Average nurse practitioner retirement age

tcimnp · Aug 8, 2013

I'm 57, just graduated from NP program. Got a great job easily. Plan to work the rest of my life, as long as Im safe.

carachel2 · Aug 9, 2013

Gosh, I know of NPs who regularly retire in the 55-60 year old range. In fact, a coworker just retired @ 55. They lived simply and planned super well. That NP is loving live, learning new things and travelling.

Trauma Columnist · Aug 12, 2013

I was in the military, then married a career military guy - travelled all I ever wanted to - lol.

Now, I help with the kids and grandkids and plan to work till at least 70.

zmansc, ASN, RN · Aug 15, 2013

I don't plan on retiring, or more accurately I plan on working until I can't/don't want to anymore, then I will retire. I started this career while I was in my late 40s (second career), and realistically expect to be full time into my late 60s or later, and probably still working part or full time until my health gets the better of me.

I will say that after almost 30 years in my first career, I got to the point where I didn't like to go into work anymore. It was drudgery. When it got that way I took a year off (or two), to find myself and figure out what I wanted to do. I learned a couple things during that experience:

1. Find a job you love going to, it's worth more than any amount of money you can make to actually love your job.

2. Although I can always come up with fun projects to do around the house, or travels to take, I am much happier with the mental stimulation and personal satisfaction of working a good, stimulating job where I get to help others or effect change.

I'm sure I learned many other things, but those two were biggies that helped me to pick this as my second career and affected my decision to not really work towards a retirement.

Trauma Columnist · Aug 16, 2013

@zmansc great post and you bring up some great reasons to stay working.

Barinbass · Aug 20, 2013

I think I am older than all of you and I just finished my program!! Scared I won't pass the cert exam and fear I won't get hired due to age. No reason not to do this though!

Barinbass · Oct 20, 2013

I passed the AGNP cert exam and now have to find a job. I hope I find one. I need to find another place to live as my landlord wants to sell sop i want to move to where the job is but without that or knowing where I want to be, makes this process hard to start. Maybe the job will happen first is age is not the issue. Seems that someone with some life experience would be desirable with the elder population. Thanks to those who want to work until their 70's I can do that and have loans to pay back.

VTach2013 · Oct 21, 2013

Make sure you do something you love to do! Im 27... Planning on working for a long long time. Maybe even going back to school in the near future for medicine.Taking my NP boards in 2 weeks... Fingers crossed.

globalRN · Dec 15, 2013

I am 52 and have worked as an NP fulltime or nearly fulltime since 2002.

I plan to 'retire' in 2-5 yrs. I would like to work 2 days a week after that for a couple more years until I don't want to anymore