Planned Age at Retirement

[kyounge1956]

For people who are retired, how old were you when you retired? (snip)

One of the younger folk can do "Age when I plan to retire" if they like.

I am assuming that you mean they can go and create THEIR OWN TOPIC AND POLL, and NOT vote in this one!(snip)

Correct. (snip)

And here it is.

Use the age at which you plan to stop working full time, and derive less than half your income from part-time work or self-employment.

"Other determining factors" means you plan to retire based on something other than age, e.g. you will retire as soon as your portfolio balance hits a target value. Tell us what your "other factor" is.

 

[Gumby]

I was shooting for 55, but the recent market unpleasantness caused a two year delay.

 

[aaronc879]

I'm hoping for 49 at the latest if I go from full time work to full time FIRE. That should be doable after 30 years of full time work even with an average pay of less than $50K/yr in todays dollars. I may decide to go part time in my early 40's.

 

[wildcat]

56, 57, 58 for me

I used to say very early when I initially thought of the idea but here are my thoughts for present day:

ER will become more difficult to pull off if we don't see bull markets like the ones in the past & who knows how expensive health insurance will become among other things - gas, for example, has more than doubled in price since I first started driving.

I'm carrying student loan debt & that has reduced my ability to save as much as possible. Hopefully I can put a dent in it but it's tough to spread money around between different obligations & needs.

As of now, it has been difficult to move up the income ranks (for me personally anyway) to the level you really need to be at in order to stash a lot of money away.

As I have thought about my personal situation, I realized sort of what it would be like to ER at a very early age. I would be the only one. I'm not sure if I will have kids or get married so my companions are my buddies (most haven't started saving or will have obligations for quite some time) for now and I doubt I would ever get together with them aside from an occasional weekend. If I ER'd early, I would really have to find ways to keep busy. Not sure I would be up for that starting that at such an early age unless I really found some passion that was so great I felt work kept me from it.

Things can of course change but I think mid-late 50s will allow the most secure situation for me. I have entertained the idea of maybe taking 3 or 6 months off while I am still young and doing some travel I would do if I was an ER - temporary ER light if you will.

For now, I am focusing on trying to find a career errr job I can enjoy for now & one that has a bright future (still holding out hope that it exists ).

 

[glippy]

Hoping to be in position to just do a very limited part-time solo law practice and some limited land-lording on the side with dividends filling in the gaps by 35. Single, no plans for kids, and happier reading novels in a hammock or nodding off with a fishing pole in my hand than I am on a trek to some foreign country. I'm 26 right now and things are shaping up well.

 

[KM]

I voted 55. Our plan has always been 55, as that is when we can start tapping our pensions (albeit early) and get subsidized health care from my employer. I have to admit, though, the last few years have roughed up our plans a little....and we might have to go to 56.

But right now, we are still shooting for 55.

 

[martyb]

Retired from my military reserves career a couple months ago after 33 yrs. I WILL retire from my full-time federal career in 2 yrs, 6 months & 13 days on my 55th birthday, just a little short of 36 years. Absolutely zero chance I will work beyond that date.

 

[Hiredgun]

48 if all goes well. However, as an early poster mentioned, with the lack of bull markets in the near future it may get alot tougher.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

I'm 55. About a year ago my ideal scenario was to retire at about age 58 or 59 with some 30% more net worth than what I had at the time. Then this new job I took at the time turned just sour and so stressful that I was becoming paranoid. So a few months I decided to quit, with the NW I had. As of last month, I am retired, at 55. I am still short some 20% of what I "dreamed" of having when I was to retire at 58 or 59. But then I have to remind myself that I still have three to four years to reach that ideal NW goal. Meanwhile, I am waking up each and every day at any hour I want, with no clock-alarm, smelling the coffee while it takes its time brewing, and going about these days without the stress and BS and headache of w**k.

 

[bizlady]

Unless the market totally crumbles - age 55-- with 9 months and 6 days to go....

 

[traineeinvestor]

I should be able to retire and call it quits at 46-47. With no pension and no welfare to fall back on, achieving this will depend on hitting target financial milestones.

 

[plex]

Hoping to be in position to just do a very limited part-time solo law practice and some limited land-lording on the side with dividends filling in the gaps by 35. Single, no plans for kids, and happier reading novels in a hammock or nodding off with a fishing pole in my hand than I am on a trek to some foreign country. I'm 26 right now and things are shaping up well.

Ditto, not sure if I want to do real estate though, depends on the quality of rentals and renters in the area.

 

[Meadbh]

I was shooting for 55 but given recent and current market shenanigans the plan now is 56-58. No matter what happens, I definitely want to ER before 60. I have 3-7 years to go, depending on other factors.

 

[FIREd]

We expected to retire at 50, but some lucky events along the way will allow us both to retire, or at the very least semi-retire, prior to our 40th birthdays.

 

[Texas Proud]

My first choice..... 55...

But then I got married... with two kids that will need to go to college... and I now have to make sure 'we' have enough...

Soooo.. I would like to make it 58.... but then the market tanked and as others have said... health care etc. is an issue for now... I am putting down 60...

But my wife is trying to get certified to teach in a school and will do this to provide some money and health benefits... so maybe 58 will work...

Just keeping things in perspective... and since my job is not bad at all... I might be able to negotiate a part time gig .... sweet...

 

[chinaco]

Plan has been and still is 55.... in about a year.

While our funding is not as strong as it was before the meltdown... we are still good to go due to some timely repositioning of allocations back in late 2006 and early 2007.

But if the markets do not stabilize and we do not enter a slightly more robust economic recovery... I may adjust the timing or try to work part time for a while (till the recovery is more apparent).


Ideally, I hope to retire at the beginning of [at least] an average market/economic recovery.

 

[chris2008]

When I am 52 DH is elegible for ER with pension, the mayor part of healthcare covered and insured. If my income is below a ccertain amount I am covered by his plan, too (German health care system for civil service).
As we turned out not to have kids we decided very early that we wanted to be financilally able to retire together. All calculations say that it will work out and that there is plenty of margin.
We will have to bridge 8 years till I can claim my own pension.
Our current life style does not require as much as both pensions would be.
Thanks to tracking expenses for years and to not being into stuff and expensive hobbies!

 

[Sea Kayaker]

Between 45 and 50 for me - hopefully much closer to 45. Our plan requires us to save 60k-70k per year for the next 7 years, along with (hopefully) a bit of help from the markets to boost our portfolio somewhat. Our net worth clicked over the seven figure threshold earlier this year and we have determined that we can easily live a great lifestyle with retirement income between 50k - 60k... if we can acheive more, all the better.

I've messed around with multiple retirement calculators... 45 actually seems possible.

 

[FUEGO]

I'm in the Under 40 category. It is really "Other Determining Factors" such as the portfolio reaching a certain level (roughly double what we have today) and reaching a few other savings goals (pay off mortgage, put a little aside for kids' college, etc). Our current plan also assumes the federal health insurance subsidies remain at the currently legislated levels and hence our health insurance costs will be only a few thousand a year.

The spreadsheets tell me age 35-38 is when we will be FI. That is 5-8 more years. Mr Market will really impact the timing to a great extent. And we have tossed around the idea of semi-retirement or switch working where DW works, then quits and I start back working, then eventually quit, then she starts back etc. No buy-in from DW on that so far, so it may just be we both quit when everything falls in place.

5 more years of flat to down markets would do awesome things for our portfolio since we would be buying in cheap for so long. I expect we'll see a recovery before 5 years but no one really knows. I'm just leaving our savings and investments basically on autopilot and redirecting new investments to underweighted asset classes occasionally.

 

[ronocnikral]

i put 45-50. i have scenarios which have us checking out a little earlier (before 40), but it is based on some assumptions that have a lot of risk, such as: pension continuing, getting a gig overseas, health care etc. we have so much ahead of us (27, DW is 32) with trying to bring new ones into this world and life...who knows?! i hope to actually have a bulk of my NW stashed away by 45 and get one of those "difficult" and "low paying" teaching jobs so I can spend more time with the impending kids...the grass is always greener...

i also have scenarios where i work at megacorp until i'm 60. i do what i call a stochastic (monte carlo) lite calculation, where I am too lazy to open up my simulator and basically try to get an understanding of the range of possibilities (albeit, a larger range w/o the stochastic calcs & probabilities).

 

[ziggy29]

Hard to say. Could be as early as about 50 and as late as 62 depending on how life events unfold.

 

[hankster]

I'm shooting for around age 59 1/2. This isn't necessarily due to the penalty free withdrawal provisions of that age. We plan to have several years worth of taxable savings from which to draw before touching any tax-deferred or Roth accounts. I'd just like to exit the workplace before age 60, and the nest egg should be adequate (even with 3% to 4% returns) at that time. So hopefully, I have 7 years left to w*rk.

It's understood that this date is flexible as the uncertainties of the future dictate.

 

[Independent]

I'm 55. About a year ago my ideal scenario was to retire at about age 58 or 59 with some 30% more net worth than what I had at the time. Then this new job I took at the time turned just sour and so stressful that I was becoming paranoid. So a few months I decided to quit, with the NW I had. As of last month, I am retired, at 55. I am still short some 20% of what I "dreamed" of having when I was to retire at 58 or 59. But then I have to remind myself that I still have three to four years to reach that ideal NW goal. Meanwhile, I am waking up each and every day at any hour I want, with no clock-alarm, smelling the coffee while it takes its time brewing, and going about these days without the stress and BS and headache of w**k.

You aren't alone. In a poll a year or so ago on "Why did you retire exactly when you did?" I recall the clear majority of answers had to do with something negative about work.

 

[Independent]

At 80 replies, the median looks like 55 - exactly the same as the "When did you retire?" poll.

That surprises me. I expected the planners to have a lower expected age than the actuals.

 

[jIMOh]

56, 57 or 58

I chose that
I did not read far enough down to see the choice for other factors... once savings is 25X my current expenses, I will not be working past the upcoming summer. I am about 3 portfolio doubles from that happening, and if mortgage is paid off anytime soon, it's about 2.5 doubles.

age 37 now
age 58 would be latest I would expect to work, and age 54 is about soonest I would expect to retire, but with a few good market years (I am 95% stocks) I should be able to predict the workforce exit with higher certainty.