Once you knew you could retire - how did you feel?

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matty_boston

Confused about dryer sheets
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Nov 10, 2021
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Canton
Hi All,

Just wondering from retirees once they knew they could retire, what changed for them when they were still working?

Did the stress go way down? Did you care less about doing your work (less productive)?

Just curious as to what changes once you know you can retire.

Thanks!
 
Once I realized I could retire—even before I actually did—my whole mindset shifted. The stress didn’t disappear overnight, but it definitely eased up. Knowing I wasn’t trapped or dependent on every paycheck gave me a sense of freedom I hadn’t felt in years.

I didn’t stop caring about my work, but I stopped over caring. The little things didn’t get under my skin anymore. Office politics felt irrelevant. I became more selective about what I put my energy into, and ironically, that sometimes made me more productive because I wasn’t running on anxiety.

The biggest change was perspective. When you know you can walk away at any time, you start focusing on what actually matters—your health, your time, and the people you care about. Work becomes something you choose to do, not something you’re stuck doing.
 
I don't think there was a lot of difference, because I'd been planning long enough and it was basically inevitable.

Once I reached the goal though, if anything I was more annoyed at work, because I hung around on a hunch about a RIF (I was not in a prime location), and then the RIF was announced, but they took about 6 months to finalize the details and give me an actual end date.

I never dropped caring about the work, because I had a team that I wanted to ensure stayed setup for success, colleagues, friends, etc.
 
Interesting question because, for me, it all happened on an exact day. The day I knew I could retire.

I had very little investing knowledge and made lots of mistakes with investing BUT I had always been a good saver. So my retirement "stash" had grown - even though I hadn't particularly been good at investing. In fact, my Megacorp gave its 401(k) matching in company stock and toward the end of my c@reer, the stock had taken off and set me up with a nice nest egg. That, in itself was not enough to make me feel good about retirement. I would have kept w*rking had that been my only resource.

BUT on an exact date, my modest pension (non-COLA'd) and only about 45% of my salary vested AS DID my company provided Retirement Medical Insurance. I was only 51, so it was a long time to SS - even Early SS. It was even longer to MC BUT I felt very safe on the financial and medical aspect of retirement.

As far as how I felt: I literally relaxed and knew that I could march into the boss's office anytime I wanted to and say "I quit" and know that I would be just fine, financially.

Ironically. I was enjoying my j*b and decided to stay on for a while and enjoy the fruits of my l@bors. I had created a position for myself and I wanted to stay and see what I could do with it. I stayed for 7 more years, padding my savings and enjoyed myself until my assignment was changed. I retired the next Friday.

The relaxed feeling that came over me upon vesting was "palpable" (if that is an appropriate word for this mental transition). No one, and no Corp. BS could get to me anymore.

I felt "bullet proof." (What are they gonna do? Fire me? - No! I'd quit first)!! It was a very good feeling, indeed. YMMV
 
Well, the way I felt about w*rk changed once we attained FI, which is not the same as being able to retire. The milestones were (1) being able to live comfortably on only one salary, then (2) having enough living expenses saved so we could BOTH afford to lose our jobs even if it took a while to find new ones.

After that first milestone, it became much easier to insist things were done right when it mattered to me. I worked just as hard, but when asked to do a job in less time than it needed I never did that. I said I'd do my best, and I would (within reason), but I did not cut corners just because the project was out of budget.
 
I knew the math worked buy my wife didn't but said "if Peter says its OK, then I'm ok." Peter is a life long friend any our cpa.

We had lunch with Peter at his office. He said it would work.

Driving home she asked "what's with the stupid smirk?" I just wanted to find a place and drink frozen boozy drinks with umbrellas in them and listen to bob marley.

That's how I felt.

This was 2 or 3 years ago and I've been cursed with OMY. I really wanted to be part of the company when they ring the bell for our IPO, but with each day, that wanes too.
 
Sane with me. I was not a good investor but I saved over 50% of my salary. When I lost money on investments I just continued plowing money into the brokerage account.

If I was a better investor I probably would have had 4x what I do now.

I don't think I ever had a point where I told myself now I have enough to retire. But by 2001 I had saved $1M and felt that I had enough to not have to suck up or avoid saying what I thought.

I had a nice salary from my point of view. I never was able to figure out how I compared to other employees but I think I was making quite a bit more. Being single I always wondered if I was making less than a married team.

I liked socking away the savings, but one day the SVP went crazy picking on me and my BS bucket overflowed. I think he probably played me to manage me out the door.
 
Liberating and made it known that I was more than likely going to take the next opportunity for the next RIF if one occurred. It happened 3 years later at age 53...I was much less concerned than my original plan for 50 because I had purposely begun to live on my projected retirement budget. Now 23 years later I feel very fortunate to have been able to do so.
 
I had (have) always wanted to have more. At the back of my mind I knew that we could retire for several years already but I really wanted double of what we had saved. So the answer is that there was no differnce in how I felt or worked even though I knew that the numbers would work if we retired. But when my spouse wanted to retire and be done with our business, I was basically out of a job. I just never went back into the work force.

I still want to have double of what we now have. :) I have never felt that we have won the game.
 
My situation was probably an outlier. I had “targeted” retiring at 55 years earlier, but wasn’t really following a plan to get there. I chose that age because it was the year that our youngest was expected to graduate college and our mortgage would be paid off. We paid off the mortgage several years early and all of our kids graduated college on time. But I wasn’t fixated on retiring and really didn’t plan to. Our company had gone public the year prior, so I finally knew what my equity was worth, but it had a 5 year vesting schedule. Then, less than a year later, a private equity group bought the company, and all of a sudden, the vesting schedule was gone. It just so happened to be a couple of weeks before my 55th birthday. I was faced with a decision of having to reinvest a large portion of my equity back into the company in order to stay on the senior management team, or take a less senior management role. I chose to retire instead. Made the decision over a weekend.

I stayed on board for a couple of months at the request of our CEO, but would not travel. I had had enough of a hectic travel schedule. So I would get on a few calls during the week and played a lot of golf. I was definitely checked out.
 
I had planned and invested long before I could retire (Golden Handcuffs requirement) and was ready. Just kept working and plodding along till the last day. My attitude did not change. I did not wait around and was gone on that exact magic date like I planned. What a relief that was. Bottom line...a great relief to not be held back any more in Life.
 
The stress went down. Kept caring about doing the real w*rk. Cared less about company politics.

I enjoyed the real w*rk. Didn't care so much about all the b*llsh*t that accompanied it. I likely would have continued longer, except that a family member started needing full-time care and I didn't feel right about being away 10 out of 14 days while DW handled the burden.

Now, at just under two years retired, I wouldn't go back to w*rk if they paid me!
 
I knew I would be able to retire the first time I really thought about it, in my 20s. And I knew just about when the finances would be lined up to make that a certainty. When that time rolled around, I retired. My attitude at work really did not change, except maybe the last couple of months when I had to turn over all my cases to other lawyers in the office (who then had to file an appearance with the court in each case formally substituting for me). That meant cleaning up and organizing the files for someone who had not been keeping them, writing up memos regarding what had happened and what should happen going forward, and briefing those people. In that respect, my work focus had turned to be inward facing rather than outward facing.
 
It was a relief, but like others in this thread I stayed on. Work was definitely less stressful knowing I could walk out any time and be ok.
 
Kind of scared of the unknown and knew I would miss what I did for 40 years. I was excited for my new journey though.
 
Last edited:
matty_boston said:
Hi All,

Just wondering from retirees once they knew they could retire, what changed for them when they were still working?

Did the stress go way down? Did you care less about doing your work (less productive)?

Just curious as to what changes once you know you can retire.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don't understand the question. It seems like you are asking how things changed at work when I no longer needed to work. Why would I still be at work if I didn't need to be? What changed is that I was no longer at work because I no longer had a need for more money.
 
I find myself becoming less tolerant of bullshit. I find myself annoyed with everything. And then a super nice client talks to me and i love it again. 🤷‍♂️

Now if my DH quits and does nothing I want to hang out too.
 
We both knew we'd be OK in retirement well before I gave my notice (my wife was on medical leave). I gave 6-mos notice (I was the Deputy Director of a large 9-1-1 call center responsible for day-to-day ops) because the wheels of govt can and does turn slowly. I continued doing my job with the same energy I had pre-notification. My replacement was named 8-weeks ahead of my last day and I spent about a month going over the various responsibilities and duties. The final month felt like slow motion. I cleaned out my desk and files leaving just what the new DD would need.
 
I have been planning most money matters in my life years ahead.
I wasn't surprised. The next step was planned too. I met my boss and resigned. When he asked me why, I said "my portfolio just met my goal".
I had an easy low stress job with good pay and left anyway.
 
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