I’m 52 and can technically retire with 78% of my current salary. The percentage goes up the longer I work so I’ll probably stick it out a few more years. There is also the possibility of coming back to work half time after I retire. We’ll see about that when the time comes.
I like my job. I would like to keep my hand in until I die, though it is probably not possible. My boss is 74, and while he forgets stuff occasionally, he still definitely earns his pay. There is nobody in my organization that is as good in his role as he is. There is another gentleman at my place of employment that is 78 and probably should not be there anymore as his skills have atrophied. He probably won’t be there much longer as he is having a hard time getting grant money these days.
For myself, I will stay in my position as long as I am valuable and not a moment more. I do my work off of other peoples grants, so I have a natural end point to my career.
I basically retired young, got bored out of my mind in short order, and went back into the market. The difference now is I don’t have fun at work a majority of the time, I go find a different place. Economically the extra money helps us have fun but not enough to totally throw satisfaction out of the equation.
I retired from the military at age 43, and retired from working at age 61. Upon reflection, I should have just quit working at age 60, as the job I had for that last year was the worst in my working life.
By this metric, my brother retired at 38. for well over a decade now, he’s been a full-time day trader out of his residence. Pretty sure he earns more money than me and my wife combined.
Is it fair to call it “retirement” if he does this 6.5 hours per day (from market open to close)?
Me, I hope to retire in my mid 50s. My job is…OK, but it’s pretty much a means to an end.
I am planning on retiring this next January. My company is going to stop counting years of service for the pension beginning November 1, 2016. I’m sticking around till January to take advantage of the paid Christmas break and a bonus program that pays a percentage of your yearly wages. I turn 60 in October, I will have 36 years at the company. That’s long enough for me.
I worked for 6 years in software (at Microsoft here in India). Working as a trader/investor since last 1 year. I am not even 30.
I don’t think like I am ‘working’ even though I am making money ( nearly what I made earlier) and even though it gets tense many times. I somehow don’t think it is productive enough or is similar to any conventional ‘work’.
I would consider myself retired once I left my present position at 60-62 years old. At that point I can (hopefully) retire at my full income level and have the house paid off. But I would most likely still work for money just to have somewhere to go and have something to do. So I wouldn’t make the definition so narrow as to consider retired being stop working for money. It’s more like stop* having* to work for the money.
I will be working as long as I can find a job. Financial hardships a few years back wiped out my savings and a long-time employer who insisted 50% of our 401(k) contributions go toward company stock tanked my 401(k) when the company went belly up. On the positive side, I enjoy working, so as long as I’m healthy enough to do so, I’ll keep at it.
I was 65 when I retired (which wasn’t an option on the poll) but I was 2 months past my birthday so I put “after 65.” This was 10 months earlier than I should have retired based on SS guidelines and such, but my job had largely disappeared and I was doing an awful lot of sitting around. 16 months later, I think the sacrifice was totally worth it.
The earliest date I intend to retire is my 65th birthday, a little less than three years from now.At that point I will be eligible for Medicare, which will make health care easier to afford. I plan to begin collecting Social Security on my 66th birthday, “full retirement” age for people born when I was. Using Social Security, 401K withdrawals of about 3% annually, and some rental income from properties that will be paid off by then, I expect to retire with no decrease in income.
If my job is still tolerable when I am 65, I may opt to work until I am 66, if the company still wants me.
I will probably be doing something for money until the day I die. I am hoping to retire in the next decade if I can get my business to take off but I won’t meet the OP’s definition. Even if my business collapses and I have to go back to working for someone else my retirement job will still be managing an orchard and making booze.