Why do people wait so long to retire?

I was 58 when the guy from HR and a security guard showed up with some boxes to put my personal belongings into and walked me out the door. Easy decision. I was retired! ;)

Now almost two decades later, it's worked out great!
 
youbet said:
I was 58 when the guy from HR and a security guard showed up with some boxes to put my personal belongings into and walked me out the door. Easy decision. I was retired! ;)

Now almost two decades later, it's worked out great!
Click to expand...
That's really cold! But glad you joined the FIRE'd.
 
Koolau said:
In my case, it was primarily because I was enjoying what I was doing - until I didn't.
Click to expand...

That was me. I liked what I was doing, I had enough vacation time that DH and I could travel, and more money was better. At 61 the politics went south and I quit. In retrospect, I over-saved but that's OK- I'm having lots of fun spending it and giving it away while still making sure I can cover my own LTC.
 
Want to help my 3 kids get a start on a adulthood. Not sure how that will look though.

I am 59 and have a 3rd career job that allows me to have the summers off. Wife is 55 and works remotely and we both really enjoy our work (minimal stress). I think we will both work until age 67 or so.
 
I think many of us were a bit chastened (or perhaps traumatized) by 2008 and the great recession that followed. I had been semi-retired (working 3 days a week) by age 45 with a glide path to retiring at 50 when the finance gods laughed at my plans.

I suspect that all-too-fresh memory may have encouraged some of us to do a possibly unnecessary OMY or two.
 
Kind of like catching a flight. You know arriving two hours before the flight should be sufficient. Then you think what if there is traffic, there is unexpected long security line, etc. better safe than sorry. Missing the flight is totally unacceptable. We’d rather wait at the boarding gate for hours.
 
Dawg52 said:
My brother died at 56 so that got my attention and I didn’t really like my job so it wasn’t that hard of a decision for me. In another week I will have 18 years of retirement in the books. Seems more like five.
Click to expand...
Yeah, time goes by 3 times as fast when retired as it did when w*rking. I can't explain it but it seems nearly universal. Of course, YMMV.
 
We had a small business, basically very easy with lots of free time and able to walk as far as 75 yards from the business to exercise and walk, while still watching for customers. But, we were each working (or at least had to be there) 50 to 60 hours a week, 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week, we worked holidays, they were our busy times. I was tired of the hours, I cut back to 1 day a week at 61, finally two years later, a hurricane destroyed the business and my wife had to quite. She would probably still be working 7 years later if not for the hurricane. But, she is happily retired now, and realizes she didn't need the business to make her happy. It didn't take very long for her to figure it out.
 
My parents retired at 55 and 58. They always asked me when DH and I were going to retire too! Though FI, DH and I liked what we were doing. But finally we decided we had other priorities, pulled the trigger, and now life is better.
 
Koolau said:
Yeah, time goes by 3 times as fast when retired as it did when w*rking. I can't explain it but it seems nearly universal. Of course, YMMV.
Click to expand...
It sure seems that way after the last 13 years of retirement but I have heard that it also happens as we get older. I'm not sure if it is one or the other or a combination of the two.
 
I went down a little rabbit hole. I was about to post that a big reason to wait, at least for 40% of Americans is, that SS will be their only income in retirement. I wanted to verify that my memory of 40% is correct and 40% is the first number I found while checking. However, I then found articles arguing that the study showing 40% was flawed and the number is closer to 20%. The point would be some people wait so long to retire because they need the income. Here is one of the counter arguments to the 40% that has been publicized.
www.forbes.com

Factcheck: Do 40% Of Retirees Rely On Social Security For Their Entire Income?

An activist group's claim that 40% of retirees receive all their income from Social Security is false.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

Something else I ran into this including a chart showing spending by percentage.

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks consumer spending through its consumer expenditure surveys. In 2023, the latest year for which data is available, U.S. households led by someone 65 or older spent an average of $64,326.

And then a chart showing spending by percentage.

Spending Monthly by percentage.png
 
street said:
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.
Click to expand...
We are not mega rich but I did walk away from a lot of money when I retired at age 58. I worked in a very hot field, machine learning and AI. Although the work was exciting, I was feeling progressively more burnt out as the pace of work was only accelerating. We had accumulated a big stash (50x expenses) but the event that triggered my retirement was the passing of my dad from Alzheimer's. Thats when I realized I had only a limited amount of time to enjoy our money.

I have enjoyed every minute of retirement and turned down several offers since I retired. My old colleagues still can't believe that I walked away from a big paycheck but I have no regrets at all.
 
I flirted with retirement when I turned 55, but ended up going back part time, using the ACA for health insurance. When Congress nearly took away the ACA, I went back working enough hours to get HI through the company. I retired fully at age 59-3/4 in 2019 when the work went very south due to a misogynistic bully of a medical director.
 
I'll make my usual point that I'm here for the FI, not the RE, I fully expect to keep making games for the rest of my life. The only change "retirement" might be is not doing it for a salary from somebody else.
 
Retch The Grate said:
I'll make my usual point that I'm here for the FI, not the RE, I fully expect to keep making games for the rest of my life. The only change "retirement" might be is not doing it for a salary from somebody else.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with that. If you enjoy what you do, an argument can be made that you aren't really w*rking (just collecting a pay check for doing what you love!) That's fantastic and enviable.
 
bonvoyage said:
I have enjoyed every minute of retirement and turned down several offers since I retired. My old colleagues still can't believe that I walked away from a big paycheck but I have no regrets at all.
Click to expand...
This is definitely an interesting experience. My work was related to the design automation of semiconductor chips. It overlaps to AI in many aspects. I also did have a big paycheck and a feel of burning out with age. But this is where it stops. In the last 5-6 years of my career, I've been laid off three times. I managed to find a job the 1st and 2nd time, but decided to retire 3rd time when I was 56. There were absolutely no offers (even no contacts at all). I believe I did my job very well. There were some papers and other technical publications I made, as well as 10+ invention patents. Still, I feel like actually I did not even exist as a professional.
 
Love my job. It's easy, pays well, I can work when I want to, and I work from home in shorts and tee shirt.

Mike
 
wrigley said:
Love my job. It's easy, pays well, I can work when I want to, and I work from home in shorts and tee shirt.

Mike
Click to expand...
Heh, heh, who are you trying to impress, wearing shorts?

Seriously, it sounds like you have found the holy grail of w*rk - IOW it's only w*rk if you don't enjoy it.
 
For me, it was a balance among financial, emotional, and spousal factors.
Financial = could have retired 2-4 years earlier.
Emotional = would have been better to retire 2 years earlier (stress).
Spousal = wife was not ready to leave her job,
until one day she realized she was fed up.
 
Have to work a certain amount of years to get my 100k pension and free medical, otherwise i was wanting to quit a while ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Considering a retirement plan- wondering what I'm missing
Koolau
Koolau
SnowballCamper
Options for supporting adult children or other family
jollystomper
jollystomper
M
Retirement - Year Two
DrRoy
DrRoy
F
Why Wouldn't I take Social Security Early for me and my Spouse
2 3
Koolau
Koolau
R
Hi from R48, expat-Fido, here to share retirement wisdom from over three decades experience
2
Koolau
Koolau

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom