34 years until retirement…I can’t do it

[MyLovelyMuffin]

I am very lucky in most ways in my job, and have had it much worse in the past. The pay is good, my team are great and the work is doable if challenging as involved the general public and high responsibility.

If I am to retire at 68, I’ve got another 34 years to go. I’m 34 now, so I’m going to have to work that length of time (equal to my whole life) again before getting a pension and not having the pressure. Just the thought makes me feel exhausted.

How do people do this???

One day at a time?

Well I have just taken early retirement and I am so bored, with no real direction I would love to be 34 again.

why don’t you pick a job you like now, otherwise I suggest you are wasting your life!

Cos it's always been thus for the vast majority?

Don't think about the 34 years. Concentrate on enjoying the here and now.

Maybe have a 5 and 10 year plan to keep you motivated.

Find a job you love or an outside activity that gives you purpose.

What age did you start working?

I felt like this at age 25… but the years pass faster and faster, I promise (look it up, it’s a real phenomenon that your perception of time changes as you age).

in the meantime I would say - don’t think about it, distract yourself with things outside work - and keep buying those lottery tickets!

Do you pay into your employers pension scheme? If you build up a decent pension pot you could retire earlier. I’m a similar age to you and that’s my plan, I’m aiming to retire at 60 and live off pension pot and investments until state pension in late 60s kicks in.

Yup, one year at a time. Also, I don’t know what else you have going on in your life, but I find that I measure my life by the things that are happening with my family and friends. My kids growing. Holidays and celebrations. I really don’t think about my working life long term.

Doesn't sound like much of a life if you are wishing it away until you get to retirement. What if you got seriously ill and died before you even managed to retire! Life is way too short and precious.

Well loads don't retire at 68 but different times

Right now, 34 years feels like a lifetime. Because to you it is. But you just take it a year at a time and they pass by quicker every year. And you don't have to stay in the same job or even in the same industry if you find something that appeals more.

God it all goes so fast! Don’t think about, enjoy today. Do more training, change jobs, travel, get a hobby, spend time with your loved ones. You’ll blink at it’ll have arrived and you’ll wonder where the fuck your life went

I worked for 35 years, time really does feel as if it speeds up as you get older. I read the psychological reasons why and it made sense, I’m too tired to explain and would probably make a mess of it now but it feels like it does.

Enjoy your youthful body I am of an age where I can still do everything but it’s slower and creaky, I would love to be 34 and do it all again.

I started to seriously financially plan as young as 21, I know it’s harder these days but when it comes to decision making well we all make some questionable ones but always think things through.

My friend and I worked together in our mid twenties, I roughed it living in really quite shitty housing with mice in the kitchen and the stairs partially collapsed in one house, cheap and all bills shared. She rented a 2 bed flat by herself that was a huge commute to work, I could walk to work. It meant I could save. When it came to affairs of the heart she married a cock lodger. I would rather have stayed in shared housing forever than be leeched off.

Change jobs! Do something you really love

I'd love to be 34 again, too. I don't want to work full-time any more, but I'd love to go back two or three days a week.

Exactly that.

Or work for you. I have been working 45 years and plan on doing at least another 15. I love what I do.

You may not yet be aware, OP, but the next decade of your life will pass at least twice as quickly as the previous decade. Then the one after that will be twice as short as the one before it.. and so on. You will not be able to believe now how quickly time whizzes past once you're over 40. Honestly, it's just phenomenal.

I feel like I was 34 just a few years ago. Surely, I was? Yet apparently I'm 65 now, which can't possibly be true. Yet it is.

I'd love to swap places with you and be 34 again and be rejoicing in the knowledge that I was 30+ years away from retirement age.

i am 16 years to go and I can't do it. I plan to relocate somewhere cheaper so I can pay off my mortgage sooner. then draw my private pension when I am 55. and get a part time job to supplement it, if I am able (I am disabled)

Personally I dropped a day when I had my last child. My kids are teenagers now but I never went back to 5 days. Highly recommend 4 days to make everything better!

It will soon pass, I had to finish work due to ill health in my forties & thought if felt like a lifetime until retirement age, that was 13 years ago, in 10 years I will be getting ny State Pension. Such a lot has happened in that time, my marriage ended, I met dp, dp died 8 years ago, ds was 6 when I finished work, now he is 19 & married. Take it one day at a time & don't look too far into the future or you will miss what happens in the here & now.

I am 42 and I really don't feel that my life is going quickly. It seems to be plodding by. My 20s and 30s lasted an age. I sometimes can't believe that I potentially am only half way through my life as I feel as though I've been alive for so long.

I don't worry about retiring though because it just is what it is - you have to go to work every day and that's the reality of the situation.

Well I'm 55. I have worked full time for 36 years and have 12 years to go.
I am enjoying my work. I do get more tired but tbh, working with much younger people I find intetesting/energising and feel that I can add to their knowledge and they can use my expertise.
I didn't feel like that 5 years ago so being willing to shift jobs is important I think.
I look at it positively. My Mum worked till 65, Dad didn't make it to his pension. So really it's a good problem to have

If you’re only 34, the standard retirement age could go up to 70….

You have to. Do you prefer the alternative?

Cos that’s life! I started work at 16 and will work till I’m 66, minimum. If I want to eat I have to work.