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According to a recent poll, we're about 1/3 female:
Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community - View Poll Results
What We Believe
- Thread starter HI Bill
- Start date
According to a recent poll, we're about 1/3 female:
Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community - View Poll Results
OP
OP
HI Bill
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Is it working?
OP
OP
HI Bill
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Thanks! I've adjusted wife to spouse or SO to be more inclusive.
Newventurer
Recycles dryer sheets
Nice summary, hit the reset button on the site, put this as the stickie, and start over 
Dtail
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Excellent list. Some general/personal comments.
1. I believe there are probably more retirees on this site over 55 than under (yes, nitpik)
5. Agree - I believe Firecalc at 100% success at default values is 3.58%.
15. Planning for no discount - one of us already collecting - will deal with it otherwise at that time if necessary.
16. Same thing - expect the ACA to continue especially if the "House" changes -otherwise will deal with it.
Again an excellent post overall.
1. I believe there are probably more retirees on this site over 55 than under (yes, nitpik)
5. Agree - I believe Firecalc at 100% success at default values is 3.58%.
15. Planning for no discount - one of us already collecting - will deal with it otherwise at that time if necessary.
16. Same thing - expect the ACA to continue especially if the "House" changes -otherwise will deal with it.
Again an excellent post overall.
Car-Guy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Well, that just might explain the numerous cross-dressing threads.
NW-Bound
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My best friend likes to say
"People have to believe in something. I believe I will have another beer".
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Oz investor
Full time employment: Posting here.
i believe i am the exception
but i live in Australia so upside down is pretty much standard here , for some points of view
but i live in Australia so upside down is pretty much standard here , for some points of view
Teacher Terry
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I think that there are plenty of people that don’t desire to have the same standard of living in retirement. It seems to me that some are happy with less because the time is more important. If in the future we have to quit taking big trips it was worth it to us to have the time. We will never be poor but but who knows what the future holds.
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Our plan is that our standard of living will go up when we retire in 9 months. With all that free time available, we'll have more opportunity to spend money. When I run FIRECalc, I use twice our current actual spending. I'm sure we won't really spend that much, but it gives me comfort to know we could and still get a 100% success rate.
Same here. I always make a spending plan that is far higher than it will actually be (although still under what FIRECalc says I could spend).
It's nice to have that margin of safety.
It's nice to have that margin of safety.
marko
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A fine line between 'group think' and 'collective wisdom'. I align with the latter.
Lots of helpful info here from a variety of inputs and it seems fairly easy to distill the good from the noise, if only through sheer volume.
Some people come here with some sincere and serious questions and I like to think that as a broad group with broad experiences, they're well served by those relatively consistent inputs.
Amethyst
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I'll go out on a limb and state that we all believe it's important to retire first, then die. Not the other way around.
target2019
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
No, it does not mean that, IMO. That's a non-starter, if many folks are eliminated from the game by your #1.
donheff
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The age of early retirement is in the mind of the retiree. It is the desire to retire earlier than you might otherwise that brings people here.
traineeinvestor
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Car-Guy
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Well I got that one right! I know several who didn't.
marko
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I think the OP was just trying to make a general profile of our group, not exclude anyone.No, it does not mean that, IMO. That's a non-starter, if many folks are eliminated from the game by your #1.
Most of the list is a distillation of what hundreds have stated in thousands of posts through the years.
Sort of a cheat sheet for the forum. I don't take any of it personally and take the list as being fairly lighthearted .
RetireBy90
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
+1
I retire Friday, 31 Aug at 62. Not as early as others here but I consider it early retirement. My goal actually was FI which we achieved about 2 or 3 years ago. Waited to retire (lower case in deference to OP's published age of 55) cause I didn't know what to do with no job to go to. Still don't but I'm sure I'll figure out something. DW retired 3 years ago at age 62 also, so 62 seemed like a good age. Guess I'll have no excuse not to hit the gym any more
Bottom line, I consider 62 earlier than the 70 called for by Suzie
mountainsoft
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
1. Social Security says my Full Retirement Age is 67. So anything earlier than that is an early retirement in my book. I'm planning to retire at 60, my wife at 55.
3. Living below your means is just smart. The ones who don't end up in debt, bankrupt, or homeless. If you're spending more than you make, or living paycheck to paycheck, retirement is the least of your worries.
4. FireCalc is just a tool. I wouldn't rely on it as the last word on whether I can retire or not. I use multiple calculators, as well as good old pen and paper to make sure my plans will work out. Even then, there's a certain amount of guessing involved. No one can predict the future.
5. The 4% rule means nothing to me. Most of our retirement income will be from my wife's pension and social security. Our savings only needs to last the 5 to 10 years between when we retire and when we claim SS. Our withdrawal rate will be close to 12%-15% during some of those years, but will drop to zero once we start SS. After than the only withdrawals we'll have to make are RMD's and any emergency items that come up.
14. Take SS when you need it. I'm planning that we'll start SS at 62, but if our portfolio is doing better than expected at that time we'll reevaluate each year and hold off if we can. Plan for the lowest benefits, and be thankful if you can wait for higher benefits.
3. Living below your means is just smart. The ones who don't end up in debt, bankrupt, or homeless. If you're spending more than you make, or living paycheck to paycheck, retirement is the least of your worries.
4. FireCalc is just a tool. I wouldn't rely on it as the last word on whether I can retire or not. I use multiple calculators, as well as good old pen and paper to make sure my plans will work out. Even then, there's a certain amount of guessing involved. No one can predict the future.
5. The 4% rule means nothing to me. Most of our retirement income will be from my wife's pension and social security. Our savings only needs to last the 5 to 10 years between when we retire and when we claim SS. Our withdrawal rate will be close to 12%-15% during some of those years, but will drop to zero once we start SS. After than the only withdrawals we'll have to make are RMD's and any emergency items that come up.
14. Take SS when you need it. I'm planning that we'll start SS at 62, but if our portfolio is doing better than expected at that time we'll reevaluate each year and hold off if we can. Plan for the lowest benefits, and be thankful if you can wait for higher benefits.
scrabbler1
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Good list, HNL Bill. I would make a few adjustments, however.
(1) I think that's too restrictive, age 55. I lean toward anything before 62, SS's earliest age of eligibility.
(4) I never heard of Firecalc or any of those other calculators when I was developing my ER plan. I made a good spreadsheet which did the job. I didn't join this forum until I was a year into my ER.
(5) If you plan to ER well before age 55, as I did (at 45), I think you need a SWR much lower than 3.5%. The sooner you go, the lower SWR you need.
(10) If you set up a portfolio which generates a consistent income stream, you don't need to keep a large blob of money in cash or CDs. I don't think having international stocks is a requirement, either. You might also want to have a different AA goal in your taxable versus tax-deferred accounts (see #13).
(13) If you plan to retire way before age ~60, when you have unfettered access to a tIRA, you will need to have a significant amount of money in taxable accounts to get you from your age to ~60. This can make an overall SWR less meaningful because it will be based on money you can't access for a while.
(14) Remember, many of us in ER are not married.
(16) That's a tough one, especially if you have some health issues. Perhaps just planning to pay more for HI is enough.
(18) Very important. One unbreakable condition in my ER plan was that I could maintain the same day-to-day lifestyle as I had before.
(1) I think that's too restrictive, age 55. I lean toward anything before 62, SS's earliest age of eligibility.
(4) I never heard of Firecalc or any of those other calculators when I was developing my ER plan. I made a good spreadsheet which did the job. I didn't join this forum until I was a year into my ER.
(5) If you plan to ER well before age 55, as I did (at 45), I think you need a SWR much lower than 3.5%. The sooner you go, the lower SWR you need.
(10) If you set up a portfolio which generates a consistent income stream, you don't need to keep a large blob of money in cash or CDs. I don't think having international stocks is a requirement, either. You might also want to have a different AA goal in your taxable versus tax-deferred accounts (see #13).
(13) If you plan to retire way before age ~60, when you have unfettered access to a tIRA, you will need to have a significant amount of money in taxable accounts to get you from your age to ~60. This can make an overall SWR less meaningful because it will be based on money you can't access for a while.
(14) Remember, many of us in ER are not married.
(16) That's a tough one, especially if you have some health issues. Perhaps just planning to pay more for HI is enough.
(18) Very important. One unbreakable condition in my ER plan was that I could maintain the same day-to-day lifestyle as I had before.
Andre1969
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I don't think you're ever going to get a large group of people to agree upon what the age cutoff is for "early" retirement. I'd agree that the age of 55 is definitely an early retirement...but it's not the threshold.
I think most people would consider themselves "retired early", if they simply retired sooner than planned. Although that opens up the possible scene of those who want to work as long as they possibly can. For instance, awhile back we had a secretary retire a few months before she turned 78. I think she had 39 years in the federal government, and was shooting to hit 40. But then she ran the numbers and realized it wasn't worth it to hash it out another year. Well, technically, she did retire earlier than planned. But I dunno if I'd consider just shy of 78 to be "early".
And, what about people who retire, to get a pension, but then go back to work part time? My maternal grandmother did that. She officially retired at the end of 1980, from the federal government, at the age of 56. But then, she went back to work, part time on call at a hospital, basically working as many or as few hours as she wanted. She did that until 70. I guess I'd call that span from 56-70 as "semi" retired, maybe? It definitely felt like retirement in a lot of ways to me, because I remember her being able to take off and go on a lot of vacations in that timeframe, so even if she wasn't fully retired, she still seemed to have the best of both worlds.
I googled "average retirement age", and age 62 came back as the median. Age 62 was also the most common age to retire. I also found a statistic, that 63.1% retired between the ages of 57 and 66. But again, this doesn't answer the question of whether they go back to work doing something different.
Anyway, I'd say that if you can retire sooner than the average, that would definitely qualify you as an early retiree. So, I'd say 62 might be a better threshold to use than 55. But even then, I'd be reluctant to call it anything official.
At one time, I wanted to retire at age 46. And, in light of the way things have gone financially, I probably could have. I'm 48 now, and in some ways I feel a little "late", because I missed my original goal. Now I'm pushing for age 50-51, depending on how my financial situation goes, as well as the j*b situation. I do feel that if I push back much further than that though, it'll definitely not feel early. My grandparents retired at 55 (Maternal Granddad), 56(or 70, depending on how you want to look at it, for Maternal Grandmom), 56 (Paternal Grandmom) and 60 (Paternal Granddad). So, if I'm still working by the time I'm 55, it definitely won't feel early anymore, at least not to me, because that'll put me in range of where my grandparents retired.
I think most people would consider themselves "retired early", if they simply retired sooner than planned. Although that opens up the possible scene of those who want to work as long as they possibly can. For instance, awhile back we had a secretary retire a few months before she turned 78. I think she had 39 years in the federal government, and was shooting to hit 40. But then she ran the numbers and realized it wasn't worth it to hash it out another year. Well, technically, she did retire earlier than planned. But I dunno if I'd consider just shy of 78 to be "early".
And, what about people who retire, to get a pension, but then go back to work part time? My maternal grandmother did that. She officially retired at the end of 1980, from the federal government, at the age of 56. But then, she went back to work, part time on call at a hospital, basically working as many or as few hours as she wanted. She did that until 70. I guess I'd call that span from 56-70 as "semi" retired, maybe? It definitely felt like retirement in a lot of ways to me, because I remember her being able to take off and go on a lot of vacations in that timeframe, so even if she wasn't fully retired, she still seemed to have the best of both worlds.
I googled "average retirement age", and age 62 came back as the median. Age 62 was also the most common age to retire. I also found a statistic, that 63.1% retired between the ages of 57 and 66. But again, this doesn't answer the question of whether they go back to work doing something different.
Anyway, I'd say that if you can retire sooner than the average, that would definitely qualify you as an early retiree. So, I'd say 62 might be a better threshold to use than 55. But even then, I'd be reluctant to call it anything official.
At one time, I wanted to retire at age 46. And, in light of the way things have gone financially, I probably could have. I'm 48 now, and in some ways I feel a little "late", because I missed my original goal. Now I'm pushing for age 50-51, depending on how my financial situation goes, as well as the j*b situation. I do feel that if I push back much further than that though, it'll definitely not feel early. My grandparents retired at 55 (Maternal Granddad), 56(or 70, depending on how you want to look at it, for Maternal Grandmom), 56 (Paternal Grandmom) and 60 (Paternal Granddad). So, if I'm still working by the time I'm 55, it definitely won't feel early anymore, at least not to me, because that'll put me in range of where my grandparents retired.
