3 Reasons to Retire as Early as You Can

Motley Fool ^ | 03/28./2018 | Maurie Backman

[Tahoe3002]

I retired last Oct at 66, took first SS payment in Jan 18. Wife and I had professional jobs, with major corporations, for 35+ years, with (for us) a significant $$$ amount for retirement.

When I retired it was because my wife, 68, was having medical issues (Alzheimer's) and could not be alone at home. Last weekend, I put her in a memory care facility.

We planned on getting old and enjoying our grand-kids...
Alzheimer's was obviously not in our planning. My daughter in law put a new idea out: our saving and planning allowed me to put my wife in a ‘better grade’ facility.

[Political Junkie Too]

I thought the 4% plan also assumed that one had savings equal to 20 times their annual pay.

To your question of where the 2 mil comes from, the common answer would be a combination of 401(k) plus pension lump sum distributions (if one is retiring from corporate America).

These defined pension plans may not be around for today's workforce that will retire 35 years from now.

-PJ

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

After 44 years and 10 months at Hard Labor making a living, I retired 10 years ago.

Try to find a great job with great benefits as early as you can! Stick with it! And work work, work! Never turn down overtime, and save,save,save!

In the last 38 years I only turned down 3 days overtime as I could not make it in. Vacations: in the last few years, I managed to work and get vacation pay, AND overtime pay. Same for days off! It took three months before I drew my first Social security check, AND retirement check. You better have enough saved for those lean times.

I highly recommend retirement as a deserved rest. I woke up this morning at 9:00am. Realized in my work days I was already up and struggling with a hot steel press since 7:00AM, and dragging in to a hot power plant at 6:00 AM.

Sad thing is I still wake up at 5:00 AM each morning with no alarm set. Turn over and try and go back to sleep.

[jimbug]

April 30 will be my 15th anniversary of being gainfully unemployed, i.e. retired.

[BipolarBob]

Just another tip: whatever amount you THINK you need to retire on, double it. I’m speaking from experience.

Then you must either be math challenged or know nothing of money management. I retired at 56. My wife and I know how to budget. Everything is paid off. We don't live in luxury but we are comfortable.

[pas]

Motley Fool is a useless site. The next article they will push will say retire as late as possible to maximize SS. Then they will make another about retiring early.....

[ataDude]

I retired early at 59.5... best thing I ever did!

[jcon40]

“Defending Your Life”

Albert Brooks after retirement movie on how God really judges you.

As funny as Lost in America ...

[DugwayDuke]

Political Junkie Too wrote: “Yes, the article made no mention of when the $2 million would run out, it only assumed a “conservative 2%” withdrawal rate” might not be enough. Without knowing the depletion date, one cannot tell what the expected rate of return was in addition to the 2% withdrawal.”

Usually, those 4% strategies assume a 60/40 bonds to stocks portfolio. The actual return is randomly determined using historic rates of return. One of the big problem is the variability and timing of the returns. A big drop in the market is far more damaging if it occurs near the beginning of your retirement. Suppose you have $100k in your portfolio and take 4% out ($4K), you now have only $96K. Now assume there’s a 40% drop in the market, you only have about $56k. That’s catastrophic. The next year you take another $4K out and now you only have $52K. If the 40% drop happens later, it’s not so bad.

[dfwgator]

Defending Your Life, is probably my favorite Albert Brooks movie of all.

[HotHunt]

Social Security is subsistence living at best? Not true.

My wife and I live comfortably on our SS incomes. We retired 8 years ago and we've never been happier. We have more disposable income now than when we worked and were raising a family. Because we have few expenses and no debts.

We started a beef cattle farm when we retired to Florida to avoid paying high property taxes. Now the property is exempt from those taxes for agricultural reasons.

Travel is not a problem. We do whatever we choose. Not sure what else you need tons of money for when you retire. It's retirement, after all.

People must be taken in by these financial advisor ads on TV that say you need a million dollars or more to retire comfortably. Bullpucky.

Retire as soon as you can. This is not dress rehearsal. This is the final act of the play.

[tx_eggman]

I pulled the trigger in 2009 ... Homer pretty well sums it up.

[freedumb2003]

If you have a working business then you are not “retired” in the traditional sense of the word.

There are SS calculators out there that will calculate your SS — the one at ssa.gov will do it based on your actual earnings.

I was very traditional — my wife never worked so we have one SS income. I wold call it subsistence. But people should calculate their own.

BTW — I made SS zero in my retirement planning since I don’t think it will be around that long or if it is they will tax it to death or keep pushing the “full retirement” goalpost to make it unobtainable for most.

I sincerely congratulate you on your series of extremely good decisions. If you did it for under a million in net worth them I am rather amazed since the math doesn’t work out well at all. You don’t need a TV ad to do math.

But overall enjoy, my FRiend!

[HotHunt]

My wife and I retired 8 years ago and bought a 30 acre property in rural Florida to get out of the big city.

We ended up having to tear the old house down and built a new one out of savings. So no mortgage.

And we started a beef cattle operation with two heifers to avoid taxes on the land and that is what is keeping us busy and young. Today, our herd has grown to 28 head of cows including the bull.

Everyday, there is something to get up for, something to look forward to and something to keep us busy. No rocking on the front porch watching time go by for us.

We have discussed this several times and agree. Working the farm is what is keeping us healthy and happy into our 70s.

[freedumb2003]

"Out of my last six small office jobs, six coworkers have died in the past 10 years."

That is an interesting pattern there.

[tx_eggman]

my wife never worked so we have one SS income

She's still entitled to 50% of yours, isn't she?

[elcid1970]

“Can’t believe how many of my graduating class have already passed. Many were the outstanding students and athletes.”

Not referring to you! But isn’t the aging process a kind of `revenge of the nerds’ for those who as yet survive?

[Augie]

Usually, those 4% strategies assume a 60/40 bonds to stocks portfolio. The actual return is randomly determined using historic rates of return. One of the big problem is the variability and timing of the returns. A big drop in the market is far more damaging if it occurs near the beginning of your retirement. Suppose you have $100k in your portfolio and take 4% out ($4K), you now have only $96K. Now assume there’s a 40% drop in the market, you only have about $56k. That’s catastrophic. The next year you take another $4K out and now you only have $52K. If the 40% drop happens later, it’s not so bad.

As my time to retire draws closer I've been moving my investments into dividend-paying stocks and tax-free municipal bond funds.

By the time I'm ready to pull the plug on 9-5 job I'll have all of my retirement accounts moved into those types of instruments, and being debt-free, will have no need to draw against the principal.

Ups and downs in the market don't mean squat unless you need to buy or sell.

[HotHunt]

Or we're retired in every sense of the term, traditional or otherwise. We don't have a business.

Neither of us has jobs. No boss. No clock to punch. No commute to work. No fancy cars or wardrobe need. We just get up and do what we want each day.

We have a cattle operation but don't confuse that with making money. It is to lose money to keep from paying property and income taxes and because it gives us something to do.

And I'm not sure what kind of "math" you keep referring to that "doesn't work out well" for us but we didn't have anywhere close to a million dollars in net worth when we quit our jobs. That's why I say forget those guidelines. They are not for everyone.

My advice is to forget the math and retire. Life has never been better but you seem to think since "our math" doesn't compute, we must have made "extremely good decisions".

Best decision we ever made was to ignore what everyone else was telling us to do and just ended up doing what we wanted.

[ml/nj]

Twaddle!

I'm 71 and still working. I'm earning enough money so that I can buy anything I want without a second thought. $850 to take my granddaughter to the Metropolitan Opera? No Problem! $1000 a month for trips to Florida to help my 94 year-old mother? No problem! Another $1000 to go to Kentucky for three days of horse racing? No Problem! Etc? No Problem!

But take away that regular income so I would be drawing down on my savings and I'm quite sure I'd be thinking about buying cheap beer again.

Add to that, that I like what I do and I like that people I interact with; and it's hard to see what the downside is of continuing on as long as I am physically able to do so.

ML/NJ