Everyone will face this decision eventually.  Some will have a mandatory retirement date, some will lose their jobs, some will have spouses who have already retired and want the other to retire also, and some will never retire.  But that’s not most people.  You can take tests online to estimate how long you will live.  You can uses various calculators to decide when to take Social Security.  And, of course, financial advisors can help you plan financially so you won’t run out of money, hopefully, before you die.  After spending the last 6 months talking with people about working with me to develop a retirement plan for how they want to live in retirement, it has become clear to me that people are still focused only on financial planning.  But they have it backwards.  Instead of plucking numbers out of the air, wouldn’t it be better to give some thought to how you want to live in retirement:  where you want to live, what activities you want to enjoy, how much travel you want to do, whether you want a new career or to develop a new skill, etc., and then put a number on what that scenario would require financially?  If you did, perhaps then, your financial advisor could do a better job of helping you create the resources needed.  Here is a good link to a recent article in Investment News that discusses the reality experienced by many of those already retired.