What made you decide to retire early?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
My Dad died @ 63, my younger brother died @ 43.  I retired two years ago @ 56 and have not regretted a second of it.
 
catblaster said:
  I had no choice, Emphysema, pulmonary fibrous, Bronchiectasis, and Pulmonary Hypertension at 62, then a double lung transplant 8 months later. The two easiest things I did was filing for SS disability and Agent Orange with the VA. The job I had was easy, good pay and plenty of benefits, if I had not been forced to retire I would probably still be working even though the two heart attacks have taken their toll.
The real reason Catblaster retired is because it was interfering with building his airboat. ;D
 
I retire in 2012 at 62, I had know so people who said as soon as I am 65 I am retiring at 65 1/2 they were dead. Plus the environment I was working in was getting overrun with government regulatory agencies , it had ceased to be enjoyable. I retire in March of 2012 in March 2013 My wife and I went to New Zealand on a trip , in a week after we returned I was in the hospital getting a stent put in. Have not regretted retiring early one bit. If you can afford it do it.
 
JX2Fields said:
I retire in 2012 at 62, I had know so people who said as soon as I am 65 I am retiring at 65 1/2 they were dead.


We had an inspector the waited until 65, and after his retirement party on his last day of work he went home and died while waiting for his dinner. Another one that was a close friend of mine retired at 62 and within 9 months had passed away. None of us are getting out of this alive.
 
catblaster said:
We had an inspector the waited until 65, and after his retirement party on his last day of work he went home and died while waiting for his dinner. Another one that was a close friend of mine retired at 62 and within 9 months had passed away. None of us are getting out of this alive.

I just happy I made it out of a lifetime of work.....now, I hope the only way I ever come out of retirement is... death.
 
After 32 years (3 months, 15 days if you're keeping score t home) crushing crime, facing death and keeping the streets safe just wasn't fun anymore so i retired 3 months shy of my 57th birthday!!! That was 9 years ago and I have not regretted a minute of it. My DW worked until last year because she wasn't ready to retire when I did.
I have kept as busy as I want to be and am really enjoying life. As has been said before, we can work too long and then not be able to enjoy what we worked so long for.
 
Ernie n Tara said:
On another aspect of the question, where the social security payments are greatly disparate,  having the lower entitled person take ss at 62 may prove to be an advantage in the long run. Since he/she can switch to coverage under the other parties ss when she/he passes. (Check qualification requirements with your accountant).
Please be aware that whatever age you or your spouse take SS retirement benefits becomes your permanent retirement age for the purpose of calculating benefits. DW, whose benefits are much lower than mine, took SS at 62, because her parents both died in their 50s. I took my spousal benefit, which was half or her benefit. Our financial adviser told us that I should wait until age 70 because my parents lived into their 90s. When it came time for me to file, DW would have been entitled to a spousal benefit equal to half of my benefit at age 66 (the maximum spousal benefit). BUT, because she had already taken benefits at 62 she is actually getting half of what I would have received at 62. It is a bit more than her own  benefit, but not as much as we thought she was going to get. We are very grateful to be getting the benefits that we paid into when we were working, but just be sure you know what your benefits will be, before you file.
 
What meade me Retire Early.. Well, the handwriting on the wall was reduced staff with ever increasing work, Management who would not listen to reasonable requests and when they did did it half .. You know what follows half,  and an attempt by a co-worker to get me (and at least two other people) fired... (Failed epically, resulted in him getting a 30 day unpaid vacation)..

The governor made me an offer, Turns out I qualified, so..  Here I am.
 
Wait !!!..if everyone over 55 starts retiring,  and everyone else is still looking for jobs,... who's going to cover my SSI checks ?

( now I'm starting to worry...)
 
Forced out in the recession of 2009 at 64.  Hard when your not ready.  But DW and MIL health issues it became worthwhile.  Still struggling financially but oh well.  Still can travel some.
 
Retired at age 57.  Had been planning it for 10 years.  No special buy outs.  Age was right, finances were in order, health was/IS good, lots of other things I wanted to do.  Fifteen years later and still enjoying it.  Still much to see and do.
 
First retirement 1979 from the military, Taught school until the wife fell and broke both her legs and was in a nursing home exactly 3 days. ( She had been sick for awhile before this) I was 61 at the time and had health insurance through the military and the wife had just started collecting disability ins and became eligible for Medicare. Nursing home was really bad so I pulled the plug at 61 and 3 months to take care of DW. Haven't looked back and Am blessed with 2 retirements plus the wife's retirement and now both get SS. Not rich but have  adequate income to enjoy retirement.
 
The new boss.  After 21 years as a middle manager of a Fortune 100 company, I was promoted to the head of the department.  Lot's of money and benefits.  But the position came with a significant downside.  My boss.  After a year I had enough and gave him my notice.  Turned 61 in June of 2004 and took my pension 1-1-2005.  Have not regretted it once.  While I left significant money on the table, there's no doubt in my mind that staying another 4 years would have shortened my life.  I would have had a stoke or ended up in prison for accidentally killing him.  lol. 
 
I retired at 60 with full SS and railroad retirement because of a little bit of planning and a whole lot of luck. I also get a management retirement but, that is just icing on a pretty good, basic package.

First the planning: I knew that railroaders paid the SS rate toward retirement plus an extra 5% for railroad retirement. In addition, the railroad contributed 22% into the same retirement account for every hour I contributed the 5% and this was all held away from SS and railroad prying hands. My assumption, then, was that a railroader's retirement would be higher than a straight SS retirement.

The luck: As an 18 year old kid I hired out to the railroad to pull ties out of the deep ditches they were dumped in so the "regulars" could insert them in the track. For four months, as an "extra" I pulled out ties because it paid the best money in the small town I was from.

The following year I went into the Navy for four years.

When I was discharged, I wanted to travel and the railroad signal department was hiring, so back I went not knowing of the significance of this decision.

I learned my craft, eventually going into management and retiring in a middle management position.

When I was about 57 congress passed a law which allowed railroaders with 30 years of continuous service and 60 years of age to collect full retirement (SS, RR retirement and management retirement) at 60. After all it was our money and all accounts were fully funded.

What I didn't know, until some time into my management stint, was that the initial four months of pulling ties out of the ditch qualified to wrap my Navy time into the retirement package; there was never a year of separation between RR service, military service and again, RR service. So, wrapping my Navy service qualified me for a 40 year RR retirement credit even though I had slightly more than 35 years of railroad service.

I also qualified for a management retirement program that limited age benefits to 30 years. My initial years at another railroad were not calculated into this plan but, since I had exactly 30 years of service with my final railroad when I turned 60, would not have gained me any benefit anyway.

So, at age 60, (actually two weeks before) with not much more to gain, I retired and never looked back. Actually, 10 years later, I'm absolutely positive that I would be considered incompetent in the areas I once taught, managed and directed. And,for some reason, that is comforting.
 
I was fed up.

Retired at minimum retirement age of 50 from the feds.  I was passed over for promotion because I was the wrong sex and race.  Despite glowing recommendations from the selecting official, the top management overruled him.  I know this is true because they told me afterward.  Management said do not bother with any discrimination complaint because a federal judge ordered the hiring of more Hispanics and women.  I submitted my paperwork the following week.

I was retired for about 6 months then went job hunting.  Wife was still working, so I was outvoted 1 to 1.  Went to work for local county government and put in ten years.  Retired again with a small state pension on top of my federal pension.  Just started my SS, and have enough investment Income that all combined equals my top income while working.    So wife and I retired on the same day with no change in monthly income.  It was a no brainer. 
 
I am eligible to retire in two years.  I intend to (which is why I'm on this forum:  two years really isn't enough time to learn about RVs.).  I've lived on five continents and travelled extensively in the US and parts of western Canada via M/C.  I'm only at work today because I'm not yet eligible to retire: but I really am counting the days.
 
BigSkyTrailerGuy said:
Almost 100% of you guys have said "Best decision I ever made."  My next CAT scan will give me an indication if I should pull the trigger right now.
Retirement has been the best years of my life. I am living the dream. ;D ;D ;D ;D
 
I was passed over for a promotion because I was the wrong race and gender -- a white male.  My boss told me personally he was overruled by upper mgmt and they hired someone from outside that met the quotas.  I was at minimum retirement age, so I submitted my papers the following week after I ran the numbers and found I was working for about $50 per month anyway.  A no brainer.
 
I did the early S/S retirement at 62 and love it,  about the only down side is.... the 50% tax bracket it puts on any supplemental income.

Every once and while I get great job offers from people I worked with,    but unless the company is going to start paying in green cash,  I'd rather take the day off again.
 
Back
Top Bottom