Anyone else does not want to retire early?

[CeRaVie]

There are so many posts about burnout, loss of enthusiasm for work, people are desperate to retire early. Personally, while I may have a tough time occasionally, I do not want to retire early. I have not found my true calling but do a decent job and feel valuable. Working keeps me current and mentally active. I am aged 46, paid off mortgage few years back, good marriage, DD is mid twenties and independent, so financially I have more options than many yet being lady of leisure does not appeal. Hating work seems so normal, I have wondered if there are others who get up motivated to work most days?

I like working and have no plans to retire early. I do have a good and stress free job though. I might feel differently otherwise.

My DH is late 60s and has no intention of retiring, he's fit, healthy and and very intelligent, he's hoping to stay that way.

I’m 61 and sold my business when I was 55. I love my job but running the business was exhausting. My job is well paid and with the profit from the sale I was able to go part time.
Unfortunately I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 57, post treatment I returned to work but the ongoing adjuvant treatment has physical side effects. I dropped my hours and now work one day a week. I was able to take my pension at 60 so my income has remained the same.

I feel that a gradual retirement works well if you have the benefit of a pension that kicks in at 60. For lots of reasons, life can change dramatically in your late 50s.

A sound plan is essential. Hopefully I will get my state pension in 6 years. My DS is at uni so currently, I need to work to support him. Also because I’m still working I can pay into a private pension to keep my tax down.

DS has 2 more years at uni, possibly 3 so my plan is to continue working part time while he’s dependent on us then fully retire and draw down my private pension until I’m 67 and state pension kicks in.

I like the social interaction at work but currently the physical aspect is hard and it takes me a day to recover after working. My cancer treatment may end in 2026 and the side effects that cause so many problems will improve, this may allow me to work a little longer. Alternatively I may take on a more administrative roll, years of running the business means I have a huge skill set still. I get on well with the person who bought my business and they have used me as a mentor. It wouldn’t be for the financial gain but just to keep active.

My personal life is in limbo at the moment. DH had a stroke 3 yrs ago and is waiting for a knee replacement. This has limited, severely, activity. I’m hoping that once he is mobile again we can start doing stuff again. The stroke was treated rapidly and physically he is very much ok, his knee was a major problem well before the stroke but weakness in the same side post stroke caused rapid deterioration. He can no longer work but has been able to draw down his pension which we use for luxuries. We’ve always lived off my income.

We are and will be very comfortable, and although I would love to be working more hours, recent family events, death of my younger sister, has changed my outlook. We lost our parents before their retirement age and with health problems, my other sister and I have taken retirement fairly early to enjoy life.

We are both in the same profession, have worked since qualifying and both have done a gradual slide from full time to very part time over five years.

A gradual transition allows you to get used to a different pace of life and adjust to reduced income. Although to be fare I earn more working one day a week and drawing my pension that I did working full time. But with very reduced outgoings i have built up a good private pension as a cushion for the future.

I have been paying 10-15% of my earnings into my NHS pension since starting work at 22, my late DSis died at 56, before she could benefit from the pension she’d paid into. So it has sort of shocked us into making the most of whatever time we have left.

absolutely love my job and it gives me a strong sense of purpose and direction. My cousin does a similar job and is still working freelance in her seventies. I hope to do the same, unless illness gets in the way at some point.

and I’m 53. Loads of years left for me to do this job I love.

@Conniebygaslight do you think people become less intelligent when they retire? An interesting concept!

At 46 I felt exactly as you did. Work energised me and I got a lot of my sense of worth from work. I’m now 58 and retire in 2 weeks. I’m ready and really looking forward to it, but my life also looks very much different in many ways. Things change and my perspective and energy levels have also changed.

This is exactly why I don't want to retire! I'm inherently lazy and need work to get me out of bed in the morning. I don't want to spend the last 20 years of my life looking at my fucking phone.

If you love your job, find it rewarding, get on with your colleagues etc then great carry on. However many people don’t have this. Additionally whilst my parents have had a long retirement there are no guarantees. Even the fittest and healthiest slow down in their 70s and I want to be able
to go abroad for long periods and visit places I haven’t been whilst I am at the lower end of retirement. Besides if either of my children have children I want to be around to help and support them. That said I’ll volunteer as long as I can so in fact perhaps I won’t be retiring either.

Retirement isn’t about just stopping paid work.

Totally agree! I'm 51, periods have stopped and none of this has happened to me. It's not inevitable or even typical.

I agree too. I’m 53 and also have hashimotos, but don’t feel much different to when I was 40.

At 55, I was counting the days until both our planned retirement at 60. Couldn't wait.

Then I got this job. I'm now 61.

I love the work, I love my colleagues. (Don't always love the clients.)

I laugh so much every day. Dropping a day has been mooted recently but I'm happy to carry on for a while longer.

And as a pp said, I think it keeps me current- socially, technologically and even my appearance.

You're only 46 though. When you hit 50+ you start to feel differently. Having said that, I'm 55 and started a new job two months ago. Reckon I could keep it going for a couple more years although I don't really need to.

I do really love my job, so perhaps that’s part of it, but I can’t imagine retiring either. I would definitely reduce my workload a bit, but I don’t like the idea of not working at all. This is partly having seen my mum retire at 60 and how she is just much less engaged with the world - despite having friends, gardening, and going on holiday 4 times a year. It’s just not the same. My dad on the other hand still works, albeit much less, at 80 and I can see how it keeps him ticking along and he is much less anxious about things than my mum has become since she retired.

I was going to post the same, give it another 10 years OP 😉

58 and no plans to retire any time soon, although I could. I am part time though. Love my job, love my colleagues, easy commute, I enjoy keeping up with developments and new technology in my field. I have a very active life outside work too, volunteering, sport, allotment, socialising, I could easily fill the time but am happy the way I am. If anything happened to this job I might think again, but would hope to carry on working in some capacity.

Me! I am mid-40s and feel like I am just at the good point or at the point where I can really move up the ladder, for the first time in my life. I have no intention of stopping for at least 20 years, god willing. (DM had dementia from early 60s, so who knows that the future holds).

Also, those saying 'give it 10 years' or when you get to 50...slowing down isn't an option for me. At 55, I'll have a 15 year old. I want to stay as sharp-minded, focused and active as possible. Part of that for me is working.

My granny died at 48, my mother at 59. I’m older than my gran now and although I love my job, I do wonder if I should be enjoying life more as chances of getting to 90 are probably not statistically in my favour.
I always think we should be issued with an egg timer at birth, it’d be really handy to know how many years you have left. Would make pension planning a doddle too!

Maybe we should start another thread to ask if anyone has regretted retiring early.

I'm 51 with no plans to retire yet. I enjoy my job and I like to keep busy. I'll see how I feel at 60, by then youngest DC will be 24 so hopefully they will all be through uni and independent.

This reminds me of a recent thread about which decades in one’s life have been the best. Most of the posters said their 50s, so I can only assume that for a lot of women menopause is not as horrendous as it is made out to be.

This is a good point. I wonder if those who are ready to retire in their 50s have grown up kids and are worn down by raising them for 20 odd years. If you have babies in your 40s then you’re motivated to keep working into your 50s and 60s to provide for them. This must be what people mean by “kids keep you young”.

I do think the experience of peri / meno is very much a factor too, I'm late 50s and am as full of energy as I've ever been, never had an achey joint, perhaps this is one reason that retiring isn't really on my radar. The dependent DCs thing too, mine are uni age so semi-independent but not there yet.

I know someone who regretted it. She is the same age as me, but retired more than 15 years ago at 50. She washes she'd carried on, for financial and social reasons
.

So far my 50s have definitely been my best decade. My mum said the same (though the doctors had a knock-down fight to get her HRT away from her at 83, so she didn't tackle them without support). From the outside her 60s and even the first half of her 70s looked pretty good too, though with increasing hip problems that culminated in a botched replacement.

My mum retired at 65 and didn't regret it either way. If I can go to a decent PT deal at 60 (I'd like 3 days) then I can see myself carrying on to 67.