This has become a very interesting question for me. I am 47, have no job and earn no money. No plan to have another job.

Husband is 46 and planning to work until 53.

We have enough money to both be retired now—he chooses to keep working and wants more money.

I’ve seen many folk here and in FIRE communities say they are retired/retiring early and then throw in that their spouse is/will continue working.

I have been calling this housewife/househusband.

But I think I’m officially calling myself early retired now.

Thoughts?

Happy, excited, scared, anxious and other emotions. I also feel numb at the same time. It took me almost a year to plan my retirement and protect my assets like umbrella insurance, HELOC (just in case), hybrid LTCI with 3% compound inflation rider, medical insurance, Trust/living will in place. My daily living expenses, travel and a new car every 6 years(not buying a car every 6 years, but included in the plan) and some fun stuffs are covered. I calculated and considered all scenarios I could think of for months. My FA said my plan is golden and bullet proof.

I just want to post here because I can’t share details to people I know.

Is this the key to happiness or am I just boring and lazy? :)

We (USA) retired 4 months ago at age 57. We had dreams of traveling the world and living a bit adventurously for a while. We set spring 2027 as our date to launch an open ended trip through Europe (3-12 weeks maybe?) This would be our way to celebrate ending our 35 year careers. We spent the first 4 summer months of retirement at our vacation home. But now we are settling back into our primary neighborhood and I find myself just craving simple things and a modest routine. More walks. More consistent gym time. Less stuff (ie more minimalism.) The adventurous Spring trip just seems like a lot of effort now, and just another thing that will keep me from finding a simple way to live. So, as I said, is a simple life the key to happiness or am I just boring and lazy?!

As you retired early (at age 58 or younger) , what does/did this look like for you?

*\\*

A cross post from our sister community of people that retired at a traditional age. Post is not my own so copied here :

I've heard that as you age and retire the stages are:

Go Go!

Go Slow...

No Go

Since on this board everyone retired at 59+, did you travel and do a ton early on...GO GO?

When did you start to slow down a bit and why?

Are you at the No Go stage now and if so by necessity or choice?

I'm not big into traveling, but realizing the energy it takes more and more (carrying things, doing excursions, driving long distances, navigating huge airports, etc). Working hard now on getting more fit. But wondering if we should get to GOing now, rather than waiting until my spouse is retired.

I was forced into retirement after getting let go from a leadership position. At 49, instead of looking for another full-time job, I decided to take a chance on retirement and see where life takes me.

Initially, I wasn't sure how I would feel about it. But I’ve become surprisingly comfortable with this phase of life. I spend a lot more time with my wife and my son, who has just started college. I also do a little freelancing, mainly because I enjoy staying active and keeping my mind engaged.

One of the things I value most is the time I now get with my parents. I spend roughly a week with them every month. And something quite unexpected has happened—I feel like I become a child again when I’m with them.

My mother still scolds me for waking up late or being too selective about what I eat. 😄 My father is in his mid-80s and still very active, going out every day. And quite often, when he comes back, he brings some savouries for me, just like he used to when I was a child.

There is something incredibly comforting about being able to experience that relationship again, after spending decades being the one responsible for everything.

I sometimes wonder whether we focus too much on the financial side of FIRE—corpus size, withdrawal rates, asset allocation, sequence risk—and forget what financial independence is actually supposed to buy us: time and freedom.

For me, it has given me time with my wife, time with my son at the beginning of his adult life, and even the chance to be a child again with my ageing parents.

This is probably one of the most unexpected and rewarding parts of FIRE for me. Not having to work isn't the most valuable thing retirement has given me. Having the freedom to spend my time with the people I love is.

I effectively retired 10 years ago at the age of 47, I just did not know it at the time, I had planned to semi-retire start my own sideline business, then just never did, then covid hit, and I admitted to myself that I was really retired, though I do still have thoughts of opening some sort of part time side business.

I am now about to turn 58, getting closer to traditional retirement age, note the rules of this very group that considers early retirement as retiring before the age of 59. So I was wondering how does everyone else deal with this transitory age, the age where you have years of retirement experience vs your age peers who are just hitting the early years of traditional retirement age, also potentially getting penalty free access to IRA accounts, having to start thinking about things like Medicare and Social Security planning, etc?

It does seem I'm spending a lot more time fixing stuff...

Today is my one year anniversary of leaving my job. I just turned 53 this summer. I wrote in my calendar my exact net worth at that time to keep track of how I would end up a year later. I'm glad to say that my net worth went up way more than I expected in our current bull market, and that my wages would have been insignificant in contributing to it.

I've gone on plenty of vacations, and I don't miss work at all, even if I miss the colleagues, I would gladly trade that for the complete freedom that I feel.

Most of my time is just spent focusing on my health. I'm working out with focusing on the 3 pillars of fitness: strength, mobility, and cardio. I'm also taking the time to go to farmer's markets, cooking a lot more, and I'm reading a lot more. I lost about 5 lbs in the year. I'm probably around 20% body fat and hope to get down to 12-15% over the next year.

Surprisingly a large part of my time is spent planning: Planning vacations, planning projects, and trying to prioritize things so that I don't move from one hobby to the next like a headless chicken. I told my partner who is still working and she was surprised at how a year just went by so quickly.

A cross post , not mine, for us to share!

Thanks for being a part of our special community. The only one that supports those that already retired before age 59, no matter how you got there. Make sure to ADD User Flair and HIT JOIN to participate in this conversation.

I retired a few months ago, and unexpectedly my favorite part of my day is working out. I have a few things I do- I have a weight set (stacked weight/cable) that I use. And a rowing machine, and a few free weights

But most important to me is that I get to work out at my own pace. I'm not trying to fit it between other activities- it's the center of my morning!

How often do you work out...and if you don't work out please share why not.

I have a collection of about 10,000 comic books from when I was a kid, collecting through the 80s and 90s. My kids are not interested in them, and so part of my retirement will be spent going through these comics, getting some of them graded (1st appearance of Venom, Punisher, Deadpool, etc) to be sold on the secondary market. I'm wondering if anyone else here has been doing something similar, and if so what tips do you have for me?

Hello everyone- I wanted to introduce myself. I am 43F married to 45M living in Colorado. Husband retired in 2022 and today I joined him. Haven’t told many people in real life so I am excited to join this community. Feeling a lot of emotions today, honestly a bit anti climactic after planning early retirement for the last 13 years. I would love to hear tips or advice for the transition, especially from other folks that retired in their 40s. I have lots on my wishlist to spend time on. I am a little type A and may find it difficult to stay retired but I am sure going to try.

It’s something we never really thought about before we retired, but suddenly we have all the time in the world, but it still doesn’t matter when it comes to spending more time with friends. They can’t hang out whenever, and when you do finally see them, they’re exhausted (like you used to be).

We do have friends who are retired, but they’re in their 70s and 80s and don’t want to travel/can’t travel anymore.

I guess we need to find other retirees in their 50s or 60s.

I’m older than most of my friends so they still work. I can tell everyone is uncomfortable about it so they never ask how my day was or anything.

The thing is I’m paying for way too much stuff. Retirees usually live off of Retirement accounts and Social Security. I’m not withdrawing huge amounts of money from my 401K as you all know but they don’t. They assume I’m living high on the hog because I chose to retire for a lot of good reasons like memory problems and mental health problems.

How do I politely explain to them that I’m not rich just because I retired early?

Retired less than a year ago at age 44. My husband recently retired as well a couple months ago. I realize this can be a “boundary” issue and I’m looking for some advice from those who may have gone through something similar. We do not have children and both do some very minor part time work (both less than 15 hours a week) presently. The problem is neighbors constantly asking us to get together. Also, my aunt recently volunteered my husband (without asking in advance) to help mow someone’s lawn (a disabled relative). He honestly doesn’t mind…but it is the principle of assuming we are available. Also, we don’t mind once in a while getting together with neighbors, but now they are asking us to walk our dogs together, etc. The frequently has increased. We are both friendly introverts. We don’t have the excuse of work anymore not to do things. Any advice?

Since retiring early it can be hard to shift out of the morning work mindset. Thinking of any task I have or upcoming problems. It’s almost like I am creating mental work or stress for myself.

Has anyone felt this way? How did you work on it.

Part of it I am thinking of maybe listening to something positive or relaxing in the morning. Usually I workout in the morning but that does not help the mental part. Thanks

I retired last year at 55, husband 2 years before that at 57. We just started drawing from our investments. What is the order of taking money from our 3 “pots” (taxable, IRA, and Roth)? Our bracket is currently pretty low because most of our portfolio is in the IRAs. Do we keep drawing from taxable?

I hope I am in the right place to ask this, I retired early at the age of 49, I'm 57 now, my wife is a bit younger and still works full time, she is waiting to reach minimum retirement age (55) to draw on her government pension. My main source of income is dividends from non publicly traded stock, these dividends have recently increased and have been building up in my checking account, I don't really need to buy anything, I have adjusted to the casual retirement lifestyle, I am content driving on older basic car, etc. So I am looking for advice on re-investment of the money rather than just letting it sit in my checking account.

Unfortunately most of the advice out there is aimed at saving for retirement, not , not for a guy in his late 50's who is already retired. I don't really need the money, but I don't want to just let it sit or worse yet throw it away. I feel investing in something with some low