This is a good discussion, particularly since I'm 53 and just got my first notice that I'll be able to start drawing a retirement payment from one of the accounts I accumulated working for the state of Alaska in the 90's. I was in my 30's when I left and I was so busy I never thought of it, never had time to deal with it, so I left the account in place just by default -- and now it'll start kicking out payments. Boy that came as a shock, that I've gotten there already. I didn't even know or look at what the payout terms were. I have to say though, when I think of my life right now, my greatest dilemma isn't retirement and timing and income. Yes, those are issues, but when I step back my greatest dilemma in life is stuff. My wife and I are drowning in stuff. It's like a tidal wave. We go on a cleaning binge and jettison a mound of stuff and then more flows in. When I think of all the stuff we have I can barely breathe. It will take me years to dispose of stuff, and happily all my and my wife's parents are still around, so that's not even dealing with the generational transfer yet. I'm a prisoner of stuff, and we don't even have kids.