Or do you not intend to? Or have you already? Retirement is coming up for me in a few years, so I’m considering my options.
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Paint and read, and do political organizing or volunteering. Maybe play some guitar if my hands aren’t fucked up with arthritis. Kick it strong with the grandkids. Probably some gaming too, my dad games quite a bit
Go back to college. But this time to stay
That would be pretty neat to do. What would you want to study?
A lot of things. Psychology. Physics, maybe try for more engineering degrees, humanities, creative writing, whatever feels right.
Whatever the fuck I feel like that day. Maybe some gardening, maybe some backpacking, maybe just laying on the couch and fucking around on my phone all day. The best part of this mythical retirement I’m teased with, is that I wouldn’t have any obligations on a day-to-day basis.
The obligations thing is huge. Like literally anything I end up doing - even work - will be because I want to and not because I need to.
I just took a week off and was so wildly productive at home, so I assume it would be the same if I could ever voluntarily retire. Haul wheelbarrows of mulch, tend to the garden, make bread and tepache, take care of the animals. Clean up the house. Like a stay at home mom who didn’t have to take care of kids, would just manage the house and yard.
In reality it is probably only disability that would force me into retirement though. So I’m not sure.
I just made a batch of tepache. My first time. Delicious!
I used to bake sourdough quite a lot, but then I developed a wheat allergy. Before the allergy I thought quite a bit about switching careers and baking for a living.
20 years for me. Currently my idea is to open up a kiosk. Because I assume money won’t be enough…
Not die. But that’s a tough ask as my current retirement plan is unaliving.
Yell at clouds
OK Boomer has entered the chat. Seems most comments are from those looking forward. I left the paycheck life in 2019. Except for 2020 (catching up on every episode of The Office), I’ve been having a measured good time. I have lucky stars to thank. Got married in ’85. Adopted a daughter in ’91. Wife and I inherited a home when my mom died. We spent 30 years saving for retirement instead of paying a mortgage/rent. Was self-employed the whole time in marketing communications. Wife was a mid-level manager in health services, retired 2 years before me. We spent decades living below our means. I threw the towel in at 62. I think being self-employed (and a one-man show) prepared me for my after work life. I wasn’t going to miss the office life and friends because I didn’t have any, in the conventional sense. These days I work in the garden, getting dirt in my fingernails. I teach QiGong and Tai Chi pro-bono to a dedicated senior group at a local park, and I’m getting a similar gig with the city rec services to do the same. I’m a small-time landlord (one-unit granny flat behind the house). I recently transitioned from Mac to Windows (sorry Linux users, I know…) with great success. I drive a 25 year old stick-shift Toyota truck and hope it makes it to 300K. At 66, I exercise almost every day, and while I could be convinced to take a nap in the afternoon, I never do. My wife is a pickleball queen, and we manage to have lives together and apart. We both have pretty good health for oldies. Several of my peers have died recently, and the end of the road looms closer for me than ever before. My life is devoted to staying healthy and paying it forward as long as I can keep it together.
This was a good read! I’m also lucky in that I’m part of an actual retirement plan through the state, although I am also putting money away as well. I actually plan on working, but not in my current industry. Maybe give different things a try and just focus on enjoying myself.
Least ok boomer boomer I’ve ever seen
Not starve or be homeless.
I talked to one person near retirement age who talked about climbing down the corporate ladder. The idea is to take jobs of progressively less responsibility and more vacation and use the time to transfer knowledge to junior staff.
Use the money to fund better and longer vacations.
Jobs with less responsibility typically have less vacation time too, and pay a lot less money.
It depends on the industry. In the kind of industry where someone is running an office department, they can negotiate for more time off and less responsibility in return for a lower salary.
“when”? Lmfao it’s a big fat “IF” for those of us 30 and under, buddy.
For those of us 60 and under
Or who had kids, or an illness or a divorce or death of a spouse, or got laid off, or …
36 here, I don’t expect to retire
40, not planning on it
51 here. I haven’t picked out a grave site, so I don’t have any idea where I’ll be when I can’t work any more.
J/k. Compost me or something. Don’t waste any acreage remembering me. Point being I guess I’ll retire when no one will pay me for anything, and I hope I’m still around for a bit after that but I doubt it.
Retire?
Ha, good one
I want to grow enough killer weed to tank the local economy.
Sounds like a job / work to me
If you enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t have to work a single day in your life.
I did enjoy what I was doing for a long time, but eventually it got old. It’s like loving chocolate cake but then having to eat it every day for 20 years. Eventually you want something else.
I’ll keep myself in a low key part time job. I’ve read studies that retirees die sooner if they don’t feel like they have a purpose.
My purpose it to be sitting on a beach, fat and drunk.
Create a better purpose than slinging hours for dollars, my dude.
Most people get purpose from being out in society and being a part of the workforce. Not everyone hates their job.
I don’t hate my job. As a matter of fact, I quite like it. But I promise you I would find something different to do if I had enough money to retire.
Of course, I never said you had to continue doing the same job. One that is part time, not stressful, and where your responsibilities are minimal.
Same. I don’t hate my job, but it’s also not what I want to do any more.
Travel a little, volunteer in the community, use any (if any) excess funds to try and better the things around me, cook more, adopt pets.
