@katliamom I could see that applying to us. At the very least, we’d need to “work” wherever we go helping out folks regularly. The skills we have can easily be used around the planet. It definitely comes up in our conversations about what we want to be when we grow up.
H retired 5 months ago, at 60. He was an engineer who loved his job until the last few years. The company culture changed and he just didn’t like his job anymore. He had been at the same company for more than 42 years! They did a round of retirement incentives, and he said yes. He is very happy.
I have been in my current job almost 7 years, and I really like the work … but it is all-consuming, stressful, exhausting. I gave my notice this week, and I will be done June 30th. I have no idea what I will do next, but I needed to find balance in my life so I quit. I hope to find a flexible job that I enjoy. Fortunately, I can be retired if necessary (I’m just not really ready for that yet). I think I’d like to work another 3 years (I am 59). If I find something I really like that is flexible, maybe I’ll work longer.
What’s retirement?
When every day is a Saturday.
If you live another 20 years it’s only a thousand left. Or 240 months. How many of those 240 do you want to be unhappy or exhausted. Use them wisely.
My husband retired several years ago at 52 from a corporate law job - it was either that or die from the stress. We had saved a lot of our income, and lived well below our means, for him to do that. When I worked full-time my entire paycheck went into the bank, and we paid off our house early. It also helps that, as a retiree, we get many of the same benefits active employees get including healthcare (but at a higher rate).
I’m not going to lie, it scared me and strained our marriage a bit because it happened very quickly (even though we planned for it). This is the first year I have not worked at least part-time (I’m 53). My sister and her husband, both hitting 60, retired last year. My brother, on the other hand, is 64 and has no plans to retire from his job.
There’s a saying that once you retire, you can’t imagine how you found time to work. Meaning, once you are free from having to be a certain place at a certain time for X hours, you find things to fill your day. It can be volunteer work, gardening, a second career - it doesn’t matter. But personally I think it would be difficult to retire early without some kind of plan, even if it is visiting your grown children or volunteering with Habitat for Humanity (which my engineer BIL does).
Guess it depends on how you define “work”. Do you enjoy what you do? Can you do it on your terms / time? It’s very different than a generation ago.
I’ll be able to retire after last kid is through school - at 60. However, As a business owner I can limit myself to fewer and fewer work related tasks. My goal is to get it to the point where I only do the things I enjoy. So if I enjoy them and I get paid to do them, not sure why I would stop. I realize that’s easy to say now. I guess I’ll have to see how I feel about it when I’m 70.
Much of this comes down to how you view work. Is it simply a means to provide a resource (money) and therefore no more need when you have enough? Or is it valuable (to you) in and of itself? Mines a lot of both.
Not everyone is unhappy or exhausted from their job. I get that way cleaning house, but can work with teens for hours and it’s very enjoyable.
Since I don’t want to be unhappy or exhausted, I don’t clean often. Our house reflects that. 
How do you feel on Sunday night? Are you chomping at the bit to get back to your office/workplace? If so, great. Keep working.
I’d also say if you can’t afford it yet without having to tighten your budget, it’s merely theoretical. Some of you might desire to keep working but some of you might feel differently when you get to that level of financial independence.
Seems to me no one should feel obligated to defend their decision (whatever it is). If it works for you that is enough. May not work for everyone but that’s how life works.
Most do some sort of work after retirement. I think the real goal of FIRE is to have the freedom to leave the secure job and pursue another passion. I’m 58, got a doctorate, and thinking of University teaching. Lower paying job but I am ready for the change after 25 years. I’m not sure why the stress has lately started effecting me.
My husband and I were both retired in our 40’s. We have zero regrets.
- We were able to attend every high school sporting event and assembly for both of our children.
- We have been able to spend a lot of quality time with our kids…quality and quantity was a blessing. We took many vacations for several weeks every summer.
- We get to spend time and assist our aging parents. My husband recently assisted his parents in their move to a senior community.
- We’ve been able to take extensive vacations. We come from modest backgrounds so this is very different from our pre-marriage expectations.
- We exercise daily and indulge in hobbies.
I realize we are “odd”. FIRE was not our goal, but it worked out that way. When I think about how we ended up where we are, it’s an amazing journey based on our values and a fair amount of luck.
My husband was let go from his final job when the company was sold. It was a job that had demanded long hours during his last few years there…a lot of the work was across a lot of time zones (Asia and Europe). For a short time he considered a lot of different career options, but looking at our finances we chose retirement. We looked at it as committing to family time.
In my opinion, there are pros and cons to every situation. You get to choose how to look at it. For us, the lack of stress and the gift of time with loved ones and each other are what we are embracing now. Will we go back to something to give our lives structure…a part-time job or regular volunteer work? Maybe. We’ll see. That’s the beauty of it…we get to control many aspects of our lives without financial worry.
I’m planning to in another year, but I’ll still work part-time (adjuncting, at least that’s the plan). I’ll be 62 so a small income plus SS plus my small 401K will somewhat replace my salary.
But I’m curious about medical–I can do this because H is okay with continuing to work (he’s the guy who “retired” from medicine to become a high school teacher.) Otherwise, we could never afford the medical.
Anyone who has retired early be willing to speak to how you cover that?
My dad retired at age 78, after being a professor for 52 years. He loved what he did. And no, it wasn’t a cushy job - he was the hardest working person I knew. I noticed his health started declining once he quit. 
One of our friends tried to get us into Amway. Their main recruiting tool was, “You can retire early!” We told our friend that we didn’t want to retire early! We are fortunate, though, that we will be able to cut back on hours as we wish since we work for ourselves.
Re: Medical Insurance - It’s not cheap but we budgeted for it.
I’ve always hated working and never enjoyed any job I had. I started planning for retirement from the first day of my first post-college job. My entire career was based on earning as much as possible to save as much as possible to retire as early as possible. For the past twenty years, we banked my entire income and close to half of DH’s to meet our retirement investment nut, and we got used to living on a fraction of earnings. We retired two years ago in our late 50s and haven’t looked back. I was bored out of my skull during my working years, but now that I’m doing whatever I want to do each day, boredom isn’t a problem.
Our son learned a lesson from us and is on the FIRE path. His goal is not to stop working entirely but rather to reach financial independence early enough to spend the rest of his life “working” at whatever he enjoys with no concern for a paycheck.
I was 55 when I parted ways with a large stressful company. I have been self-employed, consulting part time since then. It’s been 12 years and I have gradually decreased the client load by not replacing those that leave now. The few left swear I can’t retire. We’ll see. But I can travel and still take care of them so they don’t interfere with my life much and they provide a nice financial cushion. DH retired from a federal job 17 years ago so we have a base of pension and health benefits. That does make a big difference.
My H would have to retire later then I do because he has the higher paying job with the pension and the good health insurance. After we both retire and S is done with college and out on his own, we may move somewhere cheaper. We currently live in an expensive area. We could afford to stay in our expensive area when we both retire, but we’d have to travel less, live in a much smaller place, etc.
I work at a school, so I’ve been lucky with having ample vacation time! If someone is interested in teaching, that can be a career with pretty good work life balance.
I agree, it depends on the person, their personality, their finances.
@oldfort I feel the same way, my job gives me something to do. Plus, when I’m working I tend to spend less money, since I’m busy working. Then again, I like my job and it’s never been too stressful.
We probably could’ve retired much earlier if we hadn’t had kids, hadn’t sent our kids to private school, had lived in a cheaper area (though we would’ve earned much less), hadn’t paid for our kids college…but these were all things we were willing to do…
Sometimes I feel like I’d like to retire soon. My life is passing by so quickly, I’m tired a lot, and I live out of a suitcase. I don’t even bother to unpack when I get home, just take the dirty clothes out.
But I enjoy my job. It’s been my identity for 35 years, I like the money and don’t know what I’d do otherwise. It’s a conundrum.
I also loved what I do, but as healthcare changed what I loved about it changed, and 5 years ago I stopped doing the stressful stuff and now work part time doing what is low stress/enjoyable. I do love waking up on a Monday and not thinking about work tht day. I did also retrain in an allied area and did build a separate career, but as family across country pulls my attention it makes it harder to give the degree of time that I think that second area deserves, so I have significantly limited that second area, and cut out the stuff what is no longer fun.
The folks I know who retired early have filled time with sports, education classes, etc. We are in an area with louse private health insurance, so DH wont retire until there is a better option.
No kidding! I would not only hate working, but would probably hate this entire life stage. I encourage young people to consider “Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow” philosophy. At least give it a chance - it certainly worked for many people (including ourselves)