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?

I’m 54 and cancer has forced me into ill health retirement. Instead of doing all the things I had planned to do, I’m on permanent chemo to try and see DD graduate and DS further into adulthood.

You don’t know what’s round the corner in life.

Can I ask how people retire in their early fifties? Is it from public-sector pensions, or from having been a high earner in the private sector and having a generous company pension? I'm just curious.

I'm 61 and while I'd like to work less can't imagine not working at all. And do what? Hobbies? I DO have some hobbies but my main hobby is my work. I'd be bored rigid without it. I went into this field because even before I did it, while working another job, it was an interest.

I'd like to be able to get up later in the morning. Be a bit more chilled. But still work.

My ex has been retired for 19 years. He's boring and listless. I dread becoming like that.

Yabu to project your personal preferences onto others and judge them for not agreeing with your personal priorities.

You wouldn't want to retire in mid 50s and no one is making you. It's too early for you.

Your friends have made a different decision and if they don't value the amount of "keeping interested and interesting" that they might have got from staying in employment for another 10 years then that is none of your business. They don't owe you "interesting"

No natural talent - I joined an art class, and it’s changed my life. I’ve made some lovely friends through it, too.

Give it a try - you might surprise yourself!

They could drop dead today. So could you.

And you really have no idea at all what they are doing to fill their days the fact that you think it amounts to coffees and lunches speaks to you, not them.

I have a popular Twitter account that my family knows nothing about (my husband does but I haven't told my adult kids or friends) they might be writing the great British novel for all you know, or having wild sex parties.

Just worry about yourself.

I’d have laughed and said you won’t be doing that.
Occasional child care/ help with sick days etc , yes , but not a regular commitment.

My husbands grandfather retired at 50. He is now 85 and bored as fuck. He says he regrets stopping work so early as he’s had no purpose for so long. Some of that is his fault, he’s not exactly proactive, but it’s made me think.

This was my parents. My dad took ill health early retirement at 47. He did have a serious lung disease and a manual job was impossible. A couple of years later my mum decided to give up her manual job due to a bad back. She was early 40’s, and never worked again. My dad has died now, but my mum is 73 and has been at home doing very little for 30yrs. Initially they’d go food shopping weekly, but then started getting deliveries. My dad stayed busy in the garden, and they helped a bit in the early years with grandchildren but spent most of the time sitting at home.

I am 49 and won’t be retiring until 67 min as i’ve got a house to pay off, due to living in an expensive area whilst kids where in school, bought a house later in life. I enjoy working, though do have some aches and pains and in throws of peri menopause so some days I do think how can I last another 20yrs almost, but i’d hate to be stuck at home all day. I also would not want to be picking up kids from school etc. I have big age gaps and did the school run for nearly 30yrs, I am done with that!

you can’t take a public sector pension until 55 and its heavily reduced at that age (soon to be 57 min).

That's not true I can take my 1995 section from 50 (as can anyone who was in the scheme before 2006) and will as soon as I start to pay tax on the growth, I am not sure when this will happen but I won't be working ft after 57.

Retiring as soon as you can financially - I’m in favour for the following reasons:

1. We won’t live as long a healthy life as our parents - we have all their genetic flaws plus many more of the triggering events needed for serious diseases to strike.
2. We face paying for years in care homes with poor quality lives or choosing assisted dying which to my horror friends in their 50s are starting to talk about.
3. Unless you have a DB or civil service pension, those who can afford to retire have often worked exceptionally hard and spent long hours in an unhealthy environment. They need a break and a reset.
4. We will all be needed to help with childcare for grandchildren, enabling our children to work. It’s too expensive for the next generation to have children otherwise.
5. There is increasing tension between workers and contributors and non workers and little return or credit for being a worker.
6. Despite its huge funding, the NHS is a slow lumbering disgrace. None of us would be wise to rely on it to save us. There’s huge move to allow nurses to take on dr roles. I suspect this is to reduce costs and service within the NHS while the wealthy only use private medicine and get the clever properly educated (sciences degrees, 5/6 year medical school then teaching hospital trained) doctors who have moved across.
7. Possibly the best investment one can make with a few thousand pounds annually is on private health insurance to enable early investigation of ‘little niggles’ that might be something sinister or worsen.
8. Jobs tend to tick the human company box better than the intellectual stimulation box. If you want to deepen any of your more ‘challenging’ interests and involvements, you need to do a further degree or your own research into eg maths at home. You need to retire.
9. There is a noticeable difference in each decade between human performance/fitness/mental acuity at the beginning and end.
10. Volunteering - I do this but I notice my friends’ involvement dwindling for all the reasons above plus the fact that some express that they’ve given to the state already and want something back out.

This. I retired at 58. I volunteer one day a week, go to a class one afternoon, the rest is for crafting, long walks, exploring the area I live in, having friends to stay, holidays . . .

You could flip it the other way and ask why anyone with enough money would want to work and be run ragged when they don’t need to.

Work isn’t everything, not for me anyway, I’m sick of the corporate bitchy world and look forward to retiring young.

I wonder why you are so concerned about what other people are doing. Why does it matter,OP what people choose to do in their retirement? Or at what age they choose to retire? I’m genuinely confused by this question.

I’m 58, working silly hours, stressed up to my eyeballs in a job I no longer enjoy, averaging 4-5 hours sleep a night and beyond tired all the time, if I could afford to retire I’d be gone tomorrow, you wouldn’t see me for dust 😂 yabvvvvu

Hear bloody hear.

Gosh deep condolences. That’s an incredibly hard time with so much loss. Best wishes.

Just on the cusp of retiring in my early 40s.

I have plenty to achieve and do in life - but will not do it at the expense of my freedom.

If you are independently wealthy and have enough money to never work for money again - what is it that traps you into repeating so much of your activities year after year with limited time off and a crammed life.

People are busy to be busy. The inability to imagine what you could do with your wild and precious life outside of the corporate world is so limiting.

A better question is - if you weren’t getting paid - would you still go to work? And if not then all you are is a wage slave. If you don’t need the money do something you’d happily do for free.

For all those asking about early retirement - it has to be a focus from a young age generally. I recommend a book called ‘Your Money or Your Life’. Also invest money in stocks and shares ISAs in a low cost (Vanguard / Intersctive Investor) account across tracker funds. I’ve doubled my investments in 10 years doing that.

OP I think you need to accept that others don’t have to live their lives to your pleasing. The “Idleness” in your title says everything we need to know about you and your character. Just stay in your lane and try to drop your sense of moral superiority, it’s an ugly trait.

I’ve several friends who ‘retired’ in their early 50’s and loved it for a few years. They slept when they wanted, woke when they wanted, exercised and socialised exactly as they required and enjoyed travel while catching up with all life admin and home requirements. They’ve all now gone back to work in either charity/passion roles or setting up new businesses. The difference is that they are in control and have balance. It’s an enjoyable place for them and I can see such a benefit. I think some are going to be very financially successful because the pressure is a fun challenge and not the stressful slog of their earlier years. Obviously they are financially sound but having fun pursuing their own ‘more’. I’m a bit younger but find it very inspiring.

I'm planning to retire at 60, in 2 years time. DH just got a diagnosis that means he probably won't be alive to retire with me, so all of our plans and savings were for nothing other than a financially secure very much unwanted widowhood for me.

If you can afford to retire at 55 why not? You don't know what your future holds. My dad retired from social work at 55 through stress and died when he was 64.

These kind of musings are only possible when you are already in a very comfortable position. When you know you’ll be working a physically demanding role until you’re almost 70- and possibly even beyond- 30 years of frippery sounds pretty bloody good……

I was made redundant when I was 55 during the COVID years. I applied for a few things at the time but actually wanted to go to work and not work from home. I had a rather dependent dog who we have sadly had to recently say goodbye to. I’m applying for everything I can, I want to work but think age goes against me. I even wonder if HR think ‘She’s a bit think she hasn’t even got and GCSEs’. Obviously, O levels were the equivalent when I was at school. I found my time working really narrowed my life. There are only so many times you can rearrange the kitchen cupboards and tidy your knicker drawer.