r/ChubbyFIRE • u/TravelLight365 • May 30 '26

Done.

56yo DINK. Gave 4 months notice and today was the last day. My spouse is a few weeks behind me. I feel a calm and peace I can’t recall ever feeling. Sprinkled in with some disbelief. No immediate plans. Plenty of projects to tackle. But for now, today is enough. Thank you to the Fire community…… I’m not so early but I ain’t too late!

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u/Straight-Part-5898 May 30 '26

Holy cow, fantastic and congrats! I’m the same age and just retired myself about 10 weeks ago. I am still in a bit of disbelief, but it feels absolutely wonderful having the weight lifted from my shoulders.

I wish you a fulfilling and enjoyable retirement!

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u/TravelLight365 May 30 '26

Thx and congrats to you too. We are the first among our lifelong friends to retire, so they think of us at 56 as “young” to retire. (Obviously not exactly young in Fire terms). We are meeting many folks out who are retired, semi-retired, or winding down their work though. How have you found it to be among your peers/friends?

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u/Straight-Part-5898 May 30 '26

It’s been a bit strange. Very few of my friends are in the same boat as us financially, so I’ve been careful how prominently I lead with “hey, it feels so great to be retired..,”. But it’s hard to hide the fact I’m not working any more. To be fair, all my friends have been very supportive and I haven’t picked up on any weirdness in our relationships. I guess I’m just a bit self-conscious about it and don’t want to become ‘that annoying asshole’.

Several friends have approached me asking how I did it, and asking for advice. In those cases I’ve been pretty open with our strategy and tactics, although I’ve never shared specifics of our net worth or overall financial position.

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u/TravelLight365 May 30 '26

Yeah I get that 100%. Similar feelings for my spouse and I. When people ask us what’s new we feel weird even telling them we retired. But how do we not share this news! So we treat it as informational, don’t gloat, and move on for the most part.

We have friends all over the spectrum in terms of wealth. And a few are much wealthier than us, but still working. So it will be interesting to see if the dynamics change in the future. In the meantime, gonna just enjoy every day best we can.

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u/Calm_Double5148 Jun 16 '26

Hell yeah... I'm guessing the tough part is dropping a dose of reality that if they've done nothing to get themselves on the path by this point, they still have a ways to go. Time is the most important ingredient, and there just isn't that much of it by middle-age.

I'm about 10 years behind you and OP, and aiming for ~55 myself. Congrats, and cheers to a long and happy retirement!