Countdown to 2028

[anothercog]

I think I'm entering countdown phase. 3 years from tomorrow I expect to put in my 90-day notice (required if I want to keep unvested shares) which will have me leaving my job a few months before my 58th birthday.

I need 8% annual returns to hit my Fat FIRE goal and hopefully the ACA will still be around even though I won't qualify for much in subsidies.

Layoffs are coming. I don't think I'll be in this round and should be safe for a few more years but my industry is struggling and the constant cost cutting is wearing thin. Hopefully the stars will align and I'll go shortly after my youngest leaves for college. With any luck a voluntary package will come my way in a couple years and move my target up by a year.

 

[Koolau]

Good luck that it all w*rks out for you. 8% is certainly possible but difficult to count on for the long term.

Do you have back-ups in place? If not, that's where I would be putting my efforts at this point but YMMV.

 

[anothercog]

The 8% is hit Fat FIRE. If I were laid off tomorrow I would probably be fine.

If things get lean, hopefully I can just keep working until age 60. Most people in my dept seem to stay past retirement age. They don’t really push you out until age 70

 

[F.I.R.E User]

You will be 60 in 2028?

 

[anothercog]

You will be 60 in 2028?

No. 58

 

[marko]

Good luck!

I've maintained (learning the hard way myself), that everyone should aim for retiring-- voluntarily or otherwise--at age 55. If you then make it to 60 or 65, then it's all gravy.

Ageism, consolidation, closings, mergers and general economy conditions leave many older folks out in the cold with little/no time to recover. Time, not money is the enemy.

As a former boss, I had way too many employees aged 60-ish crying to me that "I can't afford to get laid off, I'll be ruined! ". Finding another good paying job at age 60? Ha! Try Walmart.

 

[Koolau]

Good luck!

I've maintained (learning the hard way myself), that everyone should aim for retiring-- voluntarily or otherwise--at age 55. If you then make it to 60 or 65, then it's all gravy.

Ageism, consolidation, closings, mergers and general economy conditions leave many older folks out in the cold with little/no time to recover. Time, not money is the enemy.

As a former boss, I had way too many employees aged 60-ish crying to me that "I can't afford to get laid off, I'll be ruined! ". Finding another good paying job at age 60? Ha! Try Walmart.

Yeah, I had a lab mate (who's current goal is to retire at age 67 in a couple of years!) When I left 19 years ago, he had a huge house, plasma TV, 4 cars, etc. etc. You know the drill - every new toy you can think of, he had it.

It's mostly a matter of choices. He's happy with his choices and I'm happy with mine. YMMV

 

[anothercog]

Good luck!

I've maintained (learning the hard way myself), that everyone should aim for retiring-- voluntarily or otherwise--at age 55. If you then make it to 60 or 65, then it's all gravy.

Ageism, consolidation, closings, mergers and general economy conditions leave many older folks out in the cold with little/no time to recover. Time, not money is the enemy.

As a former boss, I had way too many employees aged 60-ish crying to me that "I can't afford to get laid off, I'll be ruined! ". Finding another good paying job at age 60? Ha! Try Walmart.

Yeah, plenty of folks in my position at my department have stayed on way past retirement age in the past but the culture is changing due to acquisitions and my industry is in decline so I'm not going to count on longevity as retirement plan. If for some reason things are going great and I want to stay on until 65 and have the opportunity so be it but I want to be very prepared to walk at 58. I'll be 55 next year and could go today but not with as much cushion as I would like.

There is also a lot of living I want to do before I fall apart. The office I have now belonged to a guy who finally retired at age 71 when his prostrate stopped cooperating making life in the office embarrassing and difficult. I don't think he's left his house much since.

 

[Koolau]

I mentioned my lab mate above. When I left Megacorp, he had only relatively recently signed on to Megacorp (his 3rd Megacorp.) He was paranoid about getting booted again as our Megacorp was absolutely bloated.

Megacorp was doing stuff like selling off divisions, leaving the personnel with the division and buying all the stuff that the division made. So nothing changed for Megacorp except that they no longer had all those pesky empl*yees. The new (smaller) corps then took care of the dirty w*rk of "deleting" head count.

My lab mate was fortunate that he got to stay with Megacorp - a lot of old buddies at Megacorp did NOT make the cut and ended up with a strange company that may or may not value them.

The truly bizarre thing is that (fast forward 19 years) and Megacorp is SHORT of empl*yees and is doing what it can to keep my old lab mate into his late 60s. How wild is that? Of course, he doesn't even want to leave (he likes the money) but his health is giving out on him and he wants a few years of retirement. He has NO plans to make age 80.

 

[Diogenes]

I've maintained (learning the hard way myself), that everyone should aim for retiring-- voluntarily or otherwise--at age 55. If you then make it to 60 or 65, then it's all gravy.

Good observation! Age 55 is something of a threshold. Retiring before that (voluntarily or involuntarily) can get fraught. Some heroic people have succeeded admirably, but it takes a certain kind of mindset. After 55, one comes to feel (my prediction... I'm not there yet!) a ho-hum indifference to one's career-vitality. If it holds, fantastic. If not, that's also OK. Material lifestyle can be adjusted to suit.

In the OP's case, it sounds that formerly enjoyable work, is rapidly becoming less so. Just as the capacity to retire increases, the desire to keep working wanes... those two curves eventually cross, after which, retiring is the proverbial no-brainer. Then there's OMY... normally pernicious, but in the OP's case, it has merit, if annual returns are lackluster. This is because the difference between ~58 (OP's target retirement age) and something more "conventional" is small. Adding an extra year can make a large difference, if not psychologically, then financially.

So, for the angst-ridden ones among us, who aren't there yet... the key is making it to 55!

 

[pb4uski]

Good luck!

I've maintained (learning the hard way myself), that everyone should aim for retiring-- voluntarily or otherwise--at age 55. If you then make it to 60 or 65, then it's all gravy.

Ageism, consolidation, closings, mergers and general economy conditions leave many older folks out in the cold with little/no time to recover. Time, not money is the enemy.

As a former boss, I had way too many employees aged 60-ish crying to me that "I can't afford to get laid off, I'll be ruined! ". Finding another good paying job at age 60? Ha! Try Walmart.

I had for many years planned for 55. In fact, I recall when I was 50 my boss and I were having breakfast together, just the two of us, at a firm conference. He knew that I was retirement minded and casually asked me what I was thinking in terms of retiring. To be clear, we had and still have a very good relationship so I wasn't at all offended or put off. I told him, with a wry smile, that I really didn't know for sure but that I was thinking 0 to 5 years. He just about choked on his cereal and we had a good laugh.

Then the Great Recession came along and I did OMY. In the year before I retired we completed the rebuild of the lake house, moved in and sold our former main house and it seemed like a good time to pull the ripcord, so I did.

Ageism worked both ways for me. While I was clearly older than most others at my level, it was also helpful at pitches for new projects to have a guy with some gray hair on the proposed engagement team. Prospective clients seemed to like the idea that there was some expereince on the team.

 

[Diogenes]

... In the year before I retired we completed the rebuild of the lake house, moved in and sold our former main house and it seemed like a good time to pull the ripcord, so I did.

Ageism worked both ways for me. While I was clearly older than most others at my level, it was also helpful at pitches for new projects to have a guy with some gray hair on the proposed engagement team. Prospective clients seemed to like the idea that there was some expereince on the team.

You had a natural forcing-function, unrelated to career or money: your lake house and main house. Relocation is a powerful motive for life-changes. Whether your work was onerous or pleasurable, your changing domicile accelerated whatever longer-term changes you had been contemplating.

As to ageism, I find a somewhat complementary situation. I'm solidly Gen-X, born during the Nixon administration. Our cohort is underrepresented. Wherever I turn, folks are either considerably older, or younger. The younger-set is frustrated with us old (comparatively) fogeys, while the older folks refuse - for whatever reason - to retire, and regard us as snot-nosed kids who haven't learned their place. This means that routes for promotion are blocked by our elders, while the youth are nipping at our proverbial heels. One is tempted to retire simply because being thus squeezed, is problematic from both ends.