When Is a Good Time to Retire?

When to retire is the million-dollar question. Below are a few guidelines for retirement that are both practical and realistic.

You will know when it’s time.

The simple truth is that when the right time comes, you will know it. It is an intuitive sense that you have come to the end of the road.

You wake up in the morning and the first thing that comes to your mind is how much you are dreading going into the office or hospital one more time. You have lost your sense of excitement about your work. You have lost the ability to be empathic with your patients.

“These are simply signs of professional burnout,” you say. Yes, but somehow it will seem different this time. In your gut, you know it is time to leave medicine, and you are a bit surprised that you remain calm with this thought. No sense of fear, no regret. There is no one or nothing to blame. It is simply time.

Your retirement portfolio has sufficient value.

Not all physicians and not all certified financial planners would agree on how much monetary value you need in your diversified retirement portfolio in order to feel comfortable retiring.

Here is a simple definition: You have enough when after thorough planning with your retirement planner, you have determined the cost in today’s dollars of the lifestyle you want in retirement; you have made a very conservative estimate of the rate of return you expect on your portfolio for the duration of your retirement and the rate of inflation over the years of your retirement; you have confirmed that you can live the lifestyle you expect on an annual withdrawal of no more than 4% of your portfolio; and you have confirmed that using those criteria your money will last until you and/or your spouse/partner are least 90 years old.

Your professional life is no longer fun.

At the other end of a physician’s career, that sense of excitement and stimulation may fade and eventually disappear. Although this happens slowly, awareness of it may come upon you suddenly. One morning you wake up when the alarm goes off and your first thought is, “I hate my job” or, “I have lost interest in my work.”

You are still healthy.

Our most important asset is our health. When possible, physicians should retire while they are still healthy and vigorous. Retire in time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Be good to yourself — you deserve it.

Excerpted from The Three Stages of a Physician's Career: Navigating from Training to Beyond Retirement by Neil Baum, MD; Joel M. Blau, CFP; Peter S. Moskowitz, MD; and Ron Paprocki, CFP, JD.