Retirement? What’s that?
Find a hobby!
Whiloe work “forces” you to get up in the morning....if you do not have a reason to get up in the morning when you retire, your life will very quickly begin to suck!
I think you are looking for the prepper ping list.
To be happy in retirement, you need to have some kind of schedule, and some kind of regular activity. If you plop on the sofa and do nothing, you will be dead in 3 years.
Nobody says you have to wake up at 5am and have a highly regimented day, but maybe a morning walk, read the paper, eat some breakfast, some sort of religious activity/devotional, and then do what you want.
A second word of caution, new retirees spend most of their money in the first 5 years. If you know when you want to retire, start curtailing your spending so you will be used to living on less income, and be better disciplined in spending.
Get on a written budget and stick to it. With 3-5 years you will see and be prepared for all the nuances, from practice.
After you ‘settle in’ to it, you will find your time usually full, because you create ways to make it that way.
Find things you enjoy doing — inside and/or outside.
I am interested in replies to this question. I will reach retirement age in less the 10 years, and have wondered what comes next. I’m set financially for retirement but not sure what I will do with so much unstructured time.
IMHO, I think our tax code, this country’s crony financial system, zero interest rates, massive money printing, and the need to fund massive government debt have basically made the middle/working class an extreme underdog in long-term financial planning.
Buy Scotch now so it will not cut into your retirement spending later.
You didn’t want financial advice but you mentioned wanting to be able to sleep. A major step is to detail out your expected expenses over the rest of your life to estimate how much money you need. It is the most critical element. You can only do so much in saving more money in 5 years but you can control how much you will spend. My goal is to maintain exact lifestyle in a retirement which will happen soon for me. But if that is not an option you can figure out what you can cut back on to make it.
To sleep you need to have all the info you can get. The worst thing would be finding out you are in big trouble after you retired and there will be no more money coming in. Getting another job may sound good to some but is not easy in this economy for an older person. Just my thoughts.
I thought about retiring for a bit. And then I got up and went to work as usual. That is right for me.
Be debt-free and stay active, and you can live comfortably on a modest amount.
I am envious of people who were clever enough to work a civil service type job for decades and can now retire with a pension and health insurance to fund the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, I cannot even imagine retiring and I am not all that far off the usual age people start retiring. I do daydream about what I would do if I could retire, but that is about it- daydreams.
If your job is halfway tolerable, and you’re healthy, don’t retire!!
I sold my company at the end of 2012 and I have regreted it ever since.
For those of you who want to ask, what is social security, what is retirement, please keep your thoughts to yourselves. You're no better than someone posting graffiti with your posts. Grow up.
For those that can contribute to this thread, I thank you.
I’m preparing my husband for his retirement....reminding him that means...he gets to do all the cooking, cleaning, shopping, errand running, etc....so I can finally do WHAT I WANT....seems he isn’t so excited about “retirement” anymore....
Point 1: Be aware that you will not have enough time in any given day to do what you want to do. Point 2: Whenever possible take a nap!
My advice - think about ‘interesting’ stuff to do in retirement. Yes, there is plenty to do around the house, etc. but there is also around 12 hours a day to fill - 7 days a week. Of course, vacations speak for themselves as within the interest stuff category.
Extra money is needed in most cases. Hobbies like golf and tennis and even volunteering can fill the ‘interesting’ time. If you are handy, having a shop can be a real plus - woodworking, classic car maintenance, etc.
Retirement is all about time and money. Hopefully, sufficient money is available that tends to help fill the time with interesting thing to do - sort of like a long bucket list.
My husband and I set the clock and get up every day at 6:00AM. We both keep a calendar of “to-do’s” and we make sure we keep busy. I make breakfast and dinner but we’re on our own for lunch. We try to do things together, but not everything.