What age do you want to retire?

[gamecock43]

HMD- I like your plan and ambition! If you succeed I want to know what you did!

[Caoineag]

Mid-50's. Don't know if we will or not, but that is the current "goal". Really just want to be financially independent and able to travel. We are 27 and 25 so we still have a lot of careers we want to try first. May just go part-time at that time or sooner depending on how things go.

[disneysteve]

Yes, but are you sure you wouldn't get bored after you did. Like I said, some personality types seek challenges, but many do not and need some external stimulus to introduce them.

Yes, I'm quite sure I wouldn't get bored. I'm not one of those types. I don't need to have an office to go to for 40 hours per week to feel like I'm accomplishing something. Actually, more often than not, I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything because I have an office I have to go to every week.

[FrugalIII]

I retired at age 50 with a defined benefit pension. My pension covers all my monthly expenses. I stayed retired for 6 months. I hated it. Bored to death. So I went back to work full time. Different location, same job. Now I'm working on my second defined benefit pension. I hope to continue working full time until I'm social security age. Then I'm sure I'll work part time somewhere. I can't just sit around and do nothing.

[feh]

I'm hoping to semi-retire in my mid-50s. I'm 42 now. When I say "semi-retire", that means "probably still work, but income won't really matter".

We were on track, until the market dive this year.

[GREENBACK]

I have 540 hours of vacation leave that I rarely use but it's interesting when I do. I think of it as practice for retirement and I often wonder if I could occupy my free time positively if I were retired. I'll be retired for certain at 58 and can go at 53.

I'm 43 so it's not that far down the road. I've had some type of job as long as I can remember. I'm really not certain if I could handle getting up in the morning without having to deal with this problem or that.

Like I said, I have lots of leave so maybe I need to "practice" retirement a lot more before it's for real.

[Investing First Steps]

Yes, I'm quite sure I wouldn't get bored. I'm not one of those types. I don't need to have an office to go to for 40 hours per week to feel like I'm accomplishing something. Actually, more often than not, I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything because I have an office I have to go to every week.

Oh rest assured I'm not an apologist for modern corporate living. I think the danger is that one day you wake up and go, "I think I'll just watch TV today" and then suddenly it's 10 years later. I certainly don't advocate sticking to the 9-5 for the sake of it, but I also think "retiring" without having a clear plan of what that means can be very dangerous for some people. I know a lot of people who worked really hard and denied themselves things so that they could spend their last 15 years sitting in a chair watching TV. Just doesn't seem great for individuals, nor good for society to be telling people their goal is to get to a point where they don't do anything.

[DebbieL]

I have no desire to retire fully either. I will always have to be doing something work-wise as long as I'm capable (physically/mentally). I am 38 now, and honestly cannot imagine wanting to retire at 50 or whatever. Sounds like a bore to me. I like earning a paycheque too. I'm sure sometime in my mid to late 60s I'll slow down to part-time, but then again who knows? I will likely be my own boss by then (I'm currently working towards my accounting designation). I really enjoy the field I've entered into and can't see quitting "cold turkey".

[jIM_Ohio]

There is a difference between financial independance and retirement.

Sounds like many of you want the independance and then will take a lower paying job and cut back hours. Once I have the independance I can do many things which w*rk prohibits.

Like go to a pro football game in every NFL stadium in the same year (32 stadiums, 17 weeks is quite a long road trip).

Go down hill skiing for 10-14 straight days in middle of winter. Or go white water rafting on 10 rivers in one year (again that is a long road trip).

It's not about waking up in morning, eating breakfast and staying in bathrobe until I shower for dinner at 3pm (I might do that too, but only on weekends- LOL).

I am sure volunteering (like March of dimes or similar) would also be in my cards.

W*rking SUX, so no reason to do this even a week longer than I have to.

[GREENBACK]

There is a difference between financial independance and retirement.

Sounds like many of you want the independance and then will take a lower paying job and cut back hours. Once I have the independance I can do many things which w*rk prohibits.

Like go to a pro football game in every NFL stadium in the same year (32 stadiums, 17 weeks is quite a long road trip).

Go down hill skiing for 10-14 straight days in middle of winter. Or go white water rafting on 10 rivers in one year (again that is a long road trip).

It's not about waking up in morning, eating breakfast and staying in bathrobe until I shower for dinner at 3pm (I might do that too, but only on weekends- LOL).

I am sure volunteering (like March of dimes or similar) would also be in my cards.

W*rking SUX, so no reason to do this even a week longer than I have to.

Jim,
I'm all over that NFL thing.

[jIM_Ohio]

Jim,
I'm all over that NFL thing.

It's an interesting problem to tackle because you have to get certain stadiums in order to make it work.

I could do Foxboro on a Thursday then NY on a Sunday and Philly on a Monday and still have time to kill in between.

But doing Seattle is a 5 day commitment. it takes 2 days to get to seattle by car from any NFL stadium (I think) and then 2 days to get from Seattle to next destination (I think). For example Oakland on Sunday to Seattle the following Sunday (6 days- clearly doable), but getting from Seattle to either Minnesota or Denver (2 closest NFL cities to Seattle) is tough in 2-4 days.

I want time to enjoy the cities while I am there. For example stopping in Vegas on my way to Denver, skiing in Denver for a few days, seeing my cousin in San Fran (actually 4 hours north in CA I think) while over there.

The Saturday games later in season might allow me to do 3 cities in one week (Sat-Sun-Mon) if the games are close enough together distance wise. And of course saving the southern cities for Nov-Dec is also a must (Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, New Orleand, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Phoeniz, Denver, San Diego) all in winter sounds like a good plan.
But I will also do Green Bay in winter just to say I did it anyway.

It will probably take me from June-July just to plan an efficient trip (should keep me busy) then another month to find a way to get tickets.

Should be fun. 17 more years.

[DebbieL]

I guess it just depends on your point of view. I don't (currently) think working sucks. Maybe at 70 I'll agree with you though, lol. I like having fun outside of work (of course), but I do enjoy the work. I would be happy to slow down when I'm older and make time for more travel, and the freedom to do that is great.

[disneysteve]

There is a difference between financial independance and retirement.

Exactly. I want the financial independence to do what I want to do. That might mean taking a long cruise. It might mean attending cooking classes. It might mean taking a leadership position in my synagogue. And it very well might mean working in some capacity, but doing so because I want to, not because I have to.

[gamecock43]

"There is a difference between financial independance and retirement."

Jim-ohio hit it for me. When I semi retired I got a masters degree and pursued horse back riding full time- a sport that was previously just a hobby my whole life. Eventually- I no longer could afford the horses...and now I'm ready to get back to work.

[maat55]

I would like to go part-time at 62 and work until I hate it. I want my porfolio to continue to grow till i'm 70.