Retired last week after selling insurance agency. My dad started it in 1979 and he worked until he was 80. I kept going back to YOLO and decided to pull the trigger.

My wife and I are in our mid 50s and we intend to travel, volunteer and enjoy life at this point. First grandchild is due in 3 weeks.

I don't really have any big hobbies, but the fact that my wife is on the go 24/7 will help me stay off the couch.

The answer to the OP's question lies a little bit in the fact that I made enough money on the sale to not have to worry about money, and the fact that we want to do a lot of physical things on our travels and I want to be young enough to do that. Example: walk the Camino de Santiago.

YouBet said:

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Alr3111 said:

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I guess maybe a little bit of all those.

The biggest was financial. Most of my money is in qualified plans so wait until 59.5 was my original plan. When the 401k catch-up had to be in Roth, our plan rules changed to allow partial withdrawals (instead of total) for former employees allowing rule 55 utilization.

Some recent back issues illustrated the uncertainty of health, mobility,etc. I didn't want to waste what good time I had left.

I began to feel the work stress would be more detrimental long term than the benefits of the money that I was being paid to for the work.

A big obstacle was healthcare. We will COBRA and then ACA. I have looked at the options and budgeted max out of pocket each year until Medicare. Whatever is left when that time comes goes into the fun money bucket

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This was my biggest stressor when I retired last year. I went through all of the machinations of this at the time. I would recommend researching private insurance. It does exist and while not fantastic insurance it's still better than ACA and should be cheaper. Roughly equivalent ACA plan for what I got in private was ACA cost of $1,700 per month vs $1,200 per month in private.

Of note, the ACA subsidies expired which I doubt you qualified for anyway.

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And this is why I took a job with the fed.gov at the VA from 56 to 62 yo. I pay $178/mo for a HDHP, while $531/mo is being paid for by the gov. Plus, as a vet my backstop is the VA healthcare system.
My net from SS & FERS is about $1800/mo, plenty for me and my simple lifestyle. I generally go to the big city [ABQ] 2x/mo., check on my mom, and dance 3 nites at Dirty Bourbon. I have an absolute blast!

The rest of the time at home, I piddle around, cut a little firewood, do a little work on the property [49 acres, backs up to Nat'l Forest] and watch youtube videos.
30 SEP will be 1 yr anniv. of my official retirement date. Don't miss work one iota.

Retired one year anniversary on September 1st.

Run your numbers and go for it I highly recommend it !!

I also recommend it. I had a hard decision to make Wednesday. Golf or Diamondbacks baseball. I thought there were no more decisions.

"My wife and I are in our mid 50s and we intend to travel, volunteer and enjoy life at this point. First grandchild is due in 3 weeks."

Grandson was born Wednesday and we are able to stay in Austin with them as long as we want. Kinda liking this retirement thing so far.

He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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AgOutsideAustin said:

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Retired one year anniversary on September 1st.

Run your numbers and go for it I highly recommend it !!

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Congratulations to you! Was it running your numbers that made you pull the trigger? Any other deciding factors? Looking back a year, did you do it at the right time, too early, or too late?

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Yes. I was originally thinking I would run my numbers and do what I need to do to get ready and hopefully have enough to retire at 62 years old or be told at what age I could retire.I met with my advisor who did a detailed analysis with all the Monte Carlo's and what ifs that could possibly happen when I was 59 years old. He looked at me and my wife and said why don't you retire at 59 1/2? I didn't think that was possible until I had the analysis done, but I thought after working since I was 14 years old, I had given enough to different companies over my career. I also had to really think about is this enough? Retiring early while you're earning your highest income of your career is the dumbest financial decision you can ever make. In fact I had told my company I was retiring and while they were looking for my replacement, another company called with a job offer making the most money I would've ever made in my life and knowing I was retiring they said that's fine just give us two years. I turned them down during that initial phone call because my decision was made, and it was time for me and my life. This past year of being totally in control of my time is priceless.

Looks like I'll be next to join the early retirement club in January. I was also caught in that "just work one more year" trap, because of the golden handcuffs. I didn't need to work since I've already reached my target number. Was planning to work about 3 more years unless something made the decision easier.

Was perfectly content working remotely from home until our company forced their return-to-office policy. My round-trip work commute would soon become over 3 hours. F*** that. It was the push I needed to make the leap. Insurance won't be a problem since the wife plans to continue working, which will bridge until Medicare kicks in.

Already have my yearly tax-efficient withdrawal strategy all mapped out. Not concerned at all about being bored, haha. Getting mentally prepared to switch from saving to spending is the hardest part.

SlackerAg said:

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Looks like I'll be next to join the early retirement club in January. I was also caught in that "just work one more year" trap, because of the golden handcuffs. I didn't need to work since I've already reached my target number. Was planning to work about 3 more years unless something made the decision easier.

Was perfectly content working remotely from home until our company forced their return-to-office policy. My round-trip work commute would soon become over 3 hours. F*** that. It was the push I needed to make the leap. Insurance won't be a problem since the wife plans to continue working, which will bridge until Medicare kicks in.

Already have my yearly tax-efficient withdrawal strategy all mapped out. Not concerned at all about being bored, haha. Getting mentally prepared to switch from saving to spending is the hardest part.

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Welcome to the club! My one-year early retirement anniversary is actually tomorrow.

No regrets at all. You will love it.

A huge step for my retirement today as (hopefully) I close on selling my business at the end of the day and take another step towards full retirement!
The payout is nice but isn't huge/life changing, and I have a 5-year contract to work after it closes. However, my "out" clause is a small amount of prorated $$$ for however early I exit, and the final exit will include a second payout of about the same amount as today's (hopeful) sale.
I have read every response in the thread in the past 14 months and really appreciate getting peoples' opinions as to how, when, why, and sometimes where to retire. I can say 100% that your responses have pushed me towards an earlier retirement than I was otherwise considering.
Keep the good stories coming.
Cheers to all

Yes, thanks for asking. More importantly, the wire went through. The best part of all is that I've had a biking trip scheduled for a year and they chose the closing date, so I've missed the first two days of work on vacation already. Setting the bar low!