I am a 44 yr old woman and I have always been under the impression that a person has to wait until they are at least 62 yrs old to retire. I have been thinking about retiring at my current age if possible. My question is: Can a person retire at age 44 if they want to?
You can stop working when every you like. You can only start drawing social security at 62.
If they want to, duh, yes.
You can retire at any age you want if you can afford it.
I’m pretty sure you won’t qualify for Social Security but you need to check with them. your benefit(if) will be far less than if you wait until your senior years.
Sure, you just need enough money to get by until you die.
I’m 40 and own my house outright. I’ve quit my job, but will need some sort of income to pay bills and eat. I consider myself semi-retired. Of course, all of this goes to hell if I get sick.
Do you have enough money to stop working for the rest of your life (e.g. are you independently wealthy)? If you do, you can retire. If you can’t… join the rest of us.
You can retire at age 21 if you like. However, in most cases, pensions, retirement benefits and Soc Sec do not cut in until you are at least 50. For example, many Gov’t Law Enforcement offciers can retire at 50 with 20 years of duty.
At your age, I think Soc Sec doesn’t start until age 67 .
NO! You must stay at your dead-end job, working with people you hate, until you are old, shriveled and bitter. Then - and only then - can you walk out the door with your pitiful retirement and inadequate healthcare to face each day with a hearty bowl of catfood.
Hey there! I love the idea of retiring at 43 (my age) and I know some people who have done this with varying degrees of success. Generally the people I know have found ways to generate their own consulting business, for example, where they work part time and make excellent money for the hours they put in. Other people can generate passive income from investing, being a landlord, for two examples. Good luck!
You can always take Soc Sec benefits at age 62 (early retirement). Full retirement benefits will be 67 for someone her age, but you can also wait until 70 and get increased benefits. If you retire early, SS benefits are reduced 5/9% a month. If you wait until after full retirement age, they are increased a like amount.
If, however, you are “disabled,” as that term is defined in the SSA, you can get benefits at any age, but the benefits will not be the same for the full retirement benefits.
I would refer to that as not retired. (Or, perhaps, partially retired.)
Well, if you were Mark Zuckerberg, you could cash in your stock, put it into Treasury bonds, and retire at the age of 26 on a measly tens of million of dollars per annum. However, most of us are not in that position.
If you want to ask the same question to a lot of people who think and do just what you propose, go over to the Early Retirement and Financial Independence forum.
And many federal government Law Enforcement officers are not Federal Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), nor eligible for increased pay and benefits while working, nor increased retirement benefits upon retirement.
This is a very puzzling question. What do you mean by “retire” exactly?
The military and many civil service positions offer early retirement after 20 years of service (often at half pay). My brother has just retired at 49 after 23 years working in sanitation.
A friend of mine retired in his mid-forties after working in IT for some time in rather well paid positions. He has good investments and doesn’t spend much; he lives in Switzerland and spends his time writing and hang-gliding.
However, if the OP doesn’t know the details of her retirement plan, it’s very unlikely that she has one that will permit her to retire early. People eligible for early retirement plans are usually well aware of them.
I’ve served with people who retired at 38 from the Navy. All of them quickly got bored and have since moved on to other careers or jobs.
The question is, when do you intend to die?
“If, however, you are “disabled,” as that term is defined in the SSA, you can get benefits at any age, but the benefits will not be the same for the full retirement benefits.”
Presently, there are 50 million Americans collecting SSD!
I retired last year at the age of 48. I collect my full pension, which kicks in once I’d worked 25 years. I don’t collect social security (yet).