Aibu Retiring at 55 - 30 years of idleness?

[Scotsknowbest]

So this is the thing: so many local friends have given up working in the last few years in their early to mid 50s, aibu to think what on earth are you going to do to stay interested and interesting?
I thought perhaps they would shut the house up and set off on a big trip but holidays have been more like 2 weeks in Greece instead of one.
I thought perhaps they would volunteer but that seems too restrictive for them.
I thought some might use their professional skills to join executive boards as NEDs or in advisory roles. But no.
Some have upped their golf or tennis, some are focusing on the garden (what, every day?) some walk the dog, read the paper.
I just think they will become so boring!
In contrast I caught up with 3 old school friends this evening who I see about once or twice a year. I asked them when they thought they would retire and each thought mid 60s.
Many of my friends have inherited recently and I think this has been the nudge. I have also inherited but I don't feel any different!
Just for context I am 57, work in 2 roles, one executive, board level, one professional but different area (social work) which takes me to about 4 days a week but I also run 4 properties as a landlord and have an aging dad who lives a mile away who I help with admin, appointments, organising stuff. I also have 2 grown kids the youngest at uni, 1st year. So, not as busy as when I worked and had little kids, but pretty busy in a good way. Personally I can't imagine stopping working so aibu, is 50to55 simply too young to be retiring even if the catalyst has been a windfall inheritance?

definitely personality dependent! What were they like before they retired!!

I know. Its a me thing and not intended to suggest that's what other retired people are doing or feeling about their lives. I just can't get past the idea of retirement as the last phase. Not a bad or worthless one. Just a melancholy one. Like the last day of a holiday. However perhaps I'll feel differently when the time comes.

I retired mid 50s. I spend my time walking and going out for lunch, doing crafts - I make the majority of our clothes, knitting and sewing and going on holiday. DH does the garden and decorating and helps DD with her garden, we help DS and DDiL with DGC and take them out. The best thing is looking at the weather and booking a holiday for tomorrow, packing and going!

It's a good life. No one knows how long they have on this planet so why flog yourself to death.

think of it as the first day of the holiday, not the last!!
When I was a manager in the NHS I worked in a fairly rural area where I met retired staff around and about after they had left work. Many of them said before retiring that they DID NOT want to go, that they didn't know what they would do, that they wished to stay on. To be clear, it was many years ago now and staying on after retirement age wasn't a thing. I used to meet them in the shops or round the village after retirement and I never met one who regretted it or any were sitting around waiting for the end.

This. definitely this.

My FIL retired at71 and the last 5 or 6 years before he did were his most fun and most lucrative and whilst on contract on his own terms somewhat ( lots of paid travel and overseeing) and he very much enjoyed them - he’s 87 now and still luckily great for his age - fun, witty and still interested in things

I think so much of this depends on what you do - my H gets paid essentially for his hobby - and work in a fun industry - he gets to meet fantastically interesting people ( Ido too but not as often as him) and whilst I know he would like to wind back on what we currently do somewhat - I’m busy at 64 doing a pitch deck for a half a million investment spin off - have really enjoyed this and it challenged me a lot . I’m not into gardening or crafts or daytime TV etc and whilst I can think of things I would do like some others here I would def want to have things going on that were not domestic as long as I could

I'm turning 40 soon, I would absolutely love to have the option of retiring in 10-15 years time.
I can see myself trying to start a litle business to keep busy, but a job? I'd rather not, no more having to be somewhere at 9am is my dream.

interestingly, very few people have mentioned declining health. Having lost a number of friends recently to different things, I will retire asap and then have time for everything I want to do. In terms of health outcomes, this generation can’t afford to wait around, in my experience.

The strain of modern living catches up with you or so, sadly, has been the case in our lives.

It's not just declining health, but the time to maintain health. Exercising and eating healthily are more time consuming.

You either make time for your health or make time for your illness.

The last two are not either/or, sadly.

You can make all the time in the world for health, it just makes it less likely that you will get exercise (lack of) and food related illness.

It doesn't mean you will have a healthy old age.

People of all ages should crack on with what they want to do while they still have the ability to do it, it may not be there tomorrow.

So many people talking about volunteering as if it were a credible substitute for working. A big part of employment for me is how dependent we all are on each other, in people whose skills are completely different and come together to make things happen, at a pace that I have so far not found in any volunteering opportunity

Working with volunteers is so very very different to working with other employees. My experience of volunteers is that even when we all absolutely agree about the way forward, everyone’s voice must be heard, everyone given the opportunity to speak, even when they have nothing to add. Much time is taken up with acknowledging their contribution rather than getting on with the job.

Love my job and as a project manager could easily do the same role as a volunteer however working with volunteers removed the fast pace and focus that makes it fun.

Already long past state retirement age, I hope to stay working for as long as they will have me.

I know loads of people who retired in their early 50s. One started a web and database design business that he sold for a bid wedge of money after a few years. They've all spent a lot of time travelling, having interesting hobbies, caring for GCs, some have done voluntary work, one splits her time between here and the house in Gascony that she lovingly renovated, another couple bought a narrowboat and spent years travelling the canal network.

I think if you have hobbies and interests, and a decent pension, you can have a very fulfilling retirement, at least until you get too decrepit to be active.

Not a pile on as such but, you remind me of lottery winning lollipop men or dinner ladies who don't want to give up their minimum slave wage jobs even though they are now multi millionaires - they think they'll be too bored or some other i need purpose type bs, whereas I think they suffer from a failure of imagination.

Not a criticism, OP I promise 🙏 just a totally different mindset.

I am now retired (mid 70’s) but at 55 I had no interest in retiring, still feeling I had plenty to contribute professionally. Ideally, I would have retired between 65-68, but for financial reasons & to max out pension, I kept working til 72, a bit longer than preferable, but at least now I have a financially comfortable retirement.
The best things for me in retirement are no need to get up early & put shoulder to grindstone Mon-Fri, my days are, finally, my own. I also now can pursue interests that I didn’t have the time for when working, for me, music, languages, regular travel within my budget. It’s great! Also, I now spend more time at the gym than I did when younger in order to maintain mobility & strength - completely different motivation than when younger. Fortunately I am pretty healthy. Most retired people I know are like me, and more than a few still do a bit of work, if it is enjoyable.
i don’t know the TV & gardening crowd, but I think 55 is too young.

Agreed - you’re just improving the odds by eating healthily and exercising.

However, looking at it more starkly, the other poster did have a neat expression which I found quite motivating: you either make time for your health or your illness.

I had friends who dropped dead at 40. Friends who hate their jobs and can't afford to retire. I know people who have retired from their day jobs and picked up a bit of extra work in a less pressured role, to prevent boredom. I was intending to retire early, but landed a job i love, so I'll hang on a while yet.
YABVU to judge anyone for making different life choices to your own.

two things really. I get what you mean about volunteering. People volunteer wanting to get all sorts of different things from it including social interraction. They treasure the meetings and being heard aspects which whould drive me (and I suspect you) to rage. For me its way too peopley. I left work peopled out!

Secondly I don't see my retirement life as a substitute for work any more than I see chips as a substitute for stew. They are totally different things with their own pleasures.

I’m not 8nto gardening or da6 time tv either. And my hobbies are collaborative with lots of out of the house social time. I th8nk you e got a weird idea of what retirement ‘musy’ be. It can be whatever you want. That’s rather the point.

Most of my retirement hobbies and volunteering involve getting out of the house and meeting people. I am out and about to a variety of places more than I ever was when I was working, and I have a wider social circle.

No I agree with you - it can indeed be whatever you want - what I am saying is how ‘I’ feel - not how others must feel- I don’t personally care if others want to garden all day, have endless cups of tea and watch pointless - just saying that wouldn’t work ‘for me’

Strewth, on that point I agree - unless you adore the job - money means you can easily create your own purposes too - even if it’s having your own little charitable fund to truly get involved in - or pay for days out for disadvantaged groups or whatever -

It wouldn’t work for me either. That’s not what retirement is.

Watching TV and gardening-Sounds absolutely fine!

Some jobs are valuable and essential, like nursing. A lot are just part of making the rich richer by convincing people to buy stuff they don't need. We have a culture of work for the sake of work, when actually it's people wasting their lives.