I ask because it seems to me that this recession is getting worse, rather than better. Suppose you have a lot of equity in your home, and decide (at age 45)to retire? You cannot collect SocialSecurityuntil age 62 now, and health insurance is a big problem, But suppose you sell your house, and move to a low tax state/rural area, and get a menial job (perhaps part-time); is this a good way to doit?
I see some plusses:
-lower stress level
-lower cost ofliving means you don’t need as much income
-you can invest your home equity to yield some levelofincome
The downside:
-this approach cuts you out of your peak income-earning years
-inflation can rear its ugly headm and devour your savings
-retirement in a rural area can be very boring!
What do YOU think?
This will be a matter of opinion, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
My grandfather was forced into retirement at age 65 due to European labor laws. Having lost his purpose in life and his reason for getting up every day and having some specific place to go and specific things to do, he became depressed, developed a stomach ulcer, and died in less than two years.
I don’t see what the big fascination is with early retirement. People frequently realize that it’s less than it’s cracked up to be and eventually come out of early retirement, start a second career, start their own business – anything to join the productive forces again. I can’t speak for everyone, but, as long as I’m healthy and able-bodied, I could never imagine myself not working.
On the other hand, I retired 3 years ago at 63 and I have never regretted it one minute. There were a number of reasons for this. First and foremost, I got a buyout of over Can$160,000. Second, my pension fund was 50% in stocks and I got out near the top. Third, the payout rate for my annuity was reduced by about 12% the day after I retired (this change had been announced six months earlier) and I am permanently on the higher rate. Fourth, I keep my office, my research grant and have stayed active in my profession (research mathematician) since retirement. So while early retirement was an excellent choice for me, it is clearly not for everybody.
It doesn’t sound much like retirement in the classical sense either, given that you still do what you did before retiring.
In my situation it wouldn’t be a good idea financially. Where I work I can retire starting at 55 but at 55 I won’t have nearly as much money to draw on than I would if I retired at 65. At 55 my daughters will be in their teens, hopefully getting ready for college, which I’d like to pay for as much as I possibly can. The only thing my early retirement would accomplish in that regard is illustrate their financial hardship on a student loan application. I still haven’t entirely ruled it out, but from this vantage point it wouldn’t be the wise thing to do. I’ll see how I feel when I get there. In the meantime I’m trying to keep things on the frugal side.
I was more or less forced into early retirement, given that I was “downsized” at the age of 61. I began drawing SS at 62. I have a part-time job that is about as menial as it gets. Marcie has a good job/good income and that, plus my SS and PT job keeps us solvent. Well, it keeps us in our two-year old townhome and it keeps the wheels on Marcie’s van turning. There are times when I enjoy the situation, but for the most part, I hate it. I spend most of my free time working on a project that I hope to convert to a decent income “one of these days.” If I were to be offered a position comparable to my old one, I’d take it in a heartbeat.
I retired at age 59. Fortunately, I am able to make it due to previous investments (I started at age 30), and my retirement pension, which kicks in pretty well with 30 years employment.
The real benefit is that you are getting Time. That means that even though I’m just as busy as I was before retirement, I’m doing things I chose to do, rather than what my job dictates.
Being involved in volunteer work gives me the same rewards as a job. And I do need to feel that I’m contributing.
The bottom line is that I would be hard pressed to return to work unless I could control all of the factors associated with it…hours and type of work done.
My dad’s done it twice (government, then private industry a few years later). At the moment, he’s a consultant who takes hefty chunks of time off. He loves it.
Sadly, nobody seems to hire consultants on Shakespeare, so I’ll probably be in the working world for the long haul (trying my best to delay my entry by accumulating degrees, however).
I think you should go for it if you can think of something cool to do with your time, whether it’s a second job or some other activity you genuinely want to pursue, but it’s probably not worth it if you’re just going to move to the country and sit around.