Is age 60 considered early retired?

[wearefinishedworking]

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.

 

[VanWinkle]

Congrats on your early retirement- and yes 60 is early compared to many.

VW

 

[Dtail]

Congrats and yes it is early retirement.

 

[MRG]

Congratulations on your early retirement. Many here are older than you too.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Yes -

 

[street]

I would consider it early. I have always used 62 as an age of normal retirement age. There will be always some that retire earlier and some retire later then 62.

It was a thing for me, that I never wanted to be the oldest person still working at my place of work. Lol

 

[Major Tom]

If you were originally planning on retiring at 62 then yes, 60 is early. If you had been aiming for, say, 55, then it is a little late

It's a subjective assessment, in my opinion. I mean, we have a few members here who retired in their 30's. I suppose that is WER (way early retirement) or EER (extremely early retirement). I retired at age 45, which you could call PDER (pretty dang early retirement). The important thing is that you have enough money to meet your wants and needs, and no longer have to work to achieve that. Congratulations. Enjoy yourselves! Raising 3 children, having a paid-off house and cars, and being able to retire at 60 is a major achievement. If I'd had a family, I know I would still be working. You did good!

 

[Car-Guy]

Congratulations...I retired at 60 too... I've always considered ~65 as normal retirement age so anything younger than that is ER, IMO.

 

[Andre1969]

I always thought of 65 as "normal", so anything before that I'd think of as early. I don't know *why* I think of 65 as the "normal" cutoff, though. Maybe because of the longest time, that was when you qualified for your full SS benefit? And it seems like in a lot of old tv shows and movies, the age of 65 seemed to get brought up as when it's normal to retire?

So, congratulations on your early retirement! And hell, even a "normal" or "late" retirement is still better than no retirement at all!

 

[finnski1]

I always thought of 65 as "normal", so anything before that I'd think of as early. I don't know *why* I think of 65 as the "normal" cutoff, though. Maybe because of the longest time, that was when you qualified for your full SS benefit? And it seems like in a lot of old tv shows and movies, the age of 65 seemed to get brought up as when it's normal to retire?

So, congratulations on your early retirement! And hell, even a "normal" or "late" retirement is still better than no retirement at all!

I use 65 as well. I think I just kind of based it on when Medicare could kick in.

 

[Trailwalker]

I think the new normal will be older and older as social security gets "reformed" and older folks with little savings will need to keep on working. Congrats on your retirement. We retired at 60 also. One of the best parts of retirement for us is to get all of our "stuff done" during the day when everyone else is working.

 

[CindyBlue]

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.

Congratulations! You will love retirement!
I retired at 64 and consider that "early" for me because I'd specifically planned to work until 72. But then things got bad at work, and for a few years, I tried hard to deal with it, but it kept getting ridiculously worse, so I finally gave up. So "early" can be relative

 

[RetMD21]

The people here have been kind to older early retirees and even those of us who work a bit here and there

 

[Luvtoride]

Congrats we’refinished…that is an awesome achievement. And thanks to those who mentioned that they considered 65 “normal” retirement age, which is what I’m aiming at as I turn 64 next month. My OMY has been part of my plan and if I achieve retirement at age 65 (during that year before reaching 66) is that considered retiring “on time”?

 

[Midpack]

Congrats.

Anything before 65 is early in my book, but does it really matter what others call it? If you're in a position to retire at any age, that's all that matters.

 

[Romer]

Congrats, I am 60 as well and will be retiring the end of the year

Where is MCOL ?

 

[pacergal]

Congratulations and welcome to retirement! Hope to hear more from you, this forum is full of wonderful folks.

DH and I also retired at 60, earlier than I thought we could. It's been great.

 

[mountainsoft]

Welcome and congratulations! I'm planning to retire in a couple years at 60 also (wife will retiring the same time at 55). I don't care if it's early, middle, or late retirement. All I care is that I'll be retired!

 

[aaronc879]

If you retire before your full SS retirement age then it is an early retirement. I think that is now 67 for most people. I personally think anything older than 59.5 is too long to work. Most people should at least have the option of retiring when they can access their 401K without penalty. Any work past that is just to pad the savings to live a more luxurious retirement. Congrats.

 

[mistermike40]

60 is definitely an early retirement... congratulations!

BTW, I don't think most people here are much younger than you

 

[scrabbler1]

OP, you retired before 65, a good start. Then, you retired earlier than the pre-65 age you thought you'd be able to retire at. That's even better!

I thought I'd be able to retire in my early 50s, but things fell into place more quickly and I got out at 45. So, you did the same two things I did.

 

[Midpack]

Congrats, I am 60 as well and will be retiring the end of the year

Where is MCOL ?

Medium cost of living, vs LCOL or HCOL...

 

[wearefinishedworking]

Thank you all for the warm welcome! Feels like I am joining a secret club.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes.

 

[MC Rider]

If it's a secret it's very poorly kept.


I just thought of a not so good rhyme.


Sixty two, eyes of blue.
Wanna retire in two oh two two.