Hello hiredgun. No second thoughts here.
+1
I hung on for a couple extra years to qualify for retiree HI at 55. Lucky I did as I would have ER'ed right before the crash and would almost certainly have had 2nd thoughts in that scenario.
Hello hiredgun. No second thoughts here.
Just curious since I'm getting very close to my retirement (freedom) date. From everything I've read, very few people regret pulling the plug, even years later. Some wish they had made the jump earlier.
Hiredgun said:With all the ups/downs of the economy and the unknowns (i.e. health costs, gas costs, brother-in-law asks for a loan, etc.), is there anyone who retired and then later says "I wished I would have worked 1,2,3.... years more" for the added cushion or just so you'd have more spare cash to do things you want to? Anyone?
Thanks,
I retired at 59. Things haven't worked out as well as I expected (health and economic problems), but I'd still do it again.
The financial key was that we had a significant cushion. My projections said that we could cover 2x our normal expenses. So when bad times came we weren't stressed about paying for the basics. Had to give up some expected luxuries, but getting out of the rat race was worth it.
I cant however, let go of parttime jobs.
+1
I hung on for a couple extra years to qualify for retiree HI at 55. Lucky I did as I would have ER'ed right before the crash and would almost certainly have had 2nd thoughts in that scenario.
DH is doing the same. The other benefit to retiring at 55 is the separation from company clause that allows you to withdraw from a 401k without penalty.
For us, 55 is "the magic number".
For me that magic number was 58 until I hit 50. I was in the office of the HR noumber 2 guy to check on something and he looked up my record and said, "Hey, you can RE at 55, which is a year earlier than me". Having that age suddenly jump 3 years closer was a great feeling. I think I floated out of his office.
IMHO, it's not the "quantity" of life but rather the "quality" of life that counts.I live in a rented 300 square foot studio apartment in the SF East Bay with a cat, and have only my legs and a bicycle for transport.
..snip..
I live in a rented 300 square foot studio apartment in the SF East Bay with a cat, and have only my legs and a bicycle for transport.
..snip..
PS - I just measured my apartment, and it's closer to 285 square feet
That's the key IMO.And if you need the paycheck, it can be high stress.
Looking back it is clear that one more year would have been better from a financial standpoint. DH retired in mid-2010 at the exact month that maximized his lump sum retirement. A month earlier or later and he would have received less money. I semi-retired around the same time, going from a very high stress job to working at the same job but on a very very part time basis (about 10 hours a week). I had originally planned to retire fully but when I turned in my resignation I was asked to continue on part-time.
On the one hand DH has loved being retired and I have loved being semi-retired and the work I do now is much lower stress. When I think about what it would have been like to work full time another year it fills me stress and anxiety.
But, there have been some negative financial events all house related. We had planned to downsize our large, expensive house and buy a less expensive house for retirement. Two years later we accomplished all that but, long story short, the cost to us to do all this was about $250k more than what we had originally anticipated -- every possible thing that could go wrong went wrong.
In retrospect, had DH and I both worked full time another year then we could have absorbed all this much better.
That said...we did adapt. I ended up increasing my part-time working hours a bit and I will probably continue it longer than I would have had the house thing worked out differently. That really isn't a huge hardship since I find that I enjoy doing the lower-stress, lower hours work that I'm doing now. I will keep doing it as long as I enjoy doing it.
And -- bottom line -- Firecalc still says we are OK. The net effect of all this is that we will ultimately have a little less to spend each year but still enough to meet our budget (most of the $250k we lost on house related stuff we will be getting back through my work time work which is well paid).
So, financial logic would say that it would have made sense to have waited to change from full time work until we had sold our house (which would have meant about another year)....but I also know that would have been highly stressful.
ER was partially forced on me due to a layoff..........I do wish my job had continued for longer, but am glad that I managed to accumulate what I did
IMHO, it's not the "quantity" of life but rather the "quality" of life that counts.
If you are content in your situation that's all that counts. You need not live up to other's ideas of what/how you should be living.
Just becase one has "more", does it mean that they are better off.
My simple POV ...
I lived in a furnished suite too when I first moved to SF. It was right next to a BART station and of course, in the city of SF, you're never more than a few blocks from a bus stop. San Franciscans love to moan about their public transport but overall, it works pretty well. I think that in densely populated cities with good public transport, you're actually at a disadvantage with a car. Plus, the monthly pass just a few years ago was a very low $45 for BART, buses and cable cars in the City. Amazing deal. They finally got wise, and now the price is a lot higher but back then, it was an incredible deal.In 1999, due to a failed contract situation, the company sent me to live in a 250sf suite in a hotel in downtown SF, supposedly a short term situation but it turned out to be nearly 11 months. Like you Major Tom, it was just my feet, and SF public transport. Loved it.
Funny how we manage to get over our jobs isn't it? Even though I loved mine, I'm over it tooMy story too except I was older and closer to planned ER when the layoff hit than you were. I was 58 and planning to work until 60 or 62. The assignment I had at the time was actually enjoyable with some international travel and work that pulled from my years of experience. Despite the fact that it turned out I was FI and therefore could call the layoff RE and I was having a great time with retirement activities, I did actually miss the job for a while. That was in 2006. I seem to be over it now..........