What time of year did you retire at?

[albireo13]

My birthday is in January.
We are on my wife's HC plan and she plans to work a few more years so I don't have to worry about the ACA. At that point I will be filing with Medicare.

We get an annual profit sharing, paying out the end of March so, sometime after that I will give notice. A few things have me thinking of delaying a few months:

1. I have both elder parents nearby who have expectations of me being over to take care of them. They are very needy and refuse assisted living. They keep asking me when I am going to retire!
2. Will still have one son in college after June. Would like to help it out a bit more but ...
3. Would be good to accrue a few more vacation days, which I will get paid for.

Small reasons to keep working but ... Actually, my work has gotten easier this past year. The stress level has dropped quite a bit. It's easy money going in every day.
It's just that I have lost interest in it and I have finite number of days on the planet.

[travelover]

End of February. Happy 13th anniversary coming up.

[W2R]

I retired on 11/9/2009. The reason why I picked that date is that is was the first day when I was eligible for retirement benefits (health insurance, mini-pension, and so on).

What a great time of year to retire! Well, I guess any day of the year would be a great time of year to retire for someone as eager as I was to make that transition.

[FargoI]

Marc indicated above "...I retired in October; wanted to max out social security for the year. If you leave early in year you pay into social security but it won't count for any of your top 35 years so just throwing away money.


If one retires mid CY, is it accutane that the six months of SS taxation credit towards the best 35 years? For example, if a very highly compensated person paid the max ss tax in January ( I recognize this illustration is unlikely), would that individual forfet that specific calendar year's recognition in regards to the SSA algorithm?

Thanks for clarifying.

[Ronstar]

April 2nd. I was supposed to retire April 1st, but I still needed 8 hours to fulfill my contract obligation. So I had to come in an extra day.

[karen1972]

I retired in February but had planned for April/May. House sold in 1 day in the middle of Chicago winter, hadn't expected that so once I had a sell date at end of Feb, I quit. I figured April would allow me enough time to max out my 401k 1 more time but not so much money that I couldn't take advantage of other tax savings by being in a lower tax bracket. I would have gotten my yearly bonus, had time to do a few more fun spring things before we left town and then spend the summer traveling. Feb was fine, just it sort of rushed us and I didn't get as much done as I wanted to before we moved.

[Sarah S]

I retired in mid- late April. Once I decided to retire that was how long it took to extricate myself from my practice. If it had been winter I might have waited to leave but the timing worked out

[KB]

I retired 6/30/2005. There was still plenty of summer weather going on.

I wanted to leave mid June but my employer asked me to stay on the entire month in case anyone needed information from me after I turned my work over to them. Mostly I shredded confidential documents and cleaned my desk out those last two weeks.

[omni550]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover End of February. Happy 13th anniversary coming up.

+1

(I retired from the same Mega Corp on the same day as travelover. Never knew him at work. Ran into him at Harbor Freight a few years later.)

omni

[jollystomper]

I originally planned to retire end of April to be eligible for the 1st quarter bonus portion of my compensation. But for reasons I detailed on my glide path thread, I pushed the date to the end of June to help out my organization. Since I left before July I assumed I would not be getting the 2nd quarter bonus, so was pleasantly surprised to receive a bonus check at the end of July.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omni550 +1 (I retired from the same Mega Corp on the same day as travelover. Never knew him at work. Ran into him at Harbor Freight a few years later.) omni

So, you also successfully ignored their pleas to return?

[omni550]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover So, you also successfully ignored their pleas to return?

Yes, they contacted me several times to come back. You, too?

omni

[CaliKid]

I am planning for the fall... right after my youngest leaves the house for college. I like the idea of all my kids seeing me as a working person, going off to the office every morning, etc.... I figure once they are off at college they are a little disconnected from reality so better time to hang it up. Probably stupid but that's my plan. 2022 is my planned year!

[VanWinkle]

My last date for work was May 13th, but my paid time went through July 10th. I did this for no certain reason but it turned out to be a great way to retire. The following year I received a sizable bonus check unexpectedly. It turned out anyone working more the 6 months received the full bonus amount for my former work unit. My July 10th date qualified me for a full bonus!!!

[Andre1969]

My goal is to go out in April of whatever given year I choose...hopefully 2021. Here's my rationale...
1) My birthday is in April, so it'll be like a birthday present.
2) Spring is symbolic for rebirth, so I figure that metaphor lends itself well to retirement.
3) I want to enjoy that first summer of retirement, like you mentioned.
4) Also, like you mentioned, I start to get a bit mopey in the fall and winter, so I'd rather do it during a more optimistic time of the year.

I also have a few financial reasons, but they're becoming less important as the years go past.
1) I usually get a bonus in March. But it's normally around $1,000. If that's a make it or break it event, then I'm not really ready for retirement!
2) I normally get a raise in March, as well, so I figure any vacation time I have left will get paid out at the higher rate. But again, we're talking a 3-4% increase here, so it's not like a vast fortune or anything.
3) I can throw another $7,000 into my Roth IRA for that year. But, following a pattern here, I don't know that $7,000 is really that big of a deal. Plus, I'm planning to do Roth conversions after I retire, anyway.
4) It will get me another year of SS earnings, albeit a short one. Still, it would be enough to kick one of my early, low paying years out of the top 35. But once again, like a broken record, I don't think it'll make much difference.

So, my vote would be for spring/early summer, but your mileage may vary. And, as for me, even though every time April rolls around and I start thinking well, I'll just hold off until NEXT spring, I do have a feeling that if the BS bucket at work fills up too much, that will be the determining factor, regardless of the time of year.

[SecondCor521]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FargoI Marc indicated above "...I retired in October; wanted to max out social security for the year. If you leave early in year you pay into social security but it won't count for any of your top 35 years so just throwing away money. If one retires mid CY, is it accutane that the six months of SS taxation credit towards the best 35 years? For example, if a very highly compensated person paid the max ss tax in January ( I recognize this illustration is unlikely), would that individual forfet that specific calendar year's recognition in regards to the SSA algorithm? Thanks for clarifying.

Not an expert, but I believe whatever wages you pay SS taxes on for that last calendar year will be added to your SS earnings history. Whether it is among your highest 35 years (and therefore whether it affects your SS benefits) depends on your work history.

In my case, my last year was pretty low income, but it may have displaced one of my earlier years when I was just doing summer jobs. But then I didn't have the full 35 years of SS anyway. For someone who had 35 high-paying years, it probably wouldn't matter.

[pb4uski]

My last day of work was just prior to the Christmas holidays in 2011... I had just turned 56 the month prior.

I was on holiday and vacation from then until February 1, 2012.... which extended my workplace health insurance through the end of February.

I deferred all my comp in 2012 so I had no earnings in 2012 which gave me more headroom for long-term capital gains trading at 0% tax.

[Splash]

DH and I retired on February 1st for a number of reasons. I turned 55 on January 30th allowing penalty free access to my 401k using the Rule off 55. Staying until the 1st of the month gave us another month of HI from Mega Corp. My annual bonus was communicated in early December and paid on January 15th. I gave notice shortly after my bonus was communicated. With only 1 month of wages, our income was low enough to qualify for ACA subsidies.

To escape the WI winter we went to Hawaii for 2 weeks and then spent the month of March in the Florida Keys. It was a great transition for us.

[38Chevy454]

Aug for me, mainly so it gave me 1 more year service credit (needed 1000 or more hours in the calendar year). Also worked out for selling my house. I actually checked out Aug 2nd, which gave me that month's health insurance coverage. Left the state the day I retired on my move cross country.

[CyclingInvestor]

Oct 17. No financial reason, my company was finally shoving an XP (extreme programming) environment down our throats, turning a relaxing, easy career into a nightmare social engagement.

I guess I missed all the stressful / depressing parts of retirement (13 years now).