What triggered you to retire early?

[David1961]

Question for the folks that have RE’d. Preparing to RE probably took decades of planning and sacrifice. Was there a triggering event that drove you to actually retire? For instance, the proverbial camel straw at work, reaching your financial ER goal, or realizing you don’t have enough time to spend on your passions? Had you previously determined that you were financially able to RE, but you waited some time to actually RE?

 

[waltwill8]

Dot.com bubble was popping in 2001. Retired with nice severance package, and consulting contract.
In 2003, my former company spun off a subsidiary to get cash, but went belly up shortly thereafter.
Got consulting contract with former subsidiary, and worked a lot, at first. Slowly tapering off until 2005 (I was 60)
If they had'nt changed data base systems, I would probably still be working part time.
By the way, It's always lots more fun when you control your own time (and don't really need the money), kinda like retirement!

 

[dex]

It wasn't a negative thing; it was positive - I wanted to live.

 

[VaCollector]

Daily stress of the job did it for me....that coupled with the realization that I COULD slow down....and for me it was more of an epiphany....I had been through one of "those days" when I couldn't find anything good about work....read here for a while...looked thru an ER book or two....talked to my FA to be sure that I wasn't dreaming....

It was when he looked at me and confirmed that "I could go anytime I wanted" that it all clicked....upon reflection, I think it was the confirmation that sealed the deal for me!

 

[Dawg52]

I left because I was tired of butting my head against a wall when dealing with my business partners. They were just out of control with respect to increasing the debt of the company with no plan to get it paid down. I could go on and on but it would be of no value here. You get the picture why I bailed.

Now I just bang my head because of my pitiful investments.

 

[frayne]

After 32 years, got tired of the silly corporate BS and thought I had enough to leave, so I left.

 

[Sparky]

9/11

 

[bbbamI]

There comes a time when enough is enough. I'd had enough....

 

[Bikerdude]

After 26 years, got tired of the silly corporate BS and thought I had enough to leave, so I left. That and I wanted to take an extended motorcycle trip.

 

[Nords]

Question for the folks that have RE’d. Preparing to RE probably took decades of planning and sacrifice. Was there a triggering event that drove you to actually retire? For instance, the proverbial camel straw at work, reaching your financial ER goal, or realizing you don’t have enough time to spend on your passions? Had you previously determined that you were financially able to RE, but you waited some time to actually RE?

1. Parenthood. Work stopped being fun about four days later.

2. My father asked "Why would you want a job after you retire from the Navy? Didn't you guys save any money??"

3. It took a decade-plus of planning & sacrifice from each of us. Saving wasn't too hard, though, because we didn't have much spare time away from work (or parenthood) to spend anything.

4. The closer we got to ER, the harder it was to wait. My retirement date was set for June 2002, but the worst-case financial picture was when the markets re-opened after 9/11. After the close I re-ran our portfolio through FinancialEngines.com. We had enough then, so we didn't sweat things after that.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

A change in work conditions was the trigger.

I had reached my financial goals in 2004, but kept working because I was in the zone - work (programming) was so easy I could do it in my sleep, minimal contact with others, got up to 50% over my $$ target. In 2006 the whole company went to XP (eXtreme Programming), a bad joke of an approach to programming which emphasizes teamwork and open communications (constant interruptions). We went from private offices to a low-walled bullpen, from 1 meeting a week to 2-5 per day, etc. It made my decision to retire very easy.

 

[Walt34]

1. We could. No bills other than the regular monthlies, everything paid off.

2. Tired of bureaucratic BS in keeping up with training/hardware/software changes. The last time we bought new computers the vendor included two processor/motherboard upgrades because they ones we ordered weren't made anymore.

3. Escape from the Washington, DC area traffic where a 20 minute drive can take 2 hours if attempted at the wrong time.

4. Two years before, my mother and DW's mother died six months apart. Decided spending time with family was more important than more money.

Six months later friends and relatives were saying "You two look more relaxed than we've ever seen you" so we knew we'd made the right choice.

 

[mf15]

I was just VRIPed in October at 60, old line company bought out by investiment group. Company started in 1865,perhaps we still used some 19th century business practices, I assume the new owners can make it better.
They gave us a deal which lets us keep medical benefitsl until 65,full pension,one year severence, seemed like a good deal,besides that I dont trust the new bean counters.
The company now also has the Global Matrix, they will slice and dice/merge/provide synergy and sell
the triple sized company within 3-4 years. Don't think I want to be there anyway for all that good stuff.
Hopefully they can pull it off without layoffs of the younger people.
But my wife is driving me crazy with projects, like gutting bathrooms, painting,cleaning seems like
it was easier to work in industry,at least before the buyout.
Old Mike

 

[kumquat]

Several things:

1) Reached FI and then some
2) Changed j*bs within mega-corp,wasn't really enjoying the new one anymore.
3) BIL, who was never sick, no bad habits etc. got sick and died at 61.

The final straw was new HR thing at mega-corp. Everyone had to prepare a 'personal plan' for 'improvement'. Boss, actually a good guy who didn't believe in BS, wandered into my office and said "we all have to turn them in by the end of the first quarter". I replied jokingly "my personal plan does not include mega-corp after the first quarter". That was when I realized I meant it. Then I let him talk me into staying until the end of the second quarter. But, I never made a 'plan' for the bozos in HR.

 

[Moemg]

I always knew I wanted to retire in my fifties . So at 58 after several years of being FI I decided enough was enough and bailed .

 

[unclemick]

Layed off at 49. I/she had no intentions of moving from the fish camp over Lake Ponchartrain(aka New Orleans).

Reduced spending to make ER work. Original plan was age 63.

heh heh heh - .

 

[Goonie]

......Was there a triggering event that drove you to actually retire?

When I first hired on, I knew there was an 'early out' rule with our pension plan......You had to be 55 years old, with at least 35 years of service in order to obtain full pension benefits....otherwise you had to stay until you had 40 years to get the full pension, or you could retire at 62 with less than 40 years and get a reduced pension.

I started when I was 18, so I was a shoe-in for the early out. Several years ago the pension plan added an 'Early Retirement Incentive' (ERI). With the ERI you had to be at least 50, and have at least 30 years of service....and then you could 'buy' up to 5 years to reach the fabled 55/35 deal.

When I hit 50, I bought 5 years of service, added to that vacation time, comp-time, banked sick days, etc., and I ER'd @ 50 with almost 38 years of service! BINGO!!!

.........realizing you don’t have enough time to spend on your passions?

No, no, no......realizing that by spending time on my passions, I didn't have enough time to spend working!!!

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

death. hadn't previously considered r never mind er. now over two years into it, i'm not so sure i'm into it.

 

[heardoc]

Several things:

the bozos in HR.

Hmm, on reflection they were the key to my final leaving. Bad HR, toxic
office, generalist managers. Meh...

 

[Meadbh]

9/11

Explain?

 

[2soon2tell]

Health reasons. I was planning on ER at 62 which is not very early but only made it to 57.

 

[ejman]

My wife. Was planning on retiring 3 years latter than I did. We were on vacation, saw a beautiful place in SW Oregon, went back to work but we kept talking about it and finally my wife said "What will be so different 3 years from now other than we'll be 3 years older? we already have enough money to retire on lets do it!" and so we did. Glad we did.

 

[shotgunner]

Why ER

Why did I ER? Illness and Death. I have lost my mother at age 63,cancer, father at age 79, alzheimers. Uncles at 73, parkinsons, 75 Cancer, 48 Heart Attack. I am turning 52 and growing older with every passing day. Some day it will be cancer, or parkinsons, or dementia, or heart attack or something else for me (and you).

You get the picture.

I wanted TIME to myself, not have to be anywhere or responsible to anybody else for awhile. Markets go up, markets go down. Our lives are literally sand in the hour glass and it never stops flowing and never refills.
When this line of thought goes from abstract to real you will figure out how to ER if that is what you want to do.

Being able to stay ER's is a probability, illness, infirmity and death a certainty.

 

[Rustic23]

This board!

 

[Hershey102]

Always figured that every day at work was one less day on this earth to do something that I truly loved. And once I qualifed for the pension (age 52, 25 years fed service), I was actually only working for half pay since they would pay me the other half for staying home. DW and I were serial savers, paid off the house this year (last debt) and now have a little play money for travel. Dad passed a year before I retired and it occurred to me that IF I lived to be his age (81), I only had about 30 years to follow my dreams. After you accept your own mortality, the decisions that follow are easy. No regrets.