Leaving Academe

I've recently started looking at the "leaving academe" discussion site on the Chronicle of Education website. A little late, I realize. Anyway, I've been posting. Here is one of the columns I've been following. The original post is:

"I'm thinking of retiring early and wonder if anyone out there who's done that would be willing to share their experience.I'm 54, thinking it'd be great to retire at 59. This is the soonest I can retire and still take advantage of my upcoming sabbatical. Over the past few years, I've gotten more and more oriented toward research and writing. This is in contrast to my early years in which teaching was pure heaven; I loved the challenge of turning weak or reluctant students around and helping them become real learners, and I've been pretty successful at it. But these days that process takes more and more energy out of me, and now I live for term breaks and summers when I can really think and write.I can survive financially, if not thrive. (Health-insurance costs are something I haven't yet calculated. I do have a partner who's willing to help support me if I need it.) I'm hoping that with free time to do a lot of writing, I might be able to bring in enough income beyond Social Security and TIAA-CREF to relax just a bit -- but that's not critical to my survival.If you've retired early and regretted it, why? If you've done so and been delighted, why? What factors might I not be thinking of at this stage? Stories, thoughts welcome."

Someone responds with:"You haven't calculated the health insurance costs? That's major. MAJOR. Don't even consider it until you have that angle completely worked out.Prytania,who can go out in 2012 (provided the world doesn't end)"

My response is: "I just left academia this fall at age 49. Left a tenured position and a lifetime security because, well becuase this is simply not what I wanted to do with my life. Nothing more complicated than that. I "did not have every angle figured out, especially health insurance." But I knew it was time to go. Hell, it was time to go probably ten years ago. If you are happy in academia, then I say god bless. Stay there and don't go anywhere else because you have found your bliss. But if not, well what is wrong with moving on and tyring to find out what you are supposed to do with your life before you die. The thing is, even with the best health insurance, you die anyway. There is a beautiful essay by Pico Iyer you should read, about how he left behind a very successful writing life in New York and now lives in a two room apartment in Japan http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less/"If you’re the kind of person who prefers freedom to security, who feels more comfortable in a small room than a large one and who finds that happiness comes from matching your wants to your needs, then running to stand still isn’t where your joy lies." If you're interested, I am keeping a blog of my journet at xphilosopher.blogspot.com