So what are your determining factors on when you will retire?

[snoopy7548]

My number is $1 million, shooting for age 45 with a hopefully paid off or close to paid off house. I'll quit for maybe a year and just enjoy being out of work, then I'll probably bounce around mindless menial jobs like working in a grocery store part time just for the extra cash to cover health insurance costs (if the US doesn't have single payer by then). I'd love to start a side business now but I really have no idea what I could do.

But I really don't know what the future might hold. I certainly won't stay at my current job for another 13 years (already been there 9.5 years since I graduated college), so maybe I'll end up enjoying my first career jump so much that I'll work until my 50s.

 

[K1052]

Will it have a guest room you'd be willing to rent out for a reasonable cost to fellow ATOT'ers? I'm asking for a friend.

Rent on the guest wing will be payable in top shelf wine and spirits.

 

[TallBill]

Current plan is to put about 20 years into a new career, then switch over to becoming a professor in lieu of retirement.

 

[Timorous]

passive(ish) income of around £24,000 a year as a realistic minimum.

At a safe withdrawal rate of 3.5%/year that would need a nest egg of around £700,000. However I said passive(ish) because I have some rental properties that get me around £14,000 after expenses and before tax meaning my nest egg needs to be around £300,000.

I have plans to build a bungalow on some land I own which will increase my rental income pre tax to around £22,000 which basically gets me all the way. A couple of extra years to build up a safety net and to find a house I can buy for cash will get me all the way quite comfortably. So really I think within 5 years and I should be able to retire, which will be before I hit 40.

 

[brianmanahan]

i'm going to quit my job as soon as i save 33x of my required living expenses. right now i only spend about 25$k a year but i expect to need about 50$k a year when health insurance is factored in.

so 1.7$m in current dollars is the finish line, and the goal is to hit this number by 45

 

[Majes]

I'm 12 years into a teaching career at this point. I'd certainly like to get to 30 years, but teaching middle school is pretty taxing so I'm always looking for other opportunities. The plan right now is hit 30 years and let the wife decide when I can hang it up.

 

[TallBill]

i'm going to quit my job as soon as i save 33x of my required living expenses. right now i only spend about 25$k a year but i expect to need about 50$k a year when health insurance is factored in.

so 1.7$m in current dollars is the finish line, and the goal is to hit this number by 45

Not an unrealistic goal. With a kid coming soon, my magic number jumped quite a bit more. That being said though, what will you do at 45? Continue to work with a safety net easing your mind?

 

[DietDrThunder]

i'm going to quit my job as soon as i save 33x of my required living expenses. right now i only spend about 25$k a year but i expect to need about 50$k a year when health insurance is factored in.

so 1.7$m in current dollars is the finish line, and the goal is to hit this number by 45

33x your required living expenses sounds like a good idea. I haven't been looking at retirement from this angle. I've been following saving rules/formulas that say you need x times your salary at y age. Right now we are at 16.98 x net income or 12.1 x gross income (not counting pension). I feel that our expenses are low (no house payments, no car payments, no debt or credit card expenses), but now I need to go back and calculate this (I feel that it is pretty much property taxes, utilities, and misc. living expenses).

Our house has been paid off for 9 years but we don't want to remain in our neighborhood during retirement, especially since the kids are gone and the house is too big for just the two of us. A nice 2,000 sqft 1 story home in a small town, but not too far from good medical facilities.

 

[Toastedlightly]

My number is approximately 3 million in today's dollars (I think its like 5 million at retirement). This is between two of us. Hope to hit that by 59.5.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

My biggest determining factor is if I am still happy doing the work I do or not. I can retire in a few more years at age 55. It's tempting. The biggest problem is everyone I see retire ends up back at work as "consultants". They all got bored quick. I have the feeling that even if I do leave I will end up coming back....

LOL I've got an etrade ad for retirement ------->

 

[vi edit]

I'm not saying your kids are like this but both my wife and I have seen a lot of well behaved young kids blow their full ride scholarships or get kicked out for bad grades when their parents pay for it all. One of my long time friends was the Director of Admissions for a nearby University and said kids with free rides from scholarships or parents were more likely to be kicked out than any other group. My sample size is only local but I do think 'free' college makes many of them care less about going to class, studying and doing homework.

There's anecdotal evidence to support any opinion we may have. My employment provides free tuition to state universities. Books, room and board, ect are still required to be paid for. It's not a free ticket to be a lazy jackass. Same for advanced education which my employment does not cover. We'll be pushing for advanced degrees which they'll take loans out for to have some skin in the game. But at least they won't be saddled with undergrad debt.

 

[Exterous]

There's anecdotal evidence to support any opinion we may have.

I'm not sure I would classify admissions data from a University as anecdotal

Edit: But perhaps my relaying the information is. Regardless this was not an opinion I was looking to support - merely a discussion with an Admissions Director who was looking to find out why more people fell out of their education system when they increased the number of people admitted for free under various programs

 

[Kaido]

Is there a certain dollar amount you are trying to hit?
Is there an age you'd like to retire?
What are all the factors you are using to determine when enough is enough and retire?

Personally, I do not plan on ever retiring. Three factors:

1. I get bored easily, and also, left to my own devices, I am not a very productive person. I need that social aspect of being around other people to be productive. Retirement sounds awful to me in light of those things. I also know very few people IRL who are super-productive in their free time, so this isn't an uncommon issue. Retire, get fat, and die is not in my gameplan lol.

2. I've found several things I love doing, including IT & filmmaking. Maybe my perspective will change over time, but currently, in my mid-30's, I don't want to retire to go do other things because I'm already getting paid to do what I like doing. There will always be new things to learn in the world of technology & there will also be another film to shoot, so both of those things can keep me entertained until I die, I think.

3. I suffered from poor health for several decades. Through a combination of health & fitness changes, and allergy medication, I feel pretty good these days. When I was sick, everything was a drag, and retirement sounded glorious. When you feel good, though, you want to do stuff, because you have energy. I've learned how to maintain my energy through sufficient sleep, a macro-based diet, daily workouts, and stress management using GTD. And it's not just feeling lousy, but also feeling "meh" all day due to self-imposed problems from a lack of sleep, cruddy diet, lack of exercise, and stress. Habitualizing those things have made a tremendous difference in my life.

I pretty much see myself working until I die, tbh.

 

[Kaido]

My number is approximately 3 million in today's dollars (I think its like 5 million at retirement). This is between two of us. Hope to hit that by 59.5.

The difference in perspective about having millions of dollars between being a kid & adult is hilarious. As kids, having a million dollars = being gloriously rich. As an adult, you're like, yay, I can live in the 'burbs in retirement until I die, haha.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Is there a certain dollar amount you are trying to hit?
Is there an age you'd like to retire?
What are all the factors you are using to determine when enough is enough and retire?

I'll retire once I am 53 and have >$2.5M in assets. Why 53? Because that is when my house will be paid off and I will finally have no debt. Kids will be in college (with funds I've already allocated). Why 2.5M? Because 4% of that = $100,000 - which is my target yearly (inflation adjusted) retirement income. Don't need more than that given that I will have no other debt. Wife will work til 58 at which point she will retire. She's a government employee and will have the ability to participate in government health insurance after she retires and until medicare kicks in.

Hopefully the stock market doesn't crap the bed between now and then. Else I am going to be one pissed off hombre.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Health care is the great unknown. Assuming that reasonable healthcare costs will exist when I'm ready to retire, I'll probably have enough to "retire" at age 50. I put it in quotes because I'll likely never stop working, volunteering, helping out with stuff, etc. but I'll have the means at that point to do whatever I want, including sitting on my duff.

Well you can give up now then. Because health care costs are already out of control.

 

[bbhaag]

Is there a certain dollar amount you are trying to hit?
Is there an age you'd like to retire?
What are all the factors you are using to determine when enough is enough and retire?

We are trying to retire with 2mil in todays dollars by the age of 65 to 68. We are currently in our mid thirties. The factors we are using to determine this amount are our current income and our projected income over the next five to ten years and the calculated market growth percentages over the past fifty years. Once we reach the five to ten year mark we will reevaluate our income levels to help us attain our goal based on the markets.

There is no easy answer to your questions and there is no one sure shot to reach your retirement goal. Being actively involved in your retirement is fundamental to its success but learning to step away and not hover over its day to day or month to month earnings is ok to. The road to retirement is a long process that can span many many years. Learning to step away and let your money work for you on its own can be a hard concept to understand.

 

[Slew Foot]

I plan on retiring sometime around age 50.... hoping to have around 7 mill or so saved up in investments. My wife wants to work until 60, sine thats when she qualifies for free healthcare for life and her pension maxes out. I sounds like a lot to retire on but living in CA Bay Area, it ends up amounting to an upper middle class retirement.

 

[Ken g6]

I don't have a set age yet. When I get tired of doing software development professionally and just want to do it as a hobby. Health insurance is also a consideration since that's going to be $6K/year or more when I start paying it.

Do you worry that you'll be unemployable in software development after a certain age? I do. I figure I'll try to save as much money as I can for now. Then I'll either have to try to get a job at Walmart or go on disability if I can't. It's too bad they don't let you have any savings when you're on disability.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Do you worry that you'll be unemployable in software development after a certain age? I do. I figure I'll try to save as much money as I can for now. Then I'll either have to try to get a job at Walmart or go on disability if I can't. It's too bad they don't let you have any savings when you're on disability.

I've done well enough with my investments (and living way below my means) that I don't really need to worry about it, but the longer I work the more comfortable my retirement will be.

There definitely is age discrimination in development, and also expectations at some companies that you'll work unreasonable hours for your salary.

I've thought it would be interesting to start a "graybeard consulting" company that snaps up all the "too old" developers that the startup kids don't want and offers them a work environment that they can live with -- reasonable hours including part-time if that's what they want, full health care even for part-timers (probably with a higher copay), etc. instead of foosball tables and nerf guns. Sadly I'm both too lazy and not enough of an entrepreneur.

 

[Skunk-Works]

When I win the lotto. May come sooner or latter.

 

[DougK62]

Well you can give up now then. Because health care costs are already out of control.

Agreed. I'm hoping it will get better! It's so bad at this point that you'd think it could only improve.

 

[KB]

Probably going to be 59.5 when I can draw from 401k penalty free and the house will be paid off.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Anyone that is saying less than 2-3 million is either single or you don't have much for high aspirations such as traveling or eating out when you retire....

Anyhow, as far as when I retire it's all a matter of where we are at in life (are the kids in college? Have their college bills been paid) and the amount of money we have stashed away.

Do you worry that you'll be unemployable in software development after a certain age? I do. I figure I'll try to save as much money as I can for now. Then I'll either have to try to get a job at Walmart or go on disability if I can't. It's too bad they don't let you have any savings when you're on disability.

Jobs at Walmart will be gone long before software devs. Walmart literally employs millions of people - so there is a WEE bit more demand to automate things from them. If you're worried about people in India replacing you... no worries. Just like outsourcing IT altogether, it has its indirect drawbacks that can only be learned from experience.

 

[BurnItDwn]

1.) mortgage 100% paid off
2.) 401K + Roth IRA balance add up to at least 1.5 million
3.) Stock market / Brokerage account adds up to at least 50K for every year under the age of 67
4.) If I happen to still be under 60 and considering it ... then I'll also want an additional 50K saved for every year under 60.

Realisticly, my goal is to retire in my 50s and travel, but, realistically, I will likely not retire until I'm in my 60s.