When do you realize you work for free ?

All of the investment income advice aside, something more relevant for you to consider at this point, is that retiring from your job, and declaring social security retirement, are not necessarily the same thing. So it is possible to collect your corporate retirement now, and wait a few years to declare/collect SS. That gives you a future income boost, and is a way to consider if you are financially able to retire now, with a bit of income boost or inflation buffer in the future. Historically the criteria has been 4% of your retirement savings per year, some are now advising on 3% per year, but at 2%/year is pretty sparse unless you are trying to leave the kids an inheritance.
 
I retired from GM on 2/28/2022 at 62 and 5 months. I am not taking SS at this time. Not adding anything that hasn't been said above, but length of term of savings is how the snowball starts growing going downhill. The time to save is in your 20's, not your 50's/60's. The stock market is your best investment in the long run. I put 15% in my 401k starting at 23. GM uses Fidelity (at least for salaried employees, don't know about hourly) for our 401K though you could have deposits made to other institutions. My Fidelity model for retirement income told me 5 years ago that I'd be making more in retirement than I was making at the time; essentially working for nothing at that point. Preface was I'd take a monthly pension (28% of my salary), SS (25% of my salary) and pull from the 401k for the balance. I'd run the 401k to zero at age 93 using their model.

I didn't dislike the work, liked the folks on the floor that I supported, could tolerate my leadership (I call them leadership, not "management" as they didn't typically "manage" though they did occasionally surprise me) so I kept working. I like my hobbies, but wasn't ready to do them an additional 45 hours a week. Something has to replace your time at work, I didn't see watching TV or sitting down reading books as a healthy alternative. I also didn't want my hobbies to become a new job.

So did I "cheat" myself out of 5 years of retired life by working until 62 instead of 57? I wouldn't change it if I could, for me, it was the right thing to do to continue working even though financially it didn't make sense. Sure, I could have puttered more in my shop, fixed more stuff around the house, spent more time with my parents while they were living, etc. On the other hand, I liked the folks on the floor and my co-workers. I don't miss the work so much, but do miss the daily conversations with my co-workers.

In the end it shouldn't all be about making money unless that's what makes you happy. To me, I wanted to put my wife and me in a position where we could enjoy the remainder of our lives doing what we like to do. No regrets here though since February I've fixed a lot of stuff around our house that should have been done 5 years ago!

Bruce
 
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What I did was estimate what my monthly pension and SS was going to be here in Pa they tax neither basically take home pay . Looked at what take home pay was working without OT it was close so taking a little from the 401k was which you mentioned in your first post was working for nothing, well working for OT . So I retired at 61 1/2 . I believe we’re about the same age
 
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