What was your age at retirement?
- under 51
- between 51 and 57
- between 58 and 64
- between 64 and 71
- over 71
0 voters
2 Likes
I had my own business, and gradually worked less and less till I had to retire. Retirement is great! Getting old, not so much.
Birgit@86½. Everything from chin up is in good shape! The rest is all osteoarthritis. Pain here, there, everywhere. I lost my dear daughter 2020. We did a lot together, but now I just say home on my 5 acres with my dog. I have a little pond, and my photography which keeps me busy enough.
Do your traveling while still in good shape.
Birgit
19 Likes
You’re 86-1/2 yrs.old Birgit? Did I read that right?
Birgit:
close to you in age, physicality too - everything that used to work,now hurts…sigh…no more traveling for me, reality (disgusting reality) has set in.
1 Like
"Do your traveling while still in good shape.
Birgit "
And learn about yourself - discover those things you really enjoy that do not
require travel.
Howie52
Pretty spiffy to have books, music, films and art available at the touch of a finger.
Even spiffier to have someone to enjoy those things with you.
But having the memory of that person is pretty OK too.
13 Likes
Sort of retired at age 62 when I went from full time to part time work and later to part time seasonal work. Fully retired at age 78. Now at 80 I have a few more aches and am a little slower but still doing almost everything I’ve been doing most of my adult life. Don’t do ladders any more but will be out later today breaking up part of a deteriorating concrete garden path.
3 Likes
Pain here, there, everywhere
Ain’t that the truth. 
2 Likes
The US Military is about the only place from which one can retire under age 50 with a COLA adjusted pension and first dollar medical coverage for about a $650/yr premium for a couple. This unique situation truly allows for a second career of choice…which we did.
BruceM
9 Likes
The US Military is about the only place from which one can retire under age 50 with a COLA…
You can retire much younger than 50 with a service-connected disability. When I was placed on the Temporary Retirement list in 1970, Veterans Affairs predicted that I would not be able to work much beyond my mid-forties.
I fooled them by using the GI Bill to complete my degree, picking up a minor in Computer Science, and starting my career as a software engineer. I didn’t retire until after I was 68.
Unfortunately my service-connected disability has caught up with me. Veteran Affairs provides me with COLA adjusted disability compensation plus free healthcare. The catch is that I need to live relatively close to a VA Medical Center.
3 Likes
This unique situation truly allows for a second career of choice…which we did.
BruceM
+++
+++
AND, it supports a Magnificent 2nd retirement!
sunray
a man who Knows
{& it ain't bragging if it's a FACT}
I’m probably mistaken but I thought there was a way to view the results of the poll without having to go back to the original post. Anyone know how to view the results of the poll?
ImAGolfer
We retired in our mid-30’s.
Fun to recognize many of the posters in this thread, from the RE board on TMF from 15+ years ago.
I’m one of you now. I got locked out of the boards for a while. Since then, I replaced my car, got married (including name change), and retired.
I was 70 and had been there 21 years. I hardly took any vacation the last 2 years because I had to fill in for a co-worker who was doing sort of an essential job. My husband is retired, but he got bored and found a part-time job. (OMG. Does this make me a housewife?)
Now I’m going to be looking around for information about what to do with that IRA and stuff like that. If I don’t get locked out again.
1 Like
I had intended to retire at 70 but a woman in HR that I had helped with a networking problem contacted me about planned changes to our corporate retirement benefits and a Pension Protection Act requirement to recalculate my retirement benefits as I was over 65.
I submitted the paper work to retire at the end of January 2013 after turning 68. I received a 21% increase in my retirement benefit after the actuary completed his calculations. I started my retirement on Friday, 01 FEB 2013.
If you’re going to retire, always retire on the 1st! 
Back in '05, at age 62, instead of “retiring”, I mostly just changed jobs.
Instead of overhauling turbines and main engines on tankers and war ships, I began trading for my own account. The challenges are different. The money is about the same. But I’d go back in a heart beat. I liked the work.