How close are you to being retired?

[Nograts]

Started day dreaming about the big day when I no longer have to work. Not sure how much money I'll have to live off of, using the 4% rule. If my rough math is right my current investing plan I'll have ~950-1.1M saved up to retire with. We seem to have a somewhat wide range of ages here on the forums.

So where do you sit with retirement?

Years away? Starts tomorrow? Emotionally not ready and will work until you drop dead? Did you start saving early/late? Are you financially prepared?

 

[Mayne]

that shit ain't happening. Good luck to those who have a plan.

 

[Dirigible]

If I were single and childless, I could retire today. I wouldn't use a 4% rule of thumb at my age though. I'd be more conservative.

It'll be at least 17 years until my last kid is through college, so I'll be working at least until then.

 

[BoomerD]

I "retired" in January 2004..medically retired though. NOT by my choice.

 

[brianmanahan]

my planned retirement date is october 1, 2028: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2357752

i will be 45 then

 

[Carson Dyle]

I love to work and honestly think I'd die or go senile without it. I'll never retire so long as my brain is functioning. I can only hope for the health and good fortune to be able to work 40+ hours a week when I'm 90.

I've known a number of people who've retired at 60 or 65 after a 35, 40, 45 year career and dropped dead within a year. Maybe it's just fate, bad luck, or the law of averages, but it seems more like they lose their purpose.

 

[Engineer]

my planned retirement date is october 1, 2028: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2357752

i will be 45 then

When I was in my late 20's, early 30's, I had a plan to retire at 45 also. I'm 46 and now a long way off from retiring. One 'BIG' bad investment and a big market drop, followed by more conservative investing will do that.

My oldest will be a senior in college next year while my youngest will be a sophomore in high school. Will be at least 7.5 years before they finish up college. Don't think there's a chance to retire before they finish up school.

I don't have any debt other than the monthly payoff of the credit cards (which I use to pay everything and then pay off at end of month). Mortgage has been paid off for over 9 years. No loans of any sort. Maxing out Simple IRA at work (no 401k so limited on how much I put in) and two IRA's (one for wife and one for self). Put 'extra' money into savings and brokerage accounts.

Have a pension (17.5 years worth) at old job and wife has pension at her current job. I can take early - reduced pension at 55 (with 54% reduction though).

Need to put more into savings. Should have done it decades ago.

 

[child of wonder]

Plan is for me to partially retire at age 60, only working part time as a consultant until my wife turns 59.5 and then I'll be 63. At that point we'll both retire fully.

 

[Humpy]

Probably at around 50. My wife has a fat trust fund that we figure we can suckle off of for a good 30 years. We do suck at saving money so we'll probably blow through it in 10 and have to sell all our crap. Either way it should be fun.

 

[Sonikku]

By the time I'm of retirement age there won't be any retirement.

 

[Greenman]

I'll be working till the day I day I die.

 

[KeithTalent]

Surprisingly close thankfully.

KT

 

[WelshBloke]

Maybe it's just fate, bad luck, or the law of averages, but it seems more like they lose their purpose.

I really hope that when I get to retirement age I don't feel like my only purpose is to work until I die.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I really hope that when I get to retirement age I don't feel like my only purpose is to work until I die.

It's not the feeling you get prior to retiring that I'm worried about, nor what I suspect kills so many ... it's afterward. Like my Dad used to say before he retired: "I'll build birdhouses." Meaning he'll putter around in some hobby and be perfectly happy. Turns out he never did build any birdhouses, and he didn't really have any hobbies, but he had family and was always there for them. And he enjoyed it immensely.

 

[twofastxtreme]

30 years

 

[TallBill]

Far, I'm doing okay with planning but I can't imagine not working.

 

[Nograts]

It seems I am in the minority when it comes to never wanting to work again. Oh I'll do stuff. Just not going to work for nobody anymore! Well..maybe the wife. But she gives great benefits.

 

[rsbennett00]

I'm only in my 40's so I'm still in party mode. I should think about it but meh.

 

[Engineer]

Well..maybe the wife. But she gives great benefits.

She sure does! :awe:

 

[brianmanahan]

Probably at around 50. My wife has a fat trust fund that we figure we can suckle off of for a good 30 years. We do suck at saving money so we'll probably blow through it in 10 and have to sell all our crap. Either way it should be fun.

i need to get one of them trust fund thingies

 

[Engineer]

i need to get one of them trust fund thingies

I signed up from my Nigerian uncle and even paid him money for the attorney fee but I never received a dime! I was hesitant because he kept e-mailing me the details, sometimes under different names.

 

[herrjimbo]

I've been retired for 10 years but come march 11th, the gubment will be giving me back $888/month for the rest of my life (plus cola).

fortunately the wife is still working.

 

[Greenman]

I love to work and honestly think I'd die or go senile without it. I'll never retire so long as my brain is functioning. I can only hope for the health and good fortune to be able to work 40+ hours a week when I'm 90.

I've known a number of people who've retired at 60 or 65 after a 35, 40, 45 year career and dropped dead within a year. Maybe it's just fate, bad luck, or the law of averages, but it seems more like they lose their purpose.

I've seen that more than a few times. It's hard to do something for you're entire life then just stop. There isn't a reason to get up in the morning, you lose focus and the desire to do anything.
After my father had a major stroke, the only thing that kept him alive was the dream of going back to work, he was from the greatest generation though. He fell off a roof one day and broke an arm and a leg, he was at work on time the next morning. People just aren't that tough anymore.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If I'm not mistaken you need a "80 factor" to retire from where I work. Basically, your age + the number of years you've been there has to add up to 80. That's to get full retirement, you can retire before but wont get the full pension. I'm not counting on that though, I'm pretty sure by the time I get to retire they'll have taken all of that away. But assuming everything stays status quo I can retire at 51 if I calculated that right. I'm 28 now so I have a long way to go.

I really don't want to work all my life though and need to come up with a better plan than doing the grind all my life. At 50 is where you start getting health problems and overall don't enjoy life as much. Bad eye sight, bad hearing, hair loss, can't move without being in pain, all you want to do is sleep... I want to retire before I hit that point in life. One of my uncles recently passed away at 65ish, he was a few years off from retirement. It's sad how these days we pretty much work our lives away so you can hope to make it to retirement. The whole system is messed.

I really need to get off my ass and do something with my life before I turn 50 and realize that all I've done is worked all my life. Time goes by too fast as you get older. I really don't know where the time went. It feels like high school was not that long ago and it's already been over 10 years. I'm glad to be where I am in life now, but, I don't want this to be it.

On the other hand, if I could stop working right now, I don't think I would since I like my job, but it would be nice to know that I can and don't need to worry about job security. That's probably the biggest source of stress of any job. Companies these days don't keep jobs around for as long as they used to and are always shuffling stuff around.

 

[Mixolydian]

50 years probably.