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.
Given the demographics of the U.S., there simply aren't enough younger workers.Not that you'd know it by age discrimination.
I think people should retire ASAP as they a) want to and b) can afford it. I think if/when my day comes, I'll have to do absolutely nothing for as long as I feel like after all these years of shoving myself out the door to make a living. I've never found a calling that paid decent money. As I said to one friend, "We weren't willing to compromise and marry for security, so we really have to dig in about working."
Better to have a roommate than to "marry for security"! Did you ever actually think of doing something like that? I just can't imagine.
very good comments...i am not financially secure when relying on just my resources...however, my spouse and i together can just get by with ss and savings..plus real small govt pension and relatively inexpensive health insurance (gratis of Uncle Sam)...but problems arise if one of us lives substantially longer than the other....just one retirement income wont cut it....thus retiring now at 62 is taking a gamble...but i do hate work and feel that it is depriving me of the opportunity to explore new things...this is really a tough decision???
When SHOULD they retire? Any time they want but in reality it would be nice to actually still have the option in our 50s, but for most in my generation that isn't happening. I'm guessing I'll probably work until I'm dead or better off dead.
When SHOULD they retire? Any time they want but in reality it would be nice to actually still have the option in our 50s, but for most in my generation that isn't happening. I'm guessing I'll probably work until I'm dead or better off dead.
I love it - "better off dead"! Like that old movie, "Better off Dead" with John Cusack who keeps trying to kill himself, but doesn't succeed.
I'm not really too freaked out about working all my life - what else am I gonna do, anyway? I wouldn't have enough money in retirement to do anything, just get by, hopefully. So, it's not like I'd be taking cruises or something. LOL
Might as well work, as long as I can stand up. Can you imagine someone at 80 going for a job interview? "Hey, sonny, got any jobs here? What's that you say - I'm kinda hard of hearing! Oh, don't mind the wheelchair - I can still get on the bus!"
Thank you for this thread. I happened upon it accidentally while surfing the web for the answer to "when should a person retire."
I am seriously considering retirement because when I am very old (not too far away) I don't want to look back on my accomplishments and discover that I never made time for real talents such as painting, creative writing and just plain enjoyment of life.
I have health insurance and will have a meager amount of money to live on, but my main fear is that at my age, work opportunities will be very scarce....and who knows what the future may bring.
Still.....I am thinking strongly about retiring from the work world and giving myself a year to do some of the creative things I have always wanted and needed to do. I will think of myself as a bohemian. Yes.
Regarding "not compromising by marrying for security"- I don't mean out and out gold digging- which does still happen. My friend, an old-fashioned bohemian, did have a very rich boyfriend for a while, and was involved for some time with a well-off doctor. Both would have married her, but she didn't care enough for them to do so.
She is now 62, has loathed every odd job she ever had, owns a 2-family house where the first-floor rent pays the mortgage. She lives absolutely low on the food chain and was just fired from a personal caretaker job. She is debating calling it quits on working. Ninety-nine weeks of enemployment (supposedly), mini-COBRA for health insurance. A gap there before full Soc. Security age (66). Part of me feels like she's something of a leech with her glee at collecting. She says she's "unemployable" and I pointed out that there are many jobs she could get that she simply is unwilling to do. She says, "You work all the time," and I pointed out that I work five 8-hour shifts a week- like most employed people.
She could skimp along now. But if she needs more money, house repair, co-pay, whatever, in more than a few years, what will she do? Most people spend on services, not "stuff." You can avoid "stuff" and going out, but services always go up, and are usually needed.
I'm not sure she'll automatically get some 99 weeks off, either. I don't know how it works. But part of me is miffed about her glee and getting all these benefits (she got a no-interest home-fix-up loan due to her lower income) when she's chosen to *be* lower income.
If I were Warren Buffet, I would never retire either.
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.
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.
why retire if I were....
