What made you decide to retire early?

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I retired a few years early.  In my case, the decision was due to the death of several people near and dear to me.  After losing friends and family members both young and old, I realized if I was going to enjoy the latter years of my life, I had better get going on it.  So, I gave up the job and career, and embraced a life of lowered income and greater personal freedom.  None of us know the number of days we have left on this earth, so those of us who have the means to wander should do so.
 
davismills said:
  Sliding into age 62 this year.  Tricare Prime has been a great health benefit to me and my DW and I could not have left work pre-medicare without it.
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remember,  as an honorably discharged Veteran,  you are entitled to free VA healthcare.

  ( and it's pretty good healthcare too  :)  )
 
Hubby thought he could retire at 50 from fed. Government. But there was a twist, had to wait till he was 55, longest years of our lives!! He was ready to be out, did same job for 31 years. He is 67 now and have been the best years of our lifes..... retired 12 years now... don't go one step further... retire... money is over rated... feeling good now is not. If you want to work more do it when you are 75, 80, but enjoy your well earned retirement now... we have too many friends who work work and then guess what... yep, they are gone or have massive health issues... Enjoy today!!
 
Massmerch said:
I couldn't agree with you more Donna.  Every day you work...is one less day of retirement.
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Yeah, but after working on automobiles and trucks for 30 years, a nice camp host position isn't really like working.

I had a hot rod and restoration shop.  The owner of the building passed away and his heirs wanted to sell.  Since I was one payment away from paying off my house I wasn't interested in signing another mortgage.  After some looking around I couldn't find a suitable site anywhere close enough that I could maintain my same crew.  Decided to pull the plug.

Hit the road in January of last year, and in April we were offered a camp host job in Arizona.  Spent 5 months at DeMotte campground in the N Kaibab National Forest, and we're hooked.  Will be going back again this year, but after that we'll be looking for different places to go.
Nice to stay in one spot long enough to see the area, we get paid, and the job's not a tough one. 
Just finished emptying the house and shop, house is on the market, and as soon as my wife has shoulder surgery and some recovery time, we're out of here.
 
Our story not nearly as interesting as others.
That said, DW did 32 years at GM (Human Resources). With all the trouble in the auto industry during those years the downsizing took her entire staff. She was the last one standing. Several retirement packages came and went until....one came along we liked. She jumped in 2009 at age 56. Never looked back.
I was a sales slave for a small company in Michigan. I was a one man show and liked it that way. Always had sales support on the road because I needed it!  ;)
My territory was everywhere domestic. Saw the entire country many times over, from the air. I now have a jones to see from ground level.
Anywho, we acquired a competitor 5 years back and I was to be responsible for mentoring their sales staff. Did not, would not so I seized the opportunity and hung up my Delta, Hilton and other cards and picked up my fishing gear.
Never looked back either! We are both 63 and blessed beyond belief!
Thanks for listening.
 
Age discrimination was my reason.  I worked for AT&T and to get rid of excess employees they offered a program to give you 5 years of age and 5 years of service to calculate your pension.  I normally needed to be 50 to qualify but with this added age I could retire at 45.  I would have been 44.75 on 12/31/1989 when the retirement would occur.

Well, that made me mad.  I started banking every spare dollar into my 401K plan and doubled my house payments.  5 years later on 12/31/1994  I left with 9 weeks of vacation to tide me over until I hit 50.

We moved to Florida with my sailboat and never looked back.  In 2009 we sold the boat and got into RVing.  Traveled to 48 states (sorry Alaska and Hawaii). We did quite well in the stock market in the late 1900's and early 2000's and never missed the 30% pension deduction for retiring before I was 55.

One of the better deals was that before I officially left the payroll, my boss came begging me to stay on to write and deliver training on a new software release.  I got laid off in January 1996 and got a year severance pay.  I emailed my boss to tell him that I would be leaving on 1/4/96.  He called to ask if I could stay on a week longer when he could lay me off and give me a years pay.

Probably deals like this don't exist too much these days.

 
Like several others, I retired from the military in 96,(22 yrs), and taught AFJROTC in a high school for another 19 years, retiring in 2015.  This was as soon as I was eligible to Social Security.  Wife retired one year before me.  I wanted to enjoy doing things while our health was still good.  We are blessed as we have my military retirement, and both of us have a state retirement, and we are both pulling Social Security.  All are not large, but compiling them together we are doing just fine.  I'm getting ready to pull some out of my IRA to purchase a truck and TT so we can hit the road.
 
PapaRoe said:
Like several others, I retired from the military in 96,(22 yrs), and taught AFJROTC in a high school for another 19 years, retiring in 2015.  This was as soon as I was eligible to Social Security.  Wife retired one year before me.  I wanted to enjoy doing things while our health was still good.  We are blessed as we have my military retirement, and both of us have a state retirement, and we are both pulling Social Security.  All are not large, but compiling them together we are doing just fine.  I'm getting ready to pull some out of my IRA to purchase a truck and TT so we can hit the road.
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Retired from military in 1979, me and DW both retired from schoolboard and both of us get SS. I taught auto mech and the wife cooked. Sounds like you pretty much done what I did.
 
Well my wife and I both retired on 1/4/2017. I am 59 she is 61. We have lived in Montana for 26 years, owned a construction company and sold that. We will still have health insurance until we get on medicare, they will continue to lease our building for ten years and we will receive payments for ten years. We moved to Texas on 1/5/2017 to be near the grand kids and will continue to travel in our RV.
 
The large bank that I worked for announced a downsizing initiative - that was going to result in roughly a 10% across the board reduction in total headcount.  The cuts were announced by level - with each cut coming roughly 4 weeks apart.  This meant we got to see how the cuts were unfolding.  For the 5 years prior to the downsizing initiative - I had been working remotely.  Initially I worked from my home office ... and upon acquiring our coach - I worked while traveling.  With me planning to work for 2 more years regardless - my biggest fear was that I'd be told I still had a job, but that I simply had to show up at the office every day.  As the cuts were announced it became apparent that the cuts in the IS group was going to come in close to 18%.  Virtually every one of the managers above me were cut ... and the handwriting was on the wall.  Ultimately, I volunteered for the buy out and took the money and ran. 

So far so good.  My wife and I are both digging being retired as well as the mobile lifestyle.
 
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