Posted on 08/21/2025 8:36:31 PM PDT by Cronos
The fifties are when retirement gets determined. Not financially—most boomers figured that out—but existentially. It's when patterns solidify, relationships either deepen or atrophy, identity either expands or calcifies around a job title.
1. They let their entire identity collapse into their job title
2. They believed retirement was a reward rather than a transition. You can't flip a switch from workaholic to fulfilled retiree.
3. They stopped making new friends Somewhere in their fifties, they closed the friend roster. The social circle became fixed—college buddies, work colleagues, couple friends from the kids' childhood. No new applications accepted.
4. They ignored their health until it was crisis management The fifties send bodily invoices for decades of neglect. But instead of paying attention, many worked harder, ignoring the check engine light. The cruel irony: the fifties are the last decade when you can build reserves rather than just slow depletion.
5. They avoided difficult conversations with their spouse Parallel lives seemed sustainable in their fifties. She had book club; he had golf. They'd "reconnect in retirement."The gray divorce rate has doubled since 1990, largely driven by couples discovering their marriage was held together by busy schedules, not connection.
6. They dismissed therapy as weakness
7. They abandoned learning "I'm too old for new things," became their fifties refrain, usually about technology but eventually everything. They stopped reading challenging books. They stopped being curious.
8. They never developed interests that weren't productive Every hobby had purpose. Golf for networking. Reading for professional development. Nothing for joy.
9. They ignored their changing relationship with their children
10. They thought money would solve everything
(Excerpt) Read more at vegoutmag.com ...
Someone in their 30s projecting what they think they will be in their 60s.
Yep. I love how people who have no personal knowledge of what went on during a specific time period, have no idea of what it was like growing up post WWII, during the Cold War, Korean War, the Vietnam War, etc., yet think they're qualified to make a generalized statement about all the people who lived through it.
I wish I had the Critical Drinker on a loop saying, “F____ off, hack writer.”
I haven’t met a Boomer yet wh6y is/was miserable in retirement.
“You may love your wife dearly, but you being around them 24/7 places a strain on both of you.”
My retirement ended the day my wife retired!
My retirement plan is to keel over in my home office.
My job can be a pain, like two nights in a row staying up to wee hours babysitting a production deploy, but on the whole I like having it.
Plus it turns out I’m one hell of an author.
Don’t doo dat. Better to go out with a pile spent, smoking brass at your feet and a blade in your hand. In any case, I must read your material. I’ll let you know what I think.
Over here. Wait until September 1 and you can get it for 0.99.
They stopped having good laughs with each other.
I would love to but I don’t know how to post pictures from my phone onto FR.
Did you have an editor? Because that is one impressively tight novel
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