That doesn't mean not to prepare. The fact that I can contemplate retirement with home and car paid off and enough savings to last (if my loving government keeps its grubby hands off it), confers a feeling of freedom that's worth working for. I evangelize this to my younger colleagues until they're tired of hearing it, but if somebody hadn't done that for me thirty years ago I'd be as stuck as a lot of my fellow Americans appear to be.
But it really is time to do something else. The flip side of all the experience I've gathered in a field in which it's still worth something (but steadily less) means that I've done it enough to be thoroughly burnt out on quite a bit of it. As my retirement mentor told me, when that becomes all of it, it's time to go. But you have to retire TO something, not FROM something, or you end up dead of boredom and senescence in five years. No thanks.
What proportion of the younger generation is prepared to be productive?
Damned few.
Old productive people have to work until they die to fund the young unemployable tattooed “activists”.
I would LOVE to ‘retire’ to a 3, 10-hour day work week
Keep earning, give someone else a chance to work on some of the other 3 days, 4 day weekend EVERY SINGLE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!
turning old age into a near useless stage of life.
Speak for yourself Lonsberry!
I have tons of things I can do if retired.
I volunteer at my church teaching children.
I volunteer with a veterans group.
I am interested in getting into couch youth softball.
We are bikers. We love to travel and see people and places through out our Nation..
I have plenty to do thank so much. You want to work for someone else until you are 90 go for it. Leave me out........
A person who see themselves as the work they do will have a difficult time in retirement.
Personally, work for me was a way to pay the bills, I always had outside interest. When I retired I just spent more time on those things that interest me.
I miss the paycheck but we did plan on our retirement and as it stands, we could live on our social security but fortunately do not have to.
Social security must be getting close to insolvency. Expect more articles on “why you shouldn’t retire.”
USSAToday had a lead story today on the 15% of medicare recipients who expend 50% of medicare funds. All that was missing was the line about “useless eaters.”
It seems half the gov’t workers I run into are retired, retired on the job.
We moved from the big city in Arizona to the country in Florida and decided to start a whole new lifestyle. We raise Angus beef cattle on thirty acres. Our days are long and filled with never-ending chores, projects and thing after another. Never a dull moment or time to sit back and rest on our laurels. We've learned to raise the cows, build and repair fences, keep our tractor and other farm implements working, built a house, two barns, a cattle management set-up in the barnyard, planted a large garden and fruit trees, got some chickens and a horse and never looked back.
We are having the time of our lives and wished we had done this sooner. Retirement for us is not traveling, golf and going to the beach. It is hard work and being productive. It keeps you young.
I have just one complaint about retirement. You never get a day off. :-)
The public union defined benefit recipients are now the new elite. Retired at 50 or 55, close to 80% of salary, medical paid for.
I’m taking my SS at age 62 and still working.
With my Medical Condition (Leukemia) and the fact that I am draining my Retirement Savings dry just to keep our heads above water, I had to take it as soon as I could.
The SS will cover about 3/4 of my Healthcare Premium. That will probably change to 2/3 of my Healthcare Premium once the 20% expected Premium Increase kicks in January 2016.
That Shining City upon a Hill turned out to be Baltimore and the Wizard of Oz is a Marxist Community Rabble Rouser.
i just turned 60 and plan on working till i am 70 i hope, love the company i am working at.. so we shall see.
We have a segment of our Society who Retire in their 20’s.
They get Section 8 (almost free) Housing, EBT (free food), Medicaid (free Healthcare) and SSI (free Money). All this with no limit on how long they can collect all the benefits.
People like us Work for a Living. People like them Vote for a living. Benjamin Franklin had it figured out Centuries ago. The Republic will not survive such Idiocy.
Retirement is the best thing my husband and I can do for the economy.
I had a great paying job when I retired. Some younger person then got that job. My husband has a great paying job. Some younger person will get that job next year when he retires. How frustrating it is to be a young person wanting to move forward in his career but have an older person sitting in that coveted position. It’s good for the younger generation, it’s good for companies.
Secondly, my husband and I have saved a long time. We won’t need to take social security until we’re 70. All this time we’ve been taking money out of the economy and buying index funds. That does squat for the economy! During our retirement our outgo will exceed our income, as it should if we spend down our savings like the average person does in retirement. That’s great for the travel industry, for the auto manufactures (new cars are in the near future for us), for the home remodelers (that’s in our future), etc. And no, we won’t need to depend on the government for anything because we’ve saved and invested responsibly. Our retirement will be wonderful and well-deserved.
I did all my “Retirement” stuff when I was young.
I stole the following from a fellow FReeper awhile ago ...
“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles”
I try to go fishing 2-3 times a week, sometimes I just watch other people fish and share fishing tips.
I will remain semi-retired as long as the beer holds out.
TT
Culture takes what God tells us is good and turns it into bad. Work existed before the fall in Genesis. Adam had three assignments. The first was physical and it was taking care of the garden. The second was mental and it was naming the animals. The third was spiritual and it was walking with God.
Retirement takes God’s ways and turns them upside down.
Sorry, while I can agree with Lonsberry that older people should not be disregarded and put aside, I sure as heck don’t want my nose to the grindstone until the day I die! I’m looking forward to retirement as a time when I can step back out of the rat race and do stuff that I really want to do. That doesn’t mean I won’t work, I’ll have to in order to supplement my retirement account and SSN, so I can afford to do the extras, such as traveling, but in a no pressure job, part-time.
I retired in 2002 at the age of 53 and I have only one regret — I should have done it 10 years sooner.
Every day is another Saturday.... I love being retired. It is important to have a good retirement income and it’s a good idea to have accumulated and paid off most of the toys you like the most. I have all but one of those toys and I am working on that right now. ;>)
My bride of over 43 wonderful years continues to work, but that is because she still loves her job, and well, I like the mad money she brings in...and she is going to pay for that last big toy. ;>)
I have many serious health issues that in time would have forced me to retire, so for me it has all worked out. For each new health issue, I adjust, find workarounds, and continue to have as much fun as my mind and body will allow me to have.
I think that for me, having my bride - whom is my wonderful best friend- and God hanging out with me, has helped to make this retirement time enjoyable.
This past week I washed my beautiful boat, worked on putting in a flagstone walk and learned how to completely overhaul my Stihl weed trimmer ( I couldn’t believe that the cam on this thing is made of plastic!!!).
This next week I am going to work on building a rock garden and install a fountain in our pond. When I am done with those projects, I might go camping and watch my dog run on the beach.
~~ just livin’ life~~
The only major goal I have left in life is retiring. Anybody that stands in the way of that is gonna wind up in a hole in the desert.
I cannot wait to retire. I hope to do some traveling, learn woodworking, maybe build a boat, do some fishing, sailing, all kinds of things.
I’d retire tomorrow if I could afford it.