Is age 60 considered early retired?

[RetireAge50]

I’m hoping to be retired for as many or more years than I worked. So I need to live to about age 80 to break even.

 

[HI Bill]

Welcome! I always considered age 60 the target age, regardless of what SS says. Congrats! Enjoy!

 

[jollystomper]

Yes, but I am biased since I retired at age 60 .

 

[Chuckanut]

IMO, retiring before the SS full retirement age is early. Some are just earlier than others.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I thought I would retire at 62 and that was early for me because my father ran his small business into his early 80s. I retired at 53 because my husband insisted that we retire together. I was a workaholic and I thought I would take a year off and go back to work. The year went by and I decided that retirement agreed with me.

 

[Markola]

Who cares? Do what you want.

 

[ut2sua]

Good morning! We had always planned to be retired by 62 and I made it, just retired this month at age 60. My DH is waiting until age 62. Most of you are much younger than us, but it sure is an amazing thing to accomplish.

We were never high earners, until about 10 years ago when we did a lot of catch-up saving. But even when we were young parents raising 3 children we always lived pretty frugally and saved something along the way. I have lurked around the financial forums and gathered lots of info over the years. Still cannot fathom that we did it and I am finished!

We live in a MCOL, have a paid off home and cars, and about 1.2M.

Congrats and welcome. Great job getting to this point.

 

[Dean56]

Welcome to the forum. And congrats on early retirement.

 

[Gumby]

All I care about is the fact that I am retired. Early, late, on time - none of that makes a difference; retired is retired.

For those who may be nosey Parkers - the young wife and I retired at 58 and 60, respectively.

 

[skyking1]

welcome and congrats! If it feels early then it is
When you take control and leave your job on your terms that is great. Even if they lay you off, you are secretly hoping they do, that is great.

 

[unclemick]

Yes.

Anything under your 'target date' is early.

Mine was 63 to 65 and I've posted many times how that worked.

Heh heh heh - Your ER is yours all yours. Grin.

 

[RetireeRobert]

OP---Congratulations on your achievement. Enjoy this phase of your life. Yes, I would consider you two to be early retirees.

 

[Koolau]

"Early" is a state of mind. Retiring when YOU want to qualifies as "early" in my book. I retired at 58 even though I could have gone earlier. I stayed because it was still fun. The day it wasn't, I bailed out. 16 years later I have few if any regrets. As always, YMMV.

 

[brett]

What is 'normal'?

I thought I would go at 60 or 62. Went at 57/58. Best decision we ever made.

Despite four or five months of international travel each year, pre covid, we have considerably more equity now than we had when I retired.

Normal for us is not being the richest people in the care home or spending our final days wishing we had done this or that, gone here or there.

Go out and enjoy your retirement while you have the health to do the things want to do.

Make your own 'normal'

 

[Sunset]

Way to go..

Yes 60 is early.

I always used 65 as the normal retirement age, as SS was that age for normal benefits for decades, and Medicare still is age 65. It was just a given.

 

[cyber888]

Good morning! We had always planned to be retired by 62 and I made it, just retired this month at age 60. My DH is waiting until age 62. Most of you are much younger than us, but it sure is an amazing thing to accomplish.

We were never high earners, until about 10 years ago when we did a lot of catch-up saving. But even when we were young parents raising 3 children we always lived pretty frugally and saved something along the way. I have lurked around the financial forums and gathered lots of info over the years. Still cannot fathom that we did it and I am finished!

We live in a MCOL, have a paid off home and cars, and about 1.2M.

Congrats. 60 is early retirement. I'll turn 58 next year and seriously want to retire between 58 to 59. Also aiming for 1.2 M - 1.3 M in a low cost southern state.

 

[RxMan]

I’d certainly consider retiring at age 60 to be early retirement. The surveys I found put the average retirement age in the US to be 62. Personally, I’d consider anything under age 65 to be early.

Also keep in mind that about half of workers leave the workforce earlier than they expected. Health and disability, caregiver duties, and changes at work such as layoffs/closures were sited as the common reasons for leaving earlier than expected.

I hope to still have my health and leave the workforce on my terms rather than being forced out for whatever reason. Hopefully this planned retirement will happen for me at around age 55 but I’m only 47 now so it’s still difficult to determine specific retirement dates at this time.

Good luck to you and congrats! Who cares what anyone else thinks? It’s your retirement and I’d argue it’s not early or late but just when you were supposed to go.

 

[street]

"Early" is a state of mind. Retiring when YOU want to qualifies as "early" in my book. I retired at 58 even though I could have gone earlier. I stayed because it was still fun. The day it wasn't, I bailed out. 16 years later I have few if any regrets. As always, YMMV.

This is a great answer. I also retired at 58 could of went earlier but thought everyone work to at least 62. Lol My wife mentioned to me one day that I need to retire. That got me starting to ER. Lol

 

[brydanger]

Good morning! We had always planned to be retired by 62 and I made it, just retired this month at age 60. My DH is waiting until age 62. Most of you are much younger than us, but it sure is an amazing thing to accomplish.

We were never high earners, until about 10 years ago when we did a lot of catch-up saving. But even when we were young parents raising 3 children we always lived pretty frugally and saved something along the way. I have lurked around the financial forums and gathered lots of info over the years. Still cannot fathom that we did it and I am finished!

We live in a MCOL, have a paid off home and cars, and about 1.2M.

Who cares if its early or what anyone else thinks about it, you did it... so enjoy yourself!!!

 

[ychuck46]

60 for me as well

I retired for good at age 60, the wife doing so earlier at about age 56 (she was civil service and would have gained nothing by working longer since she had the required years in the system). It seemed early to me when I stopped but in hindsight it is kinda/sorta early retirement compared to most people our age. Aggressive FIRE people would likely disagree, but to each their own.

 

[rathail]

I retired at 58 in '18 the DW in '20 at 55 (health issues, but doing better) never had a high income but we are still almost 1%'ers in net worth in the Seattle area. Shocking, as we were not high income earners. Never chased higher housing. But we can do what we want. I just got tired of my long commute since my maga corp moved my office and I got tired of driving our commuter van. I could retire, so I did.
Congrats to all that are able and if the desire is there.

 

[steveark]

I retired right after my 60th birthday. I consider it " slightly early retirement".

 

[NW-Bound]

"Is age 60 considered early retired?"

60 is plenty young. My wife quit due to work pressure at 50. I was cruising doing part-time contract work for 9 years till 55.

I wish I were 55 now.

 

[Live Large]

U Finished Working! ER’d

"Is age 60 considered early retired?"

60 is plenty young. My wife quit due to work pressure at 50. I was cruising doing part-time contract work for 9 years till 55.

I wish I were 55 now.

I just turned the magic age of 55 left the job 6yrs ago

Congrats! Why let us ‘define’ Early for U? I stumbled across this forum few year back setting a calendar date to retire ~ period! I was a Napoleon Hill reader
“Laws of Success” listener to Earl Nightingale -Plan! I continue to be a voracious reader.

Focused on put in time now, retire on my Time! No intermission, just did 30yrs on one gig after misc.
Stumbled across this author name Zelinski he suggested the “Joy of Not Wo*king” lol and “How to Retire Happy, Wild & Free! Oh, did some frugal things, deferred some sell-gratification most importantly saved, saved, saved! But I believed in Living Large when I could. I think one post (Gumby)
referenced like the Parkers? You mean Jones?

Anyway, congrats again! You deserve it, defined your own path to Freedom! It’s your Time early retiree!

Oh, and thanks to this forum, my latest read came from a post about author Bill Perkins - Die with 0.
I like it even better than Pollan’s “Die Broke” it’s just grand to not have to wo*k IMO anyway.

 

[gamboolman]

wafw

Congrats on your Early Retirement !

I retired this year, effective 1-Feb-21, at age 61.

Not as early as some, but earlier than many / most others

It's a wonderful time of life !