Company I worked for in various engineering positions went Chapter 11. I survived that, but when the numbers were not where the high mucky-mucks wanted them they went around making offers. Very good offer in my case, I was not that far from retirement (60 with 37 years. I had planned three more to 40 years in, which got me to COBRA and then to medicare). and had a sick wife to worry about . So I left. That was ten years ago, and I have never regretted it.
Worked for the US Governemnt beginning in 1981. I had planned to retire in 2016 (35 years of service) or in 2018 (age 65). But a lot of the work I had done before was shuffled off to other sections so my interest in work lessened, and doing the math in 2014-15, it turned out I could make just as much (and maybe slightly more) retired as I was making working. So after 33 years I retired at age 62 in 2015 and never looked back.
Right now, one of the main things keeping me working is health insurance. I’m not quite ready financially to retire, but at the rate I’m saving, it won’t be long. Except for the fact that I hear horror stories about how expensive it is to get good insurance in the exchanges. So in two weeks I turn 58. Then I’ll have 7 more years before Medicare kicks in.
I don’t hate my job. In fact, I have it better now than I ever have - work from home 4 days a week, not overly busy or stressed, contribution is valued by management, making more than I ever have. But I’m just ready for it to be done. I actually think if I took about 3 months off, I’d be happy to return. I just need a break.
StG
Just retired last week from a multinational company. We are involved in a merger and the details of the new benefits were not revealed clearly. I made the decision to retire to save a known benefits package that suited our needs rather than just trust the new regime. It seems to me as though corporations think people deserve no more regard than used furniture.
snort You lack imagination…
I’m currently looking to “retire” from the road/self-employed consulting, but it would need to be to one of those semi-mythical end-client jobs. Conversely, I plan on retiring whenever Spanish law requires it (it used to be 65 but it keeps rising). As self-employed I could do it later but c’mon, I want to spend some years lazying about and being grouchy to the neighbors before moving into a retirement home and complaining that the pills of the person eating next to me are better than mine.
I should’ve said, “…imaginable in the USA”. 
I’ve noticed something interesting about “Why did you retire?” threads (here and elsewhere). A large number of people, sometimes the majority, bailed out because their workplace and the corporate BS had become unbearable.
I feel sorry for the millenials/gen-z kids. They’re starting their careers in the corporate hell we could no longer endure. Corporate life never gets better, only worse. How horrible will it get for them?
Weeeeeell… I guess I must have been 55 when a financial advisor from my pension company called round to do an audit. As I had been self employed for about 10 years at that point, I had been able to concentrate on padding the pension, so I assumed I was in fairly reasonable shape. (I should add that I am not the most financially savvy of people).
Advisor: How much income do you think you need in retirement?
(Thinks: I want to be able to afford some fun…)
Me: This much.
Advisor: OK, you can retire tomorrow.
Me: Shit - really?
Work next day was hell. God, did that day drag. It’s a funny position to find yourself in.
Now, I was self employed, but most of my work came through a consultancy group that I had close ties with. And about this time they made a decision that they wanted to stop outsourcing work to external consultants (ie me, amongst others) and use their own staff. The effect was that a very stressful five day a week job became a much more pleasant three day a week job. (Aside: what I only found out later was that it would have been closer to zero days a week, except that the group’s senior consultants were routinely insisting that they had to have me involved, even thought I was external, because I was way better than any of the employees. Damn - you never know these things at the time.)
It basically could not have worked out better. Over time, three days a week became two; and I even began to resent the two days I had to work, because basically I had better stuff to do. Plus there were further changes at the consultancy group which, even at long arms length, were pissing me off. I’ll skip the detail. If I wad wanted, I could have gone looking for new clients, and found a new consultancy group to align myself with, but basically by that stage I just didn’t want (or need) to, I had had enough. By the time I was 57, Mrs Trep had retired, because she could. I was more and more annoyed at having two days a week taken up by work.
At 58 I finally phased myself out, saving the consultancy group the bother. Just really lucky that the timing was so good. Really could not have been better.
j
Nope, used furniture is an asset. Experienced employees are just things that can be replaced by cheaper versions at any time.
Look at how well it worked for Circuit City when they fired their experienced sales staff and brought in cheaper know-nothings. Um, Circuit City. You know, a big chain of electronics stores. Like Best Buy only … not.
I retired from teaching in a public school in 2017. In PA public schools, a teacher can retire and start collecting a pension immediately at age 55 and a minimum of 25 years of service. At 55, I had 31 years in. The district in which I worked had become such an unpleasant place due to problems in the community and in the district itself that I couldn’t bear to work there another day. “Burned out” doesn’t cover it. I am working as a behind the wheel driving instructor now to supplement my pension.
After some 30 years as a mid-level administrator at public university, one of my sisters had enough of the bureaucracy and retired early. Went on a ~900 mile road trip and didn’t bother returning to work when she got home.
I took a reduced position with a new company, hoping just to ride it five years while I finished puffing up my retirement. After 2 years, the owner fired me. I collected unemployment and looked for another job. Finally I just gave it up and retired a bit early, and age 56.
So very glad I did.
In one of my temp jobs, there was a man in his 70s - he seemed to enjoy working and I suspect since he was a widower, it gave him something to fill his days. As far as I know, he’s still there.
One of the saddest retirement tales I know involved the man who hired me for my first engineering job. He retired at 62 and was dead 2 years later. 
That, if nothing else, is motivation to retire as soon as one can.
The job was fine, even fun, the commute was terrible. Plus, I had so much stuff stacked up to get to at home that I didn’t have time to do. Plus travel.
I hoped the inevitable layoff would have come soon enough to get me - I even volunteered - but it took about a year after I retired for it to happen.
I also got to semi-retire for four months, one day of work a week at full pay - because my boss was scared that my project would fall apart without me. After the layoffs it did, since all the people I trained have left.
Having enough money and being close to Medicare age helped also.
My Dad was an extremely successful workaholic. He was a senior vice president at a gigantic aerospace firm running a division with tens of thousands of people. They offered him a very lucrative early retirement when he was in his late 50s in maybe 1998. He had invested well and easily never had to work again. He told us that he was going to go sailing and play tennis again and that he was going to spend more time with family and go to Lakers games again. He did none of that. Within a few months he was assistant dean of engineering at a major university, part owner of a consulting firm, on the board of the synagogue and a part time consultant working for a very prestigious think tank. Yep, back to an 80 hour work week. As the decades wore on, some of those things dropped off but he was still working nearly 40 hours a week at the consulting firm until he literally dropped dead two weeks before his 80th birthday. I barely knew the prick.
I am 55 and not like him. I am a senior engineer at a tech firm that makes world class products. I never wanted to be anything more than that. I work to live. I’m a live music freak. I go to around 80 concerts a year and have a wealth of amazing friends, many of whom are like family to me. I don’t have kids and I have been good with money. Work isn’t horrible. There is some stress, sometimes a lot of stress, but I really enjoy many of my co-workers as well as my boss and his boss so I don’t dread going in. That said, as soon as I can afford to quit, I am going to quit. And I will go to 150 concerts a year. I do a little consulting on the side but it’s for the company of one of my best buddies and I’ll do a little more of that if it’s interesting or I get to travel somewhere interesting with my friend.
With my savings and future savings, I may be able to do it in two or three years. Sooner if my step-mother passes and I get my inheritance but I don’t want it to happen that way.
Yeah, my commute was also a factor in my decision. I just liked to go a modest speed in one of the right lanes but the speed demons were just nuts. Saw all sorts of crazy stuff. Very stressful.
How true, how true. I’ll be pulling the plug in a half-dozen years and it seems the increase in BS curve has been steepening greatly in the last few years. I really do wonder how long it’ll take today’s new-hires to burn out, as compared to us veteran employees.
Sounds like my dad. He and my mom planned on a lot of golf and travel after he retired. Before he did, he had a stroke at age 65. Lived another 12 years. Was mentally intact, but never golfed again. Yuck.
[QOUTE]How true, how true. I’ll be pulling the plug in a half-dozen years and it seems the increase in BS curve has been steepening greatly in the last few years. I really do wonder how long it’ll take today’s new-hires to burn out, as compared to us veteran employees.
[/QUOTE]
This may be true, but I wonder. For the 30 years I’ve been with my employer, people have always said, “Morale has never been this low!” You know, it is possible that morale has, in fact, gotten progressively worse over my entire work life. Or maybe there just have always been unnecessarily and inexplicably shitty aspects to the job (and, I suspect, most jobs.) 
Have to ask, were you in civil service or FERS? Also what thrift savings plans accounts did you find paid out the best?
When I was 22 I put up with crap I wouldn’t put up with now. When I was 31 I was surprised to see things that wouldn’t surprise me now. When I was 35 I spent several weeks in a job in which I wouldn’t bother finish the first day now.
Younger people don’t just rediscover hangovers, sex and romantic walks on the beach; they also get to rediscover corporate bullshit and shitty bosses.