I always planned to retire before age 60 and did so at age 58. I waited until age 62 to take a company pension and Social Security. From age 58 till then I lived on investment income. I am quite comfortable now with The pension & Social Security and do not need at this point to use investments for anything. From age 58 until just two years ago I was able to take seven cruises on different size ships to many parts of the world, do considerable scuba diving, own a home in New Zealand, and a retirement home on a golf course. play lots of golf and live a very active life style. It's all in the planning and I have no regrets other than wishing I was 20 years younger so I could enjoy it all over again. BTW I am using some of my investments to establish UTMA accounts for my four great grand children, soon to be five.
My father-in-law took a job at when he landed in America at age 66. He was hired as a receptionist security of a bank and sidelined another 4-hour job in a nursing home. After 10 years, he was eligible for social security pension but he retired at age 80. He was living a good life with the pension of $1,200 plus food coupons until he died at age 87. The retirement age in our office is 60, that means we have to go unless the company gives us an extension of a year or 2. I have some colleagues who were given that privilege of extra years. I am now 53 and would like to retire now to escape from the stressful job that I have. But I cannot just do that because the social security pension comes when I am 60. And although I would receive a substantial retirement pay now, it's not practical to be living off on such money for it will be exhausted sooner or later that may leave us empty handed when we are too old to earn.
For me, 55 was. Not by choice though. Had to live on my savings until they ran out, then disability, now SS. I get by, so far. I keep seeing those commercials that say to buy gold and silver as a hedge against inflation. I'm gonna take their advice. I just ordered 12 pounds of gold. Should be coming any day now.
The best age to retire for most people is when you can afford to live a decent life on what you have coming in or invested. I wish I had planned as well as you @Ren Tanner , but I've done okay. I waited until I was 65 1/2 to retire but our house and cars were paid for, I had a little money in the bank and our retirement income is a lot more than we spend. I buy stocks or add to our other investments when our bank account gets too big. Of course health problems, accidents, or other factors can play a role in retirement decisions.
Due to being unemployed, no certificate and/or college degree (that wasn't required at my previous jobs) and using all of my unemployment insurance, wife and I decided that getting my SS Early Retirement (at 62) would be some money coming in from me. Got to admit, wife and I was pretty picky on the type of job, hours, salary and days we wanted me to have. On my previous job, my salary was good, no weekend work and only daytime/7AM to 3:30PM. We both got spoiled with that and didn't/wouldn't change. The way I look at it is, not everyone can, or wants to, stay on one job for years upon years. And, what if a person gets laid-off or a company closes.......both has happened to me. And, as far as saving for retirement when the wage isn't high enough to be able to save, a person really can't save. My wife was lucky, but then again, she has a major college degree and was able to get very close to the kind of salaries she wanted after getting that degree. She is still working a full-time, descent paying job, and is now collecting her SS/FRA. She wanted to wait until she turned 70 to collect a higher SS, but her former job laid her off and we both decided for her to get her SS now (which is really helping us). A lot of folks wish they could have done "this or that", so they could have a nice "financially secure" retirement, but a lot of times, that just doesn't happen. A lot of us would like to have a "fun-filled" retirement, but..........
I think each individual has to decide for theirselves what is the best age for them to retire and their decision will probably be based on what kind of retirement they want to have. We took our SS at 62 and although my husband tried retirement for a couple of months...he actually found he did not like being fully retired, so he found himself a part time job that he is happy with and the extra money is not bad either. I think the best thing about that part time job is that he gets to contribute so much of his earnings to a 401K which matches him dollar per dollar. We call this our savings account now because banks pay nothing anymore when you save with them. Since we're over the age where the IRS penalizes you if you withdraw from the 401K...we basically have a very nice set up with this "savings" account and plan to just use the money for extra special vacations or something special we might want that would not be in or regular budget. I don't consider myself fully retired either since I am always helping to take care of my grandchildren and my kids reward me for this. Since I'm so crazy about having time with all of them...that is reward enough for me, but it's nice to be appreciated too. My husband and I live a very simple lifestyle because that is what we prefer. And our needs are simple too. We usually would take at least two weeks vacation a year...one week with our family members and one week for ourselves but lately we haven't wanted to travel as much. We find being home more enjoyable for some reason. I guess we are getting old. So depending on what kind of lifestyle a retired person wants to live and how soon they would have the income to live that lifestyle would be a big consideration of what age they pick to retire. Sounds like you figured out yours just fine @Ren Tanner...and I hope your retirement is turning out to be just what you wanted it to be.
Even though our income really doesn't call for it, we do live somewhat of a "upper" lifestyle. We live in an apartment, have two older vehicles (2005 and a 1997) and an older (1992) power boat. We like to eat out much more than we use to, but (thank God) not every day. We use coupons quite a bit and share some meals. Wife took a week off last week and we went to Disney Orlando Hollywood Studios for a day and stayed at a Holiday Inn for three nights. Now she would like to go back in a few months and go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, but stay at a different hotel. Possibly looking at another "week off" sometime in Dec. to go to Miami. Her brothers lives just north of their and I've never seen the "hot spot" (beach areas) of Miami. My wife has always had the better income, but she loves it that I take out the trash, do all of the laundry, vacuum, dust and pretty much everything else in our apartment while she is at work. So, even though my SS is under 1k, she tells me "don't worry about it Honey, you earn your keep". Saying that to me with a smile and we both laugh about it.
I took Social Security at 62. I was going to wait but since I was diagnosed with my first cancer at that time, I started thinking about how much of it I might be able to collect. Besides, with radiation treatments four days a week for months, I wasn't able to get all of my work hours in and we needed the income. However, I still work for a living, earning under the amount that would require a reduction in my Social Security payments.
I think it is different for different people. And a lot depends on the persons pension. My friend worked for the county and was able to retire at 55 because she had a good pension. It also depends on the persons health and if he/she likes her job or not. My brother retied early since his job was causing stress that was putting his health in jeopardy. And I am so glad he was able to do this as he has been able to enjoy life more even though they could use more money. There are too many factors involved to say one age is perfect for everyone.