if you were able to retire early (55-62) how did you do it

[Anonymous]

DH and I are planning to retire early, ideally before 50 or right around there. We are both frugal little investors with no kids. We bought our home at 24/25 and the payments are incredibly low, less than my friends' 1b apartment rent. We generally drive older cars, and I'll happily drive my '08 until it falls apart. I also got a leg up from a small (very small for dcum) inheritance that was 100% invested.

So part luck and right place right time, part just who we are as non-shoppers or big spenders, and a big part of having low expenses without kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I "retired" at 40. I had worked for 15 years before that. DH is still working at 58.

- Started married life debt free. No college debt.
- We did not pay for anything in our wedding. Parents paid for everything.
- We were in STEM fields that paid us a decent amount.
- Parents did not depend on us financially in retirement.

- Bought our new SFH in an inexpensive neighborhood.
- 2 kids only. Only had 3 yrs each of childcare cost for them. We had grandparents helping out for childcare.
- Kids went to magnet public schools for free.
- Kids got merit tuition in college. We paid minimal amount for room and board only.

There were other financial and life decisions we made, and also lots of luck...that made it possible for me to retire early. My DH can retire now if he wants, but he is still working.

In your case, you are a SHAM. I'd not consider you "retired." You quit working to raise kids and that's "okay" but you are certainly not retired from workforce. You quit!

I have retirement income, I am not working for pay, I am not seeing a job. I am retired. Actually, I am FIRE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retired at 54. I didn’t expect to do this, but as a Fed, the perfect storm- Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc, made my decision to take an early retirement pretty easy. Sure, I am leaving money on the table - kind of, but no longer have a 45 mile commute each way and I have more time for family and doing things I enjoy. Also, I don’t have participate in Fed/corporate mumbo jumbo of endless meetings and pointless taskers that only exist to placate an ever growing team of middle manager bureaucrats.

How was I able to do it? I just did it. I have a small pension, healthcare from Fed retirement, spouse works and I like to think we somewhat live within our means. We enjoy our life, but stayed in our starter home and have a decent amount of savings.

you are a SAHM not retired.

I don’t work.

I am not seeking work.

I have a pension.

How is this not retired?

In a similar boat here—Fed who took early retirement recently at 56 and have no plans to work again, one kid still at home. Not sure why the SAHM vs fully-retired distinction is important to anyone.

I felt comfortable retiring because:
Older kids are done with college and plenty in 529s for college for teen or grad school for older kids.
Paid off house.
Plenty of savings, plus small pension and Fed health insurance.
DH will work for another few years.
We are not big spenders, though look forward to fun travel once DH retires and youngest is no longer at home.

A SAHM lives off husband's income... that's not "retiring from work".

That’s a weird way to look at it. I retired from work with a pension, affordable health insurance that covers DH and our 3 children, more than $2.5 million in my TSP plus non-Federal IRA, and significant brokerage funds that I’ve contributed to through the years along with DH. We’ve reallocated how we pay for some of our bills, but I’m still contributing to our net worth in retirement.

Not sure that it’s relevant that we still have a child at home either. Seems like you just want to use “SAHM” as an insult.

To be fair, your case is not what that PP was referring to. Other than bragging, you didn't add anything b/c it's not relevant

Wrong. The fixated PP was literally replying to my post and to that of the other other retired Fed, telling us that we were SAHMs, not retirees.

And it’s not bragging to answer the question that OP asked with factual data that is entirely relevant if you are thinking about whether you are in a position to retire early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retired at 54. I didn’t expect to do this, but as a Fed, the perfect storm- Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc, made my decision to take an early retirement pretty easy. Sure, I am leaving money on the table - kind of, but no longer have a 45 mile commute each way and I have more time for family and doing things I enjoy. Also, I don’t have participate in Fed/corporate mumbo jumbo of endless meetings and pointless taskers that only exist to placate an ever growing team of middle manager bureaucrats.

How was I able to do it? I just did it. I have a small pension, healthcare from Fed retirement, spouse works and I like to think we somewhat live within our means. We enjoy our life, but stayed in our starter home and have a decent amount of savings.

you are a SAHM not retired.

I don’t work.

I am not seeking work.

I have a pension.

How is this not retired?

In a similar boat here—Fed who took early retirement recently at 56 and have no plans to work again, one kid still at home. Not sure why the SAHM vs fully-retired distinction is important to anyone.

I felt comfortable retiring because:
Older kids are done with college and plenty in 529s for college for teen or grad school for older kids.
Paid off house.
Plenty of savings, plus small pension and Fed health insurance.
DH will work for another few years.
We are not big spenders, though look forward to fun travel once DH retires and youngest is no longer at home.

A SAHM lives off husband's income... that's not "retiring from work".

No, sorry, this is not how retirement is defined.

“Early retirement “ enabled by another wage earner paying your bills is SAH.

Not really. The SAH partner enables the other wage earner to earn while other aspects of life is handled. Also, SAH partner does not have separate bills. Household bills are usually fixed costs that is incurred regardless of if there is a SAH partner or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my early 50s and in a job I like overall, but it's a very draining role, the commute isn't great, I'm getting bored with the work and the options for moving up the chain and seeing more significant raises are limited. I could stick it out for another five years, ideally more like 8-10, but it's getting to be a lot. Over the past year, a few of my older colleagues resigned before hitting 60. One retired early out of nowhere and management didn't throw him a retirement party, so I didn't have a chance to ask him what's next. Another left early after being with the org for about 15 years and was vested in the pension but still left earlier than most in the plan.

So, for those who've done it, how do you get to the point of making it happen? Did you assess your finances and accept a lower-paying or part time job for peace of mind and being ok with giving up the good salary? Or did you methodically plan for retiring early and sock away a lot of money since your first job?

Lived within our means (mostly). Incurred only "good debt" (mortgage; and didn't buy in the range we were approved for). Saved like crazy, invested, aggressively funded 529. We still had a lot of luxury (mostly vacations) but did not do fancy cars, fancy clothes (basic stuff no Prada, Gucci, Chanel, etc.), don't buy a lot of jewelry. Those just aren't important to us.

We also had some luck, honestly, buying our home in 2002 before prices skyrocketed. Also our starter home became our forever home and we remodeled. So we paid it off in about 20 years.

Having said that, I have money insecurities having grown up poor. So I'm still working, it's just for myself whenever I want. I'm 53.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my early 50s and in a job I like overall, but it's a very draining role, the commute isn't great, I'm getting bored with the work and the options for moving up the chain and seeing more significant raises are limited. I could stick it out for another five years, ideally more like 8-10, but it's getting to be a lot. Over the past year, a few of my older colleagues resigned before hitting 60. One retired early out of nowhere and management didn't throw him a retirement party, so I didn't have a chance to ask him what's next. Another left early after being with the org for about 15 years and was vested in the pension but still left earlier than most in the plan.

So, for those who've done it, how do you get to the point of making it happen? Did you assess your finances and accept a lower-paying or part time job for peace of mind and being ok with giving up the good salary? Or did you methodically plan for retiring early and sock away a lot of money since your first job?

Lived within our means (mostly). Incurred only "good debt" (mortgage; and didn't buy in the range we were approved for). Saved like crazy, invested, aggressively funded 529. We still had a lot of luxury (mostly vacations) but did not do fancy cars, fancy clothes (basic stuff no Prada, Gucci, Chanel, etc.), don't buy a lot of jewelry. Those just aren't important to us.

We also had some luck, honestly, buying our home in 2002 before prices skyrocketed. Also our starter home became our forever home and we remodeled. So we paid it off in about 20 years.

Having said that, I have money insecurities having grown up poor. So I'm still working, it's just for myself whenever I want. I'm 53.

How did you buy a house in DMV at 29??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retired at 54. I didn’t expect to do this, but as a Fed, the perfect storm- Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc, made my decision to take an early retirement pretty easy. Sure, I am leaving money on the table - kind of, but no longer have a 45 mile commute each way and I have more time for family and doing things I enjoy. Also, I don’t have participate in Fed/corporate mumbo jumbo of endless meetings and pointless taskers that only exist to placate an ever growing team of middle manager bureaucrats.

How was I able to do it? I just did it. I have a small pension, healthcare from Fed retirement, spouse works and I like to think we somewhat live within our means. We enjoy our life, but stayed in our starter home and have a decent amount of savings.

you are a SAHM not retired.

I don’t work.

I am not seeking work.

I have a pension.

How is this not retired?

In a similar boat here—Fed who took early retirement recently at 56 and have no plans to work again, one kid still at home. Not sure why the SAHM vs fully-retired distinction is important to anyone.

I felt comfortable retiring because:
Older kids are done with college and plenty in 529s for college for teen or grad school for older kids.
Paid off house.
Plenty of savings, plus small pension and Fed health insurance.
DH will work for another few years.
We are not big spenders, though look forward to fun travel once DH retires and youngest is no longer at home.

A SAHM lives off husband's income... that's not "retiring from work".

No, sorry, this is not how retirement is defined.

“Early retirement “ enabled by another wage earner paying your bills is SAH.

Not really. The SAH partner enables the other wage earner to earn while other aspects of life is handled. Also, SAH partner does not have separate bills. Household bills are usually fixed costs that is incurred regardless of if there is a SAH partner or not.

OMG get over yourself. Unless you have toddlers at home, its very chill life. Its not like single people can’t figure out how to buy groceries and fold a towel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retired at 54. I didn’t expect to do this, but as a Fed, the perfect storm- Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc, made my decision to take an early retirement pretty easy. Sure, I am leaving money on the table - kind of, but no longer have a 45 mile commute each way and I have more time for family and doing things I enjoy. Also, I don’t have participate in Fed/corporate mumbo jumbo of endless meetings and pointless taskers that only exist to placate an ever growing team of middle manager bureaucrats.

How was I able to do it? I just did it. I have a small pension, healthcare from Fed retirement, spouse works and I like to think we somewhat live within our means. We enjoy our life, but stayed in our starter home and have a decent amount of savings.

you are a SAHM not retired.

I don’t work.

I am not seeking work.

I have a pension.

How is this not retired?

In a similar boat here—Fed who took early retirement recently at 56 and have no plans to work again, one kid still at home. Not sure why the SAHM vs fully-retired distinction is important to anyone.

I felt comfortable retiring because:
Older kids are done with college and plenty in 529s for college for teen or grad school for older kids.
Paid off house.
Plenty of savings, plus small pension and Fed health insurance.
DH will work for another few years.
We are not big spenders, though look forward to fun travel once DH retires and youngest is no longer at home.

A SAHM lives off husband's income... that's not "retiring from work".

That’s a weird way to look at it. I retired from work with a pension, affordable health insurance that covers DH and our 3 children, more than $2.5 million in my TSP plus non-Federal IRA, and significant brokerage funds that I’ve contributed to through the years along with DH. We’ve reallocated how we pay for some of our bills, but I’m still contributing to our net worth in retirement.

Not sure that it’s relevant that we still have a child at home either. Seems like you just want to use “SAHM” as an insult.

My wife is a SAHM for 25 years now. She is not retired. She is a Homemaker and Mom a full time job.

lol if your wife worked for 15 years and has been staying home for 25 years, she must be at least 62. So kids looonnnnngggg gone from the house. And you're still drinking the koolaid that she "is" an active mom as a full time job? If you think being a 62 year old empty nester is the hardest job in the world, i have a bridge to sell you.

Kinda empty nestors since Fall of 2025 when youngest went to college and around same time second youngest moved out. So an empty nestor I guess since Fall of 2025. It was only three years ago I had three kids at home. I know a few child brides on this thread but kids generally dont move out till parents are around 67.

The house I live in was bought from a retiring couple. They had three kids. Youngest kid just gaduated Gergetown Law School and was moving to NYC. His wife who was SAHM was retiring with him and both were 65. My daughters friends who are doctors two of their kids are doing medical shool route. BTW the last one moves out they will be 70ish.

if I became single I might just start aging. Why downsize just refill the house up.

Are you actually suggesting that the 70 year old who permitted 3 adult children (presumably all 30+ years old) to live at home with her is still a "stay at home mom" doing the "hardest job in the world"??? To quote the earlier PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retired at 54. I didn’t expect to do this, but as a Fed, the perfect storm- Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc, made my decision to take an early retirement pretty easy. Sure, I am leaving money on the table - kind of, but no longer have a 45 mile commute each way and I have more time for family and doing things I enjoy. Also, I don’t have participate in Fed/corporate mumbo jumbo of endless meetings and pointless taskers that only exist to placate an ever growing team of middle manager bureaucrats.

How was I able to do it? I just did it. I have a small pension, healthcare from Fed retirement, spouse works and I like to think we somewhat live within our means. We enjoy our life, but stayed in our starter home and have a decent amount of savings.

you are a SAHM not retired.

I don’t work.

I am not seeking work.

I have a pension.

How is this not retired?

In a similar boat here—Fed who took early retirement recently at 56 and have no plans to work again, one kid still at home. Not sure why the SAHM vs fully-retired distinction is important to anyone.

I felt comfortable retiring because:
Older kids are done with college and plenty in 529s for college for teen or grad school for older kids.
Paid off house.
Plenty of savings, plus small pension and Fed health insurance.
DH will work for another few years.
We are not big spenders, though look forward to fun travel once DH retires and youngest is no longer at home.

A SAHM lives off husband's income... that's not "retiring from work".

No, sorry, this is not how retirement is defined.

“Early retirement “ enabled by another wage earner paying your bills is SAH.

Not really. The SAH partner enables the other wage earner to earn while other aspects of life is handled. Also, SAH partner does not have separate bills. Household bills are usually fixed costs that is incurred regardless of if there is a SAH partner or not.

OMG get over yourself. Unless you have toddlers at home, its very chill life. Its not like single people can’t figure out how to buy groceries and fold a towel.

When SAHMs trot out the whole "but my handling so much on the home front enables my husband to do better in his career", you know they have no idea what a job actually is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my early 50s and in a job I like overall, but it's a very draining role, the commute isn't great, I'm getting bored with the work and the options for moving up the chain and seeing more significant raises are limited. I could stick it out for another five years, ideally more like 8-10, but it's getting to be a lot. Over the past year, a few of my older colleagues resigned before hitting 60. One retired early out of nowhere and management didn't throw him a retirement party, so I didn't have a chance to ask him what's next. Another left early after being with the org for about 15 years and was vested in the pension but still left earlier than most in the plan.

So, for those who've done it, how do you get to the point of making it happen? Did you assess your finances and accept a lower-paying or part time job for peace of mind and being ok with giving up the good salary? Or did you methodically plan for retiring early and sock away a lot of money since your first job?

I'm in my 50s. Spouse and I knew we wanted to retire earlier than most from the time we got married, and I plan to in the next six months. Sacrificed a lot in our early years: rarely went out to eat, bought a house that was a bit of a stretch at the time and got a roommate, have never had a car payment because we saved up to purchase used cars in cash, etc. We have never moved from that house. It's definitely consistency over time. Keeping spending low also gave spouse and I flexibility to take family-friendly jobs that did not require crazy hours and weekends. We now spend a ton on travel and enjoy what we have saved, so while it was a sacrifice early in our marriage, there is a lot of freedom now.

[Anonymous]

I'm 56 and still working. DH is 62 and retired at 60 (technically laid off and chose to retire because we were able to do that financially). I plan to retire at 60.

House will be paid off then and last kid out of college - she's a junior, kid 1 graduated this year and is working full time and living on his own. We still live in the Arlington house DH bought in the late 90s although we did a significant renovation 12 years ago. DH saved a lot in the first 10 yrs of his career while i was later to saving. So, a lot of our good place with retirement $$ is because of that foundation.

No pensions or retiree healthcare. I'll have to figure out health insurance to bridge from 60-65. Possibly an ACA plan, although I want to investigate more the idea of taking a class per semester at GMU to get student health insurance.

So, basically, early savings, house that never had a payment that was a large % of our income, kids went to reasonably priced colleges (one in-state, one OOS with merit, both <$30k/yr), my parents paid for one year of college per kid. Buy modest cars and drive them for a long time. Generally live within our means.

[Anonymous]

I’m 40 with a child with multiple severe disabilities. We are planning for the possibility of a forced retirement for me or my husband in 15 years when she ages out of school. We think there’s a very real possibility that care will fall on our shoulders. So we’re currently saving 25% of our income, primarily in our brokerage account so that we have a source of funds we can access in early retirement. Otherwise, we’ll have funds we can’t access until our 60s - our pensions, Social Security, our retirement funds. Although we’ll have robust retirement accounts, since we also need to leave money to support our daughter, we can’t afford to lose any money to early withdrawal penalties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my early 50s and in a job I like overall, but it's a very draining role, the commute isn't great, I'm getting bored with the work and the options for moving up the chain and seeing more significant raises are limited. I could stick it out for another five years, ideally more like 8-10, but it's getting to be a lot. Over the past year, a few of my older colleagues resigned before hitting 60. One retired early out of nowhere and management didn't throw him a retirement party, so I didn't have a chance to ask him what's next. Another left early after being with the org for about 15 years and was vested in the pension but still left earlier than most in the plan.

So, for those who've done it, how do you get to the point of making it happen? Did you assess your finances and accept a lower-paying or part time job for peace of mind and being ok with giving up the good salary? Or did you methodically plan for retiring early and sock away a lot of money since your first job?

Lived within our means (mostly). Incurred only "good debt" (mortgage; and didn't buy in the range we were approved for). Saved like crazy, invested, aggressively funded 529. We still had a lot of luxury (mostly vacations) but did not do fancy cars, fancy clothes (basic stuff no Prada, Gucci, Chanel, etc.), don't buy a lot of jewelry. Those just aren't important to us.

We also had some luck, honestly, buying our home in 2002 before prices skyrocketed. Also our starter home became our forever home and we remodeled. So we paid it off in about 20 years.

Having said that, I have money insecurities having grown up poor. So I'm still working, it's just for myself whenever I want. I'm 53.

How did you buy a house in DMV at 29??

I bought a house at the same time when I was 28.

The house was $300,000. I saved 60,000 to put down on the house because I didn’t go to fancy dinners or Europe.

I cooked at home and packed my lunch.

My house is now worth 750,000.

I live in Darnestown, Maryland. I’ve never commuted more than 30 minutes to work.

You probably would never want to live here. But I’m retired @ 57.

[Anonymous]

Side question....Is age 62 considered "early retirement"? I always thought early retirement was in the 50s but due to less favorable economics, is early 60s the new "early retirement" zone? Just curious what others are thinking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Side question....Is age 62 considered "early retirement"? I always thought early retirement was in the 50s but due to less favorable economics, is early 60s the new "early retirement" zone? Just curious what others are thinking?

I agree, reading this thread and seeing people say they retired "early" at 62 is kind of depressing. Unless social security is going to be your primary source of income, i would expect retiring at 62 vs 65 isn't really a big financial difference. LIke, if you're going to be good to retire at 65, you're presumably set up with a good enough cushion to retire at 62 instead.