How to retire at 55 instead of 65 or 70.

[coobie]

Find a wife who is low maintenance, been blessed with mine..She is a great financial partner..

 

[dieselcrawler]

Preemptive vasectomy!

I think that one is a little late for me... *grin*

I took my shot at self employment, made it work for 12 years, outside circumstance took it's toll, closed up 5 years ago. Now working a good job that pays well, with all the overtime I want if I want it.

Lots of good advice in this thread, much of which I didn't follow when I was younger, but try to now....

 

[thepumpguysc]

I JUST retired in Dec & turned 55 in Jan..
Had my house & land paid off at 40, lived within my means, drive a 95' Ford Bronco w/ 377k on the odom. that's the envy of everybody..
I get stopped at traffic lites monthly w/ offers to buy it, Lol
Have a cr. score well over 800 but only use it to buy the wife a new car every 7 years & put 1/2 the money down & FIGHT to get the rest at 1.9%.. if not, I walk out the door..
Just remember> YA GOTTA HAVE a place to lay your head that the bank cant take.. the county is a diff. story. [taxes] but you only have to worry about them once a year.. ya gotta watch out for the bank, monthly.. lol
HAVE A MARKETABLE SKILL & you'll never be broke..
Having a LOW maintenance wife is a MUST.. & 1 of you have to know how to cook..
Having a working wife w/ insurance is a MUST.. Buying health insurance at 55 w/ no income, will eat the savings QUICK..

 

[Turbys_1700]

The biggest deterrent to retiring early is affordable health insurance coverage. A lot of folks are working jobs for health insurance benefits and wait until Medicare kicks in.

 

[Egon]

Now or later?? The twenty five year old body does much better in the moguls than the seventy year old body. Just simple facts! Use it when you can or lose it; you're choice?

 

[oosik]

It was all my wife's fault. She began saving the day I started working. We NEVER spent on extravagant things. We made a HUGE profit - selling our house in '82 in Anchorage. Reinvested almost 100% in house and property here in WA. Paid almost zero on capital gains. Retired here in '84 at the ripe old age of 42.

One night I woke up and the wife was not in bed. She was out in the kitchen with a SH*T load of paperwork spread out on the kitchen table. As I came down the hallway she told me - "go watch TV, don't bother me right now". Three hours later she ask me to come and look - she had determined that I could quit work and we had sufficient funds to live on throughout retirement. That was 34 years ago and she was correct.

Could I use more money - I guess so. I could start buying more things I really don't need and then try to find places to store the stuff. H*LL - its already that way to a limited degree right now.

 

[fried1765]

Find a wife who is low maintenance, been blessed with mine..She is a great financial partner..

That is the VERY BEST advice!

Had one of those for 34 years!
She left, with my best friend, when I was 57.
She took 1/2 of EVERYTHING!
I worked in a profession where retirement was mandatory at 60.
I have learned to live on 1/2 of what I thought I would have.
**** Happens.......

 

[ovrszd]

Having a goal to retire at 55 carries with it some interesting sub-plots.

Anyone can retire at 55. The reason most don't is because they are afraid they'll have to give up something to do so, or are so wrapped up in the rat race that they can't see anything else. Or they just don't want to.

It also implies that the fun will start at 55. But what about all through your 20s, 30s and 40s? Those are the years we're most healthy and energetic. We deserve to have fun then too, don't we?

Life is a balance. If you wait to do everything "later", you're doomed. But yes, we can't throw tomorrow away for the sake of today either.

Simply saying that if you mange your money in a smart and conventional way, you'll be independently wealthy enough to live the great life beginning at 55, is a funny assumption. Yes, you'll be much more secure than if you didn't, but it also means you'll continue to live the same as the previous years when you were simply planning to retire. There is more to it and more to life and more satisfaction to be had early and later. If you never do anything but plan ahead, how will you know how to live at some time way in the future when your life has been dedicated to simply holding back and building a reserve and waiting?

Again, seeking a balance is the best course. Simply sitting at a desk and stressing at a job to build a fund leads to a heart attack. Working a physical job exposes us to more physical danger. Commuting, year after year is playing the lottery with traffic.

These are the good old days.

Good stuff John.

Some entertaining responses in discussions like this aren't there.

A very, very good friend of mine is on the verge of retiring. He's 64. He's a multi-millionaire that could easily buy me out without a visit to his bank and the check would be good. I've been retired for 6 years. We both today will do whatever we want to do with no worries about whether we can afford it or not. Neither of us would trade our lives for anything. Both of us are very happy and content. Neither of us got here by some highly intelligent "plan". As my friend often says, "it's just zeros".

 

[KennyG]

There are a lot of interesting stories here that just show everyone has a unique situation. I always had good jobs and saved and invested, with the general goal of retiring at 55. When I reached 55 I had enough money but I was involved in some very interesting work and I still had kids in junior high. I thought they might gain something by seeing me work. Life went on and the good projects finally ran out when I was 68 and I retired (although they still talk me into coming back as a consultant from time to time).

Retirement is great but a little different than I expected. I give more to charity than I had counted on. We spend a couple of months in Europe every year. Sometimes I wish I had retired a little sooner, but no regrets.

 

[Spindifferent]

Buying health insurance at 55 w/ no income, will eat the savings QUICK..

Sadly, very true.