What led you to retire??

[albireo13]

I am getting close to retiring and always wondered about what people have as reasons for finally pulling the plug.

… toxic job? …. bored with career?
… on to other things? … health reasons?

For me it will be a combination of health/wellness as well as I can no longer stand having almost every day of my life scheduled up for me. I feel like I have no control over how I can spend my time.


Thoughts?

 

[Nemo2]

I never wanted to work in the first place......so, when I could afford not to, I didn't.

 

[COcheesehead]

More time to do the things I really wanted to do: travel, learn, teach, hike, bike....

As many say on here, make sure you aren't just retiring from something, but also to something.

 

[dtbach]

I was booted into it during the 2008-2009 era. Did some part time stuff (Census taker, IT short term gigs, etc) but was basically retired. Once I got my Navy Pension at 60 I was totally retired.

 

[Sunset]

I found work was interfering with my personal life.

That and being old for IT meant nobody wanted me around anyhow...

 

[mckittri2000]

Once it was economically feasible, I pulled the plug. I didn't hate my coworkers but almost always disagreed with management. So much less stress now that I'm retired.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

For me, my ex employer showed up and closed our office with no notification whatsoever so I did not have much choice. Turned out to be the best day of my life, if it had not happened, I'd still be working and wanting to retire early but frightened to take that huge step. Yes, it was scary when the unemployment ran out but after I squared away the financial stuff and realized I really did not need to return to work, it was an easy decision. Life is great.....

 

[freedomatlast]

Combination of continuous and ridiculous MegaCorp initiatives and directives, already being FI and then the opportunity to receive a fantastic golden parachute made the decision real easy. The newfound freedom is incredible!

 

[REWahoo]

Reasons for finally pulling the plug?

I finally figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up and had the funds to do it.

 

[Willers]

We had a reorg and I got a new President to report to. To say she wasn't the right person would be an understatement. I had been thinking about RE and knew that she'd kill the business so I finished off some projects and gave my notice three months later. It took her only two years to kill off the business.


I am so happy I didn't stick around to watch the painful decline.

 

[CaliKid]

I like the money but not the job. I dislike things like: employee issues, high maintenance clients, dumb clients, annoying clients, and the list goes on. Also, I would rather: golf, travel, bike, hike, walk, run, shop, and in general do what I want with and without my beautiful wife.

 

[scrabbler1]

The commute, even after I reduced it to 2 days a week, was 2 days too many. When I reduced my work week from 3 days to 2 days in mid-2007, I knew I was likely to reach my "magic number" and retire by the end of 2008. And that's what happened.


I was mostly telecommuting for a few years when my part-time work era began in 2001. But by 2007 I despised the commute so much that I would not accept my old telecommuting gig even if they offered it.


When that telecommuting gig began in 2001, I regained control of my personal life again. Working even part-time in 2007 was interfering with my newly found personal life, making work in general, along with the commute, lousy.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Many reasons, chronic burnout, hospital politics and bullying (I was a frequent target). I am a (retired) physician but always felt medicine was something I did, not who I was.

FI and early retirement was always in my plans. It was a strange feeling not to have to go to work, but quickly that gave way to the feeling that I am finally living the life I was meant to live. Doing things and being "productive" without it being attached to a paycheck is really nice. I'm playing a lot of music locally and sometimes getting paid.

 

[brett]

duplicate

 

[brett]

-Had enough money and pension benefits

-Fortunate enough to get a golden handshake at 58/59 and in excellent health

-Wanted to travel extensively and young enough to go where and how we wanted and for as long as we wanted

-Realized that the time we have left, in good health, is finite

-It is only money, we did not need more and we were/are content with what we have.

-Why not?

Looking in the rear view mirror 8 or so years.....best thing we ever did. Could have done it at 55 and perhaps should have.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Advancing computer technology was a factor in my retirement, but it wasn't a matter of aging out or falling behind the times. A series of new computer programs enabled management to load more and more work onto our department. As a colleague once observed, "Every upgrade is a downgrade."

When the latest "upgrade" arrived in 2013, a severance offer followed shortly thereafter. Rather than live with the migranes the new program was inducing, I chose to take the money and run.

 

[38Chevy454]

As I said many times to coworkers, quality of life is when you go out the gate, not in the gate. No more in the gate for me.

 

[MRG]

I loved my j*b for many years. I'd planned on retiring in 2014 for my 30th anniversary. Well thing's changed and I went to work in a different area. I went there because I thought I could make a difference in that area and the VP was a former Marine with great leadership skills.

First time there was a big customer outage my VP with leadership skills went off. He thought it was bootcamp and I was the target of his ire.

A couple weeks later I'd talked with my Fidelity guy who thought another few months didn't matter. I waited until my direct manager was gone and met with my VP and handed him my resignation. Seemed fitting.

 

[Hermit]

When DW suddenly died, the urge to move from Virginia back to Colorado was intense. I had one kid starting college and the other beginning her sophomore year. I stuck around for four years while they went to state schools and then retired. We are all now back in Colorado.

 

[Dtail]

Story short, couldn't find work then discovered I could retire.

 

[pb4uski]

At the time that I retired I had already downshifted to part-time for about 5 years... the first downshift was to 80% for family reasons, then later I downshifted to 50% and we adjusted my role so my travel would be limited, I then agreed to bump it up to 80% for a special project for a key client for about a year, and then back down to 50%.

And while 50% of hours, pay, bonus, etc were all nice and I had a lot of free time, the nature of the job was that I was "on call" 24/7 and it was difficult to schedule contiguous time off with important meetings being rescheduled at a moment's notice (which is fine if one is full-time). So let's say that I scheduled Thursday afternoons off to golf with friends... a client isn't going to want to hear that I couldn't dial in to a critical meeting that just got rescheduled from 10 am Thursday morning to 2 pm Thursday afternoon for some good reason.

Essentially, work was impinging on what I wanted to do with my time and I didn't "need" the extra money... so I quit.

It didn't hurt that we had just downsized our home and were down to one house so our expenses were lower and we added the proceeds from the sale of our home to our nestegg. The stars were aligned.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I echo many of the same reasons as others have posted. I *did* have a j*b that I thoroughly enjoyed...flight testing recently modified airplanes. Taking a bigass jet to the absolute limits of it's capability and every now and then...a little bit more. What's not to like? Well, the flying part was only about 5% of my j*b and 95% of it was mere bull squeeze. Since it was a limited tour, I knew my time was short and after having the absolute freedom I had as an independent operator/tester of airplanes, there was NO WAY I was going back to the "real Air Force" with many rules and worse management.

Plus, my mil retirement was ready for me on day one...so pulled the plug. It's almost been 5 years and I am thrilled that I left when I did.

 

[DektolMan]

self employed for 40 years working 50-60 hours per week. I always planned on retiring early at 55 but at that time downsized business to part time for 5 years and basically worked when i wanted to.


Pulled the plug at 61 when DW was on board and we had enough to enjoy retirement.

 

[davebarnes]

At age 70, my largest customer pissed me off.
At age 70.5, I had enough money.
So, I fired them on a Sunday with zero notice and went on vacation.

 

[Car-Guy]

Simple math:


> $,$$$,$$$ but < $$,$$$,$$$ + burnout = retirement