Knowing when to call it quits....

[Nick12]

I had enough in my investments in 2018 to fire. , it has almost doubled since I retired in 2018. When I left Mega Corp, it was because my father had a terminal illness and I had the rewarding opportunity to be his caregiver in his last six months. I would never consider having him being in a nursing home. After he passed and my portfolio kept increasing in value I am content in not returning to work. Currently I am taking care of my mom.

 

[kaudrey]

It is also a date for me. I am 52, but my DH is turning 65 toward the end of the year. He retired a few years ago; I'm retiring when he can switch from my insurance to Medicare. I was going to go earlier, but with 100% telework, and the fact that we can't really travel yet, I figure I might as well wait a few extra months.

But, then I am gone. DH is extremely healthy, but....you never know. We are going to enjoy our time together sooner rather than later.

 

[street]

When I FIRED at 58/59 one of my colleagues also said he was going to retire. It was always one more year with him, some more money in his retirement portfolio. One more year turned into four more years.

He had lots of retirement plans that included taking his children and grandchildren on a cruise. He finally did retire at 63/64. He dropped dead six months later.

There are a lot of those scenarios retire and die shortly after. It is amazing how many people I know in the last few years that have died under the age of 70. I would have to sit down and and count them but if I remember it was around 35 people in just a couple of years.

Absolutely, no time to waste.

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

good thread. I'm struggling with this now. I was over my number probably about 24 months ago, now comfortably over, but those dang RSUs are staring at me in the next couple of quarters.

I don't know what I'd do with my day, but sitting at a desk typing and being on conference calls all day isn't it.

I think I have 35 more Mondays...

 

[zekeboz]

There are a lot of those scenarios retire and die shortly after. It is amazing how many people I know in the last few years that have died under the age of 70. I would have to sit down and and count them but if I remember it was around 35 people in just a couple of years.

Absolutely, no time to waste.

Yes. 2020 has been a horrible year for losing friends even outside of Covid. I lost a couple employees, one to lingering health issues at 38 and another to cancer, 49, within 6 months. The 2nd was especially hard since the cancer came out of nowhere, a great person.

Not retired myself but we reached FI a couple years ago. I have similar thoughts that since I have been working from home now 100% for almost a year I think I am going to ride out this 'work from home' until a date is set on going back into the office and retire then.

We are with Vanguard and in one of my latest 'free' consultations my rep. did a complete 180 with the usual Vanguard 'speak' and shared a graph that was outside of their system, I was shocked since over the years they seem to speak this expected generic formula that was textbook. In short he shared a site, https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/ that highlights a simple monte carlo simulation with death rates.. An eye opening experience for sure that really provided a dose of reality.
-Zeke

 

[Midpack]

Watch the news....people die in their 60's and 70's. And even if you make it to your 80's, how much money do you need to sit and watch tv all day.

Start enjoying your life now and do the things you want to do, while you still have your health....stop worrying about nickels and dimes.

PS ...I cashed out at 52.

EXCELLENT advice.

Really, do you want to be the richest person in the care home? Sitting in your chair wishing you had done all of the things you dreamed of when you had the health and the strength to do it.

Nice post. You can't take it with you when you go. Each of us has to figure out for ourselves how much we value time over money. None of us by any means can know how much time on Earth we have , but we still must make a choice.

NOT good advice unless you’re in poor health already IMO. Odds are you won’t die young, so you’d better plan on what’s most likely, for most that’s a good long life. If you run into high medical expenses and/or long term care it could cost a fortune to “sit and watch TV all day.”

Anyone who tells you they wish they would have retired earlier - I’d take it with a grain of salt unless they’ve been retired for a good long time, like 20 years. None of us can know that until we go poof, and the money hasn’t run out. It is a careful balance between time vs money as the last post notes.

 

[Exchme]

Did you see the excellent breakdown at EarlyRetirementNow.com called "The Effect of One More Year -SWR series part 42"? Karsten showed that you gain a lot of buffer very quickly once you are near your number, so you may gain a lot of peace of mind later to put up with a little bit more w*rk now.

 

[Koolau]

Did you see the excellent breakdown at EarlyRetirementNow.com called "The Effect of One More Year -SWR series part 42"? Karsten showed that you gain a lot of buffer very quickly once you are near your number, so you may gain a lot of peace of mind later to put up with a little bit more w*rk now.

I took a quick look here: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2021/01/13/one-more-year-swr-series-part-42/

Honestly, not interested enough to follow the math, but I suppose the premise is reasonably sound. Realistically, you stay one more year and build your nest egg while lopping off one year of life at the end. It would have to work, right? The author pointed out that OMY should be more effective than going back to w*rk in a pinch. Fair enough. You're unlikely to earn as much going back as you would during OMY.

I skimmed and then read the conclusion. What jumped out at me was the author's take on the trade off of a greater stash vs "...while working in a cushy corporate job..." Apparently, that was the author's situation. Related here previously, I sort of fit that description for a few years (was actually having fun - until I wasn't.) I'm guessing a lot of folks who have responded to this thread did NOT fit that description of w*rk situation. Hence, many have advised getting out as soon as possible.

It really IS a personal decision when to pull the plug. It's based on your financial situation, your willingness to be flexible if ER goes south, a bit of luck, and some intangibles as well. All in all, it's still YMMV.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

good thread. I'm struggling with this now. I was over my number probably about 24 months ago, now comfortably over, but those dang RSUs are staring at me in the next couple of quarters.

I don't know what I'd do with my day, but sitting at a desk typing and being on conference calls all day isn't it.

I think I have 35 more Mondays...

If you were "good to go 24 months ago" then I would say you have 35 too many Mondays.

 

[Alex The Great]

When to call it quit ... when you work from home because of COVID for more than a year, and one day have been asked by your boss to get back to office

 

[Surewhitey]

We called it quits twice. First in 2011 for 3 years in Mexico. My second time is a hybrid approach. I was 48 & felt we were "there". DW has reservations & works from home for corporate insurance. She likes her job most days.

I had left a job that was failing to a big corporation. Was not my cup of tea. Decided to remodel the house myself (instead of trading my earnings for the contractors) and then honing my skills in what I really enjoyed. Building furniture and refacing kitchens have become my part-time gig & DW is now on board with the decision.

We're in our medium # for savings and appx 25% above our spending if we did 3.5% WR. Every year we'll grow another 3-4 years of expenses until DW is comfortable with leaving. In the mean time, I'll do what I enjoy doing and meeting many people in the community along the way. I'm 50 & waiting...

 

[retire202052]

NOT good advice unless you’re in poor health already IMO. Odds are you won’t die young, so you’d better plan on what’s most likely, for most that’s a good long life. If you run into high medical expenses and/or long term care it could cost a fortune to “sit and watch TV all day.”

Anyone who tells you they wish they would have retired earlier - I’d take it with a grain of salt unless they’ve been retired for a good long time, like 20 years. None of us can know that until we go poof, and the money hasn’t run out. It is a careful balance between time vs money as the last post notes.

Sorry, I'm not going to work 5 more years, when I'm healthy, so I'll have enough money to pay for possible medical bills when I'm 85

 

[tmitchell]

I’m planning to quit at the end of September. I’ll be 54 and will have enough and then some. It’s been a real struggle getting to this place because I fought hard for success and won the game.

Now the game is a bad habit I haven’t been able to give up, but a couple weeks ago my doctor started treating me for high blood pressure. Clearly what I’m “winning” at now is bad for my health. First actual health problem in my 53 short years.

Since that happened October 1st looks like a treacherously long road ahead and I’m considering moving up the date.

One last thing: leaving a career doesn’t mean never earning money again. Maybe not the same kind of money, but having the flexibility to earn as a stop gap makes not running out of money less likely.

 

[swabby01]

Sometimes the number is "never enough" until it is more than enough. Sounds confused but in my case I set a target. Hit the number and was ready to start the process of exit and got promoted ..... this went this way for about eight years (with more and more corporate demands the last four) and in the ensuing time we paid off the house paid off the kids college bills, replaced both cars and bought toys. Finally, work helped me do what I should have done much earlier - My management level was higher than I ever expected and work made future advancement contingent on my moving my family across country, IMMEDIATELY. I said wasn't going to happen - they pressed anyway. As I continued to do my job we put away ALL annual incentives and LTI's and the market and compounding did the rest. As payment for my "insubordination" they low balled me on my performance review even thought my portfolio of programs was one of the highest performers. After the review I told boss, Im done, I gave four months notices for an orderly transition. A week later boss came back with a revised PR which changed the multipliers on LTI and annual incentive bonus. He asked if I would stay another 12-18 months and I said no but appreciated the additional retirement funds. Final incentives resulted in us having high seven figure in savings and a six figure pension for life including insurance. The push made me realize we would retire with enough money to pay all bills, travel all over the world (couple of big trips a year) and still be in the position to save each year . Held my retirement date and have smiled every time I think of it. Our only worry now is how to handle the MD on the 401K's. If you think that you are there you have probably already saved too much like us. Sit down with a CFP and just listen to what they have to say - it was worth the $500 to us and affirmed we had done the right things

 

[WhenIsItTime]

Check out my name. At some point nest egg and BS had both gone up to where it was clear. Felt like big decision at moment. So far so good.

 

[RetireeRobert]

Knowing when to call it quits is sort of like pornography.... it's hard to describe but you know it when you see it.

Good advice, you'll know it when you see it.

I retired at 54, took about 20 minutes to adjust to retirement, never looked back, never regretted my decision.

At the time my kids were 7, 11, and 17. They, my wife, and I got to do some travels and adventures and create some precious memories. I got to spend my early retirement driving kids to and back from school, and boy did my wife appreciate that time in our life, as she had been a stay at home mom, and the kids and driving to school and back had been a big part of her daily life for years.

Later, after kids were in (or out) of college, wife and I got to do some trip on our own, including a couple trips to Europe, and a couple cross country drives to visit one kid or the other. I look back fondly on those 20 years of retirement fondly. And now, more than fondly.

No, I never once even had an inkling of regret for having retired at 54.

As my wife passed away la

 

[Monterey298sc]

I listed my 2 business properties last week for sale. I am still in business until they sell. I am burned out, we hit our number and hope they sell fast.

 

[Souschef]

In retrospect, I think I was sort of guilty for an OMY. I remarried in November 2007, then waited until January 2008 to get my profit sharing, 7% of my salary right into my 401K. Then I thought, wait until June for my bonus. Then, I thought wait until January 2009 for my profit sharing. At that point, I came to my senses. I left 2 days after my profit sharing got posted, and 2 days later we were on our way on a 14 day South American tour. Never looked back.

 

[samcat]

My husband and I are 61 and 55. We are bookkeepers to high net worth families. We hired Bill at moneyevolution.com to do an analysis of our finances and determined we can let go of our three problem clients (one of them being over half of our income), keep three small ones and semi-retire.

We gave eleven months notice today. I think within six months, most of the work will be off-loaded to someone else.

What a relief.

 

[Djwil296]

At some point nest egg and BS had both gone up to where it was clear.

This was me last August. At that point we have been moving forward with our plans to relocate to Florida. Two weeks until my last day of work and three until we close on our retirement home. Can’t wait to see what retirement life is all about.

 

[street]

After 4 full plus years I'm not as giddy about retirement as I once was but I'm still one very happy person of my decision.

 

[Koolau]

After 4 full plus years I'm not as giddy about retirement as I once was but I'm still one very happy person of my decision.

Yes, it's a bit like marriage or other long-term relationship. The "oxytocin" stabilizes after a while but then the relationship goes deeper. I occasionally have to remind myself how lucky I am to have DW. W*rks the same with ER. Every once in a while you have a "bad" dream about w*rk or it occurs to you that back in the day, you would be hunched over a desk or w*rk station - now you are free to do what you want. It's still good - even better, really, but in a different more mature way after a while. YMMV

 

[ExPatKiwi]

I've hit the wall!

After working for 40 years and enjoying new career growth opportunities and challenges along the way I've finally hit the wall. The final straw was a recent reorganization at work that was clearly planned over the last 18 months and covered by them lying directly to my face I've lost all trust in my company and management. Each weekday I'm now asking myself why I'm I still working here. Before the BS went down I thought I'd be working here another 8 years all the way to 65 now I'm not so sure.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

As I approach my target faster than I planned, I can't help to think - how will I know its time? Everyone is at the mercy of the market, and one day I'll hit my number, but the next day/week/month could drop below. I don't feel like its a binary operation. I'm thinking, I should way at least 6 months after hitting it to ensure we're really over the hump.

How long did others wait after hitting their number?

Like some others, I think you will know.

For me it was combo of not enjoying work rat race, effect on health, had hit <3 WR, and all I could think about was not being able to buy more time. I didn’t need to invest or spend any more time working!

 

[Koolau]

Like some others, I think you will know.

For me it was combo of not enjoying work rat race, effect on health, had hit <3 WR, and all I could think about was not being able to buy more time. I didn’t need to invest or spend any more time working!

Got a new assignment either on a late Thurs. or early Friday AM. Decided I didn't want to do it and gave notice the next Tues. You'll probably know. I did but YMMV.