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Just to be slightly picky….the man referenced by the OP who worked 33 years for the FBI, likely worked before that…it's just his FBI career that was 33 years. Unless he had absolutely NO other job from age 16-22, he worked more than 33 years.
Also, many people retire from their full-time, primary money-making career….and work part-time, or put in as much time volunteering. So they're retired from their primary career…but that doesn't mean they're not working.
While I agree that years in retirement, in reality, have zero bearing on when one should or could retire, it DID get me pondering life and how short it is, and what is important to me. My SS statement shows amounts starting every year since 1974, and my plan is (?) 62 in 2020. 46 years working not including lawn mowing, baby sitting, and construction jobs that paid cash before I was 16. So zero chance of being retired more years than I've worked. Half time working at 61 to test the waters is soundimg more and more reasonable and sane. I really have got to assess and realign my priorities about why I continue to trade time for money. Even my wife asks me regularly "why?..I would never go back to work, and we will just adjust our life style to our income". I can't decide if it is a reluctance to leave when I am making the most I've ever made, when others are stuggling to get where I am, or feeling like with so many of my peers still working around me, I'd be a wuss retiring at 60 (seriously...when everyone you know and respect works to at least 62, many way beyond, there is this underlying pressure. If it was expected to retire at 58 in my line of work, it might make the decision easier) or do I just want to make dam sure that I never run out of money, and that yearly increase in my pension is huge.
One of my longest running friends, since 1973, just retired last year. He was always the driven one, valedictorian, and a year younger in our class (while I was "only" 7th). He told me he just decided one day that he was done. He went from wanting to achieve and earn more, to the realization work was a means to an end, and it was time. Wife is still working because she loves it and has near top seniority (flight attendant for 37 years) so actual time away from home is very manageable. They have no debt, everything paid for and free or low cost air travel for life, essentially. I'm sure he is better prepared than me financially, he was always frugal, and that should have no bearing on my life's decisions. It's not a competition, yet in my mind I still have this level of success that I desire.
Just to be slightly picky….the man referenced by the OP who worked 33 years for the FBI, likely worked before that…it's just his FBI career that was 33 years. Unless he had absolutely NO other job from age 16-22, he worked more than 33 years.
Also, many people retire from their full-time, primary money-making career….and work part-time, or put in as much time volunteering. So they're retired from their primary career…but that doesn't mean they're not working.
I am one of those. I retired from a 37-year career with a pension (and to another poster's point, the deal was if you were at least 55 and had at least 30, there was no reduction in benefits, which no longer exists for employees in tiers after mine.)
But I got a job offer that I could do part-time and some days from home. I didn't apply for it, it came to me, as a result of my "career" job. The pension is enough, but I've got another 8 years till I'm 66.7 and can collect full SS, and I was a divorced, single mom with no child support, so I didn't get to save the way people did who never made mistakes.. The pt money coming in is helpful, and if I get sick of working, I can quit. I take off when I want. I realize to purists, "retired" doesn't mean people like me.
Cops and firemen retire at 50 with unbelievable pensions and healthcare for life. They easily have more years retired than worked and we are paying for it.
First responders deserve the retirements they get.
No, not bad at all, for sure. It caused me to pause and think; I have been retired for almost 12 years now, which is a bit more than one-third of my 34-year career. Amazing - I had never thought of it that way until this moment. It just doesn't seem possible.
I think of it all the time and am hoping to make it longer than working.
I think these examples will be fewer and fewer. Very few private companies offer pensions anymore - particularly those that include healthcare coverage. People are working FT until at least 65, if not 70, to get healthcare and max out SS benefits. If one works from 22 - 65, they'd have to live until 108.
I think these examples will be fewer and fewer. Very few private companies offer pensions anymore - particularly those that include healthcare coverage. People are working FT until at least 65, if not 70, to get healthcare and max out SS benefits. If one works from 22 - 65, they'd have to live until 108.
You can max out the SS benefits by waiting until 70 to take them, but that doesn't mean you have to work until 70. For example, you can retire at 65 (with Medicare), then live off your investments and savings for five years, take SS at 70, and the drawing down betwen 65 and 70 will have reduced the tax bite on the RMD's which start at 70.5 if I recall correctly.
You can max out the SS benefits by waiting until 70 to take them, but that doesn't mean you have to work until 70. For example, you can retire at 65 (with Medicare), then live off your investments and savings for five years, take SS at 70, and the drawing down betwen 65 and 70 will have reduced the tax bite on the RMD's which start at 70.5 if I recall correctly.
Yes I understand that, but if one has no pension one is going to have to take a bigger chunk of their savings to live off of for that 5 years so it's a double-whammy. Continuing to work provides both income and delays SS. Many middle income workers (who historically may have drawn a decent pension and Healthcare allowing them to retire at 55-60 after 30 years of work ) are not in this position any longer.
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. The pt money coming in is helpful, and if I get sick of working, I can quit. I take off when I want. I realize to purists, "retired" doesn't mean people like me.
