I was reading the popular thread on CC right now about retiring and many folks were talking about how “every day will be like the first day of summer vacation” and exclaiming over the great life ahead. And I get that. But I find myself (and I"m early 50s…maybe I feel differently in my early 60s) but I don’t ever want to stop working. Lots of reasons – I like the money. I like the field i’m in. I’m good at it.
And then getting at a deeper level here. I like that I have something interesting to say when people ask me what i do. I like that i have a structure to my day. I like that don’t have to spend 100% of my day with my spouse. I like that I don’t have to think too much…I just “do” rather than “dwell” on any given day.
I’m not saying that any of this reflects well on me. I"m just saying that this is how it is.
Then the issue becomes, how do I keep working? i work in a hyper-competitive field where folks in their 40s are looked at with suspicious eyes and there are only a few of us in our fifties…I’ve survived by being (very slightly) smarter than many of my colleagues and I"m also very nimble. I’d have to think how to stay in a field that will soon tire of me.
Any ideas on what next? I envy lawyers (though I never would have wanted to be one) because I know guys in their 70s and 80s who still go to the office every day…their choice.
I don’t work but my H plans on never retiring. He has 5 more years until he can leave State service with full pension and after that he plans on consulting/lobbying/etc. I’m fine with that as I couldn’t stand having him around the house all the time.
My job is pretty physical. I won’t be able to do it forever.
DH, on the other hand, will probably work as long as his mind is clear. There is no reason not to; he loves it, it’s not physically taxing, he’s good at it. He may decide to put in fewer hours or travel more, but retire? Nah.
Like Emily’s husband I work for State government and have the benefit of a pension. I love my job, my commute and basically everything about my job but there is a point where financially I am working for zero income. In fact it would be negative income so I may retire. Staying longer does increase my ultimate income in retirement because my pension and social security would increase about 10% for every additional year I stay.
I have and am considering staying, retiring and getting a part time job or retiring and establishing my own business. I doubt I will retire and just retire.
I’m 45, with a professional degree, and have been homeschooling for the last 8.5 years. My youngest is graduates this coming May, and I’m looking forward to re-entering the workforce full steam ahead.
Maybe I’ll change my mind but I don’t ever see myself totally retiring. I always loved working, though I hated leaving my kids. It will be nice to not be torn. I’m just hoping I can keep my health and energy level up.
when i was 50 i never thought about retirement. when i turned 55 i thought about it a lot. i will retire in 5 months at 60 .what changed? i am not entirely sure. i got tired of the change of environment with more stress on employees and unreasonable expectations. i thought of changing jobs but at this point the benefit would not be worth it. i will have a federal retirement at 60 and health insurance . in my area we lost 13 of about 20 employees in the last 2 years due to the stress- they do similar jobs/education as me. they mostly moved to other places or retired.
I know at least I’m always been consistent about retirement. All my working years, I’ve always been made aware of the retirement planning. The age of retirement keeps changing but not the idea. I want to retire when I was in my early 30s, somehow I discovered gardening while saying at home with my first child. During the high earnings years my goal was to retire at 45, and then it keeps moving to 55. This time I really mean it because I never like this commute, even when I was in my 20s.
So you only get one shot here on earth and it seems silly to just keep doing the same thing for years and years and years. If you have enough money it’s time to look for other things to do so that you get to experience more people and more places. Experience the vast wonderfulness of all that is on earth.
And you really ought to do it while you are healthy and energetic enough to enjoy it. Be brave. Change it up.
I started a nonprofit at age 50 in 2007, and plan to keep running it as long as it remains meaningful and helpful to those we serve. I don’t draw much in wages but did when I was getting grants (and we had kids in college). Now, it’s mostly a hobby for me, which includes travel to conferences and meetings, which I can deduct on taxes.
H worked at his job for 45 years and was finally ready to retire when his pension peaked. It was good timing. He loved his job and is enjoying retirement immensely.
My husband knows somebody who is in his early 90s and still working. But there are other horrible stories that I’ve heard from his work place. Particularly one coworker kept delaying retirement until he had a heartache on his desk near going home time. I think that was a wake up call.
If I had 2 M, then I’d retire and start traveling. My job isn’t strenuous, and I stop work at 5 these days, no more weekends, so I feel like I’m working part time already.
I plan to volunteer in some capacity, hopefully at least 20 hours per week, probably with animals and if I can volunteer along with my husband, all the better.
I teach so I could probably do some adjunct teaching for a very long time, at my convenience. I will likely have to work for ten years more than my spouse, but he may do consulting after he retires.
My spouse is in a technical field, and generally what happens with the most talented (and driven) older employees is that they take retirement and then consult, usually on their terms (up to 500 hours per year, for example).
If you don’t want to retire, I don’t think they can make you short of military and a few other fields. I have seen people downsized because of their age but they got an excellent package so they didn’t sue.
Have you considered a second career, or morphing your current career into a new one?
(FWIW, my aunt was worried because she retired first, and her husband was retiring in five years. She was worried he would drive her nuts being home. Well, he was home about two years, and they took a few interesting cruises and saw the grandkids a lot. She complained a bit, but not as much as expected. The third year he was dx’d with bone cancer and was gone within that year. So “spending time with the spouse all day” may sound daunting, but be careful what you wish for.)
I have a relative who is 90 who continues to work, part-time because he likes getting out of the house and having some structure and an office that has nice A/C. He has cut his hours and responsibilities back significantly in recent years, as he used to get in about 6:30 and stay until 3pm or so, M-F. It works out for him.
I’m 58 and while I look forward to retiring “someday” I am not in a hurry. I suspect I feel this way largely because I like to work, enjoy my job and was out of the workforce for 10+ years while raising my kids. I think that break makes a difference. My good friend who is in her early 50’s has worked at the same place for 30 years straight and can’t wait to retire!
My husband has zero interest in ever retiring and is pursuing the strategy of hiding his head in the sand and pretending that the future will never come as long as he refuses to acknowledge it. (And he had a serious heart attack last year, yet.) As we know, putting your head in the sand leaves the rest of you in a vulnerable position. As the spouse who has been ready to pack up and move for five years now, at some point I may just pursue the strategy of delivering a well-placed butt kick.
Though I know many people don’t like to reveal, I am curious the fields that people on CC are in and where they fall into the “retire” “don’t retire” categories.
I am in my mid 50’s and due to our state pension and the time I started where I am, will need to work till early 60’s for full benefits. I’m pretty ok with that.
I do think that what happens is that as people around you start talking more about retirement and doing it, you start to view retirement a little differently. This probably doesn’t sound very nice, but I’ll admit, I’ve always thought of retirement of an “end” - an admission to being old. A decision to resign and land in the recliner. SO not me!!! I know that it doesn’t have to be this way, but I also see many people doing exactly this.
The other thing that irks me. People in my office who equate retirement with the opportunity to travel endlessly. “Hello!” - travel costs money which you are now while working complaining you don’t have enough of!!!