It sounds like you are fully afflicted by One More Year Syndrome. I’d recommend googling that term and reading a bunch of the blogs that come up about the topic.
My favorite was the one at the top of my Google search, so I’ll just share it here.
At the end of the day, the least financially risky option would be to never stop working. The economy will always be uncertain. It’s up to you to determine when the risk is an acceptable level, since by the numbers you are there.
It could help to play through some worst case scenarios and make a plan for what you could do in the event they happened if you were retired. If the market crashes by 50% or more the year after you retired what would you do? Cut back on discretionary spending? Spend down a cash savings buffer? Get a part time job to cover spending? Go back to your current career? What do each of these options look like for you?
The alternative risk of continuing to work is that you reduce the number of healthy years you have to enjoy your retirement. There are so many stories of people who dream of their retirement and then die or become incapacitated in some way shortly after the retire, so they don’t get to enjoy the retirement they planned. Do you want to risk being that person?
It sounds like you are fully afflicted by One More Year Syndrome. I’d recommend googling that term and reading a bunch of the blogs that come up about the topic.
My favorite was the one at the top of my Google search, so I’ll just share it here.
At the end of the day, the least financially risky option would be to never stop working. The economy will always be uncertain. It’s up to you to determine when the risk is an acceptable level, since by the numbers you are there.
It could help to play through some worst case scenarios and make a plan for what you could do in the event they happened if you were retired. If the market crashes by 50% or more the year after you retired what would you do? Cut back on discretionary spending? Spend down a cash savings buffer? Get a part time job to cover spending? Go back to your current career? What do each of these options look like for you?
The alternative risk of continuing to work is that you reduce the number of healthy years you have to enjoy your retirement. There are so many stories of people who dream of their retirement and then die or become incapacitated in some way shortly after the retire, so they don’t get to enjoy the retirement they planned. Do you want to risk being that person?