Did you preplan your retirement day?

[nuke_diver]

Assuming you were not laid off and are RE. Did you set a date (like a wedding) or did you just do it?

I suspect this has been asked before but I don't have much luck with the search function.

I'm thinking I have 1 year left in me, so wonder if I should set a date or just play it by ear (a major market crash could change my day potentially )

 

[nash031]

I preplanned a date about a year and a half ago. Makes it easier to plan how much to save, etc. I'm still about 5.5 years out...

 

[RockyMtn]

Date was set by the expiration of my employment contract that I chose not to renew.

 

[NW-Bound]

No, it was not pre-planned for me. The contracting work I was doing was interesting, but I had some problems with the people I worked with. So, I finished up the phase that I promised to do before I stopped work. It was out of courtesy. They might be taken by surprise, but could not blame me for abandoning the project in the middle of it, and had to find somebody else to complete it. It's an at-will arrangement, and they could have easily told me to stop work any time too.

I also had some other developments in my life, and it was as good a time to retire for real as any.

 

[MRG]

I set my own personal date. No one knew except one trusted mentor. It was a birthday present to myself. I never shared what year, but I planned on OMY, TMY.

Things changed, Megacorp had new SR. management and all that comes along with that kind of change. I could wait 6 more months till my TMY for a paycheck we didn't need or, work on enjoying life.

 

[W2R]

Assuming you were not laid off and are RE. Did you set a date (like a wedding) or did you just do it?

I suspect this has been asked before but I don't have much luck with the search function.

I'm thinking I have 1 year left in me, so wonder if I should set a date or just play it by ear (a major market crash could change my day potentially )

Personally, I set the date about 3 years before I retired although I did not tell anyone at work until 6 months before I retired. Remember that they may treat you like you don't exist once you tell them your retirement date. In my case, after I told them, I was sent in place of my supervisor to every one of her boring meetings. I didn't care, though, and just smiled through all of them. She was my friend and was glad that I didn't care, because that gave her a break so that she could get some work done.

My case was a little different in that I was waiting for retiree health insurance benefits. The first day on which I was eligible for these benefits was 11/7/2009. However, that was a Saturday! What to do, what to do. I decided to retire on Monday, 11/9/2009, to make sure there wasn't any question about my eligibility for retirement benefits. That was my planned day to retire for a long time, and I did retire on that day.

I would suggest setting a date, for your own planning purposes, but not telling anyone about it quite yet.

 

[scrabbler1]

I began planning my ER date of 10/31/2008 several months ahead. As the pieces of my ER plan began falling into place in 2007 and 2008, I began looking for a date which would enable me to finish my one big project I had been working on since early 2007. I was working only 2 days a week starting in June of 2007 so that would also affect how much calendar time I would give in my resignation announcement. I also needed to know the all-important company stock price which was updated every quarter.

Taking all of those tings into account, I chose to give them one month's notice (around 9 working days with my light schedule). At the end of September, I made an educated guess that I would be able to finish that one last project on or before October 31st. I barely got it done at 4 PM on my final day, about 40 minutes before I walked out the door and never looked back. What would I have done if I could not finish the project that day? Not sure. I probably would have stuck around another day or two to finish it up.

There was a little snag in the stock price announcement on September 30th. Instead of releasing it that day, they delayed it by a day for the first time ever. I got a little nervous that there might be a big drop in the price with the markets crashing everywhere else that month. I went ahead with my resignation announcement anyway. The stock price came out the next day and there was a drop but not a big one, not one big enough to scuttle my plans. I also figured if I waited 3 more months the price might drop even more (which it did). I also did not want to commute to the office in any more cold weather, I was so tired of that.

 

[mystang52]

I planned the date....and also planned what I would do that first day of RE. It was great motivator for me in the months preceding.

 

[chief04010]

I have my date planned in about 3 1/2 years from now. But I'm still flexible so earlier or later is not out of the question.

 

[nuke_diver]

Personally, I set the date about 3 years before I retired although I did not tell anyone at work until 6 months before I retired. Remember that they may treat you like you don't exist once you tell them your retirement date. In my case, after I told them, I was sent in place of my supervisor to every one of her boring meetings. I didn't care, though, and just smiled through all of them. She was my friend and was glad that I didn't care, because that gave her a break so that she could get some work done.

My case was a little different in that I was waiting for retiree health insurance benefits. The first day on which I was eligible for these benefits was 11/7/2009. However, that was a Saturday! What to do, what to do. I decided to retire on Monday, 11/9/2009, to make sure there wasn't any question about my eligibility for retirement benefits. That was my planned day to retire for a long time, and I did retire on that day.

I would suggest setting a date, for your own planning purposes, but not telling anyone about it quite yet.

I'm thinking a good day might be roughly a year from now on my birthday week as the best present EVER! If that is indeed the date I likely won't tell anyone prior to a month before officially though I might tell my team earlier since they deserve to know first. Sadly there is no particular date that becomes advantageous for me like benefits.

I planned the date....and also planned what I would do that first day of RE. It was great motivator for me in the months preceding.

I'm already planning a long ride that day...maybe 100K to celebrate

 

[jcretire77]

I am curious why different dates are chosen. End of project, retiree health benefits. I want to retire April of 2015 because the weather is lovely here in the spring.

 

[Senator]

Remember that they may treat you like you don't exist once you tell them your retirement date

Perfect! Just pretend I am not here...

I am preplanning mine, for these reasons.

I want to max out my 401K for the year, that's 4/28 at the latest

I want to pick up another year of pension, I need 1,000 hours, that's 6/30.

If I work on 7/1, I get a month's worth of benefits, for minimal cost.

If I am working on 7/1, I may as well stick it out until 7/5, so I get paid for a holiday on 7/4. I probably get paid for a weekend in there somewhere too.

Then, I am out in 2016.

 

[Which Roger]

I had a rough date (a 6-12 month window) in mind for a couple of years before I took the plunge. I gradually narrowed that down to about a 3 month window, then some things happened at w*rk that made it the right time to leave, and once I made that decision, I finalized the date; gave 1 month notice so someone else had time to pick up my responsibilies before I was gone.

 

[Options]

Am being quite strategic about it, actually:

1) 2/3/15 date because it exhausts remaining vacation days, of which I take each and every Monday. Thus, workweek doesn't begin til Tuesday (only 28 Tuesdays to go!).
2) As I've posted before, flex schedule gives me every other Friday off, so have alternating 3-day and 4-day weekends.
3) 7 day holiday break between Xmas and New Years is paid, so didn't want to forfeit that.
4) 2/1 and 2/2 are first weekend of 2/15; retiring 2/3 means company paid benefits continue til end of 2/15, saving a COBRA payment.
5) Won't work 2/3, just go in to pick up final check, say goodbyes that day.
6) With all this, there's still a 50/50 chance I could just quit any day (could actually retire today, but work is just not hard enough to justify it before 2/15).

 

[Ronstar]

I had it pre planned for April 1, 2013 after giving 6 months notice Oct 1, 2012. But the boss and I agreed on another year of working 960 hours. So I re-pre-planned it for April 1st, 2014 but I was only at 955 hours on April 1, so I actually retired April 2nd. I always wanted to retire in April to start retirement in spring/summer.

 

[MBAustin]

I only decided in July that I was ready to ER. Set the date for October 1 - just after my birthday which cut my retiree medical costs by 5%. Kept it quiet until 6 weeks before, when I told my boss and let her decide when she wanted me to tell the team (I was managing about 15 folks at the time).

Funniest thing that happened - during August I was interviewing to hire someone new on my team (before anyone knew). Made an offer to someone and they accepted, started in early September. It was just a little awkward on that first day when I told her I'd only be her boss for a few weeks. Fortunately, she has thrived at megacorp and recently she thanked me on Facebook for hiring her (she had been underemployed for several years, but I saw good stuff in her).

 

[Sea Kayaker]

I just gave my notice yesterday. Still kinda shocked that I actually did it. 42 and retired. Surreal, yes.

Anyway, I have a pretty good idea what my days are going to consist of post working life. Get up early with DW (I don't sleep in anymore for whatever reason), have my coffee, make DW's tea, check the portfolio and tinker with it if need be. Send wife off to work (heheheh), give the house a bit of a clean, bite to eat, head to the gym a few blocks away, probably spend half an hour on cardio, an hour on weights. Maybe hit the hot tub (if there is no creepy dude in it). Shower. Head over to the organic market a few blocks away, and get some ultra fresh ingredients for a kickass salad (we love BIG salads). Come home, check portfolio again. Do some reading. Practice some Spanish (I will become fluent dangit!). Really thinking about starting a blog - so might work on that a bit. I'd like to get my sea kayaking guide certificate soon, so this will be something I will be pursuing.

Will probably be prepping dinner (I love cooking) when DW walks in the door.

Our days will obviously look different when we are at our place in the Baja or the Gulf Islands. Those can wait for another thread perhaps. Anyway, I will get more done in ER than I ever did in my working life.

 

[Midpack]

My plan beginning in my 30's was to reach FI at 60. I was fortunate to reach FI about 8-10 years early, but I was still having more good days than bad at work. I started thinking seriously about retiring at age 55 (when I really began to get fed up with Corp myopia), got really serious about it when I turned 56, and about 6 months later I set an exact date about 5 months before I retired summer of 2011. IOW I was narrowing down a date all along and firmed it up 5 months out.

 

[WannabeRetired]

Congrats Sea Kayaker! We're about the same age, so I've been watching your posts and living the life vicariously.

Maybe start a new thread with info on how it went? Were your co-workers shocked?

I really don't see why you should have any financial concerns. Seems like you're very well set up. Congrats again!

 

[BBQ-Nut]

Not in FIRE yet, but I have been planning for about 2 years - crunching numbers, tracking expenses, reading up on financial/tax planning, and....dreaming....about 6 months out!

 

[sgfgrover15]

We knew what our magical date was going to be. H had to get in his 25th year and 1 day for full pension and fully paid retirement health insurance for both of us. We started our countdown 5 years ahead of time and I gave 7 months notice I was leaving and H has to turn his paperwork in 3 months ahead of time. On our last few weeks now.

 

[martyp]

I preplanned my ER date for May 1, 2011 to coincide with my 55th birthdate (Feb 27th). I was also using up 9.5 months of vacation time which nicely overlapped with Christmas, New Years, MLK Day, and Presidents Day vacations. For each month of vacation I accrued an additional 2 days of vacation time. I left in mid-Dec 2010 and even then I had 4 vacation days left over which they paid me in cash.

I gave them about 4 months notice and, as someone else mentioned, I basically became irrelevant in the office instantly. I tried to keep a little bit busy and productive but it was the longest 4 months of my life.

 

[Andre1969]

I set a "No Later Than" date of April 2, 2020, which is when I turn 50. But, the actual date will probably depend on a few other factors, such as how well the stock market does, how fast the BS buckets at work fill up, and any inheritances that might come my way.

 

[Grigori]

I've set a couple of dates, but they've been overtaken by OMY.

Now I've got a no later than January 1, 2015, when I get paid for 6 weeks vacation.

However, I've got enough already for FIRE, and w*rk is a pain in the neck, literally. The stress of being there when I don't want to be crunches my deteriorating cervical discs, and I feel pain all down my arms. That's 25 years of punching a computer keyboard and leaning over a monitor in bad posture.

Lately it's one more vacation. Every month pays for a trip. I'm really questioning if it's worth it to be there any more, and may bail anytime.

 

[Helios]

Planned it! First possible day that i could re. Also gave em 4 months, they couldnt believe it. I figured the date over and over. Absolutely never looked back.