What is the earliest anybody here has retired ?
 

Im 52. pondering big life changes . Anybody check out that early ?
I like to work, but tiring of the grind

I'm 51 and, TBH, I kind of find myself bored when not working. I run appointments maybe three days a week, do some admin work at home on Wed. and Fri. mornings, but am otherwise pretty much free 3-4 days/week and don't think I could handle any more free time except for taking trips.

I retired the day I died.

I had last year off and at 59, I have become accustomed to not working full time.
Back to the classroom and labs on Monday. I guess time will tell how much more I can take vs the want to pad the pension those last few (and meaningful) years of contribution.

My wife did at 49(she made better choices than I). Not sure I will ever be able to retire.

I quit at 50. Ended up buying a small wholesale business with 3 employees that I managed part time (15 hours a week) that netted me about 75k a year. It was brainless work. Sold it after 10 years at triple what I paid for it.

I retired last year at 58. All I do now is whatever the heck I want.

Fred - it's fantastic that you are thinking about the big picture.

Good for you!

For me there are several factors involved here.

1. Financial aspect - what are your needs as tied to your business endeavours? Obviously the less you are leveraged with debt or financial responsibilities the more flexibility you have. For me it was always the home mortgage. Once I paid that off - everything changed. It will be different for everyone.

2. Do you like to work? I do.....and based on what I know about you from the forum here you do too. If so, maybe just consider reducing your obligations to the public. I call it - shrinking the hamster wheel.

3. Where is the balance? This is something everyone has to determine for themself. I think it also evolves as we grow older. An easy way to think about it is how many days per week do you want to have for yourself - vs. how many for work. For me it started with no work on weekends plus taking Mondays off. Having 3 whole days to myself was very enlightening - I have to say. :)

4. Health insurance. Once you qualify for Medicare you will have even more flexibility. That will be a while so in the meantime you will need to be careful with your health situation and try to survive some kind of coverage.

Lastly - with your skill set it doesn't make sense to stop cold turkey - if just from a financial perspective. I suggest you continue to work and bring in $$ but be more selective with jobs you take on and hours of operation. I don't know how you'd do that exactly but I have confidence a smart person such as yourself can easily figure it out.

At 68 I am still working as groundskeeper of 4 properties. I do all the work myself. I'm also collecting my retirement social security. I have zero debt so just have to pay property tax once a year plus whatever it costs to maintain myself and my estate. I also have a Humana medicare advantage plan, which costs very little per month and is deducted from my SS payment.

I also have to say it's not unusual to suffer a little burnout this time of year - just from the freaking heat if nothing else. Try to keep everything in perspective my friend and give yourself some mental health time off here and there. In most cases this means putting YOURSELF ahead of everyone and everything else. You've earned it and it's all about what I call "Survival Mode".....

I retired in May of 21 at age 67 (sort of).
I have some friends that i do repair work for (auto, pick-ups, class 8 trucks, and construction equipment.
Also operate equipment part time. So....i guess that puts me out of the early retirement club.

I retired at 50.
31yrs at Verizon ( NYTel, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic..)
Had my remodeling business on the side for years. Now it's my main gig.
Have some regrets retiring. I did have the dream job, that most on my companyenvied. I do miss that large steady paycheck that I received every week. Now I'm at the mercy of the business market and cheap customers.
Also have my part time with the medical examiner and my firefighting teaching.

Only up side is I work when I feel like it on my terms.
.

6am...

I should have downsized tremendously and worked as a hobby when I was 48.

I'm doing it now at 59/60.

Kind of hard to do as I am self employed, but feast or famine (my business) I never missed a kid's play, concert, performance etc.

59....could have safely done it at 55.

What is the earliest anybody here has retired ?
 

My dad retired as a Lt Col. in the Air Force at age 48. He lived to 82, a long retirement.

My old boss in his words “took early retirement at age 92” when he sold his company. He loved flying, and had no bills, and could have retired long before, he liked going to work, and provided his three employees with jobs.

48 or 49. Can’t remember exactly.

Going to be returning to the workforce shortly, at 63. Life’s too short to sit around and do nothing, and that’s too easy to do when you don’t have a job to go to.

I’m busy as heck in retirement. No sitting around for me. There’s always something to tinker on plus it’s a fun challenge to fix everything yourself. I learn something new all the time. I still have a high school freshman at home too so we’re busy with all his sports and activities.

I gradually slowed down, so there wasn’t a firm date, but I wasn’t doing much by my late 40s, and done by 50.

There’s some truth to that.
You’re a bit older than me so you’ve been out longer than me. For my first 5 years going back to a job was out of the question. I had too many other things that I wanted to do.
But the last year or so, I think I’ve opened up a bit to the possibility.
50 is young to retire. It isn’t for everyone, for sure. In fact, I think it isn’t for most, despite what most would think. For example, my wife would hate it.
You have a lot of time to think, so you need to be comfortable living in your own head.

Same here. Everything on the houses and cars is done by me now.
But, even that slows down after many years.
But the learning doesn’t. I’m always finding new subjects to study.

There has been a bunch of these threads in the past year and I wish Fred well.

The key is there is no right answer.

Assets aside, because I assume if you desire to retire early you have the means to accomplish that while taking care of your family and finances, I have seen the gamut of retirees that flounder and those that flourish.

I could have completely pulled the plug when I retired as an O-6 over 12 years ago: Wife has a great job, no debt, plenty of savings, etc. I was 53.

I just didn't want to retire/retire. Some insight:

I did a tour at the Bureau of Naval Personnel as a detailer and the job is basically nothing but listening to (I was the Aerospace Engineering Duty Offer -AEDO's - detailer) really smart men and women confess their hopes and dreams and, as important, their career desires. These were all prior fleet pilots and NFO's who had to compete to become an AEDO.

I was Frasier Crane in a uniform: "I'm listening".

AEDO's are roughly divided by management and flight test types and engineers. What I learned was that the engineers were much better prepared for the end of their career and "retirement" than the management and flight test guys and gals.

I'd tell an engineer working a program at China Lake, an O-5, that they would need to come back to the Mother Ship at Pax River and work in a program office to make O-6.

I heard this all the time: "I want to stay in China Lake and I get the risk to my career...I love the work and plan on retiring to XXX with my family. We are ready."

Pretty neat.

The rest just wanted more, the next thing, the next challenge, the next rank.

Also pretty neat.

I will tell you that engineers pull the plug much better; some continued to work, others are like some folks here that do extremely well in retirement without outside work.

I have rarely met, and I have done a lot of post retirement counseling because I had a great rep as a detailer, a management or flight test type that doesn't go back to work at something within 6 months.

Fred, a trial run is the only answer in most cases. Don't shutter your business for more than a month to see if you are content. Family as well.

Best.