Author Topic: [Over 40] For those in or past their 40's now, when do you think you'll FIRE?  (Read 26123 times)

honeybbq

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I'm 40. My "A" goal is 50. My "B" goal is 55 when my daughter graduates from high school. My husband is significantly older, I'm trying to get him to retire in about 5 years.

I COULD retire today with a massive change in lifestyle/goals/dreams but I enjoy my work and I'm well compensated.

Jenny1974

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I'm 42 and DH is 50 . . . . DH plans to retire no later than 58.  I'll probably work until at least 55.  I like my job so I'm not in a big hurry to jump ship.  Things could always change though.  As far as FI, we are pretty darn close right now.

AO1FireTo

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I am 47 and the wife is 40.  I am targeting FI when I turn 50 in 2020.  At this time we should have enough in investments to cover our living expenses in the HCOL we are in.  I will probably till work a couple of years to pad the investments, but my plan is to be done with corporate life.  My main goal is to have the FU money in investments, and then I'll figure out my retirement plans.  If we move to a LCOL area, it would definitely speed things up.

kendallf

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I'm 50, and I'll bail at 56 (the minimum retirement age for my gov't job).  I'm staying for the continued medical coverage in retirement and an immediate supplemental pension.  These last few years also allow me to give money to my mother so she can stay in the house she loves, and I'll have more options for helping my daughters later in life.  So far it's worth it.

caseyzee

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I'm 51.  I'm looking at more of a FIR plan than FIRE.  I've got 8.5 more years to go on my house and I don't really see a way for me to retire without paying that off first.  My kids will be heading to college at the same time, so I've been wondering if I should think about accelerating the house payoff by a year, to retire 1 year earlier, and thus have lower income that year.  But, I've not done enough research yet to know if that will help with college aid packages or not.

Also, my plans are very dependent on health care purchase options being available for me.

ETA:  I'm at about 12.5x current expenses minus mortgage and without factoring in any health care.  My ultimate plan is to move to a lower cost of living area, but that might not happen until my kids are done with college.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2017, 02:20:56 PM by caseyzee »

fruitfly

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I'm 44 and my husband is 45, our kids are 6 & 8. I hope to be FI in 5 years. Somedays I don't have a lot of hope for it but I endeavor.

powersuitrecall I read Your Money or Your Life in college and still I'm here. I am trying to let go, you're only ready when you're ready. I mean, I can't time travel so I guess acceptance is the only solution.

2300

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Good question. 

Wife quit working about 5 years ago so I guess we're 1/2 way there combined.

Currently 44
Planning on 55
#s say could do 53 (or a sooner if make more adjustments), but I'm conservative / concerned with healthcare and like ease of the rule of 55. 

So I'm fairly set on 11 more years or the 2028 club...assuming I stay motivated that long. 

May WFH more or possibly go part time if can pull that off for last 3-5 years. 

If part time works out and  we stay local for other family reasons I may stay longer for Heath care and more cusion.  When fully FIRE I'm going to move (assuming I don't move before then). 

That's the plan(s) at least.  If local ties disappear I may move sooner and go part time.  11 years seems both stupid long, but also fairly short in the big picture and depending on the day.

FireHiker

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Who here would like go back and face punch their 30yo self? (raises hand)

Oh definitely...or even my 34yo self...better late than never I guess!

powersuitrecall

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I'm 44 and my husband is 45, our kids are 6 & 8. I hope to be FI in 5 years. Somedays I don't have a lot of hope for it but I endeavor.

powersuitrecall I read Your Money or Your Life in college and still I'm here. I am trying to let go, you're only ready when you're ready. I mean, I can't time travel so I guess acceptance is the only solution.

That's a great attitude tikimama.  I applaud it.

Who here would like go back and face punch their 30yo self? (raises hand)

Oh definitely...or even my 34yo self...better late than never I guess!

On the other hand, if we didn't make mistakes back then maybe we wouldn't get how important it is to get it right now.

Onward!

SwordGuy

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I'll be FIREd next spring at age 60.   

If I had learned these principles when I turned 30 (the year my wife and I finally reached median family income), I could  have retired 10 or 15 years ago.

Oh, well.   

Better late than later!

DavidAnnArbor

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I'm 51 and a half. I'm already FI and probably was 3 years ago or even sooner.

It's just dawning on me in the past 6 months my plans to scale back my work. I've already quit one of my part-time jobs as of April (such a vast improvement in my life from that already).

I won't be totally work-free, but it will be a much slower pace by Spring 2018. I plan to spend more time with other things I enjoy.

I'm not so worried about the health insurance issue, though I'm covered via ACA. I'm hoping by age 60 to get hooked up onto health insurance coverage through one of my other part-time jobs.

tp_from_ks

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Not quite 40...
39 later this year, with current goal of FI, but not RE. Spouse is 34.
FI at about 55 (without more income or windfall).

Love my work, my goal is not RE. Just less hours & more time to travel.

Paying off school loans ~5 more years (spouse & I did grad school, me in early 30s), mortgage ~15 years. Our retirement accounts get just 6% of income.

I don't consider my ways as true Mustachian life, so FI will be later than those types.

Altons Bobs

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Goals have been reached multiple times, but we set new goals. We can FIRE now, live the same lifestyle or increase our lifestyle. The only concern is healthcare. I'm keeping my business for a while so I can keep my group insurance. Mid 40s here. If your definition of FIRE is like MMM's, then I already FIRE'd in my early 30s.

Bobberth

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My wife and I turned 40 this year. Rental real estate will be our main path to RE. Well, that and getting rid of the kids. We refinanced into a 15 year mortgage that will be paid off as our youngest starts her 8th semester of college-12 years from now. Since the rentals are also our plan for paying college expenses, I will probably keep working through their college expenses. Using the 50% rule, we're 2 more properties away from hitting our no-kid and no-mortgage number.

My wife is a teacher and will reach the current pension threshold at age 55 so she will probably work until then since it will be so close and she will still have summers off. We aren't hitting on the 'early' part of retirement age but we figure we are already partially retired because my wife moved from a top paying metro district to one of the lowest paying rural schools and a $26k/year pay cut. But she moved from a position she hated (well, hated the paperwork anyway) into a position she absolutely loves. So we'll be working longer but it's SO worth it for her to be so much happier NOW.

Duchess of Stratosphear

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Man, I want to RE TODAY.

Who here would like go back and face punch their 30yo self? (raises hand)

100% this. Even better, I would go back and smack my 20yo self. If only.....

I'm 47, hoping to get out by the time I'm 57 or 58. That's a long fucking time :(

Rocket

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53rd birthday, 9 months ago.

itchyfeet

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I am 45 and DW 40.

We are currently vacationing in Europe, having a ball. But this life is not cheap.

We debate FIREing next year quite a bit, but I think we would enjoy a bigger stash.

Sadly, we have developed expensive travel habits that we don't want to break.

Thinking of taking a 6 month break next year, then doing a few OMYs to pad the stash for expensive travel.

It's a tough call, as we have enough to live a comfortable life without work. We just need to tweak our life a little.

The marginal utility of a biggger stash versus the years slipping by is front and centre in my internal debate.

Romag

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Just turned 46, FIRE'd last year. It's been awesome.

John Doe

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I am about to turn 51 and am FI now but still work 2 days a week as I was offered too much money to be able to turn it down.  I went PT as of April 1.  So far it's been pretty great!  It's amazing the change in my attitude the first time I realized I really did have FU money as I quickly went to really not giving a damn anymore. 

thriftyc

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44 now - retire around age 46, maybe sooner, maybe later.  Technically, I am baseline FI now.

toganet

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I'm 42 and was on track for 2020 until a perfect storm undid much of my progress in 2016. I've recalibrated to target 2025 as a worst case but working on ways to accelerate.

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Villanelle

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Just turned 42, and as it turns out, I am probably retired.  I left my career in 2010 to move overseas for Husband's job.  At the time, we thought it would be 2.5 years.  We are still overseas and will be until at least early 2019.  Finding a professional level job with a nearly 10 year resume gap will be damn hard.  (I've volunteered a ton and taught private English lessons, but nothing that I'd consider a career-level job.)

I hate being a housewife and am not especially suited to it, but the idea of going back to work making barely more than minimum wage, when we don't really need the money, would be a bitter pill.  I suspect I'll work at some job I enjoy, hopefully at a library, and likely part time. 

DH will likely work until at least 2024, for career and personal fulfillment reasons more than anything, though it will make his pension enough for a comfortable retirement, in and of itself, though not for the retirement we want (mainly due to travel aspirations).  I suspect he'll have a second career after that because he's a work driven guy, but hopefully that will be completely because he wants to and salary won't even be a consideration, and hopefully he can get enough time off to make that travel happen.

golden1

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My hope is to scale back in my mid 50s if not retire totally.  I don’t plan on totally retiring all at once, but to gradually move towards it if I can.  Even in “retirement”, I will need something to do with my time, and will likely volunteer or work part time somewhere. 

Honestly, I think in the field I am in (tech) many people get aged out before official retirement age so I am preparing for that possibility.  My ideal would be to be working 2-3 days a week at age 55 and 0 days a week at 60. 

Channel-Z

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I turn 41 this year. I simply don't make enough money to retire, but because I only have to take care of myself, I hope to reduce to part-time work at some point.

jlcnuke

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40 currently, the primary plan is to retire in 7 years. Could be sooner, could be later depending on circumstances. I "technically" have enough to FIRE now, but not to FIRE and maintain my current lifestyle (just enough to cover the basics at this point). I'll likely still work a few months each year for the first few years after I "retire" just to pad the accounts (in lieu of doing OMY for a year or two) while I get to enjoy retirement most of the year.

dodojojo

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Mid 40's and the best case scenario for FI is 2027.  As one gets older, time flies but the thought of working AT least another 10 years is depressing.  I think I can FI safely by 2030.  The two wildcards are healthcare and a parent, who is not FI but is planning to retire within a year.  So a lot depends to what degree I will need to help financially. 

Moving to a LCOL place would certainly accelerate FI but I'm big city-folk through and through so it's unlikely to happen.  Or at least while I'm working. 

brooklynmoney

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Quit work at 42 but just thought it was for a few years to do some other things while younger. Planned to go back to work in 5 years or so but ended up spending less than I thought I would by a lot, plus sold my house and moved to a nicer LCOL area and freed up cash to add to the stash, so my sabbatical turned into retirement instead.

Spartana you are my hero. I love hiking and surfing and weightlifting and I can't wait to RE and be a cool chick just doing her thing like you are.

MM_MG

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42.  At current pace, we should hit what we consider our minimum FIRE number (given our current level of expense) in ~7-8 years.  With younger kids, we will likely work until we are at least 55 before retiring. We have been thinking a lot about changing how much we work after age 50, as we will likely not need to save any more--just let the savings grow.

toocold

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DW and I are 46.  We have achieved FI (70x annual target spending).  I'll retire between now (if I get laid off) and 53 (when my youngest goes to college).  DW is a SAHM, so she'll never retire.

AmyS

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I'm 50 now and will retire at 62. That's not considered early around here, but I had planned to work until 70 or older before finding MMM, so that's a big change.

For now, I'm shifting how I do my work - changing over the next couple of years to working entirely remotely, which will allow me to be location-independent soon. This goal is even more important to me than retirement, and I'm glad it will be achieved soon.

Vegasgirl

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Currently 48 shooting for 2 years - age 50.  DH is younger (43) and will continue to work.  Goal for him is whenever he wants after age 50.

CSuzette

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57.5 and planning to retire in 2.5 years. I am FI now (with about 1.3M in investments and 500K in condo equity).  But, I am still on the fence and looking for promotion at work. If they treat me well I might stay longer :)

PhrugalPhan

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Currently 54, probably near FI now (Savings are 10x current after tax salary, about 30x current spending rate).  I get immediate pension at 60 (early 2023) (which will cover 100% of my spending), so trying to stick it out until then.  If it wasn't for the pension, I would probably plan to retire near the end of 2019.

As background: I started at near 0 net worth at age 40 (probably positive $75k then to be honest - mostly equity).  I had just previously bought a house and finished a Master's Degree two years earlier.

Since then I have: gone through divorce, been laid off for 15 months, paid off my house in 15 years, and currently save over 60%.  I've always been frugal, but was able to up my game after the divorce.

hucktard

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I'll be 40 this year.  I was actually very into investing while in college but never considered FIRE (it wasn't a thing) because: health insurance. So I slipped up. I found ERE (Jacob) around the time Obama was trying to push through the ACA. I had just been hit hard by the 2007 crisis (trying to sell a house right before the shit hit the fan), so I had to dig myself out of a hole before my savings ramped up.

That said, I've found a lucrative side gig that accelerates my savings big time. If it keeps up I'll be FI by 55-ish? Will I FIRE then? It depends on what you consider FIREd. I'll keep writing no matter what, which just recently started to match my day job. Some might not consider that FIRE.

Care to share what your lucrative side gig is? I am always on the lookout for new sources of income.

rachael talcott

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I retired in May at 42.  On these fora, that feels old, but in the regular world people are amazed that I retired so early.  It took me about five years from the point of deciding that I wanted to retire to actually making it happen.  Part of that was that I already had some retirement savings and a partially paid-off house, and part was serious hustle in the form of fixing up old houses nights/weekends in order to rent them out and get passive income.

dude

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May 7, 2019 -- my first day of eligibility for my FERS LEO pension.  I have a very healthy portfolio balance now and significant SS payment coming in the future, not to mention reasonably priced (@$350/month) excellent health care. I'm 52 now, will be just shy of 54 then.  While not "early" as compared to some on this site, considering I'll have really only worked at a steady job for just under 22 years, I'm pretty sure I done alright.  First 13 years out of H.S. were spent in the Navy (6), college (4), and law school (3); basically, kinda living the ER life more or less! No real regrets. I might change a few things here and there, but overall, life has been very, very good to me so far.

Tracyl-5

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42 now and hoping to FIRE just after I turn 47.  That said, my husband is 50 now, so will be 55 when we hopefully reach our goal.  The unknown, of course, is healthcare...  Depending on what happens, my husband may continue to work or work just enough to get employer healthcare.  He loves his job, so that's no big deal to him.  Biggest advantage is that it would be nice not to have to coordinate my work schedule with his to take time off to travel.  And I hate my job, so just 4 years 5 months to go!

Silrossi46

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 47 now Planning to go at 55 which would give me 100% pension.  About 60% of whatever the average of my final 3 years is. I will have 31 years of government service at that point.   This is projected to be about 85,000/ year  ($7000 + / month)  Included in this is free healthcare for life.  (obtained once reaching 25 years of service)   Leaving any sooner than 55 would be a 3% per year penalty on the full pension. 

I currently have no debt and no kids.    House paid for.   (525K value)   About 350K in 457B.  Hope to have that at 500K at age 55.   about 200k in other money.   IE vanguard after tax and some cash.

Struggling with leaving sooner and taking the penalty since I become eligible for the free healthcare for life at 49.   The 18% penalty at that age hurts.   Its not just 18% of the projected 85K pension it would be more since the average salary at that age would be less as well since I would be giving up several increases over that time. 

Other thing is I don't dislike my job  (IT Director)  just longing for the freedom and sunshine..............

What to do what to do!!!!!   


jjandjab

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Wife and I both 44. Physician and stay at home mom. Goal is mid 50s - hard to pick an actual date. By MMM standards we are FI, but we still have our too-large home and too many expenses. With three kids in high school (senior, junior and freshman this fall), we will aim to downsize when the oldest off to college next year. We are easing into this great idea of cheaper, lower stress living. Not easy when coming from a background, from both sets of parents, that did not really ever emphasize savings and being frugal. But at least we are out of the "I'm a doctor so I should have everything I ever wanted and so should my kids" mindset. That was the biggest step...

At 52, all the kids will be done with college, assuming traditional 4 year path (which is a big assumption). But my RE Will likely be a to move part-time temporary physician work - this will allow us to travel to new places, but still provide earnings. Hard to give up completely on a job I really do like, took forever to finish (age 32 when finally started practice after 4 years college, 4 years med school and 6 years of residency) and that is near impossible to get back into if there is any long term employment gap.

And, ironically, health care and its availability/affordability in the future is a big concern...

Retire-Canada

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Whether you're shooting for FI or the whole FIRE thing, if you're in your 40's now, or past your 40's, when do you think you'll reach your goals? Do you plan on retiring from your current career/job then or continuing on?

I'm just days away from 45 and it looks like I'll be going between late 55 and late 56. I only found the whole concept of FIRE a bit over a year ago. I'm hoping for 2028! For me, I'll reach FI shortly before I RE - my goal is to leave the workforce. I have a few side gigs I may continue on with but I'm looking at a total time investment of a few hours a month.

Congrats for finding FIRE. Definitely better late than never!

I'm 48 and hope to be FIRE by 50. I won't have saved/invested as much $$ as I would like so I am working on reducing my spending to meet the amount I'll likely have by then.

Larsg

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I'm 51 and had been working toward starting my own business when I discovered this forum. It helped me see that my reluctance to take the plunge in starting my own gig was that I really wanted more of my own time to discover what's next and some of that time may be doing absolutely nothing for a while and that's ok. Targeting RE between now and 52. ~30+ time earning, though I need to refine the math a bit.

Linea_Norway

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I am 44 and DH is 47. I hope we will have built up enough stash at the end of 2019, then I am 46.
Our alternative is that we need to work some more part time.

DH has the idea that we'll need to work part time anyway during the first years of FIRE to have a smooth transition into FIRE. But I intend to RE fulltime as soon as we are FI. Fine for me if he wants to do some part time consultancy work. I plan to do whatever the fuck I want to do (as we say on this forum) and maybe do some low paying fun job when I feel for it. But not back to the stress factory.

DH thinks it is reasonable that we both work an equal amount of time in our well-paying jobs until we reach FI.

MustachianKentuckian

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I'm 41.  If I don't include our pensions, we could be FI 49. But, at this point I'm planning on sticking around until 55 due to health insurance (I'll get retiree medical benefits at that time).  In the end, we will have more than we need due to pensions.

MrMoneySaver

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Age 41 now. Hope to retire between ages 50 and 55. Depends on so many things -- health care situation, market returns, and of course how much we're able to save from now till then.

Farmgirl

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I'm 59.  We are FI now just barely.  Waiting for DH and son to go off my health insurance in Oct 2018.  Then I will wait for my bonus in December (might as well wait as I'm that close anyway).  Then in Jan 2019, I will either be done completely or at worst part time depending on the health insurance thing.  If I have to pay $1000/mo for insurance for just me, then I'm trapped like a rat in a cage (cubicle).

jalich

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I'm 40 now, and we plan to punch out on 2/22/2022. We'll see how that goes, but we are on track so far for the last 3 years.

OurTown

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I am 47, wife is 44.  My best estimate is FIRE in 6 years (2023).  I will probably keep a side gig for a few years after that.  It also might be possible for wife to reduce to 1/2 time before then (just to keep health insurance benefits).  We also have to deal with getting my daughter through college, which should finish in 2026. 

Dicey

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47 now Planning to go at 55 which would give me 100% pension.  About 60% of whatever the average of my final 3 years is. I will have 31 years of government service at that point.   This is projected to be about 85,000/ year  ($7000 + / month)  Included in this is free healthcare for life.  (obtained once reaching 25 years of service)   Leaving any sooner than 55 would be a 3% per year penalty on the full pension. 

I currently have no debt and no kids.    House paid for.   (525K value)   About 350K in 457B.  Hope to have that at 500K at age 55.   about 200k in other money.   IE vanguard after tax and some cash.

Struggling with leaving sooner and taking the penalty since I become eligible for the free healthcare for life at 49.   The 18% penalty at that age hurts.   Its not just 18% of the projected 85K pension it would be more since the average salary at that age would be less as well since I would be giving up several increases over that time. 

Other thing is I don't dislike my job  (IT Director)  just longing for the freedom and sunshine..............

What to do what to do!!!!!   
Well, since you sort of asked, what do you actually live on now? In your position, I'd work from there to craft an escape plan. First, shift your focus to what you would actually have if you left at 49 and not on want you would have if you stayed longer. Then build a budget. What does that look like compared to what you live on now?

Assuming both GEHA and COLAs, I believe you could probably do it sooner than later. When you finish doing the math, if you're tantalizingly close, you might consider the following:
1. Get a cheap-ass mortgage while you're still working and invest it for long term gains.
2. Create an ADU (Auxiliary Dwelling Unit, aka granny unit) on your property.
3. Get a roommate or do airbnb.

I don't think you will need to consider any of those choices, but knowing you could would offer peace of mind.

partgypsy

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I just turned 50. Technically if I keep my job, I can retire as early as 58.6 years and keep my health insurance. When married depending on the numbers, it looked like I could retire at 60, but 62 would provide a better cushion. Now that I am getting a divorce, I won't know until all the numbers are settled, but most likely 62 is the very earliest. Right now I'm OK with that as I like my job and most people in my family work until they are in their 70's/no longer able to.

My main thing, is that I would love to scale back to 32 hours/week, for many quality of life reasons. I wouldn't mind pushing retirement out a couple years, if I could work part time for the next 10 years to have a more balanced life.

Dicey

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Oh, here's my answer to the original question. Age 59, retired at 54. DH is 56 and still works because he's 3.5 years away from a Defined Benefit Pension Plan + healthcare benefits. We could also pull the plug sooner, but there's a twist. His mom has ALZ and lives with us: we can't travel now anyway. He likes what he does and walks to work, so he might as well keep on working unless and until our family needs change.