Kind of curious what everyone considers to be a somewhat optimal age to retire. I get the temptation to say as early as possible, but the more I think about it, ai think it’s somewhere between 55 and 60. Old enough to where the retirement account options have started to open up and you’re not the only one of your friends not working….young enough that you’re still hopefully in good health. But what do others think?
Retirement Targets
- Thread starter yowza
- Start date
I am 65 run a 5k in about 36 min in 70-80 degree weather. Workout 2-3 times a week for an hour even before retiring. I thought I was in good shape until I retired. Man, bending over, on my hand and knees. (I like to garden and to actually do physical work.) I had a desk type job but was walking a lot on the job also. Just, don't plan on acting 30 something when you retire, like I did. It doesn't work for me at almost 66 years old. I am not a sit in a chair person. You need to really know yourself and what you are going to do, if anything when you retire. I painted three closets in our house last February. I was stir crazy after retiring December 31st. I now work 3 afternoons a week for 4 hours. That helped immensely.
One thing to consider with the traditional vs Roth argument is that the tax brackets index to inflation. Your salary currently in the 22% bracket could be 12% in the future. Obviously you can’t predict the future, but regardless of the numbers there will always be higher and lower brackets.
I hear this a lot, but it’s hard for me to picture a scenario where any change to the law/tax treatment doesn’t involve grandfathering in existing Roth money. Taxing money people have already put away and earmarked as tax free Roth money would be political suicide. And at the end of the day they’re still politicians.
Changing the tax treatment of future contributions isn’t out of the question though.
Raised but not removed, you could also keep it where it is currently at for a business, only the wage earner continues paying. I would also not be opposed to means tests above a certain level, say a next worth of $5 to $10 million dollars. No reason people with that type of money needs SS, even though they have paid in their entire work career.
The biggest problem with the tax code is not the high earners, entertainers, pro athletes and business man getting their wages through a salary, they are paying their share and more. It's the investment class, getting their money through bonuses and stock options, they are paying an average around 8% per year, and some raking in 10s of millions or more. The Trump types going years without paying taxes.
Optimal is very hard to say as it depends so much on the person, their circle, and what they enjoy/need to do. There is also the question on if retirement means fully stopping work or only working when you want to.
For my own reasons I’ll be retiring around 43/44 but I’ll still be choosing to work the occasional shift to keep skills sharp and also for insurance purposes as it’s a long ways from Medicare. Got more then enough to keep myself entertaining and have a couple friends on a similar path even if they are spread around the country.
I get some people love work and can’t imagine what to do with their time but maybe it’s my generation but I don’t know any millennials who have that concern.
This thread has been absolutely fascinating to follow though and I haven’t had to google so many things that I have no idea about in a min
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60 years and 2 months sounds about right.
Depends. I've seen relatives completely fall apart after retiring. Lost identity. Sit on the couch or hit the casino constantly
That's not really living. I have two young kids or I would say **** it, retire at 55, and move back home.
But....the best I can do is Coast FIRE until 62 or 65.
I'm going to partially retire at 61. Plan to work about 24 - 30 hours per week for a year or two. See how it goes.
I’ve heard stories like this before, did they just not have lives or hobbies outside of work? I legit can’t imagine feeling like this post retirement
I have a teaching colleague who retired two years ago, but came back part time the year after retiring, then went back to full time last year and was trying to hold onto that before there were some allocation changes.
In short, for some, the ego revolves around the job and it's hard to let that go. I can't imagine going back into a school when I hang it up but will still do some sort of part time worker bee type of gig hopefully.
I'll tell you what isn't living, dragging yourself to the office for 40+ hours a week slinging emails and spreadsheets. I just can't see myself losing a sense of identity or purpose by walking away from the grind.
I have know a few that retired and sat out the four required months and was back in the classroom, both of them were halftime and loved it. Drawing their retirement and getting paid half their old salary. Both worked the first half of the day and were leaving the school at noon.
The best time to retire is when financially can afford to retire, and young and healthy enough that you can still do the things you never had time for when working. My wife and I retired on the same day 2 years ago, another couple we vacation with also retired at the same time. When we were talking about retiring or going another year or two, I mentioned we are all over 60, we have maybe 10 more years of good health and the ability to get around. We all retired and I have never missed it, the wife in the other couple does miss working and subs a lot and tried to get a half time position, but it fell through.
Yeah the idea of just going in for the mornings sounds great...I'd personally just not have to deal with the nonsense even in that short time.
This colleague is generally good to work with etc, but really seems to feed off of a main character type of deal with staff which I find odd.
I think people have forgotten what tax brackets were like back in the 80s and 90s. As I mentioned in my earlier post I was in the 28% bracket with a standard entry level salary right out of college. Throw in state taxes which I don‘t have to pay now and my RMDs would have to be over a half million a year to reach that level. I’m fairly confident I won’t get to that level but if I do I’ll give everybody on CF free beer for a year. I do admit it may not feel like 32% of $5,000 back then is worse than 22% of $120,000 today, but it is.
To me by far the biggest advantage of Roths are for inheritance. If you inherit a Roth you can do anything you want with it, including just let it keep growing tax free. If it is traditional I think you have 10 years to withdraw all the money and you have lost any future tax advantages. I’ve never really researched this so I could be wrong on the details but I’m confident Roths are better.
Heck I worked with an art teacher, that went till he was 72 or so, retired the same day I did, and then came back for a semester because the school was waiting for the gal they hired to get finished student teaching. The guy was getting his school salary, full IPERS being over 70 and his SS, was triple dipping he told me. No penally at age 70 and over to continue to work.
One was a nurse who's identity was completely wrapped in that.
The other has a pretty typical life. Fell into money and decided to spend time at the tables losing his ass instead of investing.
I don't think I'll have these types of issues. I'm moving to Leisure World and getting a tan
That is the general gist of it. There are subtleties but yes, Roth is the best way to pass inheritance and you have 10 years on an standard IRA.
I think this is somewhat my concern about retiring too early. I thought about going for 49 at first…or maybe 53. I guess we’ll see, but I’m thinking you definitely have to have something your retiring too if you go that early. I fear I would have way too much energy and would just spin my wheels online.
Probably need to find some sort of new passion anyway. Keeping up with kids and just everything is honestly plenty for now…but I imagine it won’t always feel that way.
Yes, 10 years I believe is correct for inheriting any kind of IRA (except for spouses who have special options). But yes, way better to inherit a Roth obviously. That said, I’m not interested in jumping through a ton of hoops to make it convenient for someone to receive my money when I’m dead. If I leave you $100k, you can just be thankful…whether you have to pay taxes or not.
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