Waited too long to retire?

[couch]

I've looked back at the last two years worth of posts and I can't find a specific thread about this, so I apologize in advance if its been discussed extensively.

I am particularly interested in people who, in hindsight, regret not retiring earlier.

Did you retire too early?
Just right?
Could you have retired earlier?
Do you regret not retiring WAY earlier?

[Onward]

I regret not taking the financial steps that would have allowed me to retire earlier.

[couch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onward I regret not taking the financial steps that would have allowed me to retire earlier.

That is a whole different situation. Likely one that is universal.

[pj.mask]

One of my parents feels this way. Wanted to and could have retired earlier but felt societal pressure to keep working. Regrets physical limitation preventing them from doing to more active things they want.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by couch That is a whole different situation. Likely one that is universal.

Still +1 for me. If I discovered this site 15 years ago, would have knocked off 5 years due to changes in knowledge and thought processes.

[Amethyst]

I could have retired promptly at 55, but for some reason I didn't. I guess a whole bunch of reasons to leave were fighting with reasons to stay.

I could regret that final year, but spending a year in that particular assignment also led to my being offered a part-time job which has proven quite beneficial, in terms of $$.

Now, if I'd worked any longer full-time, let alone in that final job which had some challenging aspects, I would be taking myself to a psychiatrist. Have just seen the death notice for yet another cow-orker, who started when I did, and was only 2 years older than I am.

[gayl]

People still ask me where I work and when I say 'retired,' the common response is I'll find something / age discrimination is illegal. When I say 'part time elections dept' that satisfies them. I initially retired at 50 in 2004 and we rapidly went into cutbacks so they ass-u-med I was laid off. Then I did 10 hrs week as weight watchers leader and it was assumed that I 'found' something Now I'm out for good except elections .... my plan all along was to go at 50. That's the earliest I could retire with limited benefits (traded 5 yrs off for 40% less in pension and NEVER regretted it)

Oh I did work a little seasonally between 2008-2017 then 'she' became temperamental so I didn't show up 2/1/17 but sent a text saying "b-bye"

[FireFool]

I guess I'll go in the camp of regretting not retiring earlier. From the start of my career I had the aspirational goal of retiring at age 55, which also coincided with a accelerated stock vesting age at the company I worked for and the college graduation of my youngest. So in that respect I never seriously spent much time while I was working determining "how much" was "enough" to retire on, more so deferring to the assumption that 55 was the age to consider it and in reality I was doing everything reasonable to achieve that . It was only when I started getting closer to 55 that I started seriously assessing my overall finances and expenses. It sounds pretty careless and haphazard, and in many respects it was, but I was too busy working and trying to live life to allocate time to fully evaluating finances and retirement calculators. I did know that we were LBYM and saving like mad.

The one piece of advice I learned and now give to others is not to wait for artificial milestones. Too many people of financial means say things like "I still have one in college" as a reason they aren't retired. In retrospect it was a poor one for myself - last month alone my portfolio gained by 1.5 times my annual spend. Of course while I was working I didn't have the time/inclination to track my portfolio monthly like I do now. Even my stock vesting, while a 6 figure amount, wasn't worth sticking around for as in reality I'll never in my lifetime spend the dollars generated from it. Now I'm spending my time figuring out how much to gift to my children and how to tax efficiently pass it on to them when we die - that is in my spare time from trying to live our life to it's fullest while we still have the health to enjoy it.

[Chuckanut]

I retired as soon as I could.

When I hit the magic 20 years (well 20.5 in my case) and found a good medical policy that I could afford, I was gone.

[Souschef]

I had to keep w*king to keep medical coverage for my brain injured wife. After she passed away. i could see no reason to retire. I used that time and income to take trips to places that she was never interested in.
A year later, I met a widow who is now my wife.I stayed at my j*b until mid January to get my profit sharing. I left and never looked back.
It is seldom in life one gets a second chance at happiness.

[flintnational]

From a career and planning standpoint, we retired at the right time, 53/54. Looking back, based on assets, we could have retired sooner. No regrets though, I like the cushion.

[pacergal]

I could have retired 5 years prior at full pension, but chose to work to a certain age for health benefits.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by couch Did you retire too early? Just right? Could you have retired earlier? Do you regret not retiring WAY earlier?

I retired a few years ago. My wife plans to retire next year.
One thing I've come to feel is that regret is a wasted emotion.

So, yes I could have retired earlier. My wife could have retired earlier.
But my life is full and happy.

I have absolutely no regrets.

BTW, this doesn't seem like the right forum to answer the question "Did you retire too early?", don't you agree.

[swakyaby]

Retired just right.

In hindsight, I could have retired > 2 years earlier, but would have felt uneasy that one bad turn of events could upset my financial plan. Now, seeing how my actual spending in retirement this past 7 months is less than I anticipated, the buffer feels good. Add to that an unexpected windfall this year, and I realize I have much more than I will spend in my lifetime.

Time to pay it forward.

[Bamaman]

I have seen too many acquaintances die in their late 60's/early 70's. Seven recently died.

Who knows how much time we have. Grab all the gusto you can and retire as soon as fiscally possible.

[Teacher Terry]

Same for us B. Suze Orman just wrote another article for AARP telling people to work until 70. Many won’t live that long.

[Car-Guy]

Probably worked 2 years longer than I should have, maybe even a bit more. OMY syndrome hit me, twice.... Still regret it.

[RunningBum]

Could have and nearly did retire 10 years earlier, but that would've been right at the dotcom bubble burst so I might not have survived it, especially if I had stayed tech heavy like I was at the time. I would've had to have exercised all my stock options, but it's hard to say how I would've invested the proceeds. My guess is that after a 10 or 20% drop I would've poured money back into tech stocks and ridden them the rest of the way down. But maybe I'd have gotten lucky and jumped on to Apple. I also remember eying up BRKA and high dividends on utility stocks, both of which did well around that time, but I didn't pull the trigger on either at all, so I don't know that I would've with more free funds.

In any case, I try not to dwell on what might have been, but instead how to learn from any mistakes and try to avoid them in the future. Staying diversified is a big part of what I learned here. And not trying to pick individual stocks. It worked well for me on the way up, but not since then. Others certainly may have different results.

[Beststash]

I retired at age 52 in 2003 and although I was a tad apprehensive looking back 15 years this Oct. it was my best decision I ever made. My mega-corp employer cut my healthcare benefits in 2006 and that was a big surprise (and costly) but we got through it, especially after ACA was passed. I came within an inch of leaving when I was around 50 but the market downturn caused me to back out for a few years. I had what I thought was enough using Firecalc but even with a few unexpected expenses things have worked out very well. For the first time in my life I am starting to have a few health issues. Things begin to change in your late 60's healthwise (or at least they have for me). My only retirement regret is that in hindsight I was too financially conservative. I wish I had let my freak flag fly in my 50's.

Peace

[googily]

I could retire right now, but with my life having so vastly changed with DH's death, I am not yet sure what I would be retiring "to," as folks like to say around here. DH and I had great plans for traveling, bumming around, and uncovering our next adventure together. While I get the lay of the land as a singleton, I might as well keep working. Job really requires very little of me, and it's nice to keep getting paid. I'm 52--I do hope that by 55 I have stopped, though.