What time of year did you retire at?

[twigor]

Last day

My last day was June 30th. I had some stock options to exercise before leaving. The date was driven to keep us in the same tax bracket. It also allowed the wife and I to take national park tours through Yellowstone, Glacier, and Crater Lake that summer. Made for a memorable transition!

 

[Dash man]

I also retired March 29, 2013. The last day I had to turn in my laptop at 9:00 am and I was done. The next week I got a call from a director asking for dirt on some other employees because he thought they were causing some problems on a couple of projects. I let him know that he was the problem, with his poor communication skills. He didn’t call back.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I also retired March 29, 2013. The last day I had to turn in my laptop at 9:00 am and I was done. The next week I got a call from a director asking for dirt on some other employees because he thought they were causing some problems on a couple of projects. I let him know that he was the problem, with his poor communication skills. He didn’t call back.

I'll bet that was a bit sweet.

 

[FREE866]

Any time of year that includes Monday mornings
My last day of work was 1/6/17.
The following Monday was arguably the greatest day of my life. It was cold out, I woke up at like 7 AM......and simply rolled back over for another hour....it was glorious!

 

[mystang52]

I have been planning to retire in 2020 around June but, now am wondering what's the best time of year?

I am confident in our stash but, will rerun numbers.
My thought was retiring at June allows me to enjoy the Summer in retirement.
Also, I have a FA I talk to who discourages retiring at end of the year for reasons other than financial. He argues many are prone to depression after leaving work and facing a winter.

Not sure but ... was curious what other folks have done, and for what reasons?

Thx

Well, if you retire before June you can still enjoy the Summer in retirement!
I retired on first day of March (2013). I live in NJ, and don't mind the cold at all. So time of year to retire was not a factor. The main factor for me was....I disliked work.

 

[scaubie]

April 1, after my bonus was paid and company profit sharing contribution to my 401k was made in March. No reason to stay after those two items were paid!

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I retired on December 14th, which was the last day of a pay period. I should have retired in the first couple months of the following year in order to max out one more year of 401k, but once I made my decision to retire (in October), the thought of working a few extra months didn't sit well with me. I decided on December 14th instead of waiting until December 31st since my company forced us to take a week of vacation between Christmas and New Years. I figured why be on payroll over the holiday if they were forcing me to take vacation out of it anyway. So my last day was the 14th and I had the holidays off and they had to pay me for the vacation too.

 

[scrabbler1]

I also retired March 29, 2013. The last day I had to turn in my laptop at 9:00 am and I was done. The next week I got a call from a director asking for dirt on some other employees because he thought they were causing some problems on a couple of projects. I let him know that he was the problem, with his poor communication skills. He didn’t call back.

That's an awesome story. I wish I were a fly on the wall in your house.

 

[I am He]

My last day was April 30th just wanted to be gone before my spring time adventures started. If you are eligible for ACA it would be wise to leave in January for income purposes thou.

OR very late in the year if you're doing things like Roth conversions so your subsidy amount is recaptured.

We were mid year and I decided in Dec. to do a (hopefully) one time large conversion so only one year's subsidy was paid back.

 

[goingtotravel]

Not retired yet but planning to retire in the late Spring of 2021. Why late Spring? Because it is the first day I am eligible to retire with full benefits. Would leave today if it didn't mean giving up HI.

 

[eroscott]

Spring! Planned Apr 30th. Early 50s.

Stopped 401K contributions prev Jan after giving notice.
Maximized HSA contributions from paycheck (pretax) from Jan-Apr to hit $7K going along with COBRA rest of year. ACA w/400% level subsidy following year when income supports it.

Company profit sharing happens in March but you are supposed to get that if you were working on Dec 31st. 401K to two IRAs May. One split for 10K in 72t|SEPP for a little extra income. Two other split for comfortable investing (Vanguard Wellesley & Wellington).

Vacations planned for:
2 wks in June - test future retirement area and east coast roadtrip;
3 wks in July - class reunion
2 wks in Aug - Road Scholar Banff hiking trip

 

[Lawrencewendall]

June 8th when my Family Medical Leave Act hours ran out. Sister's Birthday, 2 days after DW's Birthday and 1 week before our 35th Anniversary. Won't be forgetting that any time soon.

 

[Dreamer]

I was eligible for an early retirement and could leave early for several months. At first, I thought that I would leave at the latest date. I changed my mind and retired 6/2/06. I decided that I did not know how many more summers I had left and wanted to enjoy that one too. I graduated on 6/2/71 from high school, so retired 35 years later. I started a part-time job in 2010 in order to finish earning my social security credits. I quit that job in 05/15, as soon as I had earned my last credit. So my answer is June and then May.

 

[Gadabout]

I retired on May 31st, took off June 6th for a month in Italy. It was a great way to transition and learn if DH and I would enjoy traveling for longer than two weeks (working life limit). The answer was YES!

 

[carty1]

It was June. Believe it or not: I can't remember the day!

 

[easysurfer]

January. Good way to start a new year.

I remember the first day or two it was snowing outside and I was at home thinking this is kinda nice just in pajamas at home as the world fights the bad weather. Knew that I could get pretty used to that .

 

[Kamei]

Retired in October

I retired in October, 2005. Why October? Because this is prime professional development time for school teachers. I had been working a side gig by taking a week of vacation time in the fall and spring to do professional development seminars for teachers across the United States. So when I retired at age 55, I decided to work a double week in the fall and repeat in spring to supplement my teacher retirement checks. We made as much in these weeks than one could make all year as a teacher. Which isn't hard to do. Teachers are still very much underpaid, at least in the South. Did this for several years until I was fortunate to find a fun niche writing grants for school districts. Both the professional development and grant writing opportunities have long dried up. But this decade of consulting/grants provided us with the time to continue on without tapping our investments. Now at age 69 (me) and 66 (wife), we've both taken SS and have peace of mind (at least financially) as our cash flow exceeds expenses. Plus we have our untouched investments as another layer of protection.

 

[Smoeller]

Time to retire

Of course it's always a good time to retire if you've planned well and confident in your financial statergy
But I think I made a mistake when I retired at the end of the year
I'm an outdoor kind of guy with many interests and hobbies including golf fishing auto refurbishment etc

The first 3-4 months I was very bored but it got better when I could get outside and enjoy the great spring /summer weather

I'm sure my wife was much happier too

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Of course it's always a good time to retire if you've planned well and confident in your financial statergy
But I think I made a mistake when I retired at the end of the year
I'm an outdoor kind of guy with many interests and hobbies including golf fishing auto refurbishment etc

The first 3-4 months I was very bored but it got better when I could get outside and enjoy the great spring /summer weather

I'm sure my wife was much happier too

I thought this post made a lot of sense.... but then I saw that you lived in Louisiana! I would cheat my own sister for your "winters"

 

[kcowan]

I began my permanent vacation on July 7th.

 

[badatmath]

We have to retire on the first of a month per company policy, else is is called quitting.

You can of course leave with PTO anytime you like.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

I'm targeting mid-April mostly for work related benefits:

• Bonus for the full previous year instead of pro-rated
• My work anniversary is then, and it'll be a round number so I'll get some perks from that
• My stock incentives will vest by then
• Our benefits year starts in March so I can grab all the "freebies" once the benefits year refreshes
• And the weather is starting to get nicer in Vancouver in late April/May but we also like to go on a trip in these shoulder months

 

[ownyourfuture]

Saturday, June 6, 2015
From that day, until the end of July, anything, & I mean anything that could go wrong, did. Things went better after that, but by the end of July, I was convinced a higher power was telling me I had made a huge mistake.

 

[2017ish]

July 31. That way DW's replacement could start the next working day, which was convenient for coming out of residency and having a full month off. Gave 2 years notice, which worked out well.

 

[Al in Ohio]

July 6, 2016 after I took the July 4 holiday off with pay. My 55th birthday was also July 1st. The next day a flew out to San Diego to my timeshare and then more time to a BnB in Carlsbad to de-stress and kick off retirement.