Many congrats!

This stood out to me in original post. I have never really tried to explain in but I work in project management and estimating and I think you summed it up pretty well. Its made me old.

“there is always this underlying stress of deadlines, getting everything right and then worrying where your next project is going to come from. Think of it like running your whole life towards the edge of a cliff, and just when you get to the edge, the cliff moves out”

It's true. Like I have said before. I love my job, the work I do, our people and our company. Not a lot of people can say that.

That said, I've been working since I was a young teenager in some form of the construction and engineering industry, and I'm just ready to do some things for myself before I have to start eating applesauce with a bib on.

I have a huge list of things I want to do, and I'm not even finished with the damn list yet.

My wife and I retired at 44 and 53 and wife and I did just about everything that we have ever wanted to do. Now we enjoy watching the water go by, kids and grands. I’ll be one of the first to say that getting old is a lot of fun if your health stays good but if your health goes south it will change everything. My wife and I are fortunate that our health is still good at 71 and 78 and looking at many more years to come.

I spent about 3 years saving %50 of each paycheck and it has made a huge difference. Basically, at the start of those 3 years I got a %50 raise so I saved it and kept living like I had before, it wasnt that tough to do.

Congrats on your early retirement. Maybe now, since you will have all that extra time on your hands you can post an occasional pic in the buffet forum 😎

I did a similar thing, but it was over a period of about 10 years. Every time I got a raise, which was usually between 2% and 5%, instead of buying a new boat, truck, side by side, motorcycle, etc... I bumped my 401k contribution by whatever percentage that was. Once I maxed that out, I added in the catch-up contributions, and here we are.

Saving is pretty easy, it's the self-discipline that hard for a lot of folks.

Congrats man! I’ll need to work at least til I’m 70. I’m 55 now. Wish I’d known in my 30’s what I know now.

I’ve done the same thing with my 401k - every year when I got a raise I bumped my 401k contributions up by the same amount. Now I put 15% in every year into a Roth account. I hit my 30 year mark when I turn 62, and with 30 years I’ll get an extra 10% per month on my pension, so there’s a real motivation for me to stick it out until I’m 62. Otherwise I’d be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Irish, congrats on your upcoming retirement. And thanks for starting this thread - great info for anyone who is getting anywhere close to retirement age.

Thanks man. That's smart. When you get a raise, give it to yourself in the form of saving it.

I think I'm going to take my pension at 60. (I ran the various scenarios.) and our company has a "Level Income" plan to where you can get a higher pension before 65 and a lower pension after 65. (The assumption is the Social Security will make up the difference when you turn 65. I wish I could get it until 67.)

If I take "level" pension now I get $3150 a month until 65 and $1300 after. (This gives me $3150 a month for the first 5 years.)
If I take "level" pension at 62 I get $3300 a month until 65 and $1500 after. (But I only get that money for 3 years instead of 5.)
If I take "normal" pension now I get $1700 for the rest of my life.
If I take "normal" pension at 62 I get $2200 for the rest of my life.

(Numbers are rounded.)

I seemed to me, running the scenarios, that I ended up with more money in my 401k after 72 if I took the first of those 4 options. I think the reason being that I will need less supplement money from my 401k for the first 5 years therefore allowing it to grow more. If current laws stay the same, those of us with 401k's are going to have to start pulling money out at 72 years old whether we like it or not.

Congrats Irish!! As you know we work for the same company and I have been a receipt of some of the projects your group have designed and completed. I plan to retire in a couple of years having completed 40 years. I work with some folks that are well north of 62 and putting pencil to paper they are actually losing money coming to work. I encourage folks to get out as soon as possible and enjoy life.

I wish I had 40 years. My pension would be much better. I'll only have 16 years when I retire. I was a mid-career hire. I worked as a sub-contractor for about 18 years. Then a contractor for 2 years.

Like I said before. I love the company, love the people, love the culture, but I'm ready to wake up every morning and do what I want to do for whatever time I have left on this planet. There's just too many things I have left I want to do and I just don't have the time to do them. Being a Project Lead for the company is almost a 24 hour a day job. People will call you at anytime, because the power has to stay on.

This company is been a blessing and made it possible to retire early. They treat their retirees good too. My medical and dental together is only going to cost me about $210 a month in retirement and then they also have a plan for when you go on Medicare at 65. So they have surely taken care of us regarding health care.