Is 58 Too Early to Retire?

With social security paying benefits at the age of 62, many people ask is 58 too early to retire? The short answer to that is a resounding no. Retirement isn’t dictated by age. Retirement is dictated by how financially independent you are and what financial leeway that you have.

With the growing popularity of the financial independence, retire early movement, many people are retiring earlier than ever before. People are fed up with the corporate politics, climbing the ladder, and the like. They are choosing to get back their time rather than spend it working.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who voluntarily choose to work even after they reach financial independence. However, it does mean that people are saying no to more projects that don’t interest them.

There are people who are retiring in their 20s who are even financially better off than the ones retiring in their 60s. That’s a great thing. That leaves room for new employees to take their spot and it leaves more opportunities for other people to go-around. That’s a win-win situation.

Many people think retirement is based on an age when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Retirement is based on the level of wealth and cash flow that you have. Is 58 too early to retire? Not even in the slightest. Even if social security payouts start in 4 years at 62 years old.

Social security payouts wouldn’t even matter if you are already financially secure.

Why 58 is Not Too Early to Retire

The first reason why 58 is not too early to retire is that millions of people retired even earlier than that and still led full lives. There are some who even retired earlier than that and chose to go back to work just because they wanted something to do. Which is a beautiful thing.

So with that said, let’s go over the more concrete reasons why there’s no early age for retirement.

1) Life Expectancy

The medical industry have enjoyed and benefited from the technological advances that we’ve experienced. As a result, people are living longer. In the old days, 30 was considered the half-life age. However, these days, 30 isn’t even close to being the half life.

It’s more like 40 or even 45. Is 58 too early to retire? Not when you consider that you still have way more life to live afterwards. Life expectancy in the United States is at 77 years old. That means, from age 58, you have almost a 20 year window to enjoy life.

No matter what others say, 20 years is a remarkably long time to live life. My first 20 years felt like such a long time. I moved to a completely new country, I lived without my parents in college, and I finished high school. That was jam packed with action.

We have a long life ahead of us due to the improvements in life expectancy. Therefore, 58 is not too early to retire. Not by a long shot.

2) You’re Financially Independent

People shouldn’t retire based on an age number, they should retire based on a net worth or cash flow number. If you have sustainable passive income that will pay for your living expenses for the next 100 years, why wouldn’t you retire if that’s what you want to do?

The government had a vested interest in keeping us working for as long as possible. That’s why the social security age is in the 60’s. The government found out the life expectancy for employees was somewhere in the 60s. They knew they didn’t have to pay as much money to the retirees.

We know better now. Now there’s much more information related to financial literacy that we know retirement depends on the net worth that we have. Not based on the number of years that we worked for. Financial independence gives you choices that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Retirement certainly is one of them. Is 58 too early to retire? Not if you’re financially independent.

3) You Already Raised Children

For many, children is their ultimate purpose. It’s our way of passing down our DNA and marking our legacy onto the world. It’s also very rewarding and fulfilling to have children of our own to take care of. I am also in that camp in that I want to have children one day.

Is 58 too early to retire? Not if you already lived a fulfilling life and did things that gave you meaning and a sense of fulfillment. Like raising children. Also, if your children are already grown, they should not be financially dependent on you. They should make their own way into the world.

Some people think that it’s too harsh letting them sink or swim out in the world. However, if you’ve already given them plenty of opportunities by 20 years old, you shouldn’t feel guilty. You did a good job raising them. Now it’s their time to shine out into the world.

Your children are more resilient than you think. They’ll figure it out for themselves.

4) Life is More than Working in a Cubicle

When we are in kindergarten and the teacher asks us what we want to do for our lives, we never answer, “working under a fluorescent lit office in a stodgy suit working in a cubicle”. Life is too short to spend the majority of it working in a cubicle office that you can’t stand.

There’s more things to do outside. Places to see and food to eat. Sunlight to observe. Is 58 too early to retire? Only if you think that working in a cubicle is the most ideal way to live out the rest of your life. It’s not. Everyone has hopes and dreams and passions that drive and fuel our life.

We are not born to live in a cubicle for a majority of our life and live for the weekend. We work to live not live to work. Everyone has hopes, dreams, and passions that they want to pursue outside of work. It’s time to go for it. Things that you’ve been putting off because “life got in the way”.

Life moves pretty fast if you don’t act and seize opportunities.

5) You’re Already Professionally Accomplished by 58

By 58, you’ve worked for close to four decades. That’s a good enough leeway time to do everything that you’ve wanted to do, professional wise. Right now, I feel like I’ve already reached the top at 28. If I work at my level for the rest of my life, I would be completely happy and fulfilled by that.

And I’m barely in my 20s! I can’t imagine just how much further I could go if I tried for it even more. If I remained hungry like I was 2 – 5 years ago. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to that point again but I highly doubt it. I am very happy with my position and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Is 58 too early to retire? Not when you consider that you already professionally accomplished everything you wanted to by this point. Maybe it’s high time to try your hand at something else. You built up the contacts, knowledge base, and the like to do anything else you want to do.

There’s no need to go for more when you already had enough.

7) You Already Fulfilled Your Social Security Requirement

Many FIRE people quit even before fulfilling their Social Security credit requirement. That’s not good. That’s money down the drain. Why pay Social Security tax if you’re not even going to get the benefits out of paying those taxes? It doesn’t make sense. That’s money they’re not getting back.

We need to earn 40 credits to have the right to receive Social Security benefits. In 2022, you earn one credit for every $1,510 you earn. Not to difficult to earn the 40 credits. At the age of 62 when you have decades of work experience under your belt, you are eligible for benefits.

Too many people discount just how important Social Security benefit payout actually is. Yes, it may not be solvent by the time you want to draw from the fund. However, if you were close to fulfilling those benefits anyway, why not? What’s the harm in working just one more year to fulfill it?

You’re already so close to getting there anyway.

8) The World is a Big Place to Explore

Even in my home country of South Korea, I am consistently amazed at how big the country is when I go back. The last time I went back in 2018, I was blown away by what I was missing. There were so many places that I didn’t get to see when I was a kid there.

And that was just in my home country of where I grew up! I can’t imagine just how much more amazing and wonderful places around the world there are. Is 58 too early to retire? Not when you consider the fact that there is an endless number of places to explore, visit, and see.

Even in the United States. I bet there’s no one who actually visited and saw every amazing and interesting places in all 50 states. Someone might have visited all 50 states, but not actually truly experienced everything there was to offer.

There’s plenty of time for you to explore the world and be amazed at how wonderful it is.

9) You Have Passion Projects to Pursue

There’s no way that your life goals were to work in a cubicle all day long and live for the weekend. There was always some passion project that you wanted to pursue but you didn’t get around to it because you were so busy working and raising a family. Now is the time to pursue those things.

You finally have time to pursue those passion projects on the weekends. Just having vacation days isn’t enough to fully pursue your passions to your satisfaction. For me, personally, I have dreams of starting a company. It’ll more likely fail than succeed. However, it’s still a passion project of mine.

I don’t have enough time right now to pursue those things. It would require me to work during business hours in order to get the business off the ground. A luxury that I just cannot take advantage of right now. Is 58 too early to retire? Not when you already have projects in the pipeline you want to pursue.

Now is the time to pursue them. You have all the time and knowledge in the world to get after those passions.

Is 58 Too Early to Retire? Absolutely Not

There’s never such a thing as too early to retire based on age. There certainly is too early to retire based on net worth. The bear market of 2022 made everyone question their early retirement choices. Many actually even went back to work because of the significant hit to their net worth.

That’s the true “too early to retire” number. Not age, but a financial number. You don’t want to leave the work force to come back because there’s no guarantee you’ll be at the same salary range that you were at before. Or even at the same title, working for a boss older than you.

They may very well be younger.

Is 58 too early to retire? As long as everything else is taken care of, it’s never too early to retire. I’m looking at retiring or at the very least making work optional by the time I’m in my 30s. There are a lot of things that I want to accomplish in my life.

However, the company that I’m working for is so great that I’m not sure when I would actually retire from full time work. So I am still in the deciding phase and I wouldn’t mind if I was working for my company for the rest of my life.

However, the overarching point is that there’s no “too early” age. Is 58 too early to retire? Absolutely not. There are many other variables that are much more important to consider in order to make that choice. The government made age a mainstream metric for people to retire on.

It’s no coincidence. The government has a vested interest in keeping you working for as long as possible.

Is 58 Too Early to Retire? Reasons It’s Not

• Life expectancy
• You’re financially independent
• You already raised children
• Life is more than working in a cubicle
• You’re already professionally accomplished
• You already fulfilled your social security requirement
• The world is a big place to explore
• You have passion projects to pursue