When 30, What Age Did You Plan For Retirement?

[ABQ2015]

I started working for the federal government at age 29 1/2 and assumed I would be retiring at 59 1/2 with 30 years of service. I had wanted to take an early out and retire a few years earlier but despite downsizings of my agency, no early outs were offered at my field office for technical positions. And with the recession I could not afford to retire early. Ended up retiring at 62 to bump up my pension and build up my investments.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

As with a number of others, at 30, retirement was not seriously on my roadmap. I was primarily focused on paying off the mortgage and advancing my career but still doing basic savings to take advantage of "free" corporate benefits dollars.
It wasn't until my latter 30's when the mortgage was paid off and I was able to really supercharge my savings to build up a modest sized nest egg that retirement came into view as a possibility. At that point, the goal was the oft marketed Freedom 55. But continued positive circumstances allowed me to hit FI in my early/mid 40's and re-target retirement to 50/51.

 

[Retch The Grate]

I'd been reading the motley fool retire early board for several years at age 30 and was dedicated to trying to figure out how to max out my saving and investing, but I was living in the bay area and only making a game designer's salary (we generally don't make as much as engineers). I had no specific target date though I was hoping if I could ramp up my savings I could retire sometime in my 50s. My girlfriend at the time had been aiming to retire at 50 and was mostly on track for that. Now I'm 46, past my minimum survivable amount for retirement, and just trying to stay motivated to pad out the investment portfolio so that I can have a higher annual spend.

 

[Hermit]

At 30 I was going to college and in L-O-V-E. Romancing the soon-to-be DW and getting married was about the only thing on my mind. I dropped my classes that semester and got married. Five years later I graduated (on the GI nickel). I had a very good job while going to college so no financial worries, but certainly no thoughts about retirement. Moved from Federal job to MegaCorp engineering job. Kids came along at 40. Shortly after I figured I could max out my 401k and if necessary dip in to that money for kid's college. Things worked out so I never had to use that money for college. Tuition came out of current income. I had gone to a retirement meeting somewhere along the line, but still did not think much about setting a retirement goal. DW died in the year before our 30th anniversary. After that I set a goal of retiring when the youngest was due to finish college when I was 63. When it was apparent he would not be graduating at that time, I decided to hang on for a bit. Then at 63 I discovered I couldn't do the overnight (software maintenance) work anymore and retired a month later. (BTW, DS is still in college 5 years later. Hopefully, he will be done at the end of this semester.)

 

[Ronstar]

Started my 401k at age 30. So I was saving for retirement at 30, but had no plans for what age to retire at. At that point it, retirement seemed so far off.

 

[Rdub]

I thought by 50, retired at 47.

 

[jmp470]

Started thinking about retirement at 16. Retired this year at 43. At 16 I was working for a construction company where the owner retired at 35 to sail the world. I knew then, I wasn't in it for the long haul.

 

[mh]

Like some others have commented before. I assumed I would likely have trouble staying employed in my profession ( software engineer ) after 50. I retired at 51 and worked at a cushy job for a couple years at 54 that fell in my lap. It was a nice way to pad my vacation budget , but I’m not sure if I’d do that again in hindsight..

 

[boatfishandnature]

At 30 I planned to retire at 62. But I did a little better than planned in my career progression, and that allowed me to retire early at 58. I am 62 now and glad that I did it!.

 

[gooddog]

My plan was age 50, and retired at 50. Took a lot of work to do it, but it is worth it.

 

[boilerman]

At 30, my retirement planning spreadsheet had a range from age 55 to 60. I retired just after my 57th birthday. Could have probably pulled the trigger at 55 but wanted a cushion in case the market tanks. I’m 10 months in and loving it!

 

[sfbrown]

I like planning to retire at 55 because so much can happen between 30 and 55. A child born disabled, a divorce, a layoff, etc. Also, 55 is a nice number because it is the age you are able to take penalty-free withdrawals from a 401k (if certain conditions are met). You also never know how long you will feel able to work (physically or emotionally). Your boss may make the decision for you. Further, things start to happen in your 50s, not all of them good. Parents die, kids move out or get married. All in all, it's good to at least plan to be able to quit working in your mid-50s. If you love your work, you can always keep going.

 

[BoodaGazelle]

Plan was 59 1/2, actual was 61, mostly due to having just moved from our condo to a single family home.

 

[YoungSaver]

I'm 37 years old. At 30, my target was 40.

Now that I'm getting close to 40, it's looking more like 42, which will probably drag out to 45, because I'm scared/nervous.

Currently very close to barista level, but have a couple big expenses coming up, so need to get those taken care of.