<p>H&I have been contemplating about when to retire. The earliest for me is when D2 graduates from college, the earliest for DH is when he gets retiree’s health insurance which is less then 3 years. But we have been taking it easy, working mostly 4 days a week instead of 5 days on 3/4 of the year to see what’s it like to work part-time. We will increase to 4 days/week next year for the whole year when we get more vacation time.
I’ve kept a spreadsheet about our budget so I think we can do it. I also use our 401K retirement calculator to see how much we can withdraw per month and how long the money will last. Last time I checked H & I would have to live until 110 before our money runs out without having to selling our assets.</p>
<p>Back when I started dating DH 17 years ago, he told me he was going to retire in October 2010 and move from VA to PA. He had planned that from the very first day he went to work for the county–retire at 53 after 27 years. It would have been better financially to wait another 3 years until S graduates from college, but DH’s job was so stressful I didn’t think he’d survive that long (he’s already had two heart attacks). I’m a military retiree, so luckily we don’t have to worry about health insurance.</p>
<p>If you can afford to retire, do it! DH is much more relaxed. We get to spend a lot of time with our parents while they’re still around. We even had to get a clock with the days of the week on it! :)</p>
<p>stevensmama i had no idea there was such a clock…we are also thinking of retirement… H has a short term goal and my goal is in a few years to get to the age I can carry the health insurance at a good rate and retire with a pension - when our youngest one will be graduated from college and probably in grad school 2 years. then no worries about health insurance or college… It just seems so incredibly far away…</p>
<p>Youngest kid’s college diploma was my “walking papers”. I worked one year post her graduation… Then retired.</p>
<p>Since you all don’t know me I won’t violate anything legal. I am on the precipice of selling my company and retiring. At 45. I have two companies interested. The stress and aggravation, plus new regulations make me not want to do this anymore. </p>
<p>The way I see it we can always go work again if we really want. We want a chunk of time off, for the first time of our married lives where we don’t have the responsibility of this business. </p>
<p>The concern is always that retiring can always make people old before their time. Do you have interests outside work? How do you envision your day to day life?</p>
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<p>Given the above, why would you drive yourself to keep working at a highly stressful job that you don’t enjoy? Why would you <em>not</em> quit and find something you love to do for the next 20 years? Or you could burn away the next 2 decades of your life and reevaluate at 70…</p>
<p>I have been thinking about this lately, too. Although my financial situation is not nearly as secure as yours, OP.</p>
<p>I have an idea. Quit your job and come help me with mine! I am a teacher and I keep getting more and more responsibilities thrown at me. You could help out in my classroom with the 650 kids I see each week! It’s a win/win! :)</p>
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<p>I saw these online the other day and I’m looking forward to having to buy one 
[Day</a> Clocks](<a href=“http://www.dayclocks.com/]Day”>http://www.dayclocks.com/)</p>
<p>I wrote up a resignation letter due to a change in organization and other stress about ten years ago. Somebody at the gym that was older, wiser and much richer convinced me not to make a rash decision and I stayed on and found out that the new organization was really nice.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I had a coworker that was thinking of quitting because of the direction that his work was taking. It wasn’t that he had huge amounts of work - it was that it wasn’t groundbreaking and exciting stuff - a lot of routine engineering work that paid well. He was almost 60 and he didn’t have a lot of job prospects. I suggested that he take advantage of some of the perks of the job like working from home and he did that and made other changes and now he’s quite happy.</p>
<p>Perhaps you could see if you could rearrange your job so that there’s less of the stuff you don’t like and more of the stuff that you do like - that includes spending more time with your child or volunteering.</p>
<p>I quit my stressful job in September, (after total of 18 years teaching at a low-income high-need school), then had a lovely two months off before starting my “little” 40-hour week job. New job pays about half as much, but has generous benefits and no take-home work. Although we need my income and could have used my regular salary, we had last child graduate from college in May and no longer had to have the additional income. And frankly, I was afraid I would have a massive stroke or melt-down from the stress of my teaching job.
I would prefer 30-hours a week to 40, but feel blessed for what I do have. I no longer dread Mondays and no longer feel like my life is a roller coaster!!!<br>
I think quitting work totally would not have been good for us, both financially and emotionally, so this is a lovely compromise. Since it is so low stress, I feel that I will be able to do it longer, and can work even after I start receiving my small teaching retirement benefit. :)</p>
<p>Friday was one of the worst days of my professional life, and after reading this thread, I thought: I’ve got to have a plan to dial back the stress before it kills me. I figure I have 6 more years (that’s when our youngest will be done with college) where I have to earn at this level. H and I are starting to look at places to move to. Now I want the one with the lowest possible overhead (not too big; low taxes). OP – it sounds like you are in a very good spot, financially. I would definitely suggest retiring and enjoying your family.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I could have remained in my job for another 5 or even 10 years, but the job ended and I didn’t feel like looking for another job in NYC. Fortunately, son #2 was about to graduate from HS so we sold our big house in suburban NJ (and pulled out much equity) and moved to NC. Neither my wife nor I considered this “retirement” but she sort of eased up on the unfruitful job search and my plan to work out of the house has been fun but not exactly financially rewarding. But by lowering our overhead we have greatly reduced the stress in our lives and are doing a pretty good imitation of a retired couple even if not actually retired. </p>
<p>For people my age who love their job, I salute them, envy them and encourage them to carry on. But if you hate what you are doing and find it stressful and don’t desperately need the money, I ask for what are you killing yourself (for) 
? Sure it is depressing to think I will never buy a new Porsche (just kidding) but I can search ebay for a nice old one. We love our life and our lifestyle. I have been doing some pretty rewarding volunteer work also and trying to learn the game of golf.</p>
<p>Was supposed to submit my resignation on Friday and it turned out to be the craziest day I’ve had there in 13 years. I have GOT to quit worrying about what they will do without me. Hard to do when I saved our biggest client $365,000 on Friday and pulled our company owner’s tail out of the political fires in the process. My immediate supervisor is a lying, conniving cheat who banks on the knowledge that the owner isn’t around much (and dislikes confrontation), and intimidates the rest of us into doing his work (and keeping our mouths shut about it). It’s nice to feel competent, but they assume a 40-hr/week workload when I work 20 due to my medical issues. I spend my days off sleeping and recovering, just to go back and do it again. Leaving work also means I will be financially dependent on DH, which has implications all its own.</p>
<p>S1 graduates in June. S2 has two years to go. Mortgage will be paid off 3.5 years later (but it’s not big anyway). Financially we can swing it; we are used to frugality, and when I was on extended medical leave for the five years before S1 went off to college, we still got through. DH is FINALLY behind the idea of me leaving work after many years of “no wife of mine is staying home.” </p>
<p>Would be nice to travel with him on his many overseas work trips, I really need to get into a serious exercise program, it would be good to give my sister more help with my parents in Georgia, haven’t had the time or energy to continue my fabric art or jewelrymaking, want to read Torah at shul more often, have thought about helping the college/career center at S2’s school (since I have picked up info in the past six years(!) here), and heaven knows there is enough stuff to do around the house to keep me busy for many moons. I would not be bored, though I would definitely need to be more active in finding a social life IRL. </p>
<p>I’ve gotten nearly ten years since my diagnosis and at this point, I’m on “bonus time.” My initial orders to the oncologist was “I want to see both kids graduate from HS.” Arrogance or chutzpah, I don’t know. Things are going well, but we never know how long we’ll have, and I have known too many people who didn’t get the gift of that time. </p>
<p>Glad I am not the only one wrestling with this.</p>
<p>I quit a job I loved last summer. The management was so awful, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Clearly, they weren’t going anywhere, so I had to leave.</p>
<p>I am so glad I made the change. I miss the field I left, but I am finding contentment in a new field. My employer appreciates me, no one gossips, no one withholds communication in order to be “powerful.” Customer service is absolutely, 100% THE most important thing we do … the lack of a similar commitment by previous management led to much stress for me/my coworkers. To top it off, I have already had a raise and a bonus … neither of which I would have received in my previous job.</p>
<p>When to leave? When you are no longer able to take it and no end to the b.s. is in sight.</p>
<p>^^^ding ding ding. The owner has been saying for months he’s going to change things, saying to us that he has our backs, and I have hung around to see if it would happen. Nope. Withholding communication (between the owner & operations manager, as well as withholding info from the folks actually doing the work), as well and the lack of focus on customer service have been the biggest parts of the problem here. </p>
<p>The owner could fire this manager tomorrow and I’m not sure it would change my feelings about not staying. Too many burned bridges and trust lost.</p>
<p>Thanks, kelsmom. You’ve neatly clarified some issues!</p>
<p>Took me a yr to convince H he needed to leave stressful job that did not appreciate him. S already had masters, we are frugal. Only drawback was I have to carry benefits which are not as nice as his were. Cannot believe what a calm wonderful husband I come home to.</p>
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A friend of mine sold his company in the late 90’s for a pretty good chunk of change.</p>
<p>He bought a 45’ sailboat, and he and his fiance spend about 6 months a year on it. When they aren’t sailing, they are skiing, doing volunteer work, or planning the next sailing trip. He doesn’t appear to be getting old to me.</p>
<p>If the highlight of your day is waiting for “The Price Is Right” to come on, maybe there would be a problem. :D</p>
<p>Most people I know who are retired and healthy tell me they are far busier now then when they were working.</p>
<p>^ I totally agree. As long as you have hobbies and interests you should be fine.</p>
<p>As a stay at home mom, I often heard working moms say ‘I could never stay home, I would be so bored.’ I use to reply, ‘Only if you have no imagination.’ I could always find something interesting and fulfilling to do every single day, particularly after my son started school. Personally, I find my life much less interesting when I’m stuck at a desk 8 hours a day than when I am free to pursue my own interests and goals instead of my employer’s. My husband, on the other hand, loves what he does and never sees it as ‘work’. I doubt he will ever retire.</p>
<p>Some people really do retire to their couches and wither away on the vine but I suspect that doesn’t apply to most people here on CC.</p>
<p>DH has hit a stage in his career where he really loves what he’s doing, enjoys the policymaking aspect, and likes the people he works with. He also works 70 hrs/wk. I don’t see him retiring any time soon. He knows the workload is crazy. Part of my goal in “retiring” is to get to spend more focused time with him when he IS home, and to go one some of his trips.</p>
<p>Neither of our respective parents got to enjoy retirement – both husbands were taking care of bedridden spouses. I don’t want to wait til he retires do some some of the things we have always dreamed of doing.</p>
<p>Good Lord, countingdown, you need to retire now. Your post #53 made my blood pressure go up 10 points just reading it. That stress in your life can’t possibly be worth it!</p>