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Your son has 2 years to go so you would be 47 when he graduates. and working for 7 more years to get another pension would leave you retiring at 54. With 100K plus per year and healthcare. That's what *I* would do!
My belief is if you really enjoy what you are doing, why retire ?
However, if you hate your job then quit and get one that you like.
Once you retire, it's a permanent vacation which most alpha males grow tired of and end up going back to find meaning by doing something they like doing as time is slipping by so slowly.
Why not make money doing it ?
Basically, if you can get to a point in your life where you're financially free, just do what you want.
Tell your kid to join the military and retire in 20 years. Cost of college is too much. The diploma is not as valuable anymore. Time is more valuable than money.
I am in the same situation as you, minus the kid in college, and I have 1 more year to the second pension. I decided that the second pension was worth it and looking back I wouldn't change that decision.
Hang in there for the second pension. It will make retired life so much more carefree. To have only seven years to go in your 40's is fantastic. Also start socking away every extra bit of money between now and retirement to pay for the construction of that home. Don't dip into retirement savings for that if you don't have to.
If you have kids and your spouse does not bring in an income - keep working.
I've seen too many times where the parents have to keep subsidizing the children and grandchildren. Then something might happen to the only income producing person etc.
You also sound like the type of person that enjoys their work life.
Retired at 60 and now 61. Struggle daily with spending vs. saving for old age since I have no one to take care of me and will need to hire out everything.
I am increasingly aware of the fact that all those wonderful things you want to do in retirement seriously start to diminish when you hit 70. Sure you may be EXCEPTIONAL, don't we all like to think so? There are always people who chime in with the I know someone who is 80 and bikes around the world every year. But will that be you? You can probably count on still playing golf and do some non strenuous travel, fishing. But the reality is - when you hit 70 you start seeing the Dr. more whether you are going to live to 90+ or not. By 70 you start to think twice about hiking miles where there is no cell phone reception, or traveling for long periods of time. By the time you hit 60 you'll notice that there are a fair few people who have already passed in high school photos. Celeb and music icons from your youth are dropping like flies. And it just increases from there.
So I have 9 years left. 9 years. Not much time before I feel like things start to power down.
Its too bad there aren't more part time options. I worked government with a guy who had come back for a 6 months on 6 months off gig which I thought was exceptional. He worked on annual budget plans, mostly end of year stuff so he worked the last 6 months of the fiscal year. Or may it was the first 3 and the last 3 I can't remember. But it allowed him to really sort of get away from work, do some long distance traveling and down time, but then replenish the pot. He died after a few years of doing this.
Ok I'm not going to tell you what to do but i'll give you the opposite side.
So my late husband and I were pretty normal like everyone here. Have more, have more, have more. same reasons everyone afraid of running out of money.
For my 50th birthday he took me to Vegas, 8 months later he was gone from Acute myloid Leukemia. I think of all the things we didn't do because "we should save the money for retirement".
So at 50 I was a widow with 3 teen kids.
So now I have the opposite view. I no longer stress that I don't have long term care insurance, I'm working one maybe two more years at most. and I'm spending my money. I'm taking my family to London May.
sorry for me time now is more important.
Sorry for your loss, and I agree with you. Early 50's are a prime time for adverse medical events, I've lost several family members to them. It's easy to assume that we will make it through but the numbers say not all of us will. I would semi-retire now if I had as much as $1000 a month in guaranteed income, I'd be willing to adjust my lifestyle in exchange for not having to work all the time. I have a pretty good income now but zero time and energy after work to do anything. Money is useless without time.
OP, you need to consider that, because you have a history of living into the 90s in your family, when people get to live that long, they have a greater chance of needing long term care, because of something that doesn't kill you but can keep you on your back or in a wheelchair. That extra income you will have by working 7 more years could save you from a devastating financial situation that can happen to people a lot more wealthy than you are.
Besides, if you just keep working until your offspring is done with college or whatever, you won't have that many years left out of the seven.
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