having a fixed retirement date

[shamelessHedon]

It seems many are waiting for a certain dollar amount, which means their retirement date is kind of floating.

Are we the only ones with a known and fixed retirement date?  For me, knowing a timeline makes planning simpler.

[ShortInSeattle]

A date is nice - but how will you know if you will have enough assets by then?  Most people do set a date when they are close enough to "their number" to project a date with reasonable certainty.

[dragoncar]

I'm half and half.  After saving enough to meet bare minimum expenses, I'm trying to "save as much as possible" before I turn XX.  It's not a hard date but trying to avoid "one more year" syndrome.

[HappierAtHome]

It seems many are waiting for a certain dollar amount, which means their retirement date is kind of floating.

Are we the only ones with a known and fixed retirement date?  For me, knowing a timeline makes planning simpler.

Why is your retirement date fixed? Do you gain access to a pension or similar at that date?

I'm a 'fixed timeline' kind of person generally, but my official retirement date will be FI + safety margin. The timeline to FI changes as my expenses and income change. I expect it's pretty similar for most people here.

[shamelessHedon]

Yes, my spouse is sticking it out for a(nother) pension.

At today's value he will have income of 42k/yr...plenty where we live.  Our investments are heavy. The biggest thing IMO is just going into retirement with a paid off home and no debt.

[arebelspy]

Naturally a pension vesting is a way to have a fixed date, and most who have no pension but are shooting for a certain number (calculated based on their expected expenses and a SWR they're comfortable with - I.e. 30 k @ 3% SWR = 1MM stache needed - and then of course there is always OMY syndrome for a buffer to build up in case of a crash in early ER), so they don't have a fixed retirement date.

The ones I find more interesting are the ones who fix a retirement date without the pension compelling them or anything, but just say "if we hit our number or not, we're pulling the plug on that day" - a drop dead date, as it were.

The wife and I are planning this.  We know the last day we're planning on working, and we'll be done whether we hit our number or not.

At that point - if we haven't hit our number - we may take a few years off and then earn some extra money teaching overseas to bolster our finances, or we may live in a cheap country for awhile to reduce expenses for a bit, or whatever we need to do, but working past that date isn't an option (the one and only exception I can see to this is if the child we're planning on having about a year before that date has some major medical issues).

But to get back on topic after that rambling speech, we do indeed have a fixed retirement date.  If we hit our number - or not - we're done.

[Rural]

I have an "earliest possible" date which is when I vest in a pension (6.5 years), but I'll have to see if I want to retire then. It's also dependent on having enough saved, since I won't be old enough to collect then.

My husband, who had been planning to work forever, actually said the word "retirement" this weekend, and he will vest in 2.5 years. At that point, if he's still not happy with his job (and it may just have been a bad day/week, since he seems quite happy at other times), I'm going to encourage him to quit. He would almost certainly find something else to do, probably as a consultant, but it would still likely slow our investing for at least a while and push out my date.

So we'll see. I'm most interested in FI for now. Once we're there, we can retire when and if we feel like it.

[MandyM]

I am half and half. The dollars have driven the timeline, but the date is what I focus on. I get through tough days at work by counting my remaining days. I've also decided that I will probably resign at that point even if my number is short - I wouldn't mind working PT for a bit to let the stach grow a little more. I'm about 2 years out and the closer I get the less I can fathom delaying (no OMY syndrome for me).

As a side note, I had a nightmare last night that I had some sort of financial emergency and had to use my entire stach and start from scratch. It was awful.

[MrsPete]

Since I'm working towards a pension, I have a fixed date. 
My husband and I have always intended to retire at the same time, so he has fixed his date to match mine. 

[cthoops]

I work in a public sector job so I also have a fixed date for retirement (March 21, 2025).  At that point I'll be 20 years in and 55 years old, and that's enough.  Mr. cthoops is 10 years older than I am so that will put him at 65, and we really want to enjoy some significant retirement-time together before everything starts going to hell, health-wise. 

We haven't done any major dollar calculations - just some rough, back of the envelope type of stuff.  Between the pension, his social security, our savings, and the fact that we'll be debt free (including no mortgage), we'll just take a look at what we have each month and move somewhere appropriate.  We definitely won't be staying where we currently live.  The property taxes alone will make it prohibitive.  We'd love to move to Florence, Italy, but as I've said to Mr. cthoops, I don't care if we have to move to Thailand.  I'm out of here! 

[dragoncar]

I am half and half. The dollars have driven the timeline, but the date is what I focus on. I get through tough days at work by counting my remaining days. I've also decided that I will probably resign at that point even if my number is short - I wouldn't mind working PT for a bit to let the stach grow a little more. I'm about 2 years out and the closer I get the less I can fathom delaying (no OMY syndrome for me).

As a side note, I had a nightmare last night that I had some sort of financial emergency and had to use my entire stach and start from scratch. It was awful.

Wow, I haven't started getting stache nightmares yet... hopefully they don't start after I retire.  Kinda reminds me of how I used to get nightmares about finals for a couple years after I graduated.

[AllChoptUp]

I have a fixed date due to pension, will be there in 2.5 years.  Between it, savings/investments and spouse's pension we will be FI.  Not so ER since I'm in my early 40s but that'll do.  Spouse also teleworks because he loves it, so that's extra funds we'll keep packing away.

[arebelspy]

Poll added!

[aclarridge]

Other: I don't know whether I'm shooting for a date or a number. This question really depends on the definition of retirement. For me, let's say it means quitting my high paying job and possibly taking a lower paying job I enjoy more.

If I had, say, 1.5MM right now I think I'd quit my current job, but I'm pretty far away from that still. I may decide in the next 2-5 years to make a career change regardless of stash size, and hopefully be happy working for enough money to support my family and not much more. Life is going to change a lot soon (kids), so why try to commit to a policy now when my views are likely to change? For me it's enough to know that I've got a ways to go, so keep building the stash at a high rate for now.

[dude]

yep, waiting on a pension.  Roughly 5 more years to go before I can collect it (at age 53), but have settled on 7 more years (age 55) for a number of reasons for my "fixed" retirement date (of course, that could change if the market either continues an extended bull run, or tanks).  Should be pretty well FI by 55 with modest market returns, but of course I'm wary of counting too much on a pension, so "retirement" will be from my current job, but not entirely retired as in the "no more work ever" retired.  Plan is to "work" part-time doing things I enjoy, namely guiding, personal training, snowboard instructing, etc., at least for 5-10 years, to delay withdrawals from the 401k and thus let it continue to grow.

[rubybeth]

I voted "I am shooting for a number in addition to a pension" but there are a few factors.

a) DH is staying with his current employer until a specific date in order to have his 401k matching 100% vested.
b) In 2014, I will reach 15 years with my current employer, and my pension benefits will go up significantly, even if I leave the employer early and just start taking monthly benefit at age 55.
c) I will be keeping an eye on my monthly pension total and our stash total until we reach a sort of magic point. If I can reach 25 years at my employer, that would be nice, but not mandatory. A lot depends on DH's future career (he's in grad school).

Our stash total will need to cover us from whatever date we retire until my pension kicks in at age 55 (and maybe social security at whatever age we decide to take it, assuming it exists, which I'm not banking on), and I'm thinking we'll be able to live on the 4% withdrawal of the stash, and the pension will be our annual travel funds. Stash goal is about $875,000 depending on a few factors, like if we decide to buy a house at some point.

[milla]

We have a fixed date for my husband. Due to some health problems that will likely limit his lifespan and/or enjoyment of our children we want him to be done working at age 40. We started this game a year ago, when he was 30. I will work much longer if necessary to make that happen.

[ender]

As someone who is currently not married and 25, I voted "other" - there are too many things which could change in the next few years affecting either a number or date :)

[chasesfish]

I have a countdown in months to my FI date based off projections, but may get tied up in the OMY syndrome. I enjoy the job many days and there are very nice retention awards

[Zaga]

I have a date that we are shooting for, the year DH turns 60, in 15 years.  This will enable us to withdraw as needed from retirement accounts in his name without penalty.  Also, I'm 11.5 years younger, so when he's 60 I'll only be 49, like one of the other posters, I want to be able to enjoy as many years with my DH as possible without work interfering.

So my answer is I'm shooting for a specific date (or sooner), but not because of a pension or anything, but rather just because it's a good date.

[StetsTerhune]

Other:

Waiting for two events to quit:

(1) is purely personal, don't want to get into it, but I'm stuck in the city I'm in until it happens. As long as I have to live here, then I'll probably keep working regardless (up to a point) of net worth.

(2) is professional. My plan has always been to quit my job before I'm fully FI and work part-time/remotely/contract/etc for a while. There's a couple of professional milestones I'd like to hit before I do this, so that that process would work smoother and be worthwhile.

But...  due to recent market returns, "best assumptions" now project I'd be fully FI before event 1 happens, so I may or may not wait till event 2 if I'm fully FI at that point (though event 2 may also happen before event 1).

Hoping for all of this within 1.5 years, in any case.

[Insanity]

My "joking" date when I was a kid / first starting is now a year away. I'm way off that.  My goal at this point is roughly 5 years have enough money where I can work as a consultant on short term contracts, spend most of the days doing odds and ends around the house and traveling when both of our kids have reached the public school age. 

It will be tough, but I think that I might actually be able to pull it off given how much our spending has gone down. 

[rs02011988]

My hopeful date is when I reach my 10th year and become vested in the 14% match of my pension (just passed the two year mark). There will be a lot of changes with the pension, so I may decide to roll it into something that I have more control over. Like another poster said...there are a lot of perks with staying after ten years, so I may suffer from OMY or do PT. I *also* have a number in mind that I think will be reachable by the 10 year mark.

This is exciting to think about, regardless. :) The opportunities and options are endless--and that is what I want--to be able to make those decisions because I will be FI.

[Tyler]

No pensions for us.

I guess we started out shooting for a number, and now that we're about a year away from our goal the date to reach that goal is looking pretty predictable. Interestingly, at this point the precision of both the number and date starts to feel arbitrary and less important than other factors.

Started with a number. Getting close to our date. And now just waiting until we feel ready.

[happy]

I have numbers and dates and life stages, which will coalesce in around 5 years time at age 60.

At age 60 I can access  my superannuation stache tax free. In 2 years time my youngest will finish high school and by my 60 she should be heading towards her independence. By 60 I anticipate most living expenses from my kids will have gone, so I will know more exactly what level of expenses I will need on my own. By 60, the numbers improve with regard to selling and downsizing my house and the kids will probably have moved out, and I will be able to downsize just for me. At 60 the mortgage will be gone or down to a small amount.

I probably could retire in 2 years time, but the math is optimised at 60.