Early Retirement

I am 56 and 7 months old. I lost my job at 49. My income was $35,000 a year (not much for a college graduate).

I moved to a state I didn't care for because my mother did not have a lot of time to live. I took a job at $20,000. I still make much less than I did when I was 49. I live in a state that has a high cost of living but pays low salaries and has a very high state tax burden.

At that time I was planning on retiring at 65. I have decided to retire or semi-retire at 62 because I do not want to live in this state any longer, now that my mother is dead. If I can continue in full time employment until I'm 62 I will consider myself lucky. There are not enough jobs to keep everyone working until they are 70.

Also I want to be young and healthy when I retire so I can enjoy it. I won't be living the lifestyle I do now. I will not being living alone--I will find some other retired people and share a house or apartment. I will be making about 105 to 110 percent what I make now. I don't need to live alone and I don't really want to live alone. Right now I have two cats.

Hopefully I will live in household with dogs and/or cats. If not I'll volunteer at a shelter.

I really fear I won't be able to hang on to my job until I'm 62 and no one will hire me. I figure if I can work until I'm 60 I could maybe wing it at multiple part time jobs until I'm 62.

I'm looking at a life span of about 80-90 years.

Wendy: Just a thought -- even if you do retire at 62 and begin to draw on Social Security, you might continue to work part-time.

You can collect your full Social Security monthly payments as long as you remain under $15,120 in 2013, for example. That's earning almost the same that you do now, AND collecting Social Security.

If you were still employed at $20,000, Social Security must deduct $1 from your benefits for each $2 you earned above $15,120.

Either way, if you earn some part time income, even $5000/yr, Social Security may recalculate your benefit annually too - because you had additional income.

Read more here in the Social Security brochure...
just click to open, do FILE, SAVE AS to your desktop, and read it from there.. (or print it).

Best Wishes!

SIGN UP: Retirement Insider