Perhaps I might add a bit to Phil's admirably succinct reply. If you have a vested, defined contribution pension (one to which you did not contribute), you are pretty much at the mercy of the company.

Where I used to work, there is a distinction between "early retirement" and "vested retirement." You qualify for early retirement in a number of ways. One is, retire at 60 with any number of years of service; a second, retire at 55 with 10 (I think) years of service; and third, retire at any age with 20 years of service. However, there are "actuarial" knockoffs. We had a colleague who was eligible under rule 3, but because he was just 48, he would collect just 5% of the full amount payable at 65.

The difference with vested retirement is the "actuarial" reduction. If you retire early at 55, you get 70% of what you would at 65. With vested retirement, it's 50%.

Other companies may well have different rules, so this is just an example.

The original poster left his first job at 27, if I recall correctly, so his vested pension won't amount to a gnat's posterior no matter when he takes it. From the second job, maybe a bit, but it won't realistically keep him in anything but a weekly box of Cracker-Jack.

If we're talking about a 401(k) then I take it all back.