To be very clear @Dinsdale I am in no way encouraging others to keep working when they don’t get satisfaction from it and don’t have to, and there are plenty of other things to do besides work! As I had acknowledged the studies of not retiring having health benefits are a mixed bag and that makes sense as work and retirement circumstances vary widely. The point of the thread mainly is just to shout out that we who like work and who get more out of it than the money, who are polar opposites to the FIRE crowd, are not outliers.
Anyway, to answer the question. I put as much into my 401ks as was allowed, positioned with high volatility tolerance, was wanting to be able to retire at 65 if it turned out I wanted or had to, and the last decades of the market has served us consistent dollar averagers with high volatility tolerance well. My lifestyle historically doesn’t require a high burn rate but most savings have been in the retirement bucket and spent on kids’s tuitions. It was an epiphany for me to realize I could start to tap some of what was in the retirement funds and indulge on bucket list trips and such, even though I wasn’t retired.
The overall data claimed in the articles I cited are that of the half of us with plans to “work indefinitely” it is split roughly 50/50, half feeling they need to, half choosing to. And of those who choose to I am sure there are some who want to less because they enjoy what they do and more because they can’t reimagine developing new challenges for themselves, or who are addicted to the wealth scorecard and want to rack up as big of an estate for grandkids (even more than kids) as possible. Or just because they are used to getting their validation from those numbers? A good friend of mine retired early after a … substantial … buy out. And when he was talking about an opportunity to go back to work part time with a new company started by people he had worked with before was telling me that he was waiting to hear what the equity numbers would be. My input was that the factor that should really matter was whether or not he’d have fun with the challenge. (He took the gig but un unretired quickly as it was quickly morphing into full time and he didn’t want that.)
I plan to work past typical retirement age if I continue to feel engaged in my career (I’m 50 now). When I do retire, I plan to pick up another degree. No better way to keep the mind sharp! Many schools have heavily-discounted or waived tuition for those over 65, so I may not even need to pay much. It would be fun to get a degree in Art History, or Architecture, especially when there’s zero pressure to start a career with it.
After several very different but very engaging careers in engineering, construction, and software development (I say I have a 15-year attention span for careers), I eventually got my teaching credential and started teaching high school math. After a few years of wondering why so many kids had so much trouble with math I “moved upstream” and started teaching middle school math. I loved it, and intended to keep teaching until I fell over dead. But I taught at a private school for ten years and eventually, inevitably, crossed wires with a parent and things got sticky. I was 66 at the time, and they offered a generous severance, so I reluctantly took it, expecting to find another position, tutoring, or SOMETHING.
But I found that I enjoyed retirement so much that I have fully let go of that expectation. It is just so wonderful for me to get up when I feel like it (typically 4am) and be able to do whatever I want. I have grandchildren nearby and get to spend just the right amount of time with them.
Although I’m sure I would have been richly rewarded by continuing to teach, I have also found that getting to experience this kind of freedom is a treat that truly gives me a jolt of ecstasy every morning when I wake up.
To me this is key. If you work until you’re infirm, you’ll never know what real retirement is like. If married, you both won’t know what real retirement is like until you’re both not working / obligated.
As mentioned upthread, my career ended by law on my 65th birthday. Used to be age 60 but back in 2007 Congress abruptly changed the law with about 6 weeks’ notice. Every so often ever since then Congress half-heartedly takes up the idea of upping it to age 67. Which is a topic of vast interest to the airlines and to those pilots approaching age 65. Although not to the rest of the public, so it’s not very newsworthy.
Whenever Congress is musing, that leads to vast speculation as one’s last working year runs out: “What if they bumped it to 67 shortly before I turned 65? I’ve been planning on retiring now, but what would I do given a 2 year reprieve to keep working?” Lotta folks, me included, thought about that and the most common answer is “I’d keep going but with one eye on the door. Maybe it’ll be good, maybe not. Two more years of income and two fewer years of 401k/IRA withdrawals can’t hurt.”
For me, that change didn’t happen. If it had I’d have been force-retired a couple months ago, not a couple years ago.
Looking back on it I am so glad they forced me out. What I’ve been able to do in those years is sooo much more valuable than 2 more years of the same familiar stuff, rewarding though it would have been both emotionally and practically.
I really loved my job. Turns out I love not doing more than doing it. At least at this stage of my life.
The freedom of adequately funded true retirement really needs to be experienced to be believed. Even a one month vacation is like taking one bite of a feast and deciding it’s all not for you.
The partner factor is a big deal. My wife, a therapist, has as little interest is stopping or even slowing than I do. Less even. I honestly can’t imagine her not working or being content not working. That said she is aware that therapists can try to keep working past the points that their minds are really up to the task. Being ready for that eventuality is something she thinks about and dreads.
I was a truck driver when I reached 65, the age at which I could claim my state pension, but I enjoyed my job and continued working. There were several advantages:
Deferring my state pension means that I get more now that I draw it.
After the official retirement age, I paid less tax (No NI).
My employer was happy to allow me to reduce my hours.
When I stopped working, I volunteered for a while, taking patients to their hospital appointments, etc. I was reimbursed for expenses but not paid for my time, which was fine by me.
In theory, I think these programs are a great idea. In practice, I wonder.
A few years ago, I fell into a side gig as an adjunct at a local university, teaching programming to mostly freshmen. I’ve had a few “golden id” students and, frankly, they’re a pain in the ass. I’m 61, so I’d naively think I should relate more to them than to the teenagers, but I don’t really understand why they’re there. Their questions are more likely to be out of left field (and not in a “that really makes you think” sort of way) and their technological literacy is nonexistent (this is an intro class, so I don’t expect much). The rest of my students, even when they’re clueless, they’re clueless in a way I understand.
I don’t mean to discourage you from doing this. The onus is definitely on me to figure out how to teach all of my students. Probably doesn’t apply if you’re pursuing a full 2nd degree, but I guess I’d urge you to be cognizant that someone taking a one-off class has potential to derail things for the majority of the class that needs this class in order to be able to take the next class or needs these skills to be effective getting a job.
I think the art history (or anything really) is a great idea. Both my parents had art degrees, advertising and I think fine art. My mom went on to get a masters in art history.
This really did wonderful things for me and an ability to appreciate art. Even create it. All art and arts. It’s all tied together. Even music. And you can add math and well everything else.
An appreciation for art makes travel to foreign countries much more enjoyable.
(I’m sorry, I have to do a side note here. My cousin and I went to the Denver art museum. One painting of a ‘Duke’ of something looked EXACTLY like Gene Wilder. Crazy hair and all. We looked at each other and burst out laughing).
It’s great to keep working if you want. I am so done. My wife and I moved and now we have a bigger house. Sounds crazy, but it’s not at all. We spend hours a day together, but we also each want our own space.
Huh. COVID sent most of my crew to work from home. So really, it felt like semi-retirement to me. I worked whenever I wanted to. I put in MORE hours though. But that depends on your job of course.
So moving to full retirement should be easy for me.
I’ve created a number of posts detailing my work frustrations so I don’t want to rehash that. But as I am currently “retired” at 53 I find myself pondering what I actually want to do in my remaining years.
I suppose at the end of the day, I want to work a job I actually like going to and not be counting the days to retirement as an escape from stress and drudgery. Or worse, retirement as an escape from a corporate world that to me increasingly feel like lunacy.
I don’t know. As I’m able-bodied and in reasonably good shape, the idea of retiring doesn’t make sense to me any time soon. Having nothing to do all day besides what hobbies you choose to fill your time seem a bit like just that - passing time until you keel over dead.
You can do better than “pass time until you keel over”. In my year of kinda-retirement, i helped a refuge learn English, tutored math in a prison, helped a bunch of college kids learn to square dance (one of my favorite hobbies) traveled to a bunch of square dance conventions, ran a square dance weekend that enabled a lot of my friend to have fun, went to a puzzle event in Japan, and helped my husband with his recently diagnosed cancer. And i did a little post time actuarial work.
Surely you can find things you like to do that also help other people. Or things that are really fun.
I guess my thinking is I want to continue growing professionally doing work I like rather than have ANY job where I’m counting down the days until retirement so I don’t force myself to vomit to death.
Unfortunately in my job search over the past several months, I feel like most jobs are now the “rather vomit to death” variety.
I feel your pain. At one time I had a doctor who referred patients to me. He teased me that I “still making buggy whips”. It turned out that while there was a small group of people who loved personal service they could not (or would not) financially support a small business “doing something that nobody wanted done”. I was obsolete.
I don’t know what that means. What does “working on you” entail? Training for a marathon? Meditation? Organizing you house? What does a finished “you” look like?
Just means doing my stuff. I have a stairway landing to build going into the garage. Open the door and you have stairs right there. I want about a 2 foot landing and then the stairs.
Means learning the piano. Bought the best electric Yamaha I could find. Both my wife and I are going to do that.
My wife and I may get electric bikes to tool around on.
I may start drawing again.
I once wrote code to calculate the speed, distance, angle of decent, feet per minute for landing in a flight sim. I think you just put in a couple of known variables and it would calculate the rest. I might try to do that again and buy a new flight sim. I never did master that.
That’s what I mean by working on me. Maybe working for me would be a better choice of words.
I like that phrasing. For me it includes doing things for other people, like volunteering, so long as it is what I want to do and not something I have to do to get paid.