Congratulations!

I'm hoping to be be done somewhere between 58 & 60(51 now) but it depends on how my Roth & taxable account is doing. Also have a decent 401k & plan to take social security at 62. I'm gonna need to catch a few breaks to make this happen

went there the beginning of the year. Will never go back

Been retired for 5 years now. The wife couldn't do chair side medical assisting for her eye surgeon any longer, because of her back, and the insurance wouldn't cover required surgery so she pulled the plug at 62. I was 66, so decided to spend all of our time together, for better or worse. Still have a little bit of mortgage to finish and some bills, but every car, truck, RV, and toy SxS is paid for and we do whatever we want when we want.

I miss the work, the friends at work, and daily challenges of getting stuff done at work. Sure is nice not to HAVE to go tho!!

I retired at 55. I'm 58. I had reached a point I was loosing money to go to work. When inflation catches up and it will, I have other investments to cash in. Retiring early still requires a lot of living within your means and not taking on significant debt.

Retiring is scary as hell initially, but in my case the best thing I ever did. You may find you don't spend as much as before to offset the cut. Everyone's situation is different.

That 2% up every year can become a trap and causes many to stay too long then retire because they had to so left without a quality of life or worse never get to retirement.

My reasons for going was a near death experience that changed my personality and my outlook on life. I worked a stressful physical young man's career and saw too many coworkers stay too long either getting injured or dying before retirement or dying shortly after. I think firefighters live about 8 years less than most on average. I was already living like I was retired, so nothing much changed. But I have lots of interests that don't cost much more than time. Some people don't or have expensive lifestyles though and probably should never retire.

Advice. Even close to retirement and even during continue to invest as much as you can. Educate yourself on investing instead of only relying on others to invest for you. For example any money you might have invested in index funds or mutual funds at the start of the pandemic would have doubled by now. It's never too late. I do the pickers/antique mall thing that takes little of my time and is fun. And I'm good at it. But it's money I don't need now. It's for fun so nearly all profit goes into IRAs and solo 401k that will help later with inflation down the line.

And with that I recommend finding a side job or small business in retirement that is stress free and you enjoy rather than how much it pays and don't let it become income you rely on. You can invest it in pre tax accounts if it starts to take you over a tax threshold.

Until you do retire, control debt, invest as much as you can as long as you can, And if your income is eligible max out a Roth for you and your wife every year while your still working.
Good luck to you

10 months and counting .

So I will be retiring through the ERS system. An annuity pension and social security. Currently 43 this year and can retire in 9 years.......

BUT

I have a 3 year old so that kicks that figure down the road another 19 years - I'll be 62 then

And

at 51, I will only bring home 69% of my top five year salary average. I will need more to live on.

PLUS

I have a pretty cush and fun job right now so I think I will hang in there until I'm 62. At 62, I will have a 92% pension annuity, COULD start drawing social security, and COULD start drawing my 401K.

The only thing that would make me retire at 51 is if someone wanted to pay me 200K a year and I'm not sure I want to work that hard.

I also miss the work and friends. I don't miss the office politics and definitely not the commute. I would hate the commute even more now with the construction at I30 and 635. I use to get off 30 at Galloway to take 635 south. Not an option now. Also the traffic between Fate and Rockwall has gotten much worse.

We bailed October 2020 because the bs was just getting too deep. I would have retired straight to pension if I had stayed 18 months; wasn't worth it. Instead I now have to wait 26 months. One of us started taking SS at 62 recently.
As if a sign from above, after looking for 3 years, we purchased the retirement mini-farm 3 months before we quit. Pack, ship, move, in on Nov 1 2020.

At first medical was COBRA; that was darn expensive. Now we have Obamacare with a high deductible. My medical is paid for with the pension in 26 months.

The mini-farm was used a summer residence for 5 years by the previous owner; so some cleanup maintenance is required. I have more than enough to keep me busy every single day. I just choose how much work I want to accomplish.

Retire as soon as you can. Millions of Americans are retiring early; companies are going to be desperate to keep you. Try it first for 2 years if you can before looking for employment. Or change to a completely different line of work with minimal responsibility.

I retired at 63, forced out of my job. Started getting a full pension last year.

Wife gets a US pension. She's from Maryland. Between our two pensions we take in more then I earned when I worked for a living. Nearly $1,000 more a month.

So I get to do what I want when I want. I do wildlife photography, small repairs for people and go fishing a lot. Life is good.

Almost forgot, I started my first business too. I'm an at home manufacturer. I build trail camera mounts, my own design. They aren't making me rich but I am having fun and covering costs. What's not to like.

So many of my old coworkers that retired at 60-65 lived a very short retirement. 40 years in would put me at 61, I’m jumping out at 51. With an average life expectancy of 57, I’m hoping to beat that a little bit.

I will never retire, my retirement was taken. I'll work until I'm dead and I'm OK with that. I've made some bad choices in life and I own that.

Hopefully my kids will listen to me and do better.

I hate to hear that. I saw that with several folks at work too. There are several Deputy Chiefs I know who will make half of what I make in retirement because of ex-wives.

I have made a lot of money Sir, doing a job that I was/am good at & enjoy. Been taking home less than 50% for a long time.

Ex Wives are something else, have two of them myself. They love that money and will go from friend to enemy pretty damn quick.

I just made a big old pot of Salisbury steak/gravy with a pot of garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans for my loved ones.

Kids ate good, brushed their teeth and went to bed.

They will never hear a bad word from me.

Life is good.

I have friends like that. The one said "You can only divide your retirement in half 4 times, and continue to live!!!" Ex-wives can be hell on you!!

I envy guys like you Blank. Good on you

Anyway, back to retirement

Am I the only one that loves working? The side benefits can be amazing.

To me there is a huge difference between loving working and loving what you’re working now.

I like working. Love working on several different things. Right now I’m “stuck” in a job that’s moved 200 miles from home and I work between 3-4K hrs/yr... Yes, that’s 4,000 hrs/yr with five weeks vacation! I cut that back closer to 3k but still too much.

My problem is that I can’t replace the income around my home. Six years to retirement on my original plan and not sure I can (or want to) make it six more months....

Burnt out and tired of paying people to fix stuff at home that I easily could do myself were I home to do it. I usually end up fixing it correctly anyway.....

Prime example....sprinkler system froze during the February freeze busting the primary feed line. Paid a guy to fix it. He used the wrong glue and it failed. Called guy number two. He cut all that out and replaced it. This guy didn’t move the valve far enough away from a second primary line so the box no longer fit between the two....oh, and while jamming it in apparently stepped or pushed too hard on the 90 and cracked the bottom....which failed a couple weeks later. My wife asked me if she should call him back....I said what the hell for! I’ll fix it when I can....

I finally was able to get to it a couple months ago. I had everything for the repair except a valve and new glue. $15 and a couple hours fixed correctly....yet these two “professionals” couldn’t do it right in two trips each!

This is the stuff that infuriates me.....

I used to really like my job. It’s changed too much over the past 6-8 years and getting worse at an alarming rate.

Hate to walk on seniority and benefits but my health (mental and physical) is worth more than this crap....

Edit: I know, almost rocket science right? But still no leaks. Maybe I can get it covered back up in the next couple years...

'

'Miss the good customers, good employees, and a large shop where anything can be fabbed and welded up. I even miss the smell of large truck diesel exhaust. Do not miss the jerk customers, problem employees, bankers, liability insurance (and cases), traffic, OSHA documentation, being the Safety "azzhole" (as the guys fondly referred to me as), and one (failed) unionization vote.

Thanks to my early training as a musician, I excel, and can handle well, doing absolutely...nothing.

Yes, quite possibly.

I'm hoping to retire at 57. I absolutely hate working/my job. The next 11 years will be focused on investing, so that when the day comes can fish everyday if I want to. Watch out redfish....

I retired in 09, at 62 years old. Like many of you, I miss the people and social interaction, but I don’t miss the job, stress, and commute. As my brother said, retirement is freedom. He was right.

I should mention that though being retired is great, most folks will need something to do. For me, it’s keeping things working around here, a little tennis, a little woodworking, and hunting.

As for money, everything was paid off when we retired, and life cost a good bit less than I had expected, so money is not an issue.

Next thing up is to get past the gall bladder removal today and get back to enjoying retirement.

SS will hold taxes out , my tax lady insisted I have them hold out of my check . I started receiving 2 years ago . Better check on it !

I'm retiring at the end of this year. I turned 65 this month.

You are in the insurance business like me - I have been at it for 42 years and at age 68 I will keep rolling as long as I can. Lost my right hand assistant this year to breast cancer so it has been a challenge but I still love helping my clients, friends, and family. I could care less at this stage of selling anything - I just enjoy helping my clients any way I can.

I still get to my office around 5-6 am every morning - blessed to have enjoyed my "job" for so many years - sounds like you feel the same

Exact same thing for me . If I didn’t go back tomorrow I wouldn’t miss a thing. I can get by on a lot less money than my wife so we will see how much longer. I’d love to retire at 60