Is retirement overrated and work underrated?

[texdav]

Non-sense. For the majority of human history work was family related such a agriculture business and why having sons was of such value. Work group often consisted of family. Older people retired with family who continue the business;generation to generation. Same with big business after the industrial revolution. Not seeing a lot of whatever and sons signs is pretty new in business history.Even when I was young;being 66 now; often older retired lived with family afterwards and many still do being in the south. Just as growing up sons followed their fathers in blue collar jobs and gained much of their skills there. Even now where I live local business its common for grand sons to be running what their grand father di in businesses .Now even grand daughters .My electrican;plumbers;heating and cooling just to name three are businesses that my parents used with the owners parents .If you live in farm or cattle country the succession of one following the father in business with father retired is quite common.I know of off hand three friends who check in the office daily but do not have anything to do with daily operations of the business;they are retired.;but their income is from business in that retirement.

[Darthfrodo]

I've never been bored a day in my life, and don't plan to start now. Loving retirement.

[Escort Rider]

Originally Posted by bobrichards

For all of human history, there was no such thing as "retirement" until about 1950. It was simply not possible to accumulate enough excess resources during the first 2/3 of life to live the other 1/3 without working. Then, an anomaly occurred and we had a luxury that lasted about 60 years where people could live off of their excess. Now, things are back to normal. It is not possible to generate sufficient excess, for most people, to stop working and retire as we have come to think of it. Interesting that we have quickly accepted the anomaly as what is normal and expect to retire when that is a false expectation based on human history. I explain this in more detail here.

Yes, I did follow the link and read your blog post. I agree to a certain extent; retirement is gradually becoming more difficult and less automatic for many people because of economic conditions which are global in nature, but I think you are premature in pronouncing its death "for most people". Let's consider:

1. Rapidly vanishing pensions in the private sector: First, not everyone in the private sector had a pension - the change is that the percentage of people who do has decreased substantially. But that doesn't mean folks are completely on their own shouldering the entire burden of saving up for a retirement. In place of pensions, we have company matches to 410k's and tax advantages granted to certain kinds of retirement savings accounts. I certainly concede this puts more of a burden on the worker to be proactive in planning for retirement, but it is hardly the same as the "death" of retirement.

2. Social Security. It seems to be a trendy axiom that first, one cannot retire on Social Security alone, and second, Social Security will "not be there" for people after a given date. I disagree on both counts. As for the first matter, SS retirement amounts of $1500 to $1800 a month are fairly common, and the maximum benefit is somewhere around $2200 to $2400 - I can't remember it exactly. True, that is not lavish living! But combined with certain factors such as a paid-off house and living in a reasonable cost-of-living area (New York City would not cut it), one can live frugally but not too badly on SS plus modest savings.

I think that "for most people" retirement will continue to be realistically achievable, but that our idea of continuing the exact same lifestyle in retirement will have to be modified for many. That BMW or Mercedes in the garage may have to become a Honda Civic or Ford Focus. That pricey membership in an upscale country club may have to give way to using the municipal golf course. And for those that always had the Honda Civic or the Ford Focus and always used the municipal golf course, further belt-tightening will have to occur.

[marcopolo]

Originally Posted by GenPatton

Please don't flame me. Just hear me out first.

I learned that the barber (owner of shop) where I get my hair cut has invested in real estate since 25 (he's about 60 now). During those 35 years, he bought 5 apartment complexes and they are all paid off now so he's just raking in the dough. I was so shocked to hear that and congratulated him. I then asked him why the heck he was still working cutting hair. He told me he would be bored sitting at home doing nothing.

Then I read somewhere that people who retire are more likely to die sooner than those who continue to work. The reasons why that might be vary. Maybe because they're not as active anymore so it's easy to get sicker or maybe no purpose, no social contact, etc.

I think work is important. It gets too much of a dirty rap. Work keeps us active, helps us serve others, gets us outside ourselves.

I think the biggest trap of retirement is that the whole "I'm going to live just for me and do whatever I want to pleasure myself because I earned it slaving away at a job I hate for 40 years". That seems overrated in the long run. Yeah, it feels great for a couple of months, but I can see how it's easy to get bored. People have all these grandiose plans but when you do all that, now what? It seems kind of silly that the purpose of our lives is to work at jobs we hate for the majority of our lives and then for a small fraction of our lives "do nothing" or do whatever pleases us. Seems like kind of a waste.

So maybe people approach retirement wrong.

Maybe the right way is to continue working in some capacity, whether through volunteering or a part time paid job you enjoy, or your own side business, etc. and of course, take some initial time to do things that you always wanted to do.

Retired people seem to toot the "I get to do anything I want, me me me, screw work, it's all about leisure, I feel sorry for people who have to work" horn too much but the more I think about it, the more I think that kind of life seems to be overrated and maybe even harmful in the long run.

So I'd be the last to flame you, intending as I do to keep my hand in business until I am 92 years old. And this is largely for reasons you allude to; to be of value and service to others.

At the same time, I'm reminded of older generation people who contributed mightily to make a better world, and at a certain point in time when asked to pitch in on yet another volunteer effort, they say..."You go ahead without me. The torch has been passed to a new generation." They reach a point where they have done enough for the rest of society, and can feel perfectly fine about pursuing narrower, personal interests.

But apart from that, life is short, it goes by much too quickly, and we each should be careful about what we do with our time--for that is what life is made of. I would never think I was qualified to judge the choice of another.

[TheShadow]

OP, Retirement is definitely not overrated for the majority who are busy engaging in it. Your post sounds very much like an attitude that I get from my friends who know that they will never be able to retire, having spent what they should have been saving on BMW's and multiple foreign vacations every year. They made their choice, and now they feel the need to pooh-pooh the path of delayed gratification that we chose. You might be like your barber friend, or you might be like many folks who have interests that they would love to have more free time to indulge in. Retirement is that, FREE TIME. If you can't imagine what to do with more free time, then maybe working is just your thing, and more power to you. But retirement overrated?? A resounding NO to that idea.

Nor is retirement a thing of the past as bobrichards states. It is very much alive and well where we live. Our community is basically a retirement community, although not age-restricted, and many do still perform meaningful work for pay as well as volunteering. There are many, many activities both within the community and in the local towns and city to keep us all very busy. Many people are purchasing homes here every month and I am happy to see that many are in the 50's as we are. There are certainly a majority in their 60's and 70's, but I am developing a greater appreciation of seniors than my still-working friends have. I am coming to understand that I actually have more in common with these retired folks than I do with my "spend now, to hell w/tomorrow" friends.

I have to agree with DarthFrodo. I can't possibly be bored because at any given moment, I just do what I want to or need to. My mom used to tell me that only boring people get bored.

Mavl9946, all I can say is WOW. I wish I could give you a hug. You have cancelled out every positive of retirement with negative pronouncements about why they are not possible. It is clear that you are depressed. I am very sorry, but there are so many solutions to the many problems you cite. I think that you really do need to speak with a counselor, most communities have a free mental health clinic where you can speak with someone or be referred to a doctor who can help. I'm not trying to be mean. I just know that so much more is out there for you if you could see alternatives without constantly finding "reasons" why these solutions won't work for you. The first thing that blows me away is that you are paying more for your HOA than most people pay for their mortgage. I think you would be able to afford more fun activities if you looked into moving to a place w/o exorbitant fees. A very practical suggestion for your boredom and lack of friends to do things with is Meet-up. I used to belong to several meet-up groups, they have them for every interest. Since you like to walk, I am sure that there is a walking meet-up group near you that would walk in parks or greenways near you. I have numerous other suggestions, but I think if you re-read your own post from the point of view of an outsider, you will see that the solutions are not that difficult. For instance, driving your grandkids to different daycamps and out to lunch...why are three kids only 3 years apart going to different camps? Can't they all go to the same camp? As far as feeding them at restaurants, why isn't their mother giving you money to feed them? Or perhaps you could have fun teaching them how to cook their own lunches at home. There is a big resurgence in cooking and homecrafts in the younger generations. Check out Junior Masterchefs on TV, these kids are able to cook restaurant quality meals at 12 years of age. I'm sure you can figure this stuff out for yourself, but you are down right now and feeling negative and I wish you could talk to a professional who could help you to enjoy this wonderful phase of your life.