Once while on a fishing trip, an older engineer asked, “When do you plan to retire?” I was only 55 years old and had another decade until retirement. He said, “That may be true, but what if the sale fails? You would need to take back a failing company, and be young enough with enough resources to raise the company to its previous level of proficiency. This way, you will have a viable company to sell.” The message was clear. Don’t wait until you are 65. Start planning at 55. The older engineer was speaking from experience because he had been through it.