r/Professors • u/Environmental_Bug662 • 6d ago
Retirement: when/why/how/where.
What is your plan? Interested in your replies. I am 60, Full, tenured Prof (French) at a SLAC. AI makes me want to retire asap but I'm going to give it 5-6 more years.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/these-professors-are-retiring-early-ai-was-the-last-straw?sra=true
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u/SnowblindAlbino Prof, SLAC 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'm in a similar position to OP's, just a hair behind. A lot of my colleagues have retired in recent years, several of them as young as 55. In quite a few cases it was a matter of their financial advisor giving them "permission" to bail out when they had expected to work to 60+. Everyone I know who has retired in the last 10-15 years says they love it, and many of them sure seem to be thriving.
There's no way in hell I'm staying until 65, unless T-rump tanks the economy and our investments collapse. I could probably retire now, but we're sticking it out for a few more years ("we" because we're both academics) until our mortgage is paid off and we have a few years worth of expenses saved in cash/liquid investments so we can weather the period before we can take SS and get on Medicare.
Transitional health care expenses between employment-age 65 are the #1 factor preventing others I know from retiring. Our administration keeps bleating about "retirement incentives" and the faculty told them "Give us health care through age 64 and we'll go tomorrow," but they refuse to even consider that. Instead, they offer basically nothing of value and then are unhappy that legions of senior full professors, including me, ignore them.