Retire vs making more money?

[jane_sm1th73]

Personally, I've found that as my financial circumstances get better, my ability to tolerate anything other than a "perfect" working environment gets worse. Two days ago, I told my work that I plan to take an "extended sabbatical" which clearly could turn into a permanent one. (And this is at a time when money is falling from trees in my line of work and is very easy to earn.) I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I think it's a question of values: Do you value the extra money more than the freedom, time and stress relief of leaving?

LOLOL! How true!

I'm in a situation where it will be very difficult to ever pull the plug. I do analytical work at work. When I'm off, I read analytical stuff for pleasure. Office politics and commute? I stopped going into the office five years ago. No drama - simply stopped going in, worked remotely from then on.

I don't like to travel - did enough when I was younger, particularly during my entrepreneur stint, where the only time I slept was on elevators, taxis and airplanes.

I kept plugging, in large part due to a sense of foreboding, that my children and/or sister might need a backstop at some point. Foreboding turned out to be warranted. Daughter's (well-heeled) husband dumped her and the kids for a part time real estate agent. He wasn't feelin' it anymore. Without a good lawyer, she was at his mercy. Sister had a stroke. These circumstances were expensive. By no means could Sis and daughter have funded the urgent and extreme cash requirements needed to mitigate the damage. Cushioned by my decent income, I was able to step in.

When there's enough passage of time without additional shoes dropping, I might consider retiring. Until then, I spend my workdays very much as I will spend my retirement days. Reading, analyzing, thinking. I'm too rule-abiding to absent myself during the day, currently. That will change once I pull plug. I will unabashedly disappear for several hours during the day to walk the dog. For me, THAT's life on the edge! THAT's excitement, lol!

Enginerd here. I don't want much out of life except to be left in peace, lol!

 

[LINYbob]

Wow thanks for all the responses! I appreciate them all.

Yes I should just retire and enjoy the time I have left before I can't do the things I love to do - hiking, skiing, traveling. A few years ago I tore my ACL in my knee and while it has been fine since, I am afraid that it may act up in the future (although I have no medical advice at all that this will happen!).

Also, my younger cousin just a few days ago had a minor stroke - no damage - but it certainly got me to thinking. You never know.

I was laid off in 2016 (after 20 years), and got a nice severance package back then. I totally enjoyed the 6 months I thought I was retired. But a headhunter convinced me to take this consulting assignment in summer of 2017. Since then, my financial picture has very much improved, of course. So it is not a financial issue at all.

At this point, I can live on my pensions and severance alone until SS kicks in. I don't even need to touch my IRAs. So I do wonder what I am doing working.

I probably will turn in my notice 2 weeks before year end. Time beats money.

 

[dirtbiker]

Wow thanks for all the responses! I appreciate them all.

Yes I should just retire and enjoy the time I have left before I can't do the things I love to do - hiking, skiing, traveling. A few years ago I tore my ACL in my knee and while it has been fine since, I am afraid that it may act up in the future (although I have no medical advice at all that this will happen!).

Also, my younger cousin just a few days ago had a minor stroke - no damage - but it certainly got me to thinking. You never know.

I was laid off in 2016 (after 20 years), and got a nice severance package back then. I totally enjoyed the 6 months I thought I was retired. But a headhunter convinced me to take this consulting assignment in summer of 2017. Since then, my financial picture has very much improved, of course. So it is not a financial issue at all.

At this point, I can live on my pensions and severance alone until SS kicks in. I don't even need to touch my IRAs. So I do wonder what I am doing working.

I probably will turn in my notice 2 weeks before year end. Time beats money.

Please report back when/if you do! Congrats!

 

[audreyh1]

My situation was similar to yours. My finances were in order and the calculators were saying “go for it” but I liked my job enough, and the people, was making good money and the stress level was manageable. Even so, I grew tired of commuting, sitting in meetings on beautiful fall days, spending my weekends getting ready for the next week, traveling for work, and never having enough time to do the things I really wanted to do.

I was tired of my job and the work environment, but it was that other stuff you list that pulled me away hard.

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

I was laid off in 2016 (after 20 years), and got a nice severance package back then. I totally enjoyed the 6 months I thought I was retired. But a headhunter convinced me to take this consulting assignment in summer of 2017. Since then, my financial picture has very much improved, of course. So it is not a financial issue at all.

Similar circumstance, except I took a 6 month sabbatical. My company didn't have a sabbatical program, so I made my own - I quit. The six months were glorious, and like you, a headhunter lured me in. Fast forward to today and my financial situation is much, much better, but I am once again looking at a sabbatical program, but this time a permanent one. Every calculator shows me well in the black, even if we had a 30% drop in the market overnight (for the record, I would hate that, but I wouldn't have to change my lifestyle).

 

[Perryinva]

Never mind

 

[geerman]

My situation was pretty much as you described. For me, putting more money in buckets just didn't really make much sense after running numbers, charts, etc and concluding that we were comfortable. Been a year now, I passed on early SS, DW also retired 7 years ago, will probably take her smaller SS in another year. Neither one of us have doubted the decision!!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We had a couple of small businesses we could do from home with fairly interesting work. But our worst day wine tasting was still better than our best day working.

 

[Big_Hitter]

bird in the hand bro - how much is a year of your life worth?

 

[DogGone]

For me, I saw a small window now when my kids were home or visiting from college, my parents are healthy, I am very healthy and I can apparently retire and spend more than I did working.

Why miss that window and retire with just “more on the pile”?

I’m early 50’s and 4 months in... no regrets but to be truthful, I still rerun retirement calculators and try every new one I find... I’m glad I didn’t go to this detail before or I would have left years ago.

Once you realize you can FIRE, commuting and the bullshit at work become exponentially painful.

 

[JDARNELL]

Once you realize you can FIRE, commuting and the bullshit at work become exponentially painful.

This is so true. I sometimes think wow I could go back and make x. But then I quickly realize screw that!

 

[horfield]

The emotional part of being ready (as well as financially) is so important and you have to be honest with yourself. I was just about to semi-retire when I hit 60 last month, I thought I was emotionally ready, I am financially ready, both my parents have passed on, my children are now establishing their lives...

...and then a recruiter contacts me with a new opportunity that is highly paid, covers my health etc, I can work full-time from home when I want, I get fully expenses paid travel to Europe 4-6 times a year and in a field that I am an authority in and I continue to enjoy. Essentially a "life style" job that fits my definition of semi-retirement. I interviewed, was offered the role (VP level) and I start next week.

I realize that I am not yet ready. There is going to come a time when these opportunities will cease to come in but for the moment I will keep on going. However going forward I now apply the filter of "enjoy what you do and you will never work another day in your life" and as soon as that is not the case I know I will be emotionally ready. Meanwhile just another a couple of years gives me additional finance/spending options in future.

 

[aja8888]

The emotional part of being ready (as well as financially) is so important and you have to be honest with yourself. I was just about to semi-retire when I hit 60 last month, I thought I was emotionally ready, I am financially ready, both my parents have passed on, my children are now establishing their lives...

...and then a recruiter contacts me with a new opportunity that is highly paid, covers my health etc, I can work full-time from home when I want, I get fully expenses paid travel to Europe 4-6 times a year and in a field that I am an authority in and I continue to enjoy. Essentially a "life style" job that fits my definition of semi-retirement. I interviewed, was offered the role (VP level) and I start next week.

I realize that I am not yet ready. There is going to come a time when these opportunities will cease to come in but for the moment I will keep on going. However going forward I now apply the filter of "enjoy what you do and you will never work another day in your life" and as soon as that is not the case I know I will be emotionally ready. Meanwhile just another a couple of years gives me additional finance/spending options in future.

Congratulations! It's not every day one gets offered the perfect job. I hope it works out for you!

 

[gerntz]

We retired & are making more money. Need to return to work to keep taxes down.

 

[nancyfrank232]

We retired & are making more money. Need to return to work to keep taxes down.

I have no interest in keeping taxes down. I want to pay a hell of lot of tax!

 

[RetMD21]

I am still working at age 63 and slated to be finish in 7 months. I passed the FI mark a long time ago but liked the money, enjoyed some aspects of the work, and there was no external push to retire. I now find that I have less patience with bs aspects of the job and since I have other interests and no financial concerns I am slowly transitioning to gone. I don't know what I'll think in 5 years but at this point waiting seemed to work for me.

 

[a60dan]

I'm anticipating a hard time switching from saving all my life to spending.

In ~2 years, I'm planning to propose part time, and dropping the supervisor headaches.

As long as I work 30 hours, benefits still apply.

After that, I may phase myself out 1 day per week at a time.

I have a co-worker who has retired twice alrerady, is 77, and doesn't age at all.

This morning I asked him how his retirement is going

 

[Retired Expat]

Retired 7-8 years ago and am now 60. Sure there were days where I was bored since I retired. I can distinctly recall 3 of them. On the other hand I can remember many more days where I was miserable at work. YMMV of course, and sure I could have stayed another few years and banked another few hundred K. But in retirement I don’t need that extra money and am much happier for having done what I did..

Of course I changed my life around in a big way when I retired and my priorities too, bought my first used car ever, downsized to a smaller home without a pool (which cost a fortune to maintain and hardly was used) my gym had 2 if I feel the need. Honestly, you can find happiness in whatever you choose to do, work or retire,it is just a matter of point of view.

Good luck

 

[Jollyquick]

LINYbob,

I was in a very similar situation: I had grown bored with my job but it was very secure and paid extremely well. For me what pushed me over the edge was the commute. I was sitting in rush hour traffic, when it dawned on me there was no financial reason for me to be miserable, sitting in traffic at O’Dark thirty. Came down to how much is my time worth to me.

I’m in my second year of retirement now and haven’t had a single bored day yet. They may be coming but they will be mine to own. I still wake up early, but now I sip a coffee and Baileys and watch those less fortunate ebb and flow on the human tide.

On the other hand a colleague of mine in a similar situation retired and went batshit crazy with boredom. He’s now back at work with an even higher paying, higher stress job. He loves it!

So to each their own! In the end it’s you that has to be happy. Life’s too short to play it safe if you’re not happy.

 

[Wincherr]

Great Responses

I am not sure I have ever read a thread on this forum and agreed with every response that has been written. You got some really good advice here. While I saw one person hinted at this, I never saw the suggestion that perhaps you go to a part-time status. Pretirement. This is my plan in about a year. We get full benefits including health care as long as we work 20 hours/week.

I really enjoyed reading this sage advice. Great forum.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I am not sure I have ever read a thread on this forum and agreed with every response that has been written. You got some really good advice here. While I saw one person hinted at this, I never saw the suggestion that perhaps you go to a part-time status. Pretirement. This is my plan in about a year. We get full benefits including health care as long as we work 20 hours/week.

I really enjoyed reading this sage advice. Great forum.

ur lucky - we have to be 30 hours for benefits - made my decision real easy

 

[Wincherr]

I am suspicious they may change this rule. One more reason to quit messing around with this decision as I’m sure if I was already part time I would be grandfathered.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I am suspicious they may change this rule. One more reason to quit messing around with this decision as I’m sure if I was already part time I would be grandfathered.

they can take away health benefits any time - i don't think those are projected unless you are covered by a cba

i'm going variable hourly after 1/3 - i get to decide when and how much time after that. Cobra is only $700 a month to continue active medical - at age 55, way better deal than any plan on the exchange

 

[Wincherr]

they can take away health benefits any time - i don't think those are projected unless you are covered by a cba

i'm going variable hourly after 1/3 - i get to decide when and how much time after that. Cobra is only $700 a month to continue active medical - at age 55, way better deal than any plan on the exchange

True, but I don’t they would do that.

 

[Huckleberry]

Is there ever the perfect time to "retire"? At a seminar a few years ago the speaker used quite a visual representation to help those unsure.
Taking a 25' 1" wide tape measure, extending it upward to the average life expectancy of a man i.e. 87 years, he extended the tape to the 87 inch mark, placing his left thumb on your current age i.e. 65 years and his right thumb on the 87" mark.
He then described the portion of the tape from 1"-65" as the portion that you have lived and the remaining 66"-85" as the life you have remaining.

Seeing it in that manner makes you think twice...or three times, as to whether it is time or not.
That being said, I continue to work because it is personally fulfilling and I enjoy helping others, but that vision of the tape measure has become more
pronounced in my mind as time moves on!