A very LONG read that essentially says: Find something you love to do before retirement and then enjoy doing it after retirement. The unhappy retirees who I know are those who don't have anything to do all day and just sit at home hoping someone will come by who they can bitch to. If you're unhappy, it's your problem and you need to do something about it.
My wife and I both retired ten years ago. She was a medical professional. I was self-employed, running two small businesses.
We never were idle folks, looking for something to do. We always had so much to do, that the difficulty became prioritizing what to do next.
We retired from the big city in Arizona and bought 30 acres in rural Florida. Discovering that the property taxes on bare land was going to take a big chunk out of our retirement each year unless we had an agricultural exemption.
So we decided to raise beef cattle. We bought two young heifers and a bull calf. By the time the heifers were ready to breed, we started building our herd to the thirty head we have now.
Building the farm up to raise cows meant, we had to build barns, build corrals, put in fencing, install water lines for stock tanks and over time buy tractors and other farm equipment to do the job.
We now have a fully operational, professional cattle operation that we love to work.
Our friends from Arizona want to know why we would take on all of this work in retirement instead of traveling. We both traveled the country and the world as military brats. Been there, done that.
When you get older (we're both in our 70s and healthy), if you have nothing to look forward to, nothing to get out of bed for and nothing you love to do, you will die. Simple as that.
Just recently, life has thrown us a new challenge. We have been awarded full-custody of our 2 year old granddaughter after CPS took her away from her mother for doing drugs. The little girl is our deceased son's but the mother is not kin. She has no one else to care for her. It's not her fault.
So now we have something new to look forward to, something to get up in the morning for and someone we love dearly to keep us going everyday.
Life is good in retirement.
I got lucky when the Chines bought GE Appliances and I was able to take my pension early.
I now work 3 days a week at a gun store.
Out of the rat race and loving it.