Do you have a planned retirement date?

[goodandbadjapan]

I've been watching some of the MMM YouTube videos and reading a few FIRE blogs and wondered if any of the forum members have a planned date for retirement. I don't have a set date but would like to be able to retire within 5-7 years which would see me in my early to mid fifties. Whether I can or not is another matter entirely, but I would like to still be young enough to enjoy a good few years of travel and (cheapish) adventure. So does anyone have a definite date in mind and if so, what do you intend to do once you pull the plug? I want to travel but sometimes I wonder if I won't just end up sitting under my kotatsu reading every day!

[ricardo]

Yes.

On my 60th birthday.

I’m 52 now

Counting...

I have a U.K. final salary pension payable from that date. As a bonus, I’ll also get a small Japanese state pension from 65 and a U.K. state pension from 67...

Travel, work occasionally if I get bored, slow down and enjoy life and do things slowly.

[Cracaphat]

I turn 51 this week and don't see myself retiring to easily in my 70s. The house loan should be paid in full by 65 and being self-employed and working at home,as long as I'm in good health and have some savings,reducing my workload is what I'd like to do.With men and women living longer than ever, a 20-25 year period after 60 of not really doing anything, is not for me,even if I were filthy rich.There's only so much of doing what you want to do post-retirement,before the reality of what now/next will crop up.

[RetireJapan]

Hmmmm. Tough question. I should find out on Monday whether I got promotion/tenure, which would mean 24 more years of guaranteed job.

My wife enjoys running her school and for now wouldn't consider giving it up.

I enjoy writing/presenting too much to stop doing it, even if I did 'retire'.

But we can't know the future.

Depending on how things go for the next few years we could be able to support ourselves from our savings/investments in about five years' time. I'm not really focused on the Retire Early bit, but am very interested in Financial Independence.

So it's fuzzy, but we hope to continue putting a couple of years' worth of living expenses away every year for the foreseeable future

[goodandbadjapan]

I can see myself continuing to do some work, too. My problem with running our school is that I find it hard to say no to new students and hence end up working more than I would like! That and the fact that regular classes mean taking extended holidays of more than two weeks or so is difficult. Otherwise I could happily continue longer. I'm getting better at the first issue but the second one is harder to find a solution to unless I want to bring in teachers to cover etc (but that comes with its own set of problems). Good luck with the tenure!

[captainspoke]

Definitely 2017/03/31.

No regrets. It's been going fine.

[ricardo]

Interesting thread.

I never suggested I’d be “doing nothing”.

My parents retired in their late 50s. Now in their early 80s they’re always busy. Busy on the things the matter to them, rather than the things they had to do to get money.

Exploring new cultures, experiencing new places and wondering at life isn’t doing nothing. It’s living....

[RetireJapan]

I can see myself continuing to do some work, too. My problem with running our school is that I find it hard to say no to new students and hence end up working more than I would like! That and the fact that regular classes mean taking extended holidays of more than two weeks or so is difficult. Otherwise I could happily continue longer. I'm getting better at the first issue but the second one is harder to find a solution to unless I want to bring in teachers to cover etc (but that comes with its own set of problems). Good luck with the tenure!

I've been thinking about that (a lot). Our plan A with the school was to give it to a family member when we didn't want to run it any more. This may not work out. Plan B is to sell it. Plan C is to shrink it so we only teach three days a week for 36-40 weeks a year. This would provide the time off, long breaks, and stimulation that we want.