To ask if anyone else over 50 isn't desperate to retire

If you're happy to keep working eg to 67, what is it that you do for a living?

Yep, this is me.

I think any one who thinks they would be bored has just not invested enough in their life outside work.

For me it's about balance. I work FT now, as does my DH. In 3 years time, DH is going to retire (age 55) and join my business (I am self employed). We are going to operate February to October each year, and then travel in November, December and January. This will be a mix of holidays and visiting our adult kids who live abroad. This feels like a nice balance to me.

I'm 52, and I just had 16 months of no work. I'm really good at not working and could quite easily fill my time. I've got lots of things I can do. However, it's not financially sustainable and I've just completed my first month in a new job - and today is payday! I'm enjoying it so far. I can't see me retiring early, because I can't easily afford to.

Still, neither of my parents made it to retirement, so for me, just living past 62 will be an achievement.

I know a couple of people who have retired early. One seems to be endlessly off on holidays, the other does lots of volunteering. I think if you do things, it's fine. If you just stop and watch TV all day, it would seem dull to me. But so much depends on finances, health, and what you do. Physical jobs are harder to go on with.

Yeah, mid 50s, teenagers all still at home draining me of money, no desire to retire, although I may think about reducing my hours again in my 60s so I have more leisure time. Worked 4 days a week when the DC were small and that seems a good balance between work and life. I had a colleague who did that but swapped about his day off so he had 2 long weekends a month to go sailing which sounds good.

People I have seen retire early have had a very fulfilling time, enjoy several trips abroad every year, play sports such as golf, bowls, croquet or walking football, get involved with all types of volunteer roles, join choirs, enjoy hobbies and generally have the best years of their lives.

I retired at 58 five years ago. My employer ran a voluntary early exit scheme and it seemed a no brainer, for several reasons

I was experiencing a few mental and physical health niggles - arthritis and anxiety, both of which have hugely improved since retiring.

My DH is 10 years older than me, he isn’t fully retired yet but I wanted some time for us to enjoy a fit and healthy retirement together with lots of travel.

I’d inherited a decent amount when my mum died, and had a decent pension built up - I’m childless so no maternity or career breaks, just best part of 40 years of full time work.

My actual job was disappearing due to restructure so would have had to find a new job anyway so not a case of just carrying on.

I’ve never regretted it for a moment. It’s wonderful.

I actually enjoy my job, but there are so many other things I want to do. Work just limits my life apart from the money obviously. I’ll be retiring early, but have lots of plans for travel, days out, theatre etc. I can’t wait.

At 60, I expected to work till I was 70. Ran our own business with DH, couldn't see us retiring. Loved the job, loved the sector we worked in. However circumstances, mainly collapsing footfall in high streets, forced an earlier retirement than anticipated, and we closed just before I was 65. The afternoon we drove away after we closed was euphoric. We both felt that a huge weight had been lifted. We have really enjoyed the last 5 years, DH is involved with Rotary which gives him contact with many different people, organising events, a rock and comedy concert is the latest, we have redecorated the house, go for regular walks, catching up on holidays - we could only get a week at a time when working as we could not close the shop, helping our children. It is great being able to decide to do whatever we want, when we want. We have both had pretty minor health issues, which would have been difficult if we had still been working. We don't wish that we had retired earlier, buy are pleased we retired when we did. I like to get involved, but both if us refuse to do anything that ties us down to set times. I took my watch off after my last day of work, and haven't worn one since.

Im early 40s and i cant see me ever really retiring. Id get bored tbh. I need to be doing something. I do think without purpose each day can become the same. My PIL report struggles with sleep and waking early, i believe thats because they dont get out doing stuff. Even theyve said its not all its cracked up to be. Idk, i think ill keep working fir the mental benefits and social side

People I’ve seen retire early have either ended up alcoholic, divorced or run ragged by adult DC or other family.

I’ve come late to a very lucrative career, the experiences that it affords me are phenomenal, I’m 50, planning on working, having the best time and saving for 10-15 years if I can tbh, later years as non exec director or similar

I retired early.. l was fortunate in one way with compensation..but not in another( disabled). After many operations and therapy ( still having both).. l am now sat in the sun at a villa in The Canaries.
Bliss.

@krustykittens

the notion that people who love work ONLY love work is a bit daft.

Totally. You see this on every thread about work. It’s a stupid but incredibly common misconception that people who like their jobs have no capacity to enjoy anything else. I don’t know why people bang on about this.

I'm 50 and I don't want to retire any time soon. However I'm lucky enough to work part time (30 hours) and enjoy my job. Otherwise I might feel differently.

I am not exactly close to retirement myself but the idea doesn't appeal at all. My lovely grandmother retired at 55 (she is 86 now) and my MIL who is the same age is still lecturing and writing books. There is a huge difference between their cognitive and physical abilities even though my grandmother was an economist so not at all unintelligent. 30 years of domestic work and looking after grandkids didn't do her any favours.

I feel the same as you. I'm 62.

"I am sure people will be along shortly (as they invariably do) to say that people who like working are “boring”, “lack creativity” or are “cogs in a machine” and everyone would be better off just doing hobbies."

Yep, all this. Like we can't do both. I have lots of hobbies that I really love and some of them are creative. I am lucky because I work from home so no commuting frees up a lot of time for fun stuff, but the notion that people who love work ONLY love work is a bit daft.

God I have found my people. I personally regard the idea of retirement with terror. I love working, it gives my life structure, purpose, intellectual stimulation and a social connection which I would really miss.

I certainly would like more control over how much I work and would like to work fewer hours and have more time for hobbies. But I will always want work to play a part in my life. A good job is massively life enhancing.

I am sure people will be along shortly (as they invariably do) to say that people who like working are “boring”, “lack creativity” or are “cogs in a machine” and everyone would be better off just doing hobbies. There is a rich seam of hostility on here towards people who enjoy working, not to mention a lack of awareness that for some of us work is a financial necessity. I think a lot of people regard it as an affectation to want a good job

And certainly work isn’t for everyone and fair enough. But for me it’s a massive positive and a privilege and I want to do it until I drop.

I am 50 and my husband is 53, neither of us has plans to retire. We are both self employed and love our jobs. We would like to be fussier over the jobs we take and scale back on our hours (he works silly hours at the moment), but neither of us wants to give up entirely.

Actually my husband died 5 years ago. Work was one of the key things that kept me going, gave me purpose and focus, enabled me to be me, took me away from thinking about terminal illness 24/7 and played a big part in my rebuilding my life. So perhaps there’s very little I can think of which I would like less than retiring in my 50’s . Obviously anything happening to my health or anything negative to my children but I don’t think we really need to be quite so pedantic do we?

I am early 50s, I have a good, interesting, highly paid career that is not physically taxing. Until I turned 50, I was in no hurry to retire. Now, I am counting down the days until I turn 57, and I can take my pension.

I don't know exactly what changed. I don't like my company culture in part, but will not move now, as it would be too disruptive. In part, I just see so many things I want to do. By 57, the mortgage is paid off, the kids have left school/home. I won't need as much to keep afloat so it will be time for me to look after me.

My husband retired and was back in full time work within six months. I love my job, even though it’s tough, I’ll drop a couple of days but don’t fancy retirement.

I have a massive list of things I want to do when retired. It's a variety of things; indoors/outdoors, physical/mental, social/ solo etc
I will consider volunteering but not immediately & I'll choose carefully what, when & where

I was planning to retire at 60 but the opportunity to lead a onec in a lifetime legacy project is likely to keep me working to 62/63/64 maybe, I'll probably look to part time work for some of that addional time (providing I actually lose some of my work load & I'm not expected to compress it into my shorter week.)

I'm finding I don't want to deal with colleagues batshittery and flakiness. I will need to go before I'm too blunt with someone.