I retired at 54 and my husband quit his job so we could travel the world for four years. We lived on my teacher’s pension which was based on the last six years that I was a principal. We sold everything we owned, house, cars etc except for 15 medium sized boxes of personal belongings that we stored in my mom’s heated garage. When we finally returned stateside we paid cash for a small house. Prices were rock bottom because it was not long after the 2008 crash and fortunately we hadn’t touched the money from the sale of our former home. My husband went back to work and retired a few years later at age 65. We’ve been debt free for over 20years.