000 with a one and three year old boys.

 

[ER Eddie]

Oh, I could definitely 'taste' it ~7 years out...

When I finally figured out that there was a light at the end of the tunnel....it was ~7 years of anticipation which I could taste...which made it all the more delicious. (Especially because it was my own little secret.)

Hmm. Maybe I need to work on amplifying my anticipation, then. I have been keeping myself focused on the present, with the rationale that it would make the time move faster if I stopped watching the clock (and also help to enjoy the present), but maybe I should shift strategies and savor the anticipation. Tom Petty says the waiting is the hardest part, but maybe the waiting is also one of the best parts. That's part of the fun of retiring, I would think -- knowing it's out there in the future, knowing you're getting closer, planning it, fantasizing about it, relishing the anticipation of it.

Here are some quotes I found:

“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.” -- A.A. Milne

“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting” - Andy Warhol

“..that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself” - Jane Austen

“...anticipation of happiness can sometimes be as gratifying as its consummation.” - Gaynor Arnold

"We need the sweet pain of anticipation to tell us we are really alive.” - Albert Camus

 

[Donzo]

I had always planned on jumping at age 55. A change in national management and a lot more responsibility/travel and stress got me thinking. I found this site in 2006, crunched numbers and was elated to find that I had enough and got out at age 49 - what a weight lifted! I stayed about 3 months after finding out I was good to go

 

[scrabbler1]

Before I read subsequent replies and ER Eddie's clarification post(s), I took his "being able to taste it" as the time I began to select an exact resignation date (and notification date) and began writing my brief resignation letter. This occurred a few months before I actually left the company, when the last piece of my ER plan had fallen into place. (Hence, I chose the "a few months away" option in the poll.)

 

[W2R]

musing about anticipation and thrilled fulfillment during that last year of work

Hmm. Maybe I need to work on amplifying my anticipation, then. I have been keeping myself focused on the present, with the rationale that it would make the time move faster if I stopped watching the clock (and also help to enjoy the present), but maybe I should shift strategies and savor the anticipation. Tom Petty says the waiting is the hardest part, but maybe the waiting is also one of the best parts. That's part of the fun of retiring, I would think -- knowing it's out there in the future, knowing you're getting closer, planning it, fantasizing about it, relishing the anticipation of it.

As retirement grew nearer, during the last year, it was very satisfying when things fell into place exactly as planned. I had planned for so long, and had almost expected something to go wrong. So, I was extremely ready to deal with whatever-it-would-be. At each of those last year milestones, such as officially giving notice, training my replacement, going through pre-retirement appointments with my doctor and dentist, getting my pension lined up, work-generated check lists completed, and so on, I was expecting some obstacle but nothing went wrong! So that was a really great feeling as everything fell into place, just as I had imagined it all those years.

Which is not to say that there were no obstacles - - all of us have them from time to time, and for example Hurricane Katrina (4 years before retirement) was one that I encountered and had to overcome. But I was thrilled when no more big obstacles came up during that last year. Seriously, life is not always easy and I honestly did not expect this.

During 2009, my last year, it was almost like my anticipation was giving way to thrilled fulfillment. For each milestone, you might have sensed my silent, mental shrieks of joy: "It happened! Right on schedule and just like in my plan! Oh my gosh! Woo-hoo, unbelievable! Smooth as silk! On to the next milestone and I am ready to tackle ANY obstacle now!"

As I got closer and closer to my retirement date, I could just hardly stand waiting any more. I took no vacation for quite a while and then took ALL of my accumulated vacation time during the last few months, even though that was not supposed to be a smart thing to do. For much of the last four or five months or so, I worked one week, took two weeks vacation, and repeat. That helped to make my transition easier. Besides, my daughter and only child decided to get married and her wedding was in Oregon two weeks before my long-planned retirement date, so I had that to deal with, plus the fact that the confluence of these things made me feel extremely old so I had that to deal with too.

 

[omni550]

Hmm. Maybe I need to work on amplifying my anticipation, then. I have been keeping myself focused on the present, with the rationale that it would make the time move faster if I stopped watching the clock (and also help to enjoy the present), but maybe I should shift strategies and savor the anticipation. Tom Petty says the waiting is the hardest part, but maybe the waiting is also one of the best parts. That's part of the fun of retiring, I would think -- knowing it's out there in the future, knowing you're getting closer, planning it, fantasizing about it, relishing the anticipation of it.

Here are some quotes I found:

“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.” -- A.A. Milne

“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting” - Andy Warhol

“..that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself” - Jane Austen

“...anticipation of happiness can sometimes be as gratifying as its consummation.” - Gaynor Arnold

"We need the sweet pain of anticipation to tell us we are really alive.” - Albert Camus

Yes!

Another fun thing about having my FIRE plans be my own little secret was, at times, like during my performance reviews when the topic turned to my 5 and 10 year career goals, I would drop something about retiring early into the conversation with my boss followed by a huge smile and a wink. I looked younger than my age and had joined mega-corp at age 40, so everyone knew that I did not have the age and service for the "30-year early out program" so they just thought that I was simply joking around. Little did they know...

More delightful anticipation.

omni

 

[jollystomper]

I didn't start to anticipate it until about 5 years ago, When I became eligible for retirement at Megacorp and we had finished college payments for all but our youngest child (who will be starting this fall). That meant a boost in my future pension that started make real FIRE (in my mind retiring and not having to work at all, even part time) feasible. Megacorp also increased their layoff rate as an an older worker I knew I might be a target. DW and I continued to crank up saving/investing and reduce spending. As was mentioned above the anticipation hasn't been a leap, but more a steady growth.

 

[imoldernu]

No anticipation... Left the Corporate world in 1986 when my company's division closed down, and started my own business. In 1989, in the process of taking out a very large loan for a major expansion, along came the diagnosis of cancer.

Leaving DW with an impossible debt, was not an option, and uncertainty about the future led to extensive calculations, and the nervous decision to take a try at retiring. In retrospect, a scary proposition, as the financial part wasn't exactly "safe", but so far, so good. We weren't exactly "dreamers" but it all worked out.
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