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If you dont want to work, you need to prepare for supporting yourself thru something else. We have saved and invested for over 25 years to be able to retire early. But, if I get the right job here, I will stay for longer because the group is an excellent one to work with and for and I would actually enjoy going to work for them. Otherwise, I am out the door on 1/6/2009.
It all depends on money,and some of that depends on how much I feel is enough to either go part-time or retire fully. Also there's the issue of health insurance, another financial matter.
If it were just about age, I'd have retired (and left smoke running out the door) years and years ago.
Because I can and have made wise choices in my personal finances, 66 is much too old. I plan on retiring at 55.3. If I weren't in a good financial situation, then my answer would be different.
I'm 45. I could retire probably at 50 if I chose to do so. At this point I'm not planning on it though. I'll probably work my whole life, but after 50ish it will likely be just self-employment.
I wasn't sure how long I would keep working, but assumed it would be until my mid 60's. Life had other plans in store for me. The last six months before I retired, I had an increasingly hard time doing my job. I thought about handing over the reins for more than a year, but there always seemed to be a reason to stick around.
Finally, last month, I fell on the ice and had a difficult time recovering. My eyesight started to give me some trouble, and then I endured a very difficult family holiday trip and realized I needed to deal with some grief issues that I had been "putting off for another day."
After we got back from the trip, we had a family meeting and it was suggested to me that the time had come. We have a family business, so this was also a company decision. It seemed a little abrupt, but was done lovingly. I adjusted to the idea within a few hours--it was, in fact, a relief.
62 is old, my friends. In some ways it feels young, and I still do a lot of activities. But when I want to, if I want to, and at my own pace!
Even just a few years ago, I would not have been able to predict how it feels to have your body start to wear down. I could not have predicted how much I really like not having a schedule anymore, how much I value peace and quiet now. It's like asking a 12 year old to predict how it will feel to be 17. She can guess some of it, but a 12 year old really has no idea how it feels to be a teenager.
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