Is retirement all it's cracked up to be?

[madroid]

If you have actually retired, are you enjoying it?

All things being equal, without, for example, health problems are you actually enjoying your free time? What do you do? What does your day look like?

I imagine there's a 'honeymoon' period where you relish not having to get up to go to work, catch up with all sorts of things... but then what? What have you got into?

Am in my 40s so not there yet but am impressed that people have so many friends and hobbies. I have no idea what age my friends are planning on retirement but it might certainly not be same time as friends. After years of looking after kids am also not sure that I have enough friends to fill every day of the week. How do people do it or do you end up making new ones?

My parents retired at 70 i.e. Covid and honestly it's been really bad for my dad. He was definitely one of those men who lived for the job and his family. He did have a few friends but many of them moved away in retirement and he is sooooo bored. It's the lack of purpose. He really has aged ten years

I'm not in the UK, but that is not my experience. I mentioned in an earlier thread that I've often heard retired people comment that they are far busier than they were when they worked, and on reflection most of the people who have said that to me are men. Men who have had a busy working life are hardly going to want to sit around and do nothing just because they have retired. Around here they seem to throw themselves into service clubs, the local menz shed, volunteering etc.

What a lovely post.

I've also seen too many people age a decade in a year as a result of retiring- work keeps you young

Ha! It’s a well known phenomenon in teaching that when the retired person comes back for the Christmas do, they look 10 years younger.

I can think of two people who immediately spring to mind who look heaps better, and are healthier, because they retired. When I took voluntary redundancy from my last full-time job and did nothing for a few months several people told me I looked happier. Work might keep some people young, not everyone. Three months until semi-retirement and I can't wait (and I only work part-time atm).

I cant envisage the wonderful retirements of the boomers around me. How on earth will I have the money to fund the lunches, holidays, hobbies? No chance. We'll all be broke!

Plenty of "boomers" don't have much income in retirement.

Plenty of "boomers" don't have much income in retirement
I am gen X and have a wealthier retirement than my boomer parents, one received just a state pension and the other gets half a state pension (as stitched up by opting out of NI payments as advised by the government at the time) and some pension credit.

Horses for courses. Couple I know have just retired (late forties and mid fifties - result of a large inheritance). She’s enjoying pottering and doing her hobby, he’s bored to tears and is going back to work, albeit in a different role. It suits some people and others need to work.

I think retirement would be disastrous for me. I need structure and routine. Motivation can be a problem so I think I'd struggle with volunteering etc. I don't have a job I LOVE but I definitely don't hate it. I think I'd be up as an alcoholic as a minimum 🤣

@anythinginapinch you sound ideal for an interesting part time role if you can find one. Maybe something 15 hrs a week

I suppose there are as many retirements as there are lives. Like everything, you get out of it what you put into it.

A good income helps but country walks, local travel with a free bus pass, volunteering, museums and galleries, bike rides, gardening, spending time with family and friends all cost nothing.

And keeping active mentally and physically helps with that health. My dad, who is 98, never did an exercise class in his life but worked a big garden, had an allotment and walked everywhere and his strength and fitness until about 90 was an inspiration.

Thinking about the relatives/parents and their friends etc in the generation above, the ones that retired early were the ones who had a fulfilling retirement full of holidays, hobbies, social life etc aged well and lived well into their 80's, some still around, with lesser health problems, whereas the ones that limped on until state pensions were the ones that looked ancient, had loads of health issues and barely had a retirement.

Marking my place.

Most retired people i know are not in the least bit bored and haven't lost their sense of purpose. Most volunteer in some way.
They read, go walking, spend more time on hobbies than they could previously, spend more time with family and friends, cook more interesting meals, take advantage of free events, take day trips during the week when it's quieter, go to the cinema etc etc.
Those with more money travel a lot.

There are a lot of posters on this thread who are are retired and answered the OP’s question and said ‘yes it really is that good’. Then there are a lot of posters who haven’t retired and somehow know it isn’t that good.

Then there are a lot of posters who haven’t retired and somehow know it isn’t that good.

It's a chat forum so people post their observations as well as their experience. Like I said earlier, it would take a brave soul to come of this thread to say they find retirement lonely and their lives lacking in purpose.

I have no trouble believing that many people relish retirement but I also know that many struggle.

I'm a boomer, I rent and will be forever (unless I win a fortune!) but I do have a little bit of inheritance. I will be semi-retiring this year, not eligible for superannuation until August next year. I have no intention of going on holidays, my hobbies don't cost a lot, and I can afford the odd lunch out. It is quite possible to have a good life without a huge amount of money, believe it or not, and not all boomers are wealthy, believe it or not.

I'm surprised at how many posters have retired in their 50s. I'm 40 and don't think I'll be able to fully retire until I receive state pension but will hopefully be able to work part time in my early 60s if the mortgage is cleared by then. A couple of my friends will probably be able to retire in their 50s but this is because they'll likely receive big inheritences due to SE property price rises of their parent's homes. One is the child of immigrants and she knows she is expected to care for her parents so will probably have no choice but to reduce work then to do so.

I envisage my retirement involving a lot of pottering around as I expect my health won't be great during my 70s (based on my relatives). PIL are early 70s and also not great health but have a decent pension so are going on a lot of holidays but I think FIL is actually finding the holidays boring as they are basically the same beach holidays again and again.

It's an interesting read, I think if you retire early your health remains better for longer because you have less stress to deal with and time to exercise etc. Somewhat sad I probably won't be able to do the same but certainly don't begrudge those that have achieved that. It's a little comforting that some posters schedules are similar to what I think mine will be and that they're happy.

The trouble is that the kind of lifestyle many of the retirees are describing here is dependant on a generous final salary scheme that allowed you to take early retirement. I'm in my early 50s, the people just a few years older than me all retired at 55 having paid just 2 % of their salary into the pension scheme and ending up with 60 % of their final salary as pension because the company final salary pension they had was so generous.

But those all closed to new entrants in the late 99s, early 2000s and there's going to be a big change in the corporate world as people can't afford to retire at 55. Defined contribution pensions that require more money from the individual, combined with paying back student loans, buying more expensive property later and having children later (the current retired population had their children very young in the post war decades) means everything is a lot more squeezed. Later retirement means a shorter retirement period in good health and a different experience to those described here.

I plan to work FT into my early/mid 60s then start going PT so I have more time for travelling and hobbies but still have plenty money. Won't fully retire until I have health issues probably. I'm quite relaxed about that, I grew up on a farm and old farmers never retire so this idea of years of not working doesn't really appeal.

I'm enjoying it. Retired at 69, work still in contact and I've helped out a couple of times when they hit a problem. Care for disabled DH which is demanding. Care for one GC who lives with me, give lots of support with other GC from babies to teens.

I still don't have much time for me but I'm busy and happy, I'm lucky as we don't have money worries. I feel like I'm about half my age and the worst thing is if I see myself in a mirror or a photo and think who the hell is that old white haired woman and then reality dawns and it's me! How can I feel so fit and well and look like an old lady?

Agree. Some of the lifestyles being described are lovely - 10 holidays a year etc.

But for a gross pension income of £2500 a month you need a pension pot of at least £600k. For a lot of people that is not going to be achievable as pensions now are far less generous than they were

I suppose it depends what you find fulfilling. I would probably enjoy lots of holidays and social life but I find cuddling my young GC very fulfilling and worth far more than any holiday. I'm 70 so still a way to go but no health problems, love reading, walk miles and enjoy life. We are all different.

There is a lot of truth in this. I was able to retire when I did because when I was younger I didn't have to make an active decision to save into a pension, I was in a DB scheme from which I'd have had to make an effort to opt out. If opting out had been easy I might have done so because there were long periods when things were tight and I had to count pennies and delay paying bills. I also had a financially easier time than people just half a generation after me because I had a free university education and free accommodation in my early working years.

By the time I retired, I also had a fairly low bar for "enough money". I didn't want expensive things and could pass on exotic once-in-a-lifetime experiences, I just wanted DH and me to have our remaining years of being healthy and active (statistically, there's a scary gap between actual life expectancy and healthy life expectancy) for ourselves rather than giving them to an employer and regretting it when it was too late.

I won't have a decent pension just a state pension plu s savings but only need very little to have what I consider a good life. I luv staying home and enjoy many cheap or free hobbies but plan to do weekly volunteer work by way of a free mix plus join a walking group. I am already part of a monthly hik ing group and really enjoy walking on my own. Generally 30 minutes day power walking absolute minimum. All these activities are free and I would just plan to do more of them.

@JaninaDuszejko spot on- the only difference is that 'some ' of us may get fair sized inheritances in 50s and 60s - so I think there will be an unusual scenario of people buying first and second houses outright very late in life.