Why do people wait so long to retire?

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Hubby is mid 70s and loves his job...should he apologize for continuing to work?
 
For me it was retiree healthcare. By hanging on until I was 55 got me my “80 points” - Age + years of service, otherwise I would have retired 2 years earlier
I was another person waiting for my 80 points and left at age 54. Although in my case, in addition to retirement medical insurance I also got an additional 5 years of pension checks.

I never really considered leaving early, so I have no idea when I reached FIRE.
 
My original plan was to retire at 55 as I was then in the best job I had ever had, plowing retirement funds to the limits each year and loving life. A corporate merger and a RIF changed my attitude. In hindsight, I probably wouldn't have retired at 55 anyway as I turned 55 in 2008. Nuff said on that.

I did retire at 58 in Feb 2012 due to the following issues.

1) Retirement accounts back on track due to extraordinary bull market.
2) Medical coverage available at VA once more due to policy changes for my Priority Group.
3) My mother who lived with me needed more and more care. She passed in July the same year.
4) Position at work turned caustic after major customer I supported was acquired. I was one of the few managers in my division not RIF'd at that point but after 3 more years I wished I had been.

Even when I left at 58 I knew I was going out on a shoestring but with no mortgage or other bills I was pretty sure I could make it. The bull market now makes it look like a no brainer but I assure you it wasn't at the time. Now I can honestly say I could have retired earlier but only due to the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.
 
I would have retired earlier if I could. I still enjoyed my job but the paperwork, not so much. When I calculated that I would be FI from my investments around the same time I would be eligible for a pension, the choice was clear.
 
My DW is 8 years older than me, when we got married, she was 30, I was 22..... We had always planned to retire early, her at 59.5, then I had planned on 59.5..... After she had retired at 59.5 the Mega Corp was down sizine and was reducing staff by 10% with the entire group having the option to take an early out..... After much discussion and research, I too was retired 3 months after her retirement at age 52........ We have no regrets..... have bought and sold 10 properties, call FL our resident state, own 3 homes..... Today, DW is 70 and I am 62, we live life to the fullest, as tomorrow is not promised .... No Regrets ..... Thank God for early planning, 401ks, and good jobs when we first got married .... I have was in the IT field, DW was an RN ....
 
It seems like most on this forum could have retired earlier. I know there is always the fear of the unknown...unknown meaning portfolio performance. A lot of members here seems to have a lot stashed away and they're never going to get close to burning through all of their investments. Do you wish you would have left sooner?
The subtle shaming phrasing, and hubris, of this is both amusing and irritating.

I quit 10 years ago because I had kids to raise after their mother died and I did not want someone else to raise them. I could have continued with the rewarding job, but priorities dictated otherwise. I was able to call it at 55 as the late wife and I had been prudent, investing early and often. No pension, only investments to last until the end. While it was close doing the calcs 10 years ago, I knew a PT job could cover the gap if needed.

That said, there have been many challenges along the way. Although I was confident that I had "enough" based on projected spending, things changed. Expenses blew out the budget after health problems and a second marriage and subsequent divorce. Those happened as the market turned down. Tense times test one's confidence, and you only know in hindsight if "expected returns" will materialize.

Fortunately, it has worked out to date, and I think I have passed the point of major concern. But there is no way to have been certain about that at several points over the last 10 years.

The TL, DR is that hope is not a strategy and having a contingency plan and/or cushion from OMY (or two), can make the later years both less stressful and more comfortable. I find no reason to be critical of anyone who works "longer than they needed to" for making a contemporary decision to improve the confidence of their decision. And it's final, there is no going back to the comfortable paycheck when you bail after 50.
 
We retired at 57/56, 7.5 years ago. Based on markets so far, we may have waited a year or two longer than necessary--but markets so far /= markets forever.... Plus, both employers took the entirety of our two year notice periods to recruit replacements (expected in her case...), and we felt an obligation to our small firm co-workers/partners to ensure smooth transitions.

Given that DW is only now closing in on 64 and has both extreme longevity in her background and checks all the individual boxes for longevity (white, female, M.D., gym rat, nonsmoker, etc. etc.), it may be quite a while (probably after my death) before we actually know if we made the right call on when to retire.

OTOH, if we had been willing to have the same post-tax spending before and after retirement, we could have pulled the plug much earlier--but in that case, why would we have wanted to retire from jobs that we loved?
 
Until the ACA, a lot of folks could not retire early no matter their savings, due to lack of insurance. Private insurance was available, but "pre-existing" conditions and lifetime caps made it a risk to retire too soon before Medicare, especially if you already had something, even minor.
Actually this is a strong point. I'm sure many of us who retired early would consider to get back to work or leave the country specifically for reasonable health insurance, till 65 (or whatever Medicare age will be set) if ACA will be dropped or stripped down to the point where it is not useful.
 
I'm grateful for the ACA as it has definitely benefited me and made the jump easier but I had started planning to ER (losing the pretty good FEHB no less) before ACA knowing healthcare would be my biggest expense (it still is but offset by PTC currently).

Health insurance is a modern "need" but for most of human history we didn't have it (or modern medicine). Life/healthspans have increased dramatically over the last centuries but I think a lot of that is due to knowledge, safer physical and work environments, and modern sanitation and less about extreme medical care. Without health insurance including government I wonder where the health system would be.... I suspect that without nearly 100% 3rd party pay, there would be some sanity and competition in costs. The raw market forces of supply (patients) and demand (providers) have been distorted for generations now by the current, arguably broken, system with many 3rd party players and payers and overbearing legislation that we have no idea what it would be like without health insurances (more or less innovation? Better pricing? More PCPs? More patient involvement in making healthy choices as they'd be paying and it's not "insurance money"? How more (or maybe less if everyone ERed) productive would the entire economy be if people could choose their employer based off of interests and skills possibly putting them to their highest and best use without consideration of employer based medical insurance? I'm not looking into debating whether it is a net good or not but the market for health services is so distorted by so many players and I ask this rhetorically as an interesting thought experiment.
 
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The subtle shaming phrasing, and hubris, of this is both amusing and irritating.

I quit 10 years ago because I had kids to raise after their mother died and I did not want someone else to raise them. I could have continued with the rewarding job, but priorities dictated otherwise. I was able to call it at 55 as the late wife and I had been prudent, investing early and often. No pension, only investments to last until the end. While it was close doing the calcs 10 years ago, I knew a PT job could cover the gap if needed.

That said, there have been many challenges along the way. Although I was confident that I had "enough" based on projected spending, things changed. Expenses blew out the budget after health problems and a second marriage and subsequent divorce. Those happened as the market turned down. Tense times test one's confidence, and you only know in hindsight if "expected returns" will materialize.

Fortunately, it has worked out to date, and I think I have passed the point of major concern. But there is no way to have been certain about that at several points over the last 10 years.

The TL, DR is that hope is not a strategy and having a contingency plan and/or cushion from OMY (or two), can make the later years both less stressful and more comfortable. I find no reason to be critical of anyone who works "longer than they needed to" for making a contemporary decision to improve the confidence of their decision. And it's final, there is no going back to the comfortable paycheck when you bail after 50.
Good post
 
Actually this is a strong point. I'm sure many of us who retired early would consider to get back to work or leave the country specifically for reasonable health insurance, till 65 (or whatever Medicare age will be set) if ACA will be dropped or stripped down to the point where it is not useful.
Between my brother and I, the managing of MAGI saved us 20k+ total yearly. I am going on Medicare next month and am grateful for the ACA program.
 
In my case, it was primarily because I was enjoying what I was doing - until I didn't.
This.

I could have retired at 54 with full pension, but also had a wonderful contract benefit for working until age 60 for specific low health insurance until 65.
I was at the point of not liking the clinical area I was working. During that year, I changed jobs rather than retire, and the 6 years got me to 60.
I loved that job, until I didn't due to so much" politicking" but hung on the last year.
I made my last year enjoyable by using all vacation, utilizing sick time getting all the full medical/dental/vision stuff out of the way. With vacation/holidays/sickdays, I only worked about 2 full weeks each month!
It was so worth it working the last 6 years, health insurance costs were minimal, and we had more time to build retirement accounts.
 
Between my brother and I, the managing of MAGI saved us 20k+ total yearly. I am going on Medicare next month and am grateful for the ACA program.
That's a crucial point, and something that aspiring future-retirees should consider early in life, decades before actual retirement. If you can't "manage your MAGI", then you're vulnerable to exorbitant costs, meaning paradoxically delaying retirement precisely because you have more money. This, and the handling of income-tax, are matters that too often we neglect while in aggressive savings-mode, striving for FI.
 
Because I don’t have enough to keep me busy.
I'm not sure how I had time to work a job. All though I worked a few extra years passed pension day, still left at 58. DW will leave at 58, a few years short of her full pension so no waiting for her.
 
I wanted to squeeze a bit more out of my pension, and DW was not quite ready for me to cut the paycheck yet. Couldn't have known that the market would be so friendly since 2017.
 
Well, I might be still working instead of being retired for almost 9 years now, if not for my wife. I really loved my job, but it was a stressful and the money was so good.
My wife said to me, have you considered to retire and that got me thinking did some research found boggle heads and this site by accident and this site was really the one that convinced me that everything is okay.
It was a huge adjustment for me and took a good year to get work off of my mind. As far as retiring to something I had so many ventures and things I never had time for before so that was huge for me. I now did have to run to get everything fitted in and looking back now I'm very glad I did retire.
Money finances was the easy part.

I talked to friend yesterday is 68 still working doesn't have to work to make ends meet but loves what he does so I see him working till 70 or better.
 
I recently retired early 60's, DW somewhat earlier. We could have made some lifestyle changes such as moving to a lower-cost region or even just downsizing our housing situation and been fine retiring at ~50. That extra 10 years just about tripled our NW and then some owing to portfolio growth, real estate appreciation, savings from earnings, vested RSU's, etc.

Was it worth it? I think so. I don't regret it.

I found my work to be quite enjoyable and gratifying on many levels - challenging, high-stakes, intellectually stimulating, huge professional social circle, respected as top of my field, ability to mentor, coach and sponsor next generation, and yes, the pay was a factor as well. I was earning a pretty good income by almost any standard with significant potential bonus upside and that was hard to walk away from.

I also had career goals I wanted to meet in terms of advancement and that was also hard to let go of. And I did not have anything compelling pulling me towards retirement. The push factor was mostly the burnout that was a constant from stress, travel, long hours, and on-call nature of the work.

Somehow, thanks to insistence from DW, we managed to do some great travel vacations and have a lot of fun experiences while I was still working, so that also made staying in it longer more tolerable.

But, as I neared 60, I noticed that I was starting to drag and my attention was starting to wander. The unhealthy level of stress and lifestyle were definitely catching up to me and DW's concerns became louder. Also, the pandemic provided both a wake-up call and a dry run - though I was still working like a dog, doing so from home proved to be a huge lifestyle improvement - one that I did not want to give up for various reasons. So, RTW was a factor.

I also felt that my comp was being suppressed as a direct reflection of my age - MegaCorp simply was not going invest in someone who they deemed would not be staying around much longer.

So, I decided to pull the trigger given the above factors. It's taken some time for the dust to settle, but I don't miss work as much as I thought I would. Looking back, I now recognize that my identity was very wrapped up in my position and vocation.

To put it bluntly, I've gone from being a somebody to being a nobody in the blink of an eye. That sounds negative, but it's really not. I'm becoming comfortable being a nobody, just basically being me without all the external validation. It's a healthy transition and one I'm glad I've made.

The right time = When you're ready. There's no other trick to it.
 
Well, I might be still working instead of being retired for almost 9 years now, if not for my wife. I really loved my job, but it was a stressful and the money was so good.
My wife said to me, have you considered to retire and that got me thinking did some research found boggle heads and this site by accident and this site was really the one that convinced me that everything is okay.
It was a huge adjustment for me and took a good year to get work off of my mind. As far as retiring to something I had so many ventures and things I never had time for before so that was huge for me. I now did have to run to get everything fitted in and looking back now I'm very glad I did retire.
Money finances was the easy part.

I talked to friend yesterday is 68 still working doesn't have to work to make ends meet but loves what he does so I see him working till 70 or better.

My doctor (sole practitioner) was the same age & also planned to retire sometime after age 70.

Until he dropped dead last week.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get refills on prescriptions that run out in a week.

I have a 'new patient' appointment with another practice but they told me no refills until I'm seen there.
 
Do you wish you would have left sooner?
I retired at the end of 2021, along with my wife. I was 67, she was 65. I would have stepped away from the desk a few years earlier, but she wasn't ready. And I saw no point in retiring while she still had a demanding job.

It wasn't until a combination of micro-management from above and the unpleasantness of dealing with an employee gaming the Federal system to go almost a year with pay but no work that got her fed up enough to leave her work. That, and the fact that there was nowhere up for her to go -- she didn't have a PhD in the right subjects, just in Mathematics.

Now we have plenty of savings, and decent Federal pensions. Could have done OK if we'd left five years earlier, but ... no regrets. What would be the point?
 
My doctor (sole practitioner) was the same age & also planned to retire sometime after age 70.

Until he dropped dead last week.
With apologies for clouding our thread here, vignettes where a person plans-plans-plans to eventually retire, but dies at his proverbial desk, is Exhibit#1 against OMY, or in our case, FIRE. Yes? But we have to ask: what sort of regrets trouble the mind, of the person who's freshly dead? If he indeed "dropped dead", was there any time, for him to process the event, to form wistful thoughts about going skiing or seeing the Pyramids or even spending more time playing with his grandchilden?

What I mean is, that we must be careful in our examples, adages and stories. Retirement or not, I personally find something soothing and relieving, in the quoted story. No, not being morbid or otherwise distraught with life. Instead, there is something about a sudden and clean finality, that obviates so many worries, apprehensions and doubts, whether we're retired, or not.

In other words, I don't see an opportunity cost. I don't see what was lost in this example. But I see plenty that was gained.
 
They like what they do. My dad worked until 90. w2 and I saw it. Sigh. He "retired" at 75, but kept on working couple hours a day because he wanted to. Medicine was a calling, not a job. It wasn't even the money I think he paid more to work. that being said my mom retired at 55 and has no regrets.
 
I could have retired much, much earlier (mid 30s) but never gave it any thought because the job was such a gas.

Mentally, I was thinking of 58 but "they" decided that I was done at 49 and gave me 2 extra years of paid exile in Paris at a no-show job (an even bigger gas!) before they finally pulled the plug on me.

Then, the idiots had to pay me for another two years per my contract.
 
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