Early retirement

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

To those who have retired early (or who hope to)--

Have you ever had situations where someone who you knew prior to retirement thought that you must be rich if you could be retired early? Maybe a bother-in-law who thought that you must have money to lend them? A mechanic who seemed to think you were good for his/her summer vacation? A sibling who thought that you should now take in Mom & Dad since you obviously have the time and bucks?

Or if you're anticipating early retirement, do you think this might be a problem in your future?

[MYOM]

Hi Joan:

I’ll spend a minute with you on this one because I retired at 60. The problem with early retirement is keeping busy. I screen traded the S&P Emini during my first year of retirement. It takes awhile to get over the habit of working every day.

As for people thinking you are rich, it is a problem. Other people judge you by the house you live in and the cars you drive. Quotes for everything go up if you are perceived to have money. I wanted to build a second two-car garage. I could tell builders were quoting me high because of my custom home. When I stopped them from coming over to see me, bids for the job dropped almost in half.

I have been rich and I have been poor. I prefer rich but I don’t like being treated differently because of my wealth. I am just an ordinary person.

Dan Clemons

[Caoineag]

I hope to retire early. I don't anticipate having a huge problem with people asking me for money because I probably still won't look rich and I am also really good at saying no.

People who are after your money are pretty easy to spot and get rid of before they cause trouble. As to my family, they are on their own. They had no problem with leaving me to fend for myself so I have no problem returning the favor (not bitter, just not inclined to bail them out of their own mistakes). Most of the other people I know have far more money than me so no worries there.

That said, anyone with money will always have to fend off the vultures to a certain extent.

[jIM_Ohio]

I treat too many people like an SOB for early retirement to make people treat me differently.

[Like2Plan]

I thought folks were more likely to hit you up for money when you are working full time. When you become a retiree, don't you tell folks you are a pensioner on a fixed income?

[MaskedMarvel]

I would like to retire early. You retire because you want to enjoy your life. If people starts to bother you about money when you retired, what where they doing before? You worked hard for your money so you decide what you want to do with it.

[Exile]

Just the phrase "early retirement" seems to imply being well-off enough to stop working before the magic age of 65. DW and were able to reitre ahead of time using our social security as our main source of income, only because we relocated to the Philippines where the COL is much cheaper. There's no way that we could pull this off while living in the U.S.

If we were to compare our financial situation now with that of even a few years ago, when we had a much larger income (my salary), two cars, and a larger apartment while living in California, we're still better off now because even though we live a more modest life-style, we have no debts as we did then. In other words we had the trappings of financial comfort without the substance. We were able to live as we did subject to a continuation of my wages. That is something that of course we no longer have.

So if others assume that we're "rich" because we retired early, in a way that's correct because given our current circumstances, all we have is all we need. To DW and me that is the true meaning of wealth.

[chai]

early retirement.... for me as long as i can work... i wouldn't take an early retirement.. not unless i can have already a stable business to make my self busy...

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

A stable business to make yourself busy in retirement? That doesn't sound like retirement.

[tripods68]

I think early retirement for us would definitely bored us to death. I see retired people on my neighborhood, on the park, Mall, Library, and walking around bored by the expression on their faces and just needed to get out of the house. They looked like they could have been attractive and successful people in their day, but now life has passed them by. I picture them in a busy office or eating at a restaurant with tons of friends years ago on top of the world, but now they are all alone.

Definitely, we just don't us retiring early.

[Exile]

I think early retirement for us would definitely bored us to death. I see retired people on my neighborhood, on the park, Mall, Library, and walking around bored by the expression on their faces and just needed to get out of the house. They looked like they could have been attractive and successful people in their day, but now life has passed them by. I picture them in a busy office or eating at a restaurant with tons of friends years ago on top of the world, but now they are all alone.

That begs the question as to why they retired in the first place. What did they think was going to happen?

Any chosen change in life's direction requires careful planning and forethought. How "successful" could these people have been if they didn't think things through to their logical conclusion?