It's difficult to advise someone one doesn't know well. Obviously your financial circumstances are your own affair, and you're the best judge of them. More to the point, though, people differ in how comfortable they are with the whole idea of "retirement". I know people who are candid enough to admit that they fear it: their self-esteem is so bound up in what they do, and the fact that they feel valued doing it, that they don't know exactly who they would be without it. I recently had a conversation about this with a friend of mine who is a consultant physician. She said, with commendable honesty, "the truth is I like being important." She won't be retiring anytime soon.

in my own case I had the opportunity to take a payoff when I was 56. I took it. I haven't regretted it, but there is no denying that there's an adjustment to be made, and that much depends on what you think is necessary to create meaning in your life. Some are happy just to fill their time with whatever pleases them. That's great, but for me it's limited, there's a point at which simply pleasing oneself starts to feel a bit empty. So in my case I've found it useful to make myself useful from time to time by volunteering in various roles. However, I'm no Mother Theresa. I have been able to be gloriously self-indulgent, taking mammoth bike tours for up to two months at a time, training for racing, reading a lot of stuff I never had time for, loads of other things. Life is short. There are probably things you want to do. I'd say take the opportunity, and do them.