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.
It sounds wonderful.... retired at age 48..... enough money to live the good life.... no more stress.... do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it.....
Anyone who has retired early, under the age of 50.... please share with us how things are going with you.
I have a family member who has experienced this life-changing event, with some regrets. This is a person who is single, having worked 25 years on a very, very stressful job, with no outside hobbies. After retirement, changed states and had to search for private health insurance. That was a nightmare, and a year later.... continues to be an issue. Finding another job in this economy has proved to be very challenging. Leaving behind old friends and trying to make new friends was challenging.
Anyone in this situation - or thinking about it?
Retired at 46, three years ago:
-you need to have a few hobbies to spend your day or pick some up.
-you tend to spend MORE money than during work because of the free time to do so (at least for me).
-you might have a hard time finding a social network of same-aged people who early retired - most of the people I associate with are in their 60s.
-worked my tail off for 25+ yrs, invested wisely, didn't really have a balanced life (work>pleasure), so now I feel I'm getting my payback.
My definition of retirement is _not working for anyone else_. I've done my share of that in my youth (usually just enough to buy a bow or move to a new teacher), but it just nauseated me to do all that work and the business owner gets all the money. I haven't worked for anyone for decades, aside from playing in orchestras and quartets, and am probably temperamentally incapable of working for anyone at this stage of my life. I was probably never good at it.
"NO WORK" sounds like death to me. I think the primary source of human happiness is serving others, providing a service for others. I thank Bill Gates and others who developed the internet, because of that, I'm enabled to earn a living, along with teaching, freelancing and writing.
I often marvel that, in the long view of human history, how remarkable that a single, unmarried female can enjoy the sort of freedom and independence I enjoy.
I would encourage retirees to do what I did: learn how to design webpages, take courses at tradeschools or community college in entrepreneurship, marketing and accounting, find a product you feel passionate about, and work for yourself!
sounds like good advice, but what you're encouraging would drastically take away from my tennis, golf, travel, reading, beach time.
Yeah, I like those things, too, and can pursue them while monitoring my business on a Smartphone (used to be laptop, but that's way, way too much work!)
That being said, I've spent thousands of hours, laboring on the stupid computer. Often, you know, 18 hour days, sleep a few hours, labor another 18 hour day. And constant worry. But it's also an outlet for creativity and I don't regret one moment, despite making every mistake known to man.
I think happiness in retirement has to do with values. Everyone needs money to survive, but there's lots of it in the world. *How* you get enough for your happiness is the primary issue, I believe. My objective is not getting money; I spend negligible amounts on housing, cars or clothes. Education, books and travel are the main expenses. Happy and free - and pretty indifferent to the opinions of others.
[quote=ConeyIsBabe;5195677]It sounds wonderful.... retired at age 48..... enough money to live the good life.... no more stress.... do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it.....
Anyone who has retired early, under the age of 50.... please share with us how things are going with you.
I have a family member who has experienced this life-changing event, with some regrets. This is a person who is single, having worked 25 years on a very, very stressful job, with no outside hobbies. After retirement, changed states and had to search for private health insurance. That was a nightmare, and a year later.... continues to be an issue. Finding another job in this economy has proved to be very challenging. Leaving behind old friends and trying to make new friends was challenging.
I think the difference you point out is wants verus actually planning for the abilty to do so realistically. I retired at 53( close enough ;especially since I am now 65) and it has worked out well and I live confortablity.What your family member did apparently was just chuck it. I have seen the same thing happen to people who retired at 62-65 from mainly financial problems.
I can't remember which poster wrote this - in some other thread - and I am just paraphrasing, but it went something like this: Retirement works better when you have retired toward something and not just running away from something. Yes, we are leaving the long hours and the stress behind us, but what are we moving toward? Looking forward eagerly to something is the main thing that keeps life vital and interesting.
I can just hear an answer like this coming back: "I look forward eagerly to doing nothing." Fine, but I don't think that works for most people, over the long run.
I believe we have discussed early retirement in other posts but it is always interesting to read of others' experiences with it. I retired when I was 47. Since we are all different, early retirement effects different personalities in different ways. Although I was an entertainer, I am naturally very shy and reclusive, so I am happy as a clam, holed up on my 2 acres with my animals, not driving into "town" more than once a week or so if I can help it. I stay busy with chores and hobbies. Admittedly, when I want social contact, I don't have it because I don't join things (except recently search and rescue). I don't fit into 'normal' groups and constantly must be very careful of what I say because of my past. Then people become suspicious about my private life and start making comments, etc. Yet, retireing early was good: much better health and freedom. I DID plan for it and although I'm not 'rolling in money', I have enough and am very pleased with how it all turned out. Thus, I believe if you plan to retire early, you really need to know yourself and your needs or you can end up lonely, bored and broke.
I retired at 47. Moved to Europe, bought an 800-year old house in a walled town, fixed it up, set up a home, learned a new language and a new way of life. Husband stayed behind in the States for another 3.5 years then retired at 54 and joined me. We had always been travelling a lot before that, but retirement gave us the freedom to do it even more often. We lived simply to travel widely, and that's what we did with our early retirement.
for me retirement means absolutely not working. i can't wait for my retirement. i am just in my early thirties and already burnt out. i envy those old folks at mcdonalds doing nothing but chat and drink coffee and laugh!
i have already traveled the world and still do travel. having seen the world at a young age is probably my biggest achievement!
at 50 or 60 i don't think my health would allow me to do traveling anymore. if i get to that age, i'll just pass my time by chatting and drinking coffee at mcdonalds while updating my status on facebook, reading forums and reading news online!
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.
Yeah, I like those things, too, and can pursue them while monitoring my business on a Smartphone (used to be laptop, but that's way, way too much work!) 
