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?

Gordon Brown, Bless him, robbed the state pension fund, of 9 billion! Sadly, it's always the pension fund that gets robbed. I do wonder, where Jeremy is getting the funds from to fund his fantastic claims? I'm not particularly political, but where is this funding coming from? I'm worried, because I'm currently receiving Universal Credit. I am trying to obtain employment, but I'm not a Spring Chicken, Never was. It's a joke.

No one will be asking me my work opinion about anything at 70. But that does not make me a waste of space. I have a right to carry on living, and if that leans lying on the couch all day reading, so be it.

I couldn’t agree more. No one has to be “useful” after a certain age but that doesn’t mean people are past it and ready for the care home at that age either. Retirement should be whatever the individual wants it to be.

25 years lying on the sofa ? Really ?

I’d rather be shot frankly. And if it was 25 years lounging at your own or families expense that might be different but all of those of you hauling your arse to work each morning. That’s what your paying for.

I’d rather be shot frankly.

Lovely!

Gordon Brown, Bless him, robbed the state pension fund, of 9 billion! Sadly, it's always the pension fund that gets robbed.

What do you mean by "the pension fund"? He scrapped tax relief on private pension funds but that wouldn't affect state pensions. There is no state pension fund.

@Inliverpool1 hand me a gun and I'll do the world a favour now then .

My services won’t be in demand at 70 either to top up the woeful state pension. The average salary in the UK is about 26k, I believe. There is a lot of assumption that people’s salaries increase in life, but there’s a point in your 40s and 50s that that stops and goes into reverse. Everyone I know in their 50s earns less, often much less, than they used to. My DH (Oxford degree) now only earns 21k in London. You can’t save much into a pension on that. Four friends are long-term unemployed after applying for hundreds of jobs. Four were managed out of their jobs. Three committed suicide. One single woman had to give up work to care for her elderly father at the other end of the country. These are all educated people with good degrees. None have ever been high earners. They still need to work.

Only 4 % of over 65s are in care homes and that only rise to 16% at 85.
It is not a forgone conclusion that everyone is going to end their days in a home waiting for a career to come change their nappy.

In my immediate family of over 80 year olds only one had died in a care home but they lived there for over 10 years with Parkinson’s.
Two died suddenly at home from strokes. Both in their active and unexpected.
One after complications from what should have been a routine surgery so died in hospital after a very short illness. And that leaves one at 82 till alive. She would need to live in a care home as she has ms but lives with me instead and I look after her.

@inliving You think I am going to live till 92? Since that is above average life expectancy at my age I doubt it.
I actually do as much as I can in spite of the way I feel. But my point is that if someone wants to lie on the sofa reading for years and is happy with it, that is up to them. You are being incredibly judgemental.

@dontsweatthelittlestuff Of all the elderly relatives and friends I know who have died, only one was in a care home. That was a good few years ago and I doubt she would have been able to be these days. Because unless you are self funding which is very expensive, home care is pushed as it is cheaper. Carers coming in for short periods in the day to keep you alive.

I fully expect to still be having enjoyable times for many decades to come. But ageing is real. And ageism even more.

I'm 51 and I feel exactly the same way as you OP.

I'm just so tired of getting up early every weekday morning, day in day out, week in week out etc.
I've done it for 30 odd years, 17 years to go seems like such a long time.

I'm just tired full stop.

I’d rather be shot frankly. And if it was 25 years lounging at your own or families expense that might be different but all of those of you hauling your arse to work each morning. That’s what your paying for.

Meh, who cares? My parents have worked solidly for 40+ years. If they want to spend 25 years reading and eating cake, then, frankly, I think they deserve it.

If you want to top yourself at 70, go right ahead, but don't imply that other people are useless once they get past that age!

adaline
Again if it’s at their expense let them eat cake.
If it’s not we’ll get the guillotine out

If I fantasise about being really elderly, I always imagine myself in an armchair drinking champagne during the day and eating nibbles.

Also the ageism is wearing. You see it on here all the time. Young parents who seem to think any older relative who wants to interact with their kid is a total idiot with no idea at all.

I'm 42 and have the option of working FT or not at all. Apparently my role can't ever be done PT

We are mortgage free with shit pension. I want to chuck money at it now for the next few years then semi-retire.

But Dh is talking about buying a bigger house and I feel I'm fighting a losing battle.

I'm 42 and have the option of working FT or not at all. Apparently my role can't ever be done PT

My last employer paid lots of lip service to flexible working but in practice it was virtually impossible to work part time unless you were very senior and had clout. A friend of mine in her late 50s wanted to go part time but her head of department was against part time working in principle. She eventually moved to another department where her skills and knowledge are frankly wasted.

In Liverpoo1 I take your point about older people having to use Health services more (I know a lady or 92 who had hip replacement!) however in a Democratic Society we have to care for very old ,and very young people, disabled and so on.Your MIL probably cant do very much now ,but presumably she worked ,and or brought up a family ,and must have done a reasonable job of it as you married her Son! As far ad "popping off at 70 " is concerned unless you wish to take your own life ,and upset your family ,or get someone to kill you ,You will still be here God willing and may find 70 is not as old as you thought after all!

You know the Nazis had a utilitarian approach to people and murdered lots of disabled people who they deemed not useful any more.

So many bullshit jobs around. Who wants to work full time for 50 years in a pointless, boring job that pays minimum wage or low wage? It’s soul destroying. I say that as a primary school teacher who won’t be teaching into my 60s thank you very much. 🤢

Another 50 year old here. I've always worked either paid or voluntary work. Only took off 6 months for first DD.
Before children I worked in an insurance office for over 15 years.
So since then I've avoided any office work and shop work.
The older I've got the more physical my work has become as I'm self employed doing domestic cleaning and gardening.
I'll have to stop when I can't function anymore.
My DH is almost 60 and he says I can't EVER stop working as we need to money.
He plans on keeping working until 80 if he has to.
Groan!

I wonder if I live in a different universe.

I can't think of anything worse than retirement -- the idea fills me with utter terror tbh. Possibly coloured by the fact that several members of my family have developed dementia shortly after retirement. But even leaving that aside it just all looks so boring.

Yes I'm often tired and yes I wish I didn't have to work quite so hard and would like to see more of my child... and would like to wfh more.

But days stretching out with no purpose in life other than childcare and housework? a bit of volunteering if you're lucky and some coffee mornings? No thanks very much. I'll die with my boots on.

Some of you seem to think that the only options are paid work or sitting in front of the television all day. Plenty of people want to stop 'work' as in stop spending their days in pointless meetings or doing useless tasks. But that doesn't mean they become completely inactive. If you're not expected to sit tapping a keyboard or listening to corporate bullshit all day, you could do any number of things as long as you had an income sufficient to your needs. You could make art or music. You could tend a garden, grow veg or fruit. You could volunteer for a cause you care about. You could study or travel. Or you could set up a small and interesting (to you) business.
The obsession with paid work as the only way to be 'useful' is an absolute disaster: all these pointless bullshit jobs that exist only to keep people occupied and compliant, earning just enough to stay alive. Yes, a few people, given an adequate income, might decide to sit and eat cake in front of the telly all day, but that wouldn't actually matter. We're already paying for a bunch of parasites in the form of the House of Windsor (just as much income from tourists would be generated by the buildings; they've all got more than enough money to live on if the state never paid them another penny.)

But days stretching out with no purpose in life other than childcare and housework? a bit of volunteering if you're lucky and some coffee mornings? No thanks very much. I'll die with my boots on.

Learn something - ballroom dancing, a language?
Volunteer at food Bank?
Pet fostering?
School governor?
Genealogy?
Local history/environment?

Sod the housework, and I have no children.