So, when do you plan to retire your character?

Me, personally, I plan to retire my main character when I've completed all of the remaining daedric quests and get to level 50. Looks like Kratos will be living out the rest of his days in his creekside home in Riften with his wife Muiri once he reaches this milestone, as skyrim no longer needs a dragonborn

I then plan to start afresh with either a Nord 2H warrior, or a destruction mage

My first Nord Ulfgar Iron-Brand shan't retire until he has slain every dragon he can manage until his dying death as he ascends to the hall of Sovengarde!

Never. I don't like doing new play throughs. In Oblivion I did it and same with Morrowind, and I remember it feeling like a total grind and how boring it was repeating everything with only some minor changes to my play style, like going from a warrior to an assassin or to a summoner/necromancer. Still have to do a bunch of repeat quests and tasks.

I make one character and if I run into game breaking bugs, I return the game or play something else while I wait for it to be fixed for me instead of me having to fix it myself by wasting my time.

My Khajiit traveling merchant retired after getting robbed and killed

That's why your character's kind needed to travel in caravans. Safety in numbers

well since its my first character (actually got skyrim for xmas, since i had mw3, acr, and sr3 at around the same time) so ill retire him when ive done everything i possibly can. almost done actually, just need to find this last [structure made by beavers] stone and 4 or 5 more locations.

My assassin kinda retired lvl36, after being the head of the brotherhood. He occassionally goes for a contract but mainly he got lazy in his warm and fuzzy sanctuary.

Same, my character's already done everything in his life, save for the last few daedric quests. So I figured, once I collect the daedric artifacts and get to level 50 for the , my character will settle down to live the quiet life

Well there's the problem, they were the ones that robbed my furry behind

I retire a character when ever I feel they have done what I expected them to do or they no longer speak to me.
For example,I had a Bosmer that was just about done with the thieves guild quest's but I ended up retireing that character because I played her so long that there was nothing left to say to each other.

I have different characters for different storylines/factions.

1. Male Bosmer Scoundrel: Abruptly retired from TG whilst fishing. His last completed task was gurgling bubbles under the ice pack.
2. Female Redguard Vindictor: Retired after completing MQ, Companions and numerous misc quests.
3. Female Breton Seeker: Currently Arch-Mage but still working on her alchemical ingredient-gathering map of Skyrim.
4. Male Nord Tracker/Cartographer: He'll never join any faction but does a plethora of side/helping hands quests. Resides at the Alchemist's Shack.

The highest any of my characters will obtain is roughly 32-36. By then their storyline may begin to encroach in a direction for which they were not intended. I catch myself and put them to pasture. No one character should do it all but, through each, I experience the entire game. It just feels more natural.

My character will settle down in Solitude.

by retire i suppose you mean "leave"

like everything that means differant things for rp'rs and non-rp'rs

roleplayers dont generally see an "end" to a chracter, it isint planned at a set time...

still the way i see it im just the avatars helping hand who nudges them along nicely to what they want to do, and when i feel that they no longer need me or want me, then i am gone

theres been a erious lack of any hardcoe roleplayers so far, but ill count myself amoungst those ranks.

for me my chracter would rarely do more than 1 questline, it makes no sense to be in the companions and the DB, no roleplay content and it pretty game-breaking, but some people see skyrim as a game, beatable and easy, whilst others see it as a world, mindblowing and immersive.

I guess my character will retire after the MQ and the remaining daedric quests are completed, all possible property bought, all unholy and corrupt beings purged anf the 2 expected add-ons completed. THereafter he will settle down in Solitude or return back to Shivering Isles, since I′m playing the same character as in Oblivion who became Sheogorath.

raliel, welcome! have a fishystick!

Rosa will retire to her little home after:
-She completes her remaining Daedric Quests and other interesting side quests
-She gets bored of adventuring around, after exploring the majority of Skyrim (which she hasn't done yet)
-She gets her Smithing, One-Handed and some "thievish" skills to 100
-And last, and most likely least, after she gets married and decorates her house with memorabilia loot from her adventures

My character plans on being immortal. At least until they introduce Deathclaws...

My 2H/heavy warrior is retired until expansions

After Main Quest and Civil War quests are finished my Main Quest character (Argonian Warrior/Fisherman) retires to his Riften house. There's a nice porch where to drink beer, fish, read...oh, and spend time with wife.

I don't know when my Thief/Assassin and Mage characters are going to retire yet.

My character is level 57, 300 hours in, and is yet to finish the main quest or the College, hasn't started the civil war, is still looking for Daedric Princes whose bidding she can refuse to do, and has no plans whatsoever to retire.
She is on a sabbatical, however, while I try to to work out how the hell to get Redguard and Bretons to look as good as I can get Altmer to look.

I think I'll retire my character when I hit a thousand hours, I've got another two hundred and fifty hours to put into DLC adventures before that happens though.

I'll retire my current character when he dies, I tend to play DiD with all my characters these days. Makes what can be a boring game sometimes that little bit more interesting.

I'll retire my Dunmer character when every skill is 100.

My first character 'Prisoner' retired after he completed the dark brotherhood questline. by this point he was also a cannibal who also stole the sols of his victims using the corrupted Azura star...it just didn't seem appropriate to do the main quest with him...

my new character 'Arnold' (using the Arnold swartzenegger mod) is presently fighting the civil war for the stormcloaks...depending on how that ends he may do the companion quests and the main quest....then I think I'll retire him and come up with another character.

I never have a set point when they get retired, it just happens if it feels that it is the right time to.