To not really want to work anymore?

[caranconnor]

I am 50 and although I have enjoyed working in the past, I would prefer never to work again. I feel I have done enough. It is not an option, I have to work for another 17 years. But anyone else feel like this?

That last post was to @speakout.

I'm 38 and training to be a Teaching Assistant this will be a new career for me but I would like to not work and have won the lottery

I absolutely agree with you. Work in a job can be demoralising, unrewarding and depressing. There is little financial worth either when you take into account travelling time and expenses.

My aim was to get out as fast as possible by a combination of working hard, saving, paying down debt and general frugalness. When I got out early I had a queue of businesses asking me to go back but freedom is too high a price.

The pendulum has swung too far in favour of the employer and at the expense of the employee and they know it.

Also at our age we often have to deal with more bereavements and elderly parents who need help.
When I was young there were a lot of women in their fifties who did not work and who helped older relatives and with grandkids. That is happening far less as more women have to work full time until retirement. It is helping make the social care crisis worse.

There is a menopause board on here which is a mine of information - HRT has revolutionised my life. NO more tiredness, anxiety and low confidence - I feel great! (Have put on a few pounds though, so not all wonderful)

Also with changes in technigy and AI...and the High street..I do not know how realistic it is for vast swathes of people to be able to work till they are in 60's/70's. I think we may or should go down the Universal/ Basic income route....not the £89 a week by Green Party but prob more like 18k a year.

£18k a year is more than some people get now working full-time.

65 still working ... what I find most irratating is younger colleagues saying why not retire? err because not state pension age yet! 🤔

Things to teach our dc from this thread:

Work your socks off when you are young, save every penny and get the best pension you can afford - you won't always feel like a spring chicken, one day your age will catch up with you, and with all the will in the world that over time/new job role will be a step too far.

Dance and have fun and make the most of your life - one day you won't be able to. Dancing on tables will result in a hip replacement at 50!

Start early having dc if you are in position to do so, your older self will thank you for it.

Don't have any children at all if you don't want to, it is a perfectly viable and enjoyable option.

Never rely on a man for money or security, plan your future concisely, and don't for God's sake marry someone lazy/no prospects, he will drain the life out of you quicker than any job!

Get a job that you love with a passion, that way you will never do a day's work.

One day you will get tired quicker than you think, life will become harder suddenly, then you can slow down and take the scenic route as God intended There will be those that say never me, I am going to be young forever - ignore them, it happens to the most spritely of us trust me.

Don't you just wish someone had told you all of this.....

I'm always tired (chronic health issues)
35 and worked since I was 13, I won't have children so no maternity/SAHM, and I don't even have a passport because I can't afford a holiday
Sometimes I wonder what the point is of going to work in a car I only drive to work to pay for a house I only see in the evenings!

I know caranconnor...that was an example. It is going to get tougher re jobs..some will not exist. Something drastic needs to happen. It is not realistic or possible for many people to work into their 60's/70's....jobs will not be there. Unless they all become carers in nursing homes...always a shortage there! It is all bonkers.

BerwickLad👍🏻I’m totally with you!!! Look at this thread. The majority of people struggling. This is the reality of life today. Can’t be doing with Pollyanna bullshit either. You know what? I find it demoralising and degrading having to ‘compete’ with younger workmates. When they have all the energy and time and l don’t.

As for retraining as a teacher in your 50’s. Just don’t even go there. I’m a teacher, every teacher my age is struggling. It’s both physically and mentally exhausting.

@considermesometimes It was fine until you said don't you wish someone had told you this. Did you miss where I and another poster lost a pension - the other pension 2 pensions. There used to be NO protection for pensions. Lots of people lost all or most of their pension or ended up with a lot less than they paid in.

I’m 55 and planning on retiring in 2 more years. My husband (4 years older) has already dropped to 4 days a week (I do 6). I am constantly tired, fight every day with depression and anxiety, and count the days between days off and holidays.

Stopping early is possible for us because of a combination of modest lifestyle, regular saving/investing, inheritance plus being child free. We will live on savings until our respective multiple part pensions from various jobs kick in, plus state pension (66 for him, 67 for me).

I won’t be bored. You can of course generate a routine in retirement through a combination of volunteering and hobbies, or even some part time work if you want to. But when you decide you want to go travelling, you just tell them you won’t be in for a month.

I trained as a teacher in my early 20s and even then it was very tiring and stressful, can't imagine training or doing that in later years. Maybe tutoring 1:1, TEFL or TA perhaps...part time. I see a lot of older women in particular being burnt out by stress in caring jobs such as teaching, therapy, nursing and social work...possibly due to additional caring responsibilities also.

As for retraining as a teacher in your 50’s. Just don’t even go there. I know, but friends of mine are doing it right now. One friend is starting aged 57.

Some of you are right though, we will get iller, less attractive to employers as well, so will have to train ourselves up now in something lucrative that doesn't require us to move around much and can be done remotely from our downsized places by the coast. We could be professional Twitterbots!
I found this report on YouGov which states:
The four-generational (4G) workplace - The future workplace will be multi-generational, with four generations working side-by-side. Traditional notions of hierarchy and seniority will become less important. The skills for leading and managing the 4G workforce, and for facilitating collaboration across multiple generations and their values, will be in increasing demand. The complex values of this multi-generational workforce will impact upon employers’ ability to attract talent, at all skill levels. Attitudes to corporate social responsibility, or expectations of flexible working conditions, will alter the ways employers recruit.Cross-generational skills acquisition will be important. While the speed of technological change may place younger cohorts at a perceived advantage, especially those who have grown up entirely in a digital age, all age cohorts will need to invest in continual up-skilling to keep pace with accelerating development. Workers in older age groups will need to embrace technology fully in order to compete in the labour market. By 2020, over 50 per cent of the workforce are expected to be Generation Y members who have grown up connected, collaborative and mobile. “

So basically I could be a work Nana, looking after the office dogs, and pot plants and getting paid handsomely to do it!

Working 6 days a week 😮 @PuzzledObserver, that is too much!

Op you missed my point apologies, I didn't mean don't you personally, I mean just in general terms. I wish someone had told all of us this!!
I mean generally NO ONE told me I would be this knackered, my mother never mentioned how hellish the menopause can be, I asked her and then she said oh yes, well it doesn't get any easier!! I just kind of wish someone had said something, work hard now whilst you can. That sort of thing. My parents definitely had it much easier, so maybe it didn't occur to them....

There is a real difference between doing teacher training with the support of a college and fellow mature students and the reality of a full time first teaching post. The former sounds fun for a older person, the latter draining.

Im 49 but i am as on board with anything new as my lkids. Work nana my arse!

I am 49years. We have an 8year old son and adopted a 3 year old. I work 3 days a week in a demanding job and my partner works away 4 days a week so I am on my own with the kids. I doubt that I can EVER retire. Some days I am very tired (and grumpy) but keeping going and hanging out with lots of mums 20 years younger than me keeps me on my toes.....

“Workers in older age groups will have to embrace technology” l have embraced technology, the thing missing from that YouGov thing is embracing older workers and removing ageism in the workplace. But what else would you expect from “YouGov?”😡

Starting teaching at 57😱⚰️

I was joking SlightlyBonkersQFA

Don't you just wish someone had told you all of this.....

But how many young people would listen anyway? I know I never did: I was immortal and unstoppable, I was never going to be middle aged and burnt out and consider an early night tucked up with reruns of Downton my idea of a good time.