Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Retirement
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-14-2015, 08:40 PM
 
12,823 posts, read 24,297,864 times
Reputation: 11039

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda View Post
I'm sure that's no doubt true. However, I started planning for a retirement in my 50s back at age 22 when I got married, graduated from college, and went to work full-time. I wonder if "most people (who) would retire earlier if they had the resources" can say that.
I started a 401K when I was 22. But I still cannot retire young unless I want to live poor from that point onward.

I really wish I could have started to max out every year at a younger age but my income versus unavoidable costs would not allow it until I was 40 or so.

So, back to what was said, you are fortunate.

Even the most disciplined person in the world cannot build a nest egg faster than a certain rate. It is all about income.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-14-2015, 09:51 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
25,597 posts, read 56,279,063 times
Reputation: 23259
Quote:
Originally Posted by no kudzu View Post
I am blown away at the rate of changes for me personally. I'm 68 and when I remember back to 55 I was a different person. Physically I have changed in those years more than any other time except maybe from birth to age 10!
Hormones (estrogen/testosterone/hgh) flatline at age 60. From then on we're running fumes. One ages 3x as fast after the age of 60 as prior. I've known that for a good long time. Those who exercise heavily - "put money in the bank" as said upthread - do fare better as exercise promotes hgh production.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
actually we generally age once every ten years.

that means at some point things turn different all at once and stay put for a decade .
I absolutely agree with this. When a decade turns I don't notice a change. Somewhere along 3-4 years into the new decade, I do - which means changes in diet/vitamins/lifestyle/whatever. I've noticed that since my 40's. Not anywhere near the person I was eight years ago. Of course, I've been retired and on no schedule, which doesn't help. There is a lot to be said for schedule and discipline.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda View Post
At 55, going on an African safari feels like a do-or-die trip. At 65, many people are fine experiencing it on the Discovery Channel.

This is the perhaps the best explanation of why my wife and I retired in our early 50s rather than waiting until a more traditional retirement age.........who knows how much stamina (and good health) we'll have to do it in another decade or so.
No truer words. No desire to travel, anymore. The thought of planning clothes for the trip, packing, shutting up the house, stopping the mail - whatever - way too much work. Plus, not an early riser - ever - getting much worse with age. Only time I could be doing any touring would be starting at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. In my 50's, I was extremely active and could travel w/o a problem. No more. Indeed, at 72/73, my extended traveling days are over.

Quote:
Originally Posted by thedwightguy View Post
All these posts pretty much fly in the face of national governments wanting to raise the retirement age!

You start to run out of gas. No more dragging around 4'X10' form plywood for this guy. I REALLY started
noticing the strength thing going between those years. But try to stay active, even if it's just walking.
Yes, indeed. It's usually all over by the mid-60's. When I worked until age 67-1/2, I was on autopilot the last couple of years - just going through the motions. Barely could drive the 6 miles to work in the am. Working 9:30-6 those final years was very hard on me because I had always had a second-shift biorhythms and had worked afternoons/evenings most of my life. I am defeated before I begin when I need to be anywhere before 1 or 2 in the afternoon. One of the reasons I don't go to the doctor - too much effort too early in the day - especially those 6/7/8 a.m. appts. they love to set for screenings. Forget about it. My brother is the same way. My sister (65), a nurse, has had health issues. Been off since last September. She's not going back. Her employer will muster her out - very shortly, we think. Right now she's on their disability.

Raising the retirement age will only work for a fraction of those in their 60's - AND - where are the jobs??? Many employers get rid of their older, long-term workers long before FRA. For the most part, these people become unemployable at any kind of decent work remotely resembling what they had done previously. In the real world, raising the FRA will only serve to force people save more or retire in poverty. Shorting of injecting everyone with hgh and/or another youth hormone, it's not practical - and, again, where are the jobs?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-14-2015, 10:19 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C.
36,499 posts, read 53,817,512 times
Reputation: 47911
My husband turns 75 in two weeks and he retired only 6 months ago. he still does technical writing from home but prior to that he traveled almost 5 days out of every week, in and out of different hotels, times zones and many times had to work nights at major airports when they weren't as busy. I'm amazed he has fared so well health wise. he doesn't take a single pill. His grandparents lived to be 99 and 98. You can't say too much for picking the right parents.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-14-2015, 10:23 PM
 
8,804 posts, read 4,455,817 times
Reputation: 16089
Quote:
Originally Posted by biscuitmom View Post
I'm 67 and don't get it. What is the ugly part I'm missing?
Oh, let's see - heart attack, quad bypass. Getting ready for gall bladder removal. Can't hit a golf ball move than 150 yards. Hearing aids, reading glasses, partial dentures. There's more, but memory loss is also an issue. Like they say, ____ is the second thing to go. What is first? I forget.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 08:24 AM
 
Location: Kansas
25,655 posts, read 21,814,224 times
Reputation: 26245
Quote:
Originally Posted by NewToCA View Post
Not 65 yet, just 62, so I won't offer up observations yet.

But it does seem to me the article attributes a lot of stuff to age 55 that really is more accurate for age 45.
I agree with that post^ At 60, I remember 55 well and even 45 when really I wasn't seeing any concrete changes.

[quote=biscuitmom;38013607] I'm 67 and don't get it. What is the ugly part I'm missing?[/QUOTE

There is no "ugly" part of it so there is nothing to get. Being in state and an area of the state where people over 55 are nearly the majority of adults, life just goes on. I see older guys checking out the older women all the time and both still making a real effort to look good which is more than I can say about the younger adults.

Quote:
Originally Posted by no kudzu View Post
I'm betting most people would retire earlier if they had the resources. You are fortunate.
Bet not! So many people remain on the job after retirement age, many have to be forced to retire, others retire only to go back to work. In this day and age, many people are psychologically lost without their jobs.

Both my husband and myself are 60, born 6 days apart. It is obvious that we are aging at different rates but in practice that looks like it has a lot to do with staying physically and mentally active. What I have noticed since age 45 is significant but that is a 15 year span but since 55 to 60.5, I haven't seen that much change. I care 24/7 for my son with DS, 2 senior dogs and a senior guinea pig, live in a big house with a big yard and I can't afford to slow down. I have made adjustments to exercise and diet to get the most of my physical being.

I dislike articles like the one posted since to me, they are doom and gloom articles. People are SO different in SO many ways. Just live your life for today and tomorrow will take care of itself.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 03:31 PM
 
12,823 posts, read 24,297,864 times
Reputation: 11039
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnywhereElse View Post
Bet not! So many people remain on the job after retirement age, many have to be forced to retire, others retire only to go back to work. In this day and age, many people are psychologically lost without their jobs.
I would say I was all about my job when I was in my 30s and well into my 40s, in high tech, start ups, etc. What has happened since a certain point in the past decade has cured me of that affliction. I can say with great assurance that once / if I get to a financial point that allows me to make the big decision (and in my book that point has to be situated for optimal Social Security draw, so in my case, given my cohort. at least late 60s), I'm outta here!

I have enough things lined up (several thousand) that I will never finish everything before I die.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 05:40 PM
 
Location: Near a river
16,042 posts, read 21,910,597 times
Reputation: 15773
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton View Post
.... changes over the last 3-years: Weight and hair redistribution
??
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 07:15 PM
 
Location: Minnesota/ Las Vegas
206 posts, read 239,684 times
Reputation: 573
62 here.

As with most of you I could go on and on about various items in different stages of deterioration.

But the one thing I really have noticed is that, as I get older, I understand less and less about this world. Nothing in the news makes sense to me anymore, it seems. And with retirement looming for us in the not-too-distant future, I look forward to anonymity. But I worry about the future of our nation.

Each passing year brings more appreciation for the simple things in life.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 07:23 PM
 
Location: State of Superior
8,733 posts, read 15,884,529 times
Reputation: 2869
Quote:
Originally Posted by catsy girl View Post
i will be 72 this year, and i haven't really noticed a great many physical changes. i do have some arthritis in some fingers, but, thankfully, not in my hips or knees; i go up and down stairs frequently each day. in public buildings, if i have an appointment on the third or fourth floor- no higher-, i usually walk up rather than take the elevator. on a parking lot, as have been recommended, i often park farther away from the building where i'm going, even if a closer space is available.

i retired almost 11 years ago, and as my husband of 36 years had died not long before and i was beginning a new relationship, the reality of retirement required reinvention on many levels. i did become involved in teaching adults- something i had never done- in life long learning, and it has helped to define my "reinvented " life. i also have become more involved in writing, an avocation for many years, and this is a large part of my life now.

i would say that health is slightly more prominent on the radar screen, but happiness is still important. i do feel that happiness has come to mean contentment more so than in the past, but i can't attribute that exclusively to aging.

i will agree that intimacy is as least as important to me as sex, but i would say that both are as important to me as they ever have been.

i've never had a bucket list and don't really have an interest in developing one. life is full of surprises, good and bad, and if one can look at each day as an adventure, that may be, for me, the only bucket list required. i don't always take that viewpoint, but i have often found that the day is more meaningful to me when i do.

catsy girl
The bucket list is meant to fulfill your dreams. Those dreams that may have started when you first opened the World Book Encyclopedia at age 10 or from movies of far away places with strange sounding names.....Those of us who start at an early age making a wish list, if not on paper then in the mind are more likely to have an actual bucket list. There also is a misnomer out there that the bucket list has anything to do with memories, that would be wrong , we make these lists for one moment , one time that we can say to ourselves, "I have done it ,hooray for ME " it's actually a very personal thing.!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 07:35 PM
 
Location: State of Superior
8,733 posts, read 15,884,529 times
Reputation: 2869
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl View Post
Strangely, my body has fared well, my figure is as good as 10 years ago, but my face has...rather changed. Not creases or wrinkles, but just kind of a...well, "older look." I could possibly pass for 5 years younger, but that's because of my hair. I do notice changes in others, and think "how old!" but if truthful, it's the same for me (i.e., I'm sure others think the same thing about me). The old man keeps saying I look the same as in college, but that's just him being weird.

At 55 I was mentally and physically more in line with "late 40s." At 66 I'm more in line with age "70."
There is little doubt that we all age differently. I like to say, " one day I woke up..and I was old" . It's a sinking feeling , yet in my mind I think I am 60 not 73,maybe younger. My doctor told me physically I was 10-15 years younger than I am! My Shrink told me I was a "younger person than others your age". All this puts one on a good feeling path......until I like in the mirror and realize when I was 50 I seldom talked to anyone my age now !
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Retirement

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top