When did you decide to retire?

I see so many inspiring people RETIRED and growing and creating into their 80s, why would you want to WORK?

Guess what, your fun really RAMPS up when you retire .

 

A slightly different perspective and a really sad story:

We know a couple who live in Sydney, had their own business (which they loved working in and it was very successful), they had a good property portfolio (13 IPs in Sydney), they had the financial resources to retire years ago in their early 50's but decided to keep working for another 5 years.

They finally retired, downsized their PPOR (bought their old PPOR for $35K, sold it for $1.9M), ... In their eyes, they were set up fabulously financially for retirement.

Just recently, the wife was experiencing difficulties putting on her seatbelt, taking off her ear-rings, etc. Diagnosis:- cancer in the brain and on the lung (even though she never smoked). Prognosis:- she won't see 60.

Their biggest regret:- missing out on enjoying retirement together after working so hard for so long.

What is really pi$$ing them off:- working those extra five years when they didn't need/have to.

We have been retired for nearly 7 years. IMHO, one can never have too many years in retirement.

 

Great reminder to all that life is too short.
I think the thing with retirement is about what we enjoy to do more.
Those who want to stop working, they enjoy doing other things than working.
Those who want to keep working, they enjoy only working.
So everyone has different perspective on retirement.

 

We had our own business, it was very successful and we both enjoyed working in it. So much so, that we used to tell people we will keep working in it until we are at least 70.

Someone came along with a big bucket of money and wanted to buy our business; we thought about it, changed our plans and we sold it.

We decided to retire. Four months ago, my wife was diagnosed with a major health issue. It is not life ending but it will take us all of 2017 to get through the treatment. We have had to literally "put our life on hold" for 12 months. The treatment is all consuming.

Thank God, we are retired. Thank God, we sold our business. Thank God, we have the time to fight this disease. Thank God, we don't work. Thank God, we have the financial resources we have. Thank God, we have top medical insurance ...

This health issue was never part of our plans. It was a real "wake up call" for us, on top of what was happening to our Sydney friends above.

The positive outcome from my wife having this health issue:- we have re-evaluated our plans for the future and, those things we really want to do but had scheduled them for 5 to 10 years time, they are now scheduled for action starting next year.

 

Your posts are making me rethink my strategy again keirank so thank you for these poignant reminders. Against good health, more wealth does not even rank.

OK I'm mid 40s now. Hard stop target for retirement will be by/before my 50th birthday. No exceptions.

 

That's a good round number to aim for.
I made a casual attempt to do it by 40 but missed, (not financial related), now on track to be done by 42.
All I can say is go hard to try and get it done by 48/49 because these things always take longer than expected to tie up loose ends.

 

Yep, which is why I think the PC's on here who just keep working and working, accumulation more and more, rather than "enjoying" life, probably have not been touched by it.

We were when wife was diagnosed with cancer in early 30's (all good now). Changes your priorities. You just want a comfortable retirment (not like one PC person on here 60's with $10m in property and $2m debt still, (8mil equity, asking " how do I retire", doh!).

Not only immediate family, but then in support groups where some ultimately fall victim and pass away.

Reading many PC posts, people just get so into the investing, they loose sense of why they are doing it. People who won't sell down property to fund early retirement, etc.

You only live once. How much money do you need to take to the grave with you.

 

Very sad

 

I would not just be accepting someone's diagnosis of my life.

 

I'm just aiming to pay off our PPOR and then move to Europe. I've had a few health conditions (nothing life threatening but certainly still quite impactful) so I want to make the most of my time. Our places rents for $500/week at present. There are plenty of places we'd be happy to live where you can rent for $500-700/month. Can easily live off the rest although we'll still do work of some sort on the side. We can always move back if we like.

 

MTR that is the plan. We just sold one older property and paid down half a million in debt, and plan to sell another older one next financial year.
Then we will have a bunch of newish properties and my wife worked out around $60K passive income from rents.

She will continue to work part time as a nurse, and I will ride my bike with the kids to school and kinder... And we can take our overseas trips to volunteer etc. Great life experiences.

But of course, the property business will continue - it's not really a time consuming job like teaching!

 

I retired at 41 (57 now) and wife retired three years ago at 51. She was a senior executive used to working very long hours. But she's so busy in retirement she often says I don't know how in the hell I ever found time to work. I spend too much time on this forum nowadays which means I get behind in other things at times. But I enjoy it for the moment and the beauty of being retired is that I have the choice to do whatever I want. I imagine I'll wind back my time here though sooner rather than later as I'm running out of things to say.

Quite frankly I find it sad at times that some people's lives are defined totally by their paid work especially when they don't enjoy their job. I suggest these people learn to find interests outside their paid employment including spending more quality time with family and friends and finding hobbies. Because one day you may not have the choice to work anymore (retrenched, unemployable, health issues, relationship breaking down cause family hardly sees you etc). Then because your work defined your life your retirement may end up being a very miserable one not just for you but everyone else around you.

 

It's not going to undo the cancer by not accepting it. But it's hard to predict when exactly her time will come, they can only use mathematical and scientific progression analysis to estimate how long she will have. Giving that estimate is generally very helpful for people so they can put their affairs in order and make every moment count. There are people who have outlived their estimate by years but they are glad they spent every day wisely with their loved ones making memories.

 

I quit my day job almost 3 years ago at 39. I wouldn't classify myself as retired but I don't need to work and choose to be self employed

I definitely did employ the FU moments in that last year of working and pulled the plan forward a bit with a grand finale FU when I realised that I loved my job but it was consuming so much of my time that my family was suffering.

Things that I realised then and since
- I didn't need to replace my income 100%
- 70% of my income was enough and I then had lots of time on my hand to work out how to generate the other 30% if I wanted to
- my family is reaping the rewards - much better relationships with DH, DD8, DS10 and DS17
- granted myself permission to look after myself and my health better (though still procrastinating almost 2yrs about a hip operation I need)
- travel is addictive and awesome
- I don't miss peak hour traffic

My pace is slower now and I can stop and smell the roses. I'm still quite driven to succeed but I am happy with my balance. I don't want to increase my projects or clients to the point where it starts to feel like a job.

 

job like teaching![/QUOTE]'

Sounds good, the option of part time work as a nurse is very helpful, not many people have these kinds of options. Nurses are always in demand and I think highly paid. Agency work??

I like the idea of turning passing property investing into a property investing business, getting paid for stuff you enjoy doing.

MTR

 

It's funny when I talk about early retirement the universal response is "you could never retire". Actually I think I will be brilliant at it. Stuff them am doing it anyway.

 

Good on you! It's about finding something other than a "job" that you are passionate about. Some people get IPs to get money to live off, I got IPs as I'm passionate about it. I don't think I could do shares to generate income as I'm not passionate about it and therefore I don't think I'd be as good at learning, evolving and growing that income. Never say , never though Then I'll ask @austing if I can be a guest at his house and learn.

 

Totally agree with this. I find it sad that 99% of the time when you meet new people or run into old acquaintances, everyone always asks "so what do you do?" (Meaning what work do you do).

People feel like their job defines their life, and can't fathom that there is more to life than just work.

 

very nice Austing...congrats...retired at 41 is a great result.

Would be good to know how you fund living the dream and what you keep busy with other than the forum and shares.

 

I was so disillusioned within minutes of joining an organisation of starting work I'd spent years studying for, retirement became a goal.

The promotions and relocations over the years that have seen me work with more and more senior people, has not changed that view but made the resolution stronger.

I work for an organisation that is successful in spite of itself.