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my dad is like this though...he's 74 and still goes to work every day. He officially retired from his job as a Professor because he lives in a country with mandatory retirement age (in his case, he was forced to retire at 65). unlike other Professors though, he promptly started his own consulting company and ran that until earlier this year. He finally shut that down and went to work at another consulting company. He says he can't imagine not working and it drives my mom nuts because she wants to travel more, etc.
i did not inherit this trait. i can't wait until i can afford to retire and stop working. this year was a small taste of retirement because i am taking 12 weeks off work (took 8 weeks so far in 1-2 weeks chunks) and it has been awesome. if i could do this year round, i would be a happy man.
my dad is like this though...he's 74 and still goes to work every day. He officially retired from his job as a Professor because he lives in a country with mandatory retirement age (in his case, he was forced to retire at 65). unlike other Professors though, he promptly started his own consulting company and ran that until earlier this year. He finally shut that down and went to work at another consulting company. He says he can't imagine not working and it drives my mom nuts because she wants to travel more, etc.
i did not inherit this trait. i can't wait until i can afford to retire and stop working. this year was a small taste of retirement because i am taking 12 weeks off work (took 8 weeks so far in 1-2 weeks chunks) and it has been awesome. if I could do this year round, i would be a happy man.
I didn't read or participate in this thread seven years ago, and neither did a lot of others who've joined CD since then. It's an interesting topic.
Your father obviously loves whatever he teaches or consults on, and apart from your mother's preferences (which are between her and your father), what's wrong with that?
If you are not 'a happy man' RVD, why aren't you? Isn't there anything that you're passionate about that you could turn into a career? For example, what did you do (so far) on your eight weeks' off that 'has been awesome'? Whatever it is, why not find a way way to turn that into a career that will feel, to you, as if you're on a permanent vacation?
Work, when you love it, will still leave you tired, but it's a good kind of tired and it yields a life of joy and satisfaction.
One FINDS things to do in retirement: volunteer at the local hospital, the food pantry system in your area, or the like. Join the senior groups etc.
The thing is, you are young now, when you reach my age {fifties} your opinion on time off may very well change!
I have almost always worked two jobs at the same time all my working life, and now have one income {though I am seeking a second income currently again}.
I TREASURE time off, sometimes to DO NOTHING, sometimes to go somewhere I'd LIKE to go.
I have recently been "foot loose and fancy free" {not working-effectively "retired"} and enjoyed the time. but for someone who "had no place to go and nothing to do"...I RARELY had any time to myself!!!
So, beware, it may happen and you will have to decide how to handle time off.
Just think of the possibilities of travel...Paris, Rome, Santorini.....
Last year, something amazing happened...I had a week off...an entire week off...AND I HATED IT! First three days were okay, but after that I was pulling my hair out without a schedule or a task I had to do. I realized than what I knew in the back of my head all along: I can't retire, ever.
Sorry, but I need to work. I have had a job since I was fifteeen (I'm 27) and that week off was the biggest stretch without working I ever had that I was not unemployed. If a week of that "what the hell do I do with myself?" feeling is enough to nearly drive me insane, imagine YEARS like that? HELL ON EARTH!
And no, the prospect of having time to travel, volunteer or other "make work" things does not appeal to me. I have to have a schedule dictate to me what to do. I have to have be somewhere to make a living. I NEED the stress of a job, or I can't do it.
Good thing is I probably will not have a real (I'm a waiter) until I'm about 40 anyway...I want to be a pyschologist, and have not started college yet, and it takes four years for a bachelor's and five or more for a PHD...that's cool, so I wouldn't get tired of it as soon as others, but most likely, not ever, and I can say "I've only been doing this for twenty years!" when someone asks me, at age 60, if I'm thinking about retiring.
Also, I'll just be sitting on a chair talking to people, so it wouldn't be wear and tear on my body, so I'll have no reason to stop as long as my mind is healthy, which should be until I die (knock on wood)
In other words...how does a workacholic retire? I am addicted to work, and I cannot fathom a time when I will want to stop, and that's the way I want to it
Anyone else also prefer to go-down in a blaze of laboring glory instead in wasting away in "the Golden Years"?
I'd love to talk to the OP today. Something tells me he'd have a different perspective. When he wrote this, he wrote the he'd been working less than half his life. By now he is in his mid 30's, and likely has a totally different view of the world.
some just have nothing to pursue or want to do . i know quite a few like that. they have no interests outside of what they do when they are off from work . or they don't want to give up their pay check
if we didn't have the money to spend doing many of the things we like i may have continued working longer ..
to retire and not be able to afford to do much isn't much fun either. those walks in the woods or hikes around the lake grow stale pretty fast , at least they did for us .
Lets face it, mathjak, you're not a woodsy type of guy. You don't hunt, fish, camp or kayak. Your idea of a good time isn't looking for spring ephemerals or bird watching. You don't garden.
In my thirties, forties and early fifties, I'd love to have lived out in the woods. I never thought that it would be a good fit in retirement.
not only do i hunt and fish but my wife has her licenses too and hunts with me . .
i have been hunting for for more than 20 years and my wife 15 years which is why we bought the house in the pocono's in the first place .
we are actually headed fishing today . but life in retirement is a whole lot more to us than hunting season and so we ended up selling the house 3 years ago . but we still hunt .
i still do winter camping trips in tents with my buddy' almost every year too .
next year i am hoping to go up to canada for a caribou hunt , no wife on this one though .
A woman at work went on forced retirement, but she's having a hard time tearing herself away from there, so she comes back to fill in for other people on vacations and parental leaves. She told me that "work" is all she's known in spite of raising a family. A perfect example of someone who's never cultivated outside interests, which I think is a responsibility for everybody. For the workplace to be someone's only interest just sounds preposterous to me, especially since I, and at least a dozen people at my employment, are still working only for the medical - otherwise, we'd ALL be out of there in a flash!
i have loads of interests and if nothing else we have been running ourselves ragged going and doing things all the time.
but the one thing we don't have is a lot of interaction with others if we are not seeing the kids and grandkids .
i love retirement but i can see doing some consulting work a day a week if we are not traveling just to have that interaction with others . i like what i did and the fun we had while doing it . but a decision to work a bit has zero to do with other interests we have . my wife actually wants to sub a day a week doing preschool if i consult a day . she misses her interaction with all the little ones .
I don't ever want to retire from part-time self-employment. I'm a writer with a nice following in the institutional investment field, and the only reason I'd quit is if I'm not needed any more.
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HELL ON EARTH!
