Did you preplan your retirement day?

martyp said:
I preplanned my ER date for May 1, 2011 to coincide with my 55th birthdate (Feb 27th)..
Click to expand...

This is my plan right now (next year). But there won't be a long notice...depending on how mean I feel (and I can get mean :mad:) might be 2 weeks...but that wouldn't be fair to my team but it is sooooo tempting...right in the middle of a big issue :LOL:
 
The first day on which I was eligible for these benefits was 11/7/2009. However, that was a Saturday! What to do, what to do. I decided to retire on Monday, 11/9/2009, to make sure there wasn't any question about my eligibility for retirement benefits.
Click to expand...

You are so much braver than I would be. I've seen far too many bad behaviors by Megacorp to ever give notice BEFORE a significant vesting date. Far too easy to get pushed out on short notice and miss the date. I plan to give notice only after I've vested or reached any significant bonus dates, giving appropriate professional notice but leaving no possibility at all that I miss an important date. Glad it worked for you.
 
I have a firm date in mind, but no one at work knows. I have a countdown on my phone that I look at with satisfaction from time to time. 😊 it started at over 900 workdays and is now below 400.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
Ally said:
I have a firm date in mind, but no one at work knows. I have a countdown on my phone that I look at with satisfaction from time to time. 😊 it started at over 900 workdays and is now below 400.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
Click to expand...


If you posted it, everyone would know and you can all quit together!
 
Ally said:
I have a firm date in mind, but no one at work knows. I have a countdown on my phone that I look at with satisfaction from time to time. �� it started at over 900 workdays and is now below 400.
Click to expand...

I did something like that starting back in 2006...August, I think. An excel spreadsheet titled "2000Workdays.xls" I just had it set in my mind that I wanted to work about 2000 more days, so I started the countdown. I think it did coincide to wind down just short of my 46th birthday in April of 2016.

I haven't kept it up to date though, logging vacations and such, and I'm less optimistic that 2016 is a realistic goal for me.

So now, since I'm shooting for April of 2020, maybe I need to start a new file called "68.5_Months.xls" or something like that. I did a quick estimate and, factoring in government holidays and assuming I use all 5 weeks of my leave every year, I have roughly 1284 workdays until retirement!
 
Yep, already have my last date tentatively set (although haven't given notice this far out yet).

If the stock is trading below about $45, it'll be Friday Feb 13, 2015. Below $45, it's just not worth it for me to stick around another month.

If the stock is trading above that, I'll stick around another month for the next ESPP payout, and last date would be Friday Mar 13, 2015.

Either way, I plan on leaving on a Friday the 13th :)
 
I set a date 2 years out but ended up RE'ing after only 12 months because we decided to take a long trip with our kids and the timing worked out better this way.
 
I had planned for the day after I would turn 55 , THEN.......... in the year before that some major life events, and a transfer to a real crap assignment was the straw that broke the back of the camel.

Pushed up the date by 6 mo., and stuck to it.
 
I set my final date about 4 months ago and now it is almost here. 7/21/2014 was the first date I considered as it was the last of my yearly lots of stock options to vest. Then I moved it to 8/1 because I get an entire months worth of insurance for half the cost. After today, I have 8 working days left! I get paid for any leftover vacation, so I have taken just enough to keep me sane the last few months.
 
My date planning was all over the map.
First I had my drop dead date - 55th birthday so 9/12/2016.
Then I decided I could do it when I had my 20 year anniversary with Megacorp - 1/30/2015.
Then DH pointed out that if I was staying till the end of January - why not stay 2 more months to get the 2014 bonus. (They pay it out 4/1 each year - and if you're not there, you don't get it.) So I set April Fools, 2014.
Then I found out I'd have to travel a lot this summer. And I gave 2 week notice after discussing it with DH. I hate work travel and I'd have been rotating 1week out of town out of every 3 for summer and fall. All for appearances to make the customer happy, not because I'd be useful at the customer site, or be of value there.

So... best laid plans and all - but no regrets about not sticking to the plan.
 
DH and I are 56, but have been planning retirement for a long time.
Plan was for me to retire 1/1/15 and DH to follow 6/1/16 (when he qualifies for pension). Work was okay and I enjoy the people. Then a new SVP came on board late last year with grandiose plans to change the culture. After 9 months of seeing her agenda I moved my date to 8/1. No reason to stay any longer - in fact I should have left on 7/1 to kick off summer, but didn't want to leave my team without writing their year end reviews and recommendation for merits. I gave my director and HR notice on 7/3, but they don't plan to announce it until next week (I did tell my managers this week so they wouldn't be surprised).
My only concern at this point is that they may cheat me on my year end bonus. I'm already feeling less stress knowing I don't have to participate in the new culture BS. My managers are taking me out for lunch and drinks on my last day! I will miss them.
 
My only concern at this point is that they may cheat me on my year end bonus.
Click to expand...
I hope they will be honorable and play fair with you, but I have seen this go badly so many times that I vow never to put myself in such a position. I will certainly not give notice until AFTER I have received whatever annual bonus or vesting is due. Good luck.
 
I asked our HR manager about my annual bonus today. She said year end reviews haven't been approved or finalized yet so she doesn't know about the impact to my bonus. So, not sure yet.....


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
Since my employer had generally been nice to me, I gave a 6 week notice (working 2-3 days per week, filling in with vacation) to train my replacements (programming).
 
Keep us posted. I'd be curious to hear if you think the bonus was adjusted after they knew you were a short timer.
 
Yes! My work environment became more caustic and stupid so the plan was to exit as soon as possible without telling anyone until the last moment........like 1 week before I Pulled the Pin! It was great!


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
I had my date set for about 18 months. It was based on a number of factors (bonus pay out dates, vacation accrual, etc). 6 weeks prior, I gave 2 weeks notice. They 'convinced me to stay 5 weeks with some incentives. So I agreed and except for client/supplier transition meetings, spent most of the time playing solitaire.

I handed in my id badge 7 days prior to my original target date and walked out.

2 years + later have not missed it for one second
 
I've had a date for several years, but kept moving it for one reason or another... I finally retired 2 weeks ago and am easing into FIRE... I quite like not having any real responsibilities other than what I want to do... I've been culling the accumulation of a lifetime, shredding old documents, selling everything to get light in preparation for going expat... My plan is to move to Chiang Mai, Thailand later this year...

Then I got the call... My old boss called me yesterday, telling me that they need me to come back... I chatted with him for a while to discuss terms and he offered a 6 month contract for roughly my previous annual salary... Now I have to think about it... Crap...

At what point do you say, I have enough $$$ and turn down offers like this?
 
Keyser - If you truly don't want to go back, then don't. If you are convinced you would really make a difference (especially to coworkers you personally like), then negotiate for what you want, not what they are offering. Three months instead of 6 (so you can move as planned) maybe? Can you do some of the work from home so you don't spend time commuting? At the very least I would ask for a significant premium over your previous salary since you'll be paying your own health insurance and possibly SS (is it a salary or a 1099 contract?).

Good luck with the decision, that's a tough one. It's nice to be wanted, but...
 
For 1 job it was the last day in March after I turned 50. That gave me the pension, pension raises are April 1st so I got that, healthcare, and I only had to pay 66k to retire at 50 :)

Then started 2nd career which I will be laid off from 10/15/14 or 4/15/15.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app
 
I planned to retire on my 60th b-day & everyone knew it for years. Then 2 years & 2 months before I decided to retire & was gone a week later. People were surprised but I was just tired of working for the government & wanted to work p.t. for myself.
 
Yes I had a plan, lots of plans! DW and I were going to retire at 60. Then DW went and passed away at 52. My plan revised to age 57 when the mortgage would have been gone for a year or so. At the 2012 shareholder conference call for MegaCorp the institutional guys started asking why layoffs came with a decent severance and partial medical. That worried me enough that when the offer to leave came around I jumped on it at age 54. So I left earlier than ideal but its all working out.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app
 
God willing and the creek don't rise, I'm out on 1/04/2020.

Working on cleaning up a few debts and adding to savings.
 
This is an interesting question. As evident from other posts here, setting a date is usually a decision heavily affected by when various financial thresholds are reached, such as qualifying for a pension, retiree health benefits, annual incentive payout, stock options, etc.

At my company, which provides no pension or retiree health benefits, there's only one major retiree benefit (receiving the company's services for free) that's triggered upon reaching a certain age and years of work. I knew about 5 years back that this milestone would be a decision point for me, depending on how close I was to achieving some level of FI.

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week -- "Pulling the trigger - shift from mind to heart" -- after reaching these milestones it didn't take long for the inner drive to exit to overwhelm any remaining financial considerations (such as waiting another year for stock options to vest).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
The age when you actually retire, vs. the age when you begin taking social security
2 3
Replies
55
Views
5K
Midpack
Midpack
E
Five Years Retired: Lessons Learned
Replies
24
Views
2K
Koolau
Koolau
Janet H
Forum Update - We're back! Ask your questions here.
4 5 6
Replies
133
Views
2K
skyking1
skyking1
Earl E Retyre
secondary brokered CDs - searching questions
Replies
3
Views
449
njhowie
njhowie
B
Any AZ tax experts? Line 20-24 mutual fund gains
Replies
0
Views
167
badatmath
B

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom