Is 50 too early to retire? Absolutely not. Retirement isn’t about age, it’s about how much money you stashed throughout the years. As long as you have enough money on hand to last you and your family throughout your life, 50 is not too early to retire.
There are many more young people choosing to retire early. Some are even retiring at 30 with just $500k in the bank. That’s the biggest leap of faith I’ve ever seen! I personally want to retire early at 30 as well. However, my definition of early retirement is to work whenever I want to.
Not when I need to. The company I’m working for is so great that I don’t ever foresee stopping work for them. I will consider myself an early retiree if I still choose to work because I want to. Not because I have to. Even at a traditional 9-5 paid employment.
Is 50 too early to retire? Absolutely not as long as your finances are already taken care of. There are people who acquired massive amounts of money by 30 and are choosing to retire early even then! Life is too short working for an employer who doesn’t care about you.
The 9 things below are what matters in determining if you’re retiring too early at 50. Work can be a great sense of joy. For many others, it’s a great sense of stress. People are realizing climbing the corporate ladder is not worth the additional sacrifice in exchange for climbing up.
The money isn’t everything. Early retirement is a great option to take your life back into your own hands.
How Much Money do I Need to Retire at 50?
You need enough money to pay off your expenses in accordance with the 4% rule of withdrawal. If your expenses are $20k per year, the minimum money you need to retire at 50 is $500k. This FIRE Calculator is fantastic at calculating just how much your portfolio would’ve withstood history.
Is 50 too early to retire? It doesn’t matter how old you are. It matters how much money you have. If you’re retiring at 30, you have to take into account inflation. The government is not the best at managing fiscal and monetary policy that benefits its citizens. The government is quite bad at it, in fact.
The record high inflation we experienced in 2022 demonstrates that fact. Over a 50 year investment period, you can expect to live through about 14 bear markets. Out of those 14, some will be black swan events. The four decade record high inflation of 2022 was a black swan event.
Your portfolio should be able to withstand black swan events because getting back into paid employment is not as easy as everyone thinks it is after early retirement. There was an old couple who retired in 2000 and experienced two significant downturns in the tech bubble and financial crisis.
Although they contemplated getting back into work, it wouldn’t have been as easy. If they were already in the paid employment game. it would’ve been easy. Is 50 too early to retire? As long as your finances are taken care of, everything falls into place.
It requires careful planning but many employees can pull it off.
Is 50 Too Early to Retire? 9 Things to Consider
Is 50 too early to retire? There are much more things to consider when it comes to making one of the most important decisions of your life! Overconfidence destroyed many people’s finances.
1) Do You Have Enough Money?
Can you withstand a bear market? The Fed spoiled many investors rotten with record low interest rates for over a decade. Many investors were caught off guard by the bear market of 2022. Many early retirees at the end of 2021 went back into work because of the bear market.
Is 50 too early to retire? Not when you have enough money to withstand multi year long bear markets. Bear markets do happen and they WILL continue to happen in our lifetimes. It’s unavoidable. The boom and bust cycles exist because it’s destined to exist repeatedly over our lifetimes.
As long as you have enough money to pay for your living expenses and withstand a prolonged bear market, it’s never too early to retire. The key is to never underestimate how sharp a bear market can be. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 caught many off guard.
As long as you plan for bad market events to happen, everything works out.
2) Will You Miss Paid 9-5 Work?
Some 9-5s are downright horrible but other 9-5’s are downright great. If you work for a profitable company, a 9-5 is actually enjoyable because there’s no one who’s stressed all the time harping at you for not meeting your targets and results.
Is 50 too early to retire? If you don’t think you’ll miss paid 9-5 work, then it’s not too early too retire. Actually consider the benefits of a 9-5 before only thinking about the cons. There were many people who thought they were ready to stop working a 9-5 at 35 with $2mil in the bank.
Only to find out, they miss the paid 9-5 work. The one time cons of getting yelled at by bosses and clients weren’t all that bad, after all. A bad moment doesn’t make up the entire 9-5. And even so, you can always find another 9-5 that’s even better than the one you have right now.
It may be hard to find but great 9-5s ARE out there. 9-5’s aren’t all bad.
3) Is Your Personal Life Good at Home?
Some people need to be away from their wife. It’s not even about the money, they just need the separation between personal life and work life. Is 50 too early to retire? If you think you can handle it from a personal life standpoint, then it absolutely is not.
They still love their significant other, but that doesn’t mean they can stand being with them 24/7/365. It’s one thing to love someone, it’s another to be with them all the time. I personally love my coworkers and bosses but I wouldn’t ever want to be with them all the time.
I need my space. Everyone is an introvert to a certain degree. No one on Earth can stand being with someone else all day long. Even the biggest extroverts need to be alone once in a while. Therefore, if you can create some sort of personal space while retiring early, everything will fall into place.
The lack of personal space is what makes people irritable.
4) Can You Start a Side Business?
Even though we do not like extreme stress, we still like stress to a certain degree. Especially when it comes time to filling our free time. When we have an abundance of free time, we still want something to entertain us. That’s where a side business comes into play.
A side business that happens to make money is not only great in that it builds wealth but it fills the void at the same time. Is 50 too early to retire? Not when you can create side businesses. I personally will create side businesses and projects to pass the time with in early retirement.
Even though we retired early, we still like it when we stretch our intellect and see how far we can take our brains. We still have a need to experience usefulness. Many senior citizens are even willing to work for free knitting because it gives them a sense of purpose.
A sense of purpose means everything in the world during early retirement. We can’t take our free time for granted.
5) Your Family Medical History
Whether we like it or not, the longer we age, the more chances we have of getting sick. We are exposed to radiation the more we age. Everyone on Earth is exposed to natural radiation throughout our time on Earth. With radiation exposure comes increased risk of cancer.
The chances of medical problems are not only because of environmental issues but because of genetics as well. Your family’s medical history can even be worse because of our natural exposure to radiation. Therefore, consider your family’s medical history and add that to the potential cost of early retirement.
Maybe your family’s surgery cost an additional $50k to administer. It’s better to factor that cost plus a margin when determining is 50 too early to retire. It’s better to plan for the worst and have the best happen than the alternative.
At least this way, you already planned it out and can afford the medical emergencies. Imagine not being able to afford critical life saving surgery during early retirement.
6) Your Current Medical History
It’s not even family medical history that matters but your current medical history as well. Maybe your doctor or dentist already told you you are at high risk of developing knee problems or root canals. Whatever the case is, you know your current medical history better than anyone else.
it’s time to consider those costs because medical costs are only going up. They are not coming back down anytime soon. A financial emergency can happen to even the most prepared. They are emergencies for a reason.
Is 50 too early to retire? Not when you consider your current medical history. Medical injuries can happen when you least expect it, too. I got in an unexpected car accident and racked up $50k+ worth of medical bills. That wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Not to mention the trauma that comes with going through medical procedures in the first place. I’m also at high risk of a neck injury because my stiff neck’s been bothering me my entire life. I will have to factor in those additional costs.
7) Do You Have Enough Money to Enjoy Retirement?
It’s not just about affording living costs. It’s about affording entertainment costs as well. You will want to take vacations at some point in early retirement. Even if you think it’s a frivolous expense. We can’t be cooped up in just one part of town forever.
Whether we like it or not, we have to move around. It’s what makes us human and makes us feel alive. The pandemic of 2020 taught us that we like mobility. We like to move around instead of being inside all day long because we’re afraid of catching the virus.
Entertainment costs are a necessity in retirement. It’s not frivolous spending but a necessity. It’s not enough that we just exist during retirement, we want to enjoy retirement as well. Is 50 too early to retire? Not when you have your entertainment costs accounted for.
In our working years, we need to take vacations every once in a while. Otherwise, we don’t function normally. It’s the same thing with retirement.
8) Will You Get Jealous of Your Friends’ Successes?
This is one of the reasons why retiring early is bad. Some people just cannot stand that they’re behind someone else. One early retired couple actually divorced because she thought her friends were lapping her in life.
By moving ahead of her in class. She saw her friends buying houses and she wanted that lifestyle.
It takes real character to know who you are. Is 50 too early to retire? Not if you’re truly OK giving up the money. Some people have a need to feel like they’re at the top. No matter the cost to get there. Some people are OK giving that up. If their friends are lapping them, then good for them.
I personally don’t care about how my friends are doing. As long as I’m happy, then that’s all that matters to me. Some friends are miserable working a 9-5, no matter how much the company pays them. Jealousy is a real thing in early retirement.
We need have a sense of purpose and feel useful throughout our life. Some people don’t get that enjoyment unless they are working, and that’s OK.
9) Will Your Children be OK?
It’s one thing for you to be financially OK. It’s another for your children to be financially OK. Is 50 too early to retire? Not if your children will be financially OK. There will be big bills down the road. College, cars, and potentially moving costs are big bills.
Yes, it’s the best position if the children figures out how to pay for college themselves. However, it doesn’t always pan out. I graduated the top 1% of my class in high school yet still couldn’t get scholarships to cover the tuition costs.
It’s a competitive world out there. Your child has the capabilities but it’s not an easy competitive field. While you don’t bear 100% of the costs of your children, that doesn’t mean it would hurt helping your children out for college.
My parents provided significant financial support for my college education. And I can’t thank them enough for that sacrifice they made for me.
Is 50 Too Early to Retire? Not With the Right Planning
The right planning makes the entire difference for a successful retirement. Too many people just hope for the best for early retirement without running the numbers and plan ahead. Is 50 too early to retire? Not if you know what you’re doing. There’s many people retiring at 40, even.
The 9-5 model is hard to endure for decades at a time. Most of those things are beyond your control. Companies don’t reward loyalty, they take advantage of them. Economic factors by policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve impact your finances as well.
The lack of control that comes with working a job you dislike isn’t worth it. Early retirement is becoming much more common and it’s not abnormal to pursue early retirement. There’s plenty of more meaningful work and projects to pursue outside of a 9-5.
I personally enjoy my current job so the goal is for me to work on those passion projects outside of the work hours. I love my coworkers, bosses, and the work, therefore while I want to pursue early retirement in a financial sense, I’m not sure if I’ll retire early as I planned in my early 20s.
Is 50 too early to retire? Not when you plan ahead. It’s easy to make early retirement a success. Too many people think of the worst case scenario and think that they’ll be bored throughout early retirement. There’s an infinite number of projects to pursue during early retirement.
Early retirement doesn’t have to be gloomy with nothing to do.
Is 50 Too Early to Retire? 9 Things to Consider
- Do you have enough money?
- Will you miss paid 9-5 work?
- Is your personal life good at home?
- Can you start a side business?
- Your family medical history
- Your current medical history
- Do you have enough money to enjoy retirement?
- Will you get jealous of your friends’ successes?
- Will your children be OK?
