re: Would you rather retire at 55 ok-comfortable or retire at 65 very comfortable-leave estate

I say this all the time on here, there’s retire and there is financial independence. Retire is stop working basically completely, financial independence is work because you want to.

You can retire from your career to have financial independence but find some additional means of income to supplement you. Even $5-10k in retirement can be a considerable bump for someone with $60-80k of income.

I will tell you one thing to consider is most people’s bodies are considerably less capable and considerably more prone to physical injury at 65 than 55. You don’t see many 65+ year olds skiing for example, tons of 55 year olds.