How did you choose your retirement date?

[Scuba]

I was eligible for a retention bonus that was worth roughly a year’s pay. I had to stay for 10 years to get it. As soon as the bonus was paid out, I gave the contractually obligated notice of 30 days and left upon completion. DH and I knew what my last day would be. He resigned a couple of weeks after I did and we had the same last day of work. That night’s celebration was special!

 

[Koolau]

I had always wanted to retire 'early', more accurately I was always looking forward to being alive to retire one day. My dad passed from a heart attack at age 48. I'll be 75 this year, 20-years FIRE.

I'm sure your dad would have been proud. Congratulations on 20 years FIRE'd.

 

[jollystomper]

Perhaps "I reached my number (and then some)" should be an additional poll choice, unless it is considered a subset of "Optimize benefits" .

I told my management, once I reached that amount in 2017, that I planned to retire in 2018. In theory I was prepared to leave at that point if they marched me to the door, but I stayed until June 2018, which was extended a couple of months as they wanted me to rescue a project (and rewarded me nicely for doing that). My actual date was a couple of days after the last project workshop I had agreed to teach, to help train others. I have a "Glide Path" thread here with the gory details .

Going in 2018 was fortuitous for several reasons. I reached 60, which maximized the growth rate of my pension, after which it would grow much, much slower. The additional income (including unused vacation, severance,, and unexpected bonus) resulting in me making the "paying 35 years of maximum SS taxes" bar, so that I will get the maximum benefit. And it made 5 years of pre-Medicare medical premiums easier to deal with, with COBRA and subsidized retiree benefits making the expense much cheaper and with better coverage than ACA plans (since we were not eligible for subsidies).

 

[MC Rider]

I was self employed in RE appraisal for 13 years when the work started to slow down. Again. It was always a feast or famine biz. The writing on the wall said this sequel is worse than the first 2 or 3 movies I already saw. Maybe much worse. We put in motion our plan to sell our house and go somewhere not stupid expensive. My last job was seen in 2022 on Nov 5, or was it 7? Still had to wrap up record keeping and taxes. I was available for desk work only until February when my license expired, but no work came along. There was no definite last day, but I did not much care. It's good to be retired.

 

[CO-guy]

I had always wanted to retire 'early', more accurately I was always looking forward to being alive to retire one day. My dad passed from a heart attack at age 48. I'll be 75 this year, 20-years FIRE.

I can relate. My parent put in 80-100 hour weeks and passed away mid-40s. Even as a teenager, my plan was to be retired by 45. I was off by a little over 5 years, but still pretty close.

 

[kgtest]

I admire those folks in the small percentage of RANDOMs! Good for you! Just winging it, willy nilly all nimbly bimbly. I am totally not that person lol. I've been planning for this since I was 18. Or I at least knew that my plan was NOT to work until 65 which is what everyone seemed to do. Now, seeing that 3 out of the 10 folks responded that they were waiting for benefits.... that makes sense. I think if I can stay healthy, and not need to be one of those 3 of 10 folks just waiting on benefits, then I can push myself into the 3 of 10 people who sticks to the planned date. I plan to retire on my 50th birthday.

 

[MRG]

I thought I'd retire at 30 years of service at Megacorp. I'd be 57. Along the way Megacorp got stupid after the founder retired.

The company was for sale, but you don't put a sign on the door of a 5 billion dollar company. The culture changed and I'd be happy to leave. So happy I quit after my new VP showed me his ignorance a year prior to plan.

After I resigned I found this place. Helped my nerves to know others didn't work.

 

[surprising]

I chose 'personal significance' but mostly it was because I knew I was FIRE ready and megacorp offered very compelling severance package to retire, so I took it. I would probably still be working if they hadn't done that.

 

[Northforker]

I was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. November 2019. I was going to retire 12/31/2020. When covid struck in March 2020, I gave my boss a new date 5/1/2020.

 

[scrabbler1]

I chose "Optimize benefits" because it is the best if imperfect fit for my situation.

After 16 years of working FT, I switched to part-time in 2001, working 20 hours per week with most of those hours working from home. The WFH part was abruptly ended in 2002 and I knew at that time it would be mu undoing. The awful commute, even at 3 days a week, was taking its toll on me.

By 2006, I had begun putting together an ER plan based mostly on the exploding value of the company stock shares (ESOP) I owned. I had created a "magic number" for the total value of the ESOP - hence, the "Optimize Benefits poll response - to determine when I had enough to leave.

By early 2007, I knew I'd be able to retire by the end of 2008. I didn't tell anyone, of course. But I did get my weekly hours worked down from 20 to 12 in mid-2007.
I went on COBRA because I had become ineligible for employer health insurance. I did not want to then pay for an individual policy (this was pre-ACA) while still working.

In early 2008, I met with my Fidelity Account Executive who, after entering my data into Fido's Retirement program, gave me the green light to ER whenever I was ready.

That year, 2008, was a memorable one with the financial markets crashing late in the year. My ESOP value kept rising and I hit my magic number in July. I didn't leave right then because the one project I was working on I wanted to see to its completion before I left When the ESOP's quarterly evaluation came out on September 30th, I gave my notice the next day for a Friday, October 31st end date. This would give me enough time (only 9 more working days) for me to get that big project done. I got that done on October 31st, barely, and an hour later I was out the door, never to return..

There was a small irony about October 31st, and not because it was Halloween. It was on that date 5 years earlier (also a Friday) that the telecommuting deal ended, returning me to the commute I had so much despised (even 3 days a week). I felt a small degree of revenge for what happened in 2003. [This could support choosing the "personal significance" option in the poll.] I also had a lengthy exit interview with a HR staffer and told him that even if they offered my old WFH deal I would have turned it down. I was so DONE!

The crashing markets in late 2008 proved to be a nice boost to my ER, one I still benefit from today. The ESOP value dropped only slightly on September 30th. However, the shares of the bond fun I planned to buy with the proceeds of the ESOP liquidation were dropping throughout the year. They kept dropping in October and into early November, so by the time I made that big purchase into the bond fund, its price had dropped about 20%, allowing me to buy about 20% more shares than I had anticipated. Those added shares have boosted my dividend income by 20% each and every month for the last 16 years and will continue doing that indefinitely. And that doesn't include any compounding effect from being able to reinvest any excess money after paying the bills. This added success can be traced back to how I chose my ER date.

 

[Gallaher]

Mega Corp made the decision for. I had been stuck in OMY syndrome for a while. I was four months from retiree healthcare, I am sure they knew that. On exit interview was told ‘we appreciate your years of top tier performance’. In retrospect, I wish they would have done it five years sooner.
For younger viewers, we are all expendable.

 

[Koolau]

I chose "Optimize benefits" because it is the best if imperfect fit for my situation.

After 16 years of working FT, I switched to part-time in 2001, working 20 hours per week with most of those hours working from home. The WFH part was abruptly ended in 2002 and I knew at that time it would be mu undoing. The awful commute, even at 3 days a week, was taking its toll on me.

By 2006, I had begun putting together an ER plan based mostly on the exploding value of the company stock shares (ESOP) I owned. I had created a "magic number" for the total value of the ESOP - hence, the "Optimize Benefits poll response - to determine when I had enough to leave.

By early 2007, I knew I'd be able to retire by the end of 2008. I didn't tell anyone, of course. But I did get my weekly hours worked down from 20 to 12 in mid-2007.
I went on COBRA because I had become ineligible for employer health insurance. I did not want to then pay for an individual policy (this was pre-ACA) while still working.

In early 2008, I met with my Fidelity Account Executive who, after entering my data into Fido's Retirement program, gave me the green light to ER whenever I was ready.

That year, 2008, was a memorable one with the financial markets crashing late in the year. My ESOP value kept rising and I hit my magic number in July. I didn't leave right then because the one project I was working on I wanted to see to its completion before I left When the ESOP's quarterly evaluation came out on September 30th, I gave my notice the next day for a Friday, October 31st end date. This would give me enough time (only 9 more working days) for me to get that big project done. I got that done on October 31st, barely, and an hour later I was out the door, never to return..

There was a small irony about October 31st, and not because it was Halloween. It was on that date 5 years earlier (also a Friday) that the telecommuting deal ended, returning me to the commute I had so much despised (even 3 days a week). I felt a small degree of revenge for what happened in 2003. [This could support choosing the "personal significance" option in the poll.] I also had a lengthy exit interview with a HR staffer and told him that even if they offered my old WFH deal I would have turned it down. I was so DONE!

The crashing markets in late 2008 proved to be a nice boost to my ER, one I still benefit from today. The ESOP value dropped only slightly on September 30th. However, the shares of the bond fun I planned to buy with the proceeds of the ESOP liquidation were dropping throughout the year. They kept dropping in October and into early November, so by the time I made that big purchase into the bond fund, its price had dropped about 20%, allowing me to buy about 20% more shares than I had anticipated. Those added shares have boosted my dividend income by 20% each and every month for the last 16 years and will continue doing that indefinitely. And that doesn't include any compounding effect from being able to reinvest any excess money after paying the bills. This added success can be traced back to how I chose my ER date.

What a great story! Thanks for sharing.


I was so blessed with a relatively short commute unless I had to go to a meeting at Corp. HQ which was a hassle. WFH was not even a "glimmer" when I was at Megacorp.

 

[Walt34]

I actually liked my job and more often than not my thought on Monday was "I can't believe they're really paying me to do this". But the ongoing training, hardware and software updates were expensive and getting harder and harder to get - administration didn't understand the need for it and explaining the need didn't seem to penetrate. So it was becoming a bit of an exercise in frustration to stay current on things.

I knew I could retire, but I just didn't know exactly how close I was. So I made the appointment in Personnel and got the numbers, which were better than I'd thought. It seemed I could retire and be right where I was financially even taking the spousal benefit for DW. This was only true because I was maxed out on the 457 plan. Actually after the dust settled my net income went up a couple dollars, single digits, and I forget exactly what it was. But it meant that I never had to work again if I didn't want to. That's a great place to be. And other than RMDs I haven't touched the 457, which is now a tIRA because the fees at the 457 were excessive.

 

[EarlyandLate]

I was affected by the first ever large layoff of my over 100 year old corporation. I can't complain, though. They made a few missteps at first, but in the end we came out very well. I only wish that my huge severance could have been paid out over two or three years to reduce the big tax hit.

 

[Guamaniac]

I had no particular reason for the actual date other than finishing out the week. It just happened that my first day of retirement was a Saturday, July 4th. Lots of people celebrated with me.

 

[mebden]

I was planning on retiring in August of 2025 when I reached 59 1/2 but I called it quits in March of 2024 because of the Company I was working for decided they wanted to rearrange job titles and try to demote people along with lowering their pay. When they had hired me back in July of 2023, they came looking for me and I told the Owner I hope the people here like to change and he liked what I had to offer his company. When I had interviewed with him, I said you hire me into this position this is the position I'll stay in and if you ever try to change it I will leave the day you try it as I had enough saved in my retirement account and plenty of cash on hand as like I said I was planning on it. So on March 8 2024 at around 11am the Owner sent in some of his cronies and they were telling me they were Eliminating my position and I could stay on at a lower position at lower pay and I told them to go tell the Owner he can take this job and shove it where the sun don't shine (I always dreamed of saying this lol) since he didn't even have the balls to come do it himself but he was the one who hired me. When I started packing my stuff up his cronies couldn't believe I was going to quit, and I told them this is what you can do when you prepare because everyone is expendable and remember you could be next. Finished packing and left and never looked back and all I here now is all the struggles there having and I just laugh inside. I might not have millions like some of you, but I owe nothing except on my house and I'm in the process of selling that and moving to a different state and going to receive enough cash from my sell of my property and go see more of this great country I live in as I've seen more Countries (from my service days) than of my own country. None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the ACA as health insurance was always my biggest worry and now, I can get the subsides that go with it. So, I started earlier than I wanted but you really don't realize how much money you don't spend when not working from being frugal for so many years and so far, everything is great on my end and now every day is Saturday LOL

 

[Cobra9777]

I had always planned to bag work at 52 (2013). Just a goal I always had. I have many interests from early adulthood. Most don't readily translate into a good-paying career outside of academia. So my thinking was: get a good corporate job, work hard, make a bunch of money, and get out early to concentrate on these other interests. By 2013, the numbers made sense. Plus, the job had become uninteresting, too political, and I was traveling 10-15 weeks per year. So at 52, I just decided it was time to move on.

I gave notice in early April 2013, but expressed some willingness to be flexible regarding timing, which was more-or-less expected in my position. I was asked to keep it quiet for about a month while my replacement was selected and announced. After that, I quickly started phasing out of active work. By late July I wasn't driving in anymore, but I was still reading email from home and helping my replacement get up to speed. I also continued to work on a special project team. That was mainly a 4-hour conference call every Monday, but also involved some travel. The rest of the time, I just consumed my remaining vacation balance. When the special project was complete and my vacation balance was gone, I drove in to turn in my badge and officially terminate employment. That was the last workday of Nov 2013.

I didn't answer the poll as none of the answers seemed relevant to my situation.

 

[Koolau]

I was planning on retiring in August of 2025 when I reached 59 1/2 but I called it quits in March of 2024 because of the Company I was working for decided they wanted to rearrange job titles and try to demote people along with lowering their pay. When they had hired me back in July of 2023, they came looking for me and I told the Owner I hope the people here like to change and he liked what I had to offer his company. When I had interviewed with him, I said you hire me into this position this is the position I'll stay in and if you ever try to change it I will leave the day you try it as I had enough saved in my retirement account and plenty of cash on hand as like I said I was planning on it. So on March 8 2024 at around 11am the Owner sent in some of his cronies and they were telling me they were Eliminating my position and I could stay on at a lower position at lower pay and I told them to go tell the Owner he can take this job and shove it where the sun don't shine (I always dreamed of saying this lol) since he didn't even have the balls to come do it himself but he was the one who hired me. When I started packing my stuff up his cronies couldn't believe I was going to quit, and I told them this is what you can do when you prepare because everyone is expendable and remember you could be next. Finished packing and left and never looked back and all I here now is all the struggles there having and I just laugh inside. I might not have millions like some of you, but I owe nothing except on my house and I'm in the process of selling that and moving to a different state and going to receive enough cash from my sell of my property and go see more of this great country I live in as I've seen more Countries (from my service days) than of my own country. None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the ACA as health insurance was always my biggest worry and now, I can get the subsides that go with it. So, I started earlier than I wanted but you really don't realize how much money you don't spend when not working from being frugal for so many years and so far, everything is great on my end and now every day is Saturday LOL

Great story. Too bad they didn't just offer you a package. Oh, well. The main thing is you got out on your terms.

 

[VanWinkle]

Retirement date chosen due to my wife's 2nd cancer diagnosis. We got 3 decent years after my
retirement and she passed on my 3 year retirement anniversary. I am so glad I retired to spend
those 3 years with her. No regrets.

 

[akck]

My original plan was to retire in April, after my 60th birthday because I’d benefit from an additional high year for my pension calculation. My boss retired about 2 years before and they hired a person who thought he only had to bless others work. I was able to do my own work for about 15 months before they started adding his duties to mine. Well, that changed my date to my 60th birthday and almost changed it to 6 months earlier.

My original plan was to give them 2 weeks notice so I wouldn’t leave in good standing (would mean I couldn’t work for them again). I ended up giving them 30 days as required because they were going to give me another major task of his. During my exit interview with the top boss (one above his boss), I told her he wouldn’t survive the next audit, which came to pass as he was asked to resign.

 

[Koolau]

Retirement date chosen due to my wife's 2nd cancer diagnosis. We got 3 decent years after my
retirement and she passed on my 3 year retirement anniversary. I am so glad I retired to spend
those 3 years with her. No regrets.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss but glad to hear you got some quality time together. Thanks for sharing your experience. It's good for folks to hear - especially those on the fence about their FIRE plans. Blessings.

 

[Taxman59]

In one sense it was chosen for me. I was told by the senior on a job (I was a new staff) that I would never earn a dollar that wasn't taxed by social security and I wouldn't be able to retire. I told him I would be able to retire at 55. Not sure how I picked that age, but I did. I retired at 56 (missed it by 3 months but picked up an additional 25% vesting on some deferred comp). I did have one year with some income over the SSI and Medicare tax limits (stayed over the SSI for many years, but Medicare went unlimited).

 

[Route246]

Retiring sometime this year Sep/Oct 2025. Vesting, SS benefits, etc. play into it. Leaving RSU on the table which is painful but it has to be done.

 

[Koolau]

In one sense it was chosen for me. I was told by the senior on a job (I was a new staff) that I would never earn a dollar that wasn't taxed by social security and I wouldn't be able to retire. I told him I would be able to retire at 55. Not sure how I picked that age, but I did. I retired at 56 (missed it by 3 months but picked up an additional 25% vesting on some deferred comp). I did have one year with some income over the SSI and Medicare tax limits (stayed over the SSI for many years, but Medicare went unlimited).

Curious if the "Senior" ever got out! I wonder what kind of retirement he had.

Great story, Taxman59