Is retirement an age or an asset number for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both. I feel like I need to work until both kids are out of college no matter the asset number.

Anyone else feel that way?

OP here. I wish there were a way to pause a career and then resume it many years later with no financial consequences. I would rather stop working now until the kids leave for college, and then spend the years after that working until retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both. I feel like I need to work until both kids are out of college no matter the asset number.

Anyone else feel that way?

Yes, but thankfully my child will have graduated college when I am 49 (unless something crazy happens), so even if he goes to grad school he'll probably be done before I would have been considering retirement anyway.

55 seems good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early retirement is a number for me. But I also have an age in mind where I'm not going to work anymore even if it means my retirement will be kind of crappy based on my resources.

OP here. What is your number/age?

$8M; 65. Right now we're on track for $6M at 65, that's enough to cover all of our expenses, have a nice retirement, but still leave something to our kids. I don't come from a particularly long-lived family and a lot of them dropped dead while still working so the "keep yourself sharp by never getting out of the rat race" arguments don't really appeal to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both. I feel like I need to work until both kids are out of college no matter the asset number.

Anyone else feel that way?

No, because 529 plans are funded, and I've been burnt out for years. I'm ready to be done.

[Anonymous]

Both. We always had a goal of 57. It was a point where both kids would be thru college. We worked hard when younger to invest heavily for retirement so we could make this happen. Thanks to good jobs, a company sale (risk you take and take a relatively lower paying job for years to make this happen) we were easily able to do it at 55.

But we planned to have the house paid off well before then and college fully funded in savings, so it makes it easier to meet the age goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A number. TikTok will keep me up to date on societal trends.

It's not social trends. It is the active use of your brain. Reading and hobbies are all great but they will not replace work for keeping your brain trained and sharp. If you are 60 today and in good health -- living to 90 is not crazy. That is a long time with brain decline which does happen when work ends.

[Anonymous]

We're 62 and have vague retirement plans. We both work but neither of us ever made "good" money so our retirement savings are modest. After seeing our parents through the end of their lives, we know that everything we've accumulated could be exhausted in five years.

Is retirement an age? Tell me how long I will live and what my last years will be and I can give you a retirement age.
Is retirement an asset number? Our retirement plus home equity are about 1 million. Whatever number I could imagine ($5, $10 million?) we won't get there.

Retirement will be when I can no longer get paid for working. Call it 72 years old.

[Anonymous]

62 & $15M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both. I feel like I need to work until both kids are out of college no matter the asset number.

Anyone else feel that way?

No, because 529 plans are funded, and I've been burnt out for years. I'm ready to be done.

Ours fully funded as well but I want to wait for retirement until then are out in the world in jobs and seemingly launched before retiring. Current plan is 65 and I think and hope that will happen before then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:62 & $15M

65 and $18 million apart from house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It all depends on what happens with the ACA and if there is a healthcare option to be purchased.

+1

Recently retired, but thru negotiations will have 18 months of coverage as part of exit package and then another 18 months of COBRA, leaving us with 7-8 years before medicare. We know we will be paying $~$25-30K/year plus a very high deductible for those 7-8 years. You deinatley need to factor that in planning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A number. TikTok will keep me up to date on societal trends.

It's not social trends. It is the active use of your brain. Reading and hobbies are all great but they will not replace work for keeping your brain trained and sharp. If you are 60 today and in good health -- living to 90 is not crazy. That is a long time with brain decline which does happen when work ends.

The right reading, hobbies, volunteering, crosswords and other games and gathering with friends can keep your brain from declining. It's a strange notion that you "must keep working to avoid brain drain".

[Anonymous]

My DH plans to "retire" from his career job at 60 - which is in 4 years. He has a really long commute and a very stressful job. Our two older children are launched and Our youngest is a junior in college, who will hopefully be launched by then. DH has a security clearance and has always had to work in person. He is going to look for a job really close to home (or maybe even virtual) and is willing to take a significant pay cut. He's willing to do something completely different, maybe even retail, as long as he has medical insurance. When he hits 65 and is eligible for Medicare, he may completely retire. Since we've had our DC, I've always worked very part time - more like a hobby job. I'll keep doing the same until he's ready to completely retire.

[Anonymous]

Neither. For me it’s whenever I’m don’t with the working world. I’ll live on whatever I have at that point. I’m 51 and don’t see a retirement date in sight yet.

[Anonymous]

Currently, based solely on my age. 45 now; the plan is to retire in the year when I turn 62.

If the federal pension plan changes to my detriment, I may go a bit longer.