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Old 01-21-2019, 07:31 PM   #41
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65 is commonly thought of as retirement age, but according to this, the average retirement age in the United States among currently living retirees was 59.88 years old. The median living retiree left work at 62 years old, and the most common age to retire was 62 years old. 18.7% of retirees retired at age 62, and a whopping 63.1% retired between the ages of 57 and 66. So if you retire before 65, you're in the majority. "Early" means "happening or done before the usual or expected time". Most people think they will work until 66 (according to this), but the majority retire before then.

I retired earlier than the majority, but was on schedule for my plans.
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Old 01-21-2019, 07:34 PM   #42
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I'm going to be a lemming and go with SS FRA (for me). Anything before 67 is early. I'm more concerned about getting to FI than defining RE.
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Old 01-21-2019, 07:35 PM   #43
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Since I retired at 60, I defined early retirement as 60. Simple.
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Old 01-21-2019, 11:31 PM   #44
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Before age 60.
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Old 01-22-2019, 03:21 AM   #45
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Originally Posted by Dtail View Post
I retired at 57, but do consider anything under 65 to be early. Reading on this site, can skew thoughts on the typical age for retirement. Even on this site, the average retirement is probably 56/57.
I live in a gated non retirement community in FLA (but has some retirees) and don't know anyone else under 60 who is retired.
I also live in a Florida non retirement community as you. Been here 4 years. Several new neighbors have moved in during that time. They seem amazed that my DW is 57 and I am 58 particularly when we tell them we moved here in 2015. I worked PT until December when I called it quits. From September on, each time I saw neighbors at the pool or on the street they would ask are you REALLY going to retire?? Some were like, "we don't understand, who is paying you". The concept of paying for yourself using dividends and interest was inconceivable to my neighbors on a pension and or living on SS.
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Old 01-22-2019, 04:11 AM   #46
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I'm going to be a lemming and go with SS FRA (for me). Anything before 67 is early. I'm more concerned about getting to FI than defining RE.
I was going to say 65, but I agree FRA is a good reference. But I don’t know what difference it makes to pin down an age. You retire sometime/anytime after you reach FI and have better things to do than a conventional job, who cares what someone else calls it?
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Old 01-22-2019, 07:22 AM   #47
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Being able to access your 401K without a penalty is at 59.5 years old, and early SS at 62, so anything before these dates I consider early.

Good planning makes a good ending !
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Old 01-22-2019, 07:41 AM   #48
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Being able to access your 401K without a penalty is at 59.5 years old, and early SS at 62, so anything before these dates I consider early.

Good planning makes a good ending !
If I would have to pick a date (ER) means it would this ^.
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Old 01-22-2019, 08:06 AM   #49
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Being able to access your 401K without a penalty is at 59.5 years old, and early SS at 62, so anything before these dates I consider early.

Good planning makes a good ending !
But most 401K plans allow you to take a distribution at Age 55 without penalty if your employment is terminated past your 55th birthday.
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Old 01-22-2019, 08:22 AM   #50
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ER, Retired while you're healthy, active and can enjoy life. If someone is RE because of health issues, I don't consider that FIRE because there was another layer to the decision to ER. If you're ER because laid off and had no other choice, mmm, not sure I"d consider that ER. IMHO, if you have the resources, desire and choice to be ER and can at least, enjoy ER, that's the age I define as ER.
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Old 01-22-2019, 08:36 AM   #51
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I retired a few days after my 57th birthday. Since peoples' reactions were nearly universally, "Whaaaa? You're too young to retire!" I considered it "early."

Not that it matters.
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Old 01-22-2019, 10:15 AM   #52
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I retired shortly after my 56th birthday, and DH retired at 57. We consider ourselves to have retired early, realizing that there are many who retired younger. The people we worked with were all shocked that we were retiring and since retiring, we often get questions or surprised looks when we tell people we’re retired.
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Old 01-22-2019, 10:48 AM   #53
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I learned from my grandfather that "retirement age" was 65, because that was when you got Social Security and also when you got Medicare. That was considered normal and expected.
That's my thinking too. I think standard retirement is around 60-65 when a lot of government retirement-related benefits kick in.

Anything in your 50's to me is standard early retirement as I feel a lot of pensions have magic numbers that support a mid 50's retirement. At my megacorp, a lot of people with the old DB pension that started with the company fairly young either hit their numbers around 55 or have been pushed out in their early 50's with enough severance to tie them over to when their DB pension can kick in around 55.
Anything below 50 is very early retirement IMO.

I don't think the labeling in itself is important but I view earliness from a financial challenge perspective. The earlier you retire, you won't necessarily be able to initially tap into government benefits and/or possibly a work pension while being more dependent on personal savings.
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Old 01-22-2019, 11:21 AM   #54
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Old 01-22-2019, 11:32 AM   #55
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I retired at 50 and DH retired at 57. We didn't consider it early till everyone we talked to said we retired early. So be it. Living life on our terms.
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Old 01-22-2019, 03:06 PM   #56
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The only time the "early retirement" label mattered to me was when I told HR I was thinking of retiring at 54 with 30 years of service. HR informed me that Mega Corp considered leaving before age 55 as quitting not retiring and I would not be eligible for any Mega Corp retiree benefits. I opted to stay and retired at 55 and 2 days.

Haven't taken advantage of any Mega Corp retiree benefits so probably didn't matter in the end. However, I like the ability to use the IRS Rule of 55 if I would need to access my 401k funds prior to 59.5.
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Old 01-22-2019, 05:08 PM   #57
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I retired at 42. I think that any age below 60 is fairly early.
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Old 01-22-2019, 06:13 PM   #58
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As we were working, we defined early retirement as age 55 because that was the first year that DH could receive a pension. He retired at age 56 so not as early as planned.
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Old 01-22-2019, 06:15 PM   #59
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FWIW, I have always thought ot 65 as normal retirement age and early retirement as 55 or younger. I planned for 55 but ended up retiring just after my 56th birthday.
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Old 01-23-2019, 05:39 PM   #60
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When people still say "you look too young to be retired"! Guess DW and I are still ER's!
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