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When did you retire (what age), and what was the deciding factor that made you retire at that time—finances, health, job satisfaction, family needs, benefits timing (pension/SS/healthcare), or simply “I was done”?
Looking back, was it the right age for you, and would you do it the same way again?
Jeff
I had known for years it would be time. I’d be eligible to retire from my second career after 15 years with the company, at which time I’d be 59. As that time arrived, I liked my job well enough, but we were living somewhere we didn’t care to be, and couldn’t seem to get moved. We decided that if the 15 year mark rolled around and I wasn’t either posted to somewhere we wanted to be, or in a role that was amazing, I would leave. Neither of those happened, and we had already decided we had “enough”, so I executed.
I just retired at 63 1/2. Unlike many people in this form, I didn’t like my job and my line of work doesn’t transition well to part time. I had pursued a good career out of High School (and college) so that I could have an easier life and retire early. Not super early. I think I had 62 in the back of my mind. When I turned 62, I thought about my father who had retired at 62.5, so I thought I could make it another 6 months. About this time I saw a financial consultant who said my plan was unconventional but I should be OK. I kept reading about how much money people had saved, which seemed like too much, and worked another year. For me, I felt like there was a bigger risk that I wouldn’t have the time to enjoy my savings then the risk I would run out of money. There is no way to know if I made the right decision until it is too late, and anyway, so many things are beyond my control. The somewhat interesting thing, is that there are so many variables, that there is no “crossing line”. For me, I had to pick a time, and that is somewhat arbitrary. I found it more stressful than I thought it would be.
I see by these comments that a number of people retired several years before I did. Glad it worked out for them.
I didn’t have any desire to retire before I did, but no matter, I couldn’t afford to do so in any case.
When I was 55 our youngest child just graduated from college. Over the next ten years or so there were four weddings – one girl, but they were all treated the same way money-wise.
There were two mortgages too. And then came the grandchildren year after year.
In some ways family determined when I retired. No complaints or regrets. We would never be in the place we are and able to help children and grandchildren if I had set my sites on retirement in my 50s or early 60s.
It just points out how individual and personal the retirement decision is.
I retired in 2022 on my 55th birthday. There were many reasons for choosing that date/age, but one contributing factor was access to an early-retiree health care benefit my employer offered.
It was absolutely the right age for me. I love that I still have the energy to do the things I am passionate about (train dogs). As someone who has always preferred solitude to being with others, I cherish the days where I can stay home and do whatever I want.
I retired in 2020, just after my 67th birthday, shortly after having knee replacement surgery, and just as the pandemic hit. My wife had retired 8 months earlier, at 62. I retired for all the right reasons. I was tired of working, and I had sufficient confidence that our finances were adequate for an extended retirement. My only regret was that the pandemic prevented one last trip to the corporate office to personally say goodbye to coworkers and friends.
My wife had health care and a pension. I had Medicare and my IRA plus investments. I had a long list of things I wanted to do in retirement, and I haven’t gotten to all of them yet – but I have found some other activities that I hadn’t anticipated, so everything is going well here.
Yep, age 61, offered 1 years severance, took it. I was only going to work a couple more years anyway. And like Ken, I had retiree medical insurance. It was really a very good deal for me.
I retired at 61 one year ago after accepting a generous voluntary severance package from the large public utility where I worked for 35 years. Fortunately, our savings were in order when the opportunity presented itself, so I jumped at the chance to leave a couple of years early. Another deciding factor was the availability of retiree benefits; Premiums are greater than the employee rates but significantly less than public markets. With finances in good shape, we have been able to spend our days travelling, drinking coffee and chatting, hitting the gym or taking a walk, visiting the local pub and doing a bit of volunteer work, not necessarily in that order. No complaints so far.
I retired from my professional career of 42 years at the age of 69 not because I burnt out or hated my work, but due to my spouse’s chronic illnesses. In order to be able to fully care for the love of my life and the most valuable, and important patient, I decided on Dec. 30, 2021 will be that day. I loved my work, and the many connections that I made with my patients and co-workers & staff; but once I decided to retire, I have not looked back to what it was but have enjoyed every bite of what time we have together each and every day. Her health is getting better & stable, and we are enjoying our daily 6-8 miles walk. I must said those are the more worthwhile times spent than the 40 some years of patient care I ever have done. The key word that keep us going through those very dark days is contentment. Content with what we can change and also content with what we cannot.
My wife, working in a state job planned she would retire at 63 and immediately start SS. She also immediately started her state pension. I’m 18 months older and I planned on working until, at least 65. I taught at a state community college where I was only required to be on campus 32 hours a week and during the summer only one day a week. Pretty good gig. A few weeks after my wife retired, covid hit. For the next 18 months I worked from home, teaching only online classes. The month I turned 65 they opened the campus again so I decided to work another Fall and Spring semester because I really missed teaching in person classes. Unfortunately, the campus opened but the students didn’t come back. They all still wanted online classes. The governor decided all state employees had to be in their office two days a week. So, that semester I spend two days a week in an empty building, on an empty campus teaching online classes. I decided to retire at the end of that term. I started my state retirement immediately. With my wife’s SS and state pension and my military pension and state pension we more than meet our everyday expenses. We enjoy short trip vacations, doing most of our travelling in the Fall and Spring when everyone else (except HD people) are working and going to school.
There is a great dichotomy in retirement in America between private sector and public sector workers. In essence private sector worker’s have no pensions, but pay substantially to funding the pensions of public sector workers.
It’s not the fault of public employees, but seems a bit unfair.
Private employers abandoned pensions because of cost, legal complexity and funding requirements while many public entities escape most of those requirements and in too many cases simply ignore minimum funding requirements plus have an endless source of funding through taxes on the entire population. On top of that public pensions tend to be more generous than private pensions.
The argument for generous benefits used to be lower public salaries, but that is not always true and according to BLS data, the aggregate of pay and benefits still puts the public employees in the lead.
I’d like to make a few points. Government pensions have been slowly reduced and employees have to contribute to the plans. Some people make more in similar government jobs to private and some people make about the same and some people make less. Pensions are part of the benefits package. People stay or join knowing that. There are no stock options in the government. Government salaries are set by OPM. So one of the ways to attract talent is the pensions, as agencies, for the most part, cannot pay more. Not increasing salaries and eliminating pensions, would mean less qualified public servants, such as attorneys, scientist and engineers. I don’t want less qualified people making policies. One last point, how is that we pay senators $174,000/year and the CEO of Coke’s package is $25 million. Which one has a bigger impact on our lives? I think we need to focus on other issues than reducing the compensation packages of government workers. That isn’t the real problem.
I don’t understand how you believe it’s unfair that taxpayers help fund the pensions of public employees. Would you have public employees fund their entire retirements?? Most private employees don’t. Aren’t the customers of the utility you worked for funding your pension?— and if youn didn’t have a pension, wouldn’t the customers be paying for 401k etc matches??
Wisconsin’s pension fund is well- managed and fully funded. There’s no COLA, but I do think I will get an increase in my pension in the coming months. That’s because the investments of the Employee Trust Fund earned better than 13% at year’s end.
The only part unfair is when the aggregate cost of total compensation (pay and benefits) for public employees is greater than that of the private sector in the same area which must be funded by taxpayers most of which do not have such benefits.
By the way, the pension I have no longer exists, it was eliminated for new employees in 1996 then to lower costs, again further reduced in 2010.
A private plan would not give away part of the trust because of good short term investment performance, it would simply lower the necessary future contributions or hedge against a poor performance years. That is a difference between public and private management of funds or tax money.
The Employee Trust Fund is very conservatively managed, and “gives away” nothing, A portion of investment results are smoothed over five years to avoid volatility in pension payments, and the fund has no unfunded liabilities taxpayers need to make up. The projection released in September indicated that with a 9.7% return, pension increases in 2026 would be between 1.2 and 1.6% — this takes into account the 2022 loss. A 5% return would result in no pension payment change. Annuities can also be reduced but not below the starting pension amount. I have experienced no reductions in the 11 years I’ve been retired, and have had increases in ten.
If public employees were reaping the benefit bonanza you suggest, I would expect that huge numbers of workers would prefer public to private employment. That isn’t the case. A close relative recently left public employment for the private sector. He received a 6 figure signing bonus, stock options and an increase of $50,000 in base salary!
Just look up the BLA data. I’m pretty sure your example is atypical.
My example is accurate. Many private sector workers receive signing and end of year bonuses as well as stock options. Not public employees!
My discussion of how the Wi trust fund pays pension increases was taken from their web site.
At the bank where I worked, they would match up to 5% of your salary in your 401K and give you up to 14% of your salary into a cash-value pension fund. This all came to an end in 2008, but the veteran workers did collect sacks of money.
You are correct. My wife and I consider ourselves very fortunate to have federal and state pensions. It has certainly made planning for retirement much easier. Moreover, my health benefit from the Air Force means I do not need to pay for Medicare part D or part G. Spending 20 years in the military and then 25 years at state jobs were never part of a plan, just the way things worked out.
My son left a private sector job and accepted a job with the town he lives in. One of the huge benefits was health insurance for he and his wife was free. They were paying $800 per month for health insurance through her work at a hospital. Unfortunately he was just informed the town is requiring him to start paying $200 per month for health insurance. Still better than what they were paying before but quite a budget shock to the negative side.
And the premiums paid by the employer are tax free income as could his premiums be if a Section 125 plan was in effect. Same of course for the private sector.
I retired at 53 and I do not regret it a bit. I’ve now been retired for 8 years.I started my saving/investing journey very early so have a substantial amount. More importantly is the retired military benefits from my husbands 23 year service in the Air Force. We get military health care which works fabulous for us at very little cost – we are in excellent health as well. My husband also gets a military pension that started when he was 42, and is COLA’d, plus some VA benefits. My pension begins at 65 and we plan to take SS at 65 and 67, thus we are fortunate to have many sources of guaranteed income.
I have always been very athletic and upon retiring I devoted a great deal of time to cycling, getting to my goal of 8000 miles this year. We have had great trips that often combine cycling in amazing locations. We bought a townhome in Tucson in 2025 and now find ourselves among many friends on group rides and post ride social gatherings. I also volunteer with a senior agency in our state providing Medicare counseling at the local senior center. Work seems like a lifetime ago and I have never been more fulfilled in life with the activities to do, and many great friends and an amazing family. I don’t need many luxuries or possessions (other than a couple very nice bicycles), I am blessed with everything I need, and I am quite content.
I retired fully at age 75. However, I began a gradual, phased retirement at age 67.
My motivation was my spouse, who retired early for health reasons. I wanted to do more travel, etc. We purchased a Class B RV and began travelling, and I remote worked as we travelled. My writing and consulting practice was designed to allow me to do that. I had no financial reason to continue to work in any capacity.
Eventually we were travelling full-time, living in various locations in the U.S.
I stopped writing professionally at age 76. This had been a side gig for 20 years. At age 76 I was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable stage IV cancer with a 15% survival rate.
We relocated so I could get better treatment. My health issue reduced other travel for several years as I underwent radiation, chemo and immunotherapy treatments, but at age 79 we resumed traveling, as my medical leash had lengthened and I was diagnosed as stable.
Doing the things necessary to stay alive have been the main event for several years.
“Looking back, was it the right age for you, and would you do it the same way again?” Interesting question. My health mandated restrictions certainly crimped my lifestyle, but I’ve done all of the things I set out to do. If I could, I’d live forever at age 67, when I had the health, stamina, time and finances to do just about whatever I was interested in doing.
I decided to retire when I realized I was on a sinking ship and I didn’t want to be responsible for any questionable actions management decided on. In addition, I also discovered I was eligible for affordable medical insurance. This all occurred around age 57.
My wife and I retired within a few months of each other at 61/57. Our advisor said we had “enough” and we worked “one more year”. We were both burnt out from our corporate roles at Megacorp. Although unplanned I started consulting part time and that was 7 years go and that was worked well both financially and personally. We both plan to claim Security within the next 12 months, myself in June when I hit 70 and my wife next December at 67.
Not my decision, “retired” at 71 when the company decided it was time. The company was and still is struggling and I ended up in a 30% staff cut. My plan was always to work full time and delay Social Security benefits until 70, which I did, and then do a phased retirement on a part time or contract basis. I was financially prepared for retirement with or without any additional earned income. And being fired instead of voluntarily retiring did result in a few months of severance pay and a nice bonus. As for the non-financial aspects of retirement, I am now fully busy working on stuff I wanted to do but never got around to doing while working on company stuff.
Glenna — thank you for sharing.
That wasn’t “long”… it was real, and I think a lot of people needed to hear it.
What I took from your story is simple: smart decisions and the ability to adapt. You didn’t wait for retirement to magically “work out”—you built it, adjusted it, and kept moving forward.
And I love that first five years—solo travel on a lean budget using house swaps, Airbnb, and frugal choices. That’s not flashy, but it’s the kind of retirement that actually works.
The arthritis piece… yeah, that’s a gut punch. But if your post proves anything, it’s this: you’re not someone who stops living just because the terrain changed. You’ll find the next version of “full life,” and it’ll still have your fingerprints all over it.
Thanks! I have had to slow down (less travel!). While I contemplate my future I have stepped up my volunteer work with seniors and my grandson’s kindergarten class!
55 and 56 respectively for us. In the end we had enough enoughs, enough money, enough of our careers and enough time to enjoy ourselves.
It’s only been four years, but we don’t regret the decision.
After 33 years with a multinational medical company the traditional pension was being changed by using the corporate bond rate vs the government bond rate in the formula to determine benefits payout. In 2008 The PPP government plan went into effect causing payouts to vary tremendously depending on the prevailing interest imputed into the formula which included yrs of service, highest 3 yrs salary, etc., etc. etc.
The January after the 1st year this went into effect my pension-lump sum dropped in value by $80k which was horrendous after spending 30 years with the company to see it dropped that much overnight. By year three the trend reversed and the payout was at an all time high. That evening I showed it to my wife and said tomorrow I’m pulling the cord and retiring. Best thing I ever did it was 11/01/2010 I was 57 and never looked back. I chose the lump sum vs the annuity because for 40 years I’ve followed the financial services industry and absolutely love it so I knew I could manage the money. Also with my hefty 401k and my wife’s 401k together ensured our financial security.
Now fifteen years later I’ve never regretted my decision and with the markets cooperating since 2010 were in a strong position for the rest of our lives.
Like many on HD we grew up when money was tight then came kids, private schools etc., etc we never over spent we were watching our inflow and outflows. Today we’re often told if you don’t fly first class your daughter’s will. We’ll do business class especially on longer trips but not first,
it goes against our grain…
I retired from my full time 33 year career at the age of 52 as soon as I new I had a full lifetime pension. I then took on a part time job in a school system for the next fourteen years which gave me another pension
But after those years I had more and more days that I kept saying to myself that I’ve worked for fifty years and I’m still healthy so why not retire and enjoy life while my wife and I are still healthy.
As a Christian I know that God has a plan for my life and always provides all of our needs. So I retired to see how he can use me in a new place and a new way
We retired when my Spouse was 64.5 and I was just turning 66. Part of the reason was family: as I have shared on here, my spouse’s brother was in the later stages of ALS. Also, right before he passed, their mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She had been struggling for a few years and we had known she had some kind of dementia. We also help care for our grandchildren. We had “enough” financially and with the family stress it was definitely a blessing that we could retire. So many people can’t. Chris
I retired on July 1 of this year, one month before my 65th birthday. I’d gotten burned out and cynical thanks to some scummy shenanigans by upper administrators at the university where I was professor, and I felt like it was time, for my own mental and physical health.
I was blessed that I was financially in the position to make that decision and that it was my decision, not being ousted by my employer or because of a health issue.
In hindsight it was pretty easy. I had a small one person business and my wife was a school teacher. After 29-ish years she was burned out. After meeting with Admin, she found she could retire in her early 50’s with a full pension in a few months. I asked what would make her happy. She voiced that it would be nice to retire together and move to our vacation home on the lake in a nearby state. It took a while to wind down my business obligations to be able to retire. So months later she did and then I did and we’ve been deliriously happy in retirement for over a decade now.
I retired at 53, twenty five years ago. There were several reasons:
I was no longer enjoying my job, and since my memory had declined I didn’t think I was as good at it as I had been.
The megacorp started reneging on retirement promises – my pension would be frozen when I reached thirty years service in a couple of years, but they would start paying it if I retired then.
I had developed an interest in travel, and I wanted get some in while I was still healthy.
I wrote a HD article about how the first twenty plus years worked out. Now I’ve moved to a Continuing Care Retirement Community I am finally spending more than my pension plus SS, but this year it’s less than 1% of my portfolio. It will increase as the CCRC’s fees increase, and if I travel again, but at 78 I’m not too worried. If the worst happens and I run out of money the CCRC promises to keep me.
I retired professionally at 60 in 2018, then worked one year as a fine gardener which is my hobby at home. The reason for retirement was my job was eliminated due to decreased business. I had a CFP run the numbers to be sure my gut feeling was correct that we had accumulated enough for a secure retirement.
Both my parents passed away later that year and we received an unexpected inheritance of fair amount.
My wife retired due to COVID layoff just after she turned 61, but she was planning on retirement just before the holidays that year anyways.
We have been able to utilize my inheritance to pay for living expenses through this year while delaying claiming Social Security until 70 in two years. This has allowed our future monthly benefits to grow with inflation adjustments. Not having to touch our IRAs for living expenses for the past eight years has allowed them to continue to grow. Due to market returns during that time we have been able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars without our total portfolio value decreasing.
All this is a combination being savers plus some luck which we are grateful for.
I went on phased retirement at 65 and fully retire at 66 and four months.
I didn’t have to retire, I didn’t need to work, but after nearly 50 years on the job I just knew it was time. I told my wife in March I thought I was going to retire. She said fine and that was it. I retired that July.
No plan of any kind of what to do after retirement, but we did take at least two trips a year starting with Ireland and then Russia next and kept going for ten years.
No regrets.
I actually just shared this story with friends as we gathered for Christmas.
I was a route salesman for thirty years for Hostess Cakes. Every year someone from our benefits department would come around and show us what our pension would be when we retire. I was never interested since I was only fifty two.
The rep explained that my pension would be fifty percent of my best earnings year and it would start the first of the month.
From that point on I felt as if I was working for half the pay, since they would pay me not to work.
I found a teacher’s aid position in our school system, retired, took three days off, worked there for the next for ten years, and tried again.
The income from both equalled my full time income. I was only fifty two. I went from working 60-70 hours a week to 30. Our household income never even reached six figures.
But, today with our two SS income and three pensions (One full and two half pensions) we earn$100,000 while retired.
I was a bread salesman for 32 years and retired at 55. Worked for Hostess/Wonder bread for 7 of those years. Took my pension, moved to Colorado, got my CDL and drove for a gas company for 7 years. Retired again and started traveling full time in our motor home. Did gas line surveying where they paid us to travel and fulfill survey contracts all over the country. Did that for 4 years, retired again built our house near our son and grandkids. Now fully retired at 71. Life is good!
LH, and you no longer had to get up at 2 in the morning to start that route! I never knew how you guys did it.
NOT getting up at 2AM with Wednesday and Sunday off was the greatest joy of retiring. Looking back, not sure how I did it either!😏
For me, the reason was pretty straightforward. I ran my own business and eventually just got plain sick, sore, and tired of the daily juggling act. Keeping everything going became exhausting: the endless grind of generating new sales, keeping existing customers happy, chasing payments, managing employee issues, and wrestling with cashflow. It was a never-ending hamster wheel. The only realistic exit I could see was through the big red door with “retirement” spelled out above it. So that’s the door I walked through.
My decision to retire at 58 wasn’t really about hitting my target number—I could have retired years earlier if that’s what I’d been chasing. It also wasn’t driven by some deep desire to spend more time with family and friends, though that’s been a lovely bonus. And health? The idea of retiring early to enjoy those “go-go years” in good health never even crossed my mind. My reason was much simpler and far less nuanced: I just couldn’t be bothered anymore lol
My employer decided for me at 59. But, I planned for it since I worked in tech.
I left a physically demanding job at 50, due to wear and tear on my body. I ended up owning a tax practice, which was like being retired for most of the year. I did that until 70 for two reasons. One, I had to recover economically from a divorce. Two, because I was a one man shop, I always feared getting sick, and being unable to run the business properly.
At the end of the day, things worked out very well for us.
Age 65. My wife had retired earlier in the year (at age 59) after achieving a key threshold in her retirement plan and I was waiting to cross a key threshold in my retirement plan. A year earlier I definitely wasn’t ready. But after my wife retired, while work was fine, I just didn’t want to spend my time at work any longer. I really wanted to be with her and move into the next phase of my life. I was ready. Looking back, I’m pleased with how it worked out and I definitely would do it that way again. Gene
Age 58. Basically retired when we had “enough “ to do so. We had an in depth retirement analysis done by a CFP at Charles Schwab who did several conference calls with my wife and I. The CFP convinced my wife we were all good to retire if we chose to, and we did over the coming year. It was good to be in a position to control our retirements, rather than have forced on us due to circumstances (job cutbacks, health, need to care for family members, etc). I had a long career in sales as a high performer, and had achieved most of what I set out to do. Retired at end of 2018, a year before COVID became an issue- glad I did, as it’s impact on business would have been significant, though not to a point of job loss. My wife and I both stayed in our positions about 6-9 months after giving notice, which allowed us to maximize benefits- mostly deferring income, and maximizing RSUs. The extra time gave us time to start preparations for selling home and moving to a retirement community we had targeted to move to. Bottom line, if you have enough I would retire. Few people on their deathbed wish they had worked longer at the end of their career.
My wife and I also had a consultation with a Schwab CFP recently. It’s a nice service. We had some action items to take care of, but mostly got an independent assessment of where we stood. The process of identifying, explaining, and labeling our assets – and putting words to our future plans – was equally as helpful. I’m still working independently. That conference helped give me confidence that I could do so for as long as I enjoy and will be challenged by the work.
What triggered my retirement was Covid. It put a screeching halt to my in person consulting work, and all the work I was offered after that was unappealing (mainly work over Zoom calls). So, I hung it up because I was in a financial position to do so. Fortunately, it’s worked out well. I’d like to say I had some grand plan, but I didn’t. I’ve found life works that way in general. One can have grand plans and then all kinds of things can throw a wrench into them. You have to be flexible and if you have lower expectations your glass can stay half full more often.
Work was no longer fun and I had been diagnosed with cancer. It was time for me to enjoy whatever time I had left.
Mark, may you have many days left. Best wishes.
I retired at 62, for two reasons. First, I saw what was coming post-Covid with federal $ to school districts which, of course, had significant restrictions and timelines for use. Second, but more importantly, was the fact that my wife’s pension and my pension more than covered our monthly expenses and still allowed us to put $ in savings or investments.
I was 60.
I didn’t feel I could give my employer 110% return on my salary.
I was an IT geek and I enjoyed the work. My co-workers, who were almost all younger than I was, were sharp, hard-working and a pleasure to be around. My immediate supervisor was excellent.
But since I didn’t feel like I could “pull my weight” it was time.