Let me ask you this. What if you had retired 5 years earlier and were able to do all the things you wanted to do during that time. Would those years not have outweighed the extra additional risks?
As for finding jobs later in life I think it is highly dependent on the profession. I would think something like pharmacy would be easy to work part time in, whereas something like IT where one must keep up to date constantly would be much harder.
Fair enough question.
As I said before, I retired at age 59. I (along with my DW) had achieved "our number" in our early 50's.
Our indivudial goals were achieved during our working years. Mine? To be able to spend 100% (adjusted each year for our personal inflation rate) as we spent during our wor*ing years.
My wife's (primary) goal? To be able to travel (both internationally and CONUS) several times a year. As a secondary goal, also to be able to spend 100% of her pre-retirement net income (adjusted for personal rate of inflation).
Unlike a lot of folks looking at future retirement expenses, we did not "plan for the future" as to what we were
going to do in retirement. We actually did it/spent it during our wor*ing/accumulation years. We did (and still do) a lot of travel (were "down under" for a month last year, in June, along with an east coast cruise later in the year). We just returned from a Baltic cruise two weeks ago (Nordic/Russia - plus a few days in London). My wife is leaving in September with a friend of hers to go to the Canyonlands/Vegas in September. In November, they are headed off to Cairo and a cruise on the Nile for a week. I'm not trying to impress you at all; just to say that we (mostly my DW) are achieving our desires.
We've always done travel (the biggest retirement expense). Nothing has changed in retirement.
As for me? I rather stay home (I traveled much - too much, mostly international travel, to much during my wor*ing years) and enjoy my home, my pups, and not having to travel.
Retiring early would have not made much imact upon an improvement in lifestyle, in my/our case.
As to occupation? I retired from working in IT. If you count from the first class I took (1965) till retirement (2007), that's 42 years in an area of the economy that never stayed the same (as you well know). In my case, returning to work (even in my last role of PM) would be hard to return to.
It is not only the ability to perform a function, but it's also the desire to perform that function/job, IMHO.
At my age, I'm not willing to put up with office BS, nor "suffer the consequences" of somebody half my age who has not been brought up "in the trenches" at my advanced age
...
Heck - I look at it as that I earned my stripes (yes, former military). I have nothing to prove to anybody, anymore...
As to your question directly pertaining to retiring 5 years earlier. I (and my DW) planned on retiring at age 65 (of course now age 66). We planned to retire at age 59 - seven years earlier. So in essence, I did retire more than five years earlier than planned. I can't say I took any risk at all, since it was my/our plan and any possible impacts were considered before execution.
As to my DW? She was to retire at the same time as me (we're the same age). However a few months before she was to retire, she found that she was not "emotionally ready". At age 62, she still is gainfully employed. However she knows that any day she wishes to leave, she is free to do so. I guess you can call that real "freedom"...