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I have to respectfully disagree with you because I am 20 years old and I think that when you are retired it is too late to do all of those things. That is why it is so important to make those decisions now. I dislike the notion that retirement should be when you go after your passions it is way too late by then.
Come back in 40 or 50 years to see if you still feel that way.
I have to respectfully disagree with you because I am 20 years old and I think that when you are retired it is too late to do all of those things. That is why it is so important to make those decisions now. I dislike the notion that retirement should be when you go after your passions it is way too late by then.
I don't think that's an accurate statement on many fronts. Often people are raising a family, working many hours in their job, and don't have the time to chase all their passions in life when they are younger/in middle age. My dad up to the day he died was very sharp/still had almost a genius IQ with lots of talents and enjoyed them right up to the end and was very good at them as when he was younger. No, of course he can't be playing pro level sports, but the talents he did have/enjoyed didn't require that physical level. Some arthritis/aches got in the way of doing a few things that he would have sailed through when he was younger but he still plowed through it all. He also reflected that he could appreciate things later in life that he didn't when he was younger when he had lots of work and family responsibilities so you have to not discount the all important factor of wisdom/appreciation for life in chasing passions that often gets stronger with age that I've seen in my dad.
Plus don't define "retirement" in such a narrow age range. Many people get out of the grind much earlier than the "traditional retirement age" to pursue their passions with lots of energy/health/drive left if they set the goal to retire early and stick to the things necessary to make it all happen.
I have to respectfully disagree with you because I am 20 years old and I think that when you are retired it is too late to do all of those things. That is why it is so important to make those decisions now. I dislike the notion that retirement should be when you go after your passions it is way too late by then.
I love it when you have some young person who has never experienced something telling us who live it everyday that we are wrong.
Its so funny.
It is not too late then since you have time. Often when you are young you are going to college, to graduate school, working hard on your career, having children, raising children, going to school, etc. I have a son who has finally finished all his post docs at age 34, and is now into his career, and raising children. He has no time for pursing passions outside of this.
But I also agree that if you don't pursue your passions as a youth, you really won't know what kinds of passions you might pursue in your older age.
Hurricane123 isn't necessarily wrong.
The idea that you only get to follow your passions after you work 30-40 years, after your family is grown, after you've got a million dollars in investments for retirement, after you've dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's etc. is the reason so many people end up on their death beds saying "I wish I had...."
For some work is their passion, for others it's wanting to travel around the world, hike the Appalachian trail, see the Grand Canyon, learn to play the piano, live on a farm, open a business...passions come in all different shapes and sizes. The person who chooses to wait until they retire to begin living their lives in a way that makes them feel fulfilled is shortchanging themselves.
Personally, I'd welcome a little anonymity. I feel like our health is slipping away while we still work. I'm going to love it, I grit my teeth every day while I wait out the working.... DH on the other hand has made up his mind he will hate retirement. I don't think he's even giving himself a chance to thing positively about it. He's thinking about how he will be able to continue to do just a little bit now and then once he's "officially" quit. He is the one with the slipping health. I will always be sorry he didn't quit sooner...him, not so much.
When I see friends Ive known since kindergarten still working at jobs they have had since their 20s....we are now 62...I can't relate. I retired early, live in the glorious Blue Ridge mountains, live a very simple life and they are commuting by train from suburbs to NYC every day for work and paying over $20, 000 a year on taxes alone....OMG it bewilders me!!!!! I am sure I will never regret early retirement....imo there is so much more to life than work!!!!!
Agreed. I'm from east TN but live in Indianapolis. Just spent a week back home and the quality of day to day life is just much higher.
I rarely hit a slowdown in traffic at any time of the day. At 7:30 last night, I was queued for fifteen minutes on the interstate. I needed a tire rotation before I left - at the local Sears, where I bought the tires and get free rotations, the soonest they could schedule me was two Saturday's out. I showed up Saturday morning and got them rotated without a wait. Add up little things like that over the course of a year, plus me having lived there most of my life, and I'm encountering a lot of additional stressors and have virtually no social ties here in Indiana, all to make an additional ten or twenty grand a year.
The problem is that in areas where the quality of life is good day to day, it's difficult to make a living.
Hurricane123 isn't necessarily wrong.
The idea that you only get to follow your passions after you work 30-40 years, after your family is grown, after you've got a million dollars in investments for retirement, after you've dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's etc. is the reason so many people end up on their death beds saying "I wish I had...."
For some work is their passion, for others it's wanting to travel around the world, hike the Appalachian trail, see the Grand Canyon, learn to play the piano, live on a farm, open a business...passions come in all different shapes and sizes. The person who chooses to wait until they retire to begin living their lives in a way that makes them feel fulfilled is shortchanging themselves.
I think what most of us roll our eyes about with comments from younger people is that what we were passionate about then is often very different than what we were passionate about in our 30s, 40s and 50s. I am 57, plan to retire at 64 and there is a reasonable chance that I will substantially change my plans with regard to where I live (geographic and/or community type and/or renting versus buying) and what I do in retirement based on my changes in my thinking.
I did move out west in my 20s and skied around 60 days a year for a few years. I worked as a raft guide, kayaked the Grand Canyon, and really enjoyed the mountains. I felt sure I would want to stay there for life. I was wrong. I got married and wanted to raise a family but not there. I have absolutely no urge to back there to retire either.
Back on one of the central themes of this, I have experienced changes in what I am able to enjoy in the last few years. I really can't do much that is all that strenuous. It is degenerative joint issues which I can mitigate to some degree but a few things I thought I would do are off the table. It does make me worry a little that there may be more things off the list by the time I retire. I will adjust and still enjoy it. I won't sit around and whine about not being able to paddle a kayak far or sit in one very long; I will get out in a different boat, possibly with a trolling motor.
But I know it is likely that the sooner I retire, the more things I will be physically able to do but the longer i work the more things I will be financially able to do...
But I know it is likely that the sooner I retire, the more things I will be physically able to do but the longer i work the more things I will be financially able to do...
This is an universal truth. Retirement decision is mostly based on when one thinks being at the right balance.
Unfortunately there are a lot of uncertainty about the future. We can only control the state of our health or physical fitness to a certain degree. We all know someone died of heart attack in spite of being in great shape, living right etc. There is no magic diet or fool-proof lifestyle to guard off cancer. Accidents happen even to most cautious, safety conscious person.
We probably have a bit more control over our financial well being but nobody can predict accurately economic condition let alone big changes in taxes, health care, government benefits etc.
What I have observed is that people tend to be too optimistic about their future health, physical condition and too pessimistic or even fearful about their future economic condition. This may have led to delaying retirement. This could lead to regrets when one or a one's spouse become too infirmed to enjoy life in spite of having a huge war chest.
As someone had stated earlier, there is nothing sad about living with some regrets. We all have the hindsight wisdom to pass on to others and to derive lessons for ourselves, to remember that 'tomorrow may be too late'. IMO, at this stage in our life, 'carpe diem' should be our living motto.
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