Why do people wait so long to retire?

In my case, it was primarily because I was enjoying what I was doing - until I didn't.
I'm similar however I still enjoy what I'm doing and probably will still enjoy it when I leave later this year.
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
He can be a petroleum engineer in CA. I looked it up and CA is one of the top ten oil-producing states in the USA.
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
Billy can be a firefighter in California.
 
I hit my number in 2017. But I had a strong suspicion that mega-corp was looking for a buyer for the facility I worked at. I elected to stretch out the retirement date choice for a bit to "wait-n-see". It took another year and a half, but mega-corp found their buyer. They offered me a greatly sweetened severance deal above what I had anticipated if I would stay an additional year through the transition. They set the date of my retirement at 10/2/2000 and they paid well for the privilege. No real regrets on my part. I now have some money I didn't absolutely need, or at least it appears that way now. But erring on the side of excess is far preferable to doing without.

To reverse your question, there are people who retire too early and regret it. Had I left when I first was financially ready, I may very well have been one of those. As it is, I have absolutely no second thoughts about my slightly delayed retirement. In the intervening 4+ years since I left I've had unsolicited offers of returning to my old position by the current owners. I didn't even hesitate before politely declining. Not a bit of interest and that's worth something.
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
The young wife and I made a very deliberate decision to move to Connecticut 36 years ago (ie - we picked the place first and then got the jobs). We have never regretted it, and I don't expect that we will ever leave.
 
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To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
Easy answer. Billy has a choice of continuing to work because he loves his job, or decide to retire and then move to some place that he likes.

We worked and lived in California. Once retired, we moved out of state to a place where we love, and we golf 4 to 5 days a week, travel for 3 months a year, typically back to California where there is nice weather when our winter and summer are uncomfortable.
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
I am a former oil company engineer. I worked for a few of the "big 5" during my career at a half dozen different facilities. I always worked remote, either onshore or offshore and never lived anywhere close to where I worked. I worked variations of 2-n-2. 3-n-3, 6-n-6 (those are weeks on and off work) and commuted, sometimes by thousands of miles. Billie needs to look for a posting in Africa, or offshore, and live where he wants during his off time. That's what I did for 25 years. That's assuming Billie is still doing engineering and not on a managerial track.

I understand why Billie wants to get away from Houston. I used to dread my semi-annual pilgrimages to Houston for wells review. Apologies to those that like living in Houston.
 
The young wife and I made a very deliberate decision to move to Connecticut 36 years ago (ie - we picked the place first and then got the jobs). We have never regretted it, and I don't expect that we will ever leave.
I live in CT and detest the frigid winters. I cannot wait until circumstances allow me to move somewhere warmer.
 
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I have asked myself that question a lot over the years on this forum. Seems a lot of people won't retire until they have a 95% chance of their savings lasting until 100+. Then they don't count SS and their budget includes significant travel costs up until the end. Thing is less than 10% will live to 100, we will all get at least some SS, and no one travels a lot until they are 100 years old. The result is that most on here will have millions when they retire. They could have quit working many years earlier than they did. They all say they would rather have too much than not enough. I would rather not work longer than needed. I have no kids, if I have more than 5 figures left when I die, I did something wrong. YMMV
 
I live in CT and detest the frigid winters. I cannot wait until circumstances allow me to move somewhere warmer.
I find the weather here to be very clement. We live on the Sound and we do not get much snow nor many very cold nights in the winter. When I was in high school, we lived just north of Chicago. Now that was cold. I've also lived in the lake effect snow belt around the east end of Lake Erie. Also cold, and snowy.
 
I find the weather here to be very clement. We live on the Sound and we do not get much snow nor many very cold nights in the winter. When I was in high school, we lived just north of Chicago. Now that was cold. I've also lived in the lake effect snow belt around the east end of Lake Erie. Also cold, and snowy.
I used to live in the Greenwich area. It was much more tolerable than NW CT, where I am now.
 
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.
WOW! One never knows when and some just seem to love their job more and dying in the harness is okay with them.

Thanks for sharing that but sad!
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?

Example: Billy is a petroleum engineer. Loves his job, loves the pay, loves the field-work. But Billy is based in Houston. He's a Californian through-and-through. Texas culture doesn't accord with him. Neither does the humidity. Billy has no particular desire to conclude his career, but he knows that he faces a stark dichotomy: either keep working, but be miserable outside of work... or go chase his dreams, of lifestyle and living-locale... but conclude his career, and call it retirement.

What should Billy do? Has anyone faced a predicament, like Billy's?
Only for a short time. After a short stint in western North Dakota after college I decided to live where I enjoyed life outside of work.
 
Here is why I want to do this ER thing sooner than later. I moved into my neighborhood 10 years ago at age 33. Since then, the mailman, neighbor directly across the street from me neighbor behind that neighbor, and the neighbor 4 houses down all died before 66.

All had grand plans. Widows are crushed and so are the grand plans.

I am taking RobbieB's torch, it's time to LIVE, BABY, LIVE!

I bought the damn car. My sister died at 47 3 years ago. That is why you retire early, because you never know and are not promised tomorrow.
 
To all of the folks who attest that they enjoyed what they were doing, a follow-up question: did you also enjoy the area in which you were living?
That was the best part of the job! There was no particular "area"!

The requirement was 200 days a year of international travel (Europe and Asia) to our local offices, usually 5 to 14 days at a time. DW was often able to tag along. Did it for over 25 years.

Company policy was first class air and five star hotels. Unwritten policy was that the locals were expected to entertain you nights and weekends. This might be a long weekend skiing the Alps, sport fishing in Phuket, formal dinner in a Scottish castle, sightseeing in Rome, visiting a Japanese shrine or a night of heavy drinking in Seoul.

The locals always knew the best places that were not on the tourist maps and somehow everything got paid for "somehow". (Our favorite line: "someone paid for it, it wasn't me".) I was getting paid for doing what most people do on vacation and I rarely had to deal with any of the mess back at HQ. As noted earlier, it was such a gas; it's why I didn't retire 20 years sooner.

Then...the acquiring company had other plans......
 
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For me, it was the change of bosses to the hatchet lady. Knew it was a matter of time, so volunteered for a package.
 
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?

Yes, there are days where I wished I had retired earlier. But I can't ignore that the last year and a half of working was very lucrative as my employer paid two record corporate bonuses and I had a lot of RSUs that vested when the company stock was at an all time high. This has allowed us to structure things such that our TIPS ladders, SS Bridge, and dividends thrown off from our stock fund in our taxable account can pay for all of our nondiscretionary "daily life" spending, including tax. This leaves the remainder available for lumpy spending, fun activities and what will likely be a decent inheritance for the kiddo.

If those things hadn't happened, then we would still have been in good shape, but less so.

I don't see any real reason to look backwards.

Cheers.
 
I was reading an article on this very subject. Why do wealthy and mega rich continue working.
They continue working not for money but the challenge of making more money and they enjoy their work.
So many reads I have done on this subject of retiring early don't always view it as a positive thing for people that retire.
Work keeps people young and engaged with others and is healthier than a person in retirement.
So, who really knows which way is better for the average person. I sometimes have questioned my decision but I have been very busy and engaged with life and activities. Not enough time most days to get all I want to get accomplished.
 
I retired at 65 after 30 years in the Army and 13 as a DoD civilian employee. The work I was doing was important and I was part of a wonderful team. I felt that my entire career prepared me for my final job. About a decade earlier our investment advisor told my wife and I that we had "won the game" about a decade earlier.

It took me awhile to adjust to the slower pace of retirement. Fortunately I found a wonderful volunteer activity as a SHIP counselor that has filled the "got to have a purpose" part of my psyche. Since the pandemic my wife and I are traveling extensively and visiting our grandchildren.

This thread is an interesting read. We are all wired differently.
 
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