I wanted to retire at __ but actually retired at __ (pension, relocate, social security)

[springfieldva]

I'm curious to know if there was a difference between when you wanted to retire vs when you actually did retire. If so, what was the reason for the difference in plans.

[Effielin]

I retired at 65 and 10 months instead of 66 and 2 months, (full retirement age). I could have waited but after getting laid off from my job In January I didn’t see any real point in waiting.

[Parnassia]

I hadn't planned on retiring quite as early as I did as I enjoyed most of the aspects of the job, but a few unpleasant management/political/budgetary (public sector job) realities were looming on the horizon and I decided it would be best not to be sitting in that chair when they arrived. It was the right call. I talked with a few co-workers and the person who filled in behind me several times over the next year. Boy did I pity them!

[oldsoldier1976]

I planned on retiring at age 60 but was forced into retirement at 58.5. I was not sure if I was ready at the time either though I did feel good about it. It made it easier because my wife continued to work for another year and then she pulled the plug as well. No regrets and we are not looking back.

[StealthRabbit]

planned 63
Actual 49.5

reason... stars aligned (Severence package + paid to return to college )

That was 15 + yrs ago.
Would love to return to college again, That was quite fun, but there are a lot of fun things about retirement.
Time is running out.

[bobspez]

I retired as soon as I could financially. I planned to retire at 59 but went at 58-1/2. I just felt like it was time to go. The difference in my pension was only about $30 a month. My wife continued working but I got bored being home alone and so a year later I went back to work for two years (the last 18 months working from home) and retired the month before my 62nd birthday and applied for SS. By that time my wife was also retired and we had downsized to a ranch style house about 50 miles south with more property so I liked that much better. It's been 12 years.

[joyeaux]

I planned on retiring at 65 am am still working at 67 due to needing excellent healthcare insurance since being diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 61. Medicare would only pay 50% for immunotherapy of $12k a month. Commercial insurance allows me to be covered by Big Pharma's reimbursement to "commercial insurance". Not so with government coverage.

[davebarnes]

“I wanted to retire at __ but actually retired at __”
I wanted to retire at [no specific age], but actually retired at [partially at 68, then some more at 70.5 and then almost completely at 72.5].
Working from home (since 1996) made it easy to slowly slide into retirement.
Social Security and a booming stock market made it painless.

[elousv]

Original long range plan was 62. Had an epiphany in late 40s, then retired 10 days after 50th birthday. Some purists will not consider me retired since I have put in about 3000 hours of "work" over the past ten years, but others will call that a hobby with benefits.

[lyndyb]

I always planned to retire at 65, even though my FRA is 66.5. I wound up retiring at 61.75.

We decided to relocate in retirement and we revised my retirement to 63.5 so I could get Cobra insurance till Medicare-eligible. Then we found just what we wanted and bought a year earlier than planned. We planned to have two houses for the next 1.75 years, but when the house was built and we got it set up, we realized we didn't want to wait. Time is the one thing you can't get more of and we were ready. 1.75 years later, we have no regrets so far. Only downside is that ACA insurance is $$$, but we went into this knowing that.