I retired at age 69 in 2005.

I retired at age 69 in 2005. I ended up with a 118K pension. I had worked for a municipality. It's great having that pension and not having to work for it anymore.

That city was trying to force me out anyway since I was very old. I used to get a 6 week vacation and was taking it in Wednesdays off most weeks. I was only working a 4 day week then.

I retired at about the same age. I had a small pension and Social Security that covers our needs.

I had so much accrued vacation/sick leave my company started requiring that I burn some off the books. I stopped working on Mondays. But then the company kept calling me in to work that day so we negotiated a cash out plan in which they bought my time back and paid me for the resulting taxes as well. Which of course resulted in more taxable income. I still worked on-call part time for over a year before I finally just made retirement permanent.

I got the boot in 2005, just as I was turning 51.

It was the best thing that ever could have happened to me although I didn’t realize it at the time.

The key for me was being financially prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.

Savings and thrift should be explained and encouraged in age appropriate ways to every young person until it becomes as routine as other home training or life skills.

I retired for one year from mid 2017 to mid 2018. Was totally bored. Plus bank account was running low. I went back to work in a different nursing home and have been there 7 years and love it. The previous nursing home I was at for 21 years. I think retiring in your 60's is dumb, unless you have a lot money to live on, which I didn't. I'm 75 now, and have no intention of retiring. I love having a reason to get up in the mornings.
I love the idea of having a job to go, and being able to still make money working. I'm in good health, so I plan to keep on working. There was woman who worked in the facility, where I worked who was 80 or 81 years old. She passed away about 4 years ago from throat cancer. She was the oldest employee in the facility. Since then, I have been the oldest. Now I share that title with a male co-worker who's my age and works part time like me.

30 years ago in 1995 the corporation I worked for was downsizing. We had a plan in place for me to retire early at age 55. Age 54 I was offered a pension, health care paid until I reached age 65. After that the money for a health care plan was put into a HSA. Took all of 2 seconds to decide. Never regretted that decision.

OneEyedDiva said:

You mentioned your 118K pension before. Did you take that in a lump sum or will you get that amount spread over X amount of years? I can't imagine that you are getting 118K a year having been a municipal employee.

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Yes. I bet he does get that amount. Connecticut has generous pensions. They are also very underfunded. The political class has discovered over the years generous pensions for state employees guarantees them a loyal voting base. It's gross. Not a dig on OP.

I was an employee of a NY State municipality. All the employees of that municipality got generous pensions. In fact the pension was exactly the same as my salary. That is why I retired. I was their Chief Accountant when I retired.

Mitch86 said:

I was an employee of a NY State municipality. All the employees of that municipality got generous pensions. In fact the pension was exactly the same as my salary. That is why I retired. I was their Chief Accountant when I retired.

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Same shoe. Different foot.