Later retirement may help prevent dementia (physically, conversation, 2013, relative)
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So are you contemplating some form of non-traditional retirement? In other words, working to an extended age by choice, becoming self-employed, or otherwise staying in the workforce?
This might be true if you retire and go home and sit in a chair and stare out a window for the rest of your life. There are committees you can join, books to read, clubs, conversations, research, travel, courses to take, volunteer work, etc.
^^^^^ I was thinking along the same lines as Ipoetry in the post above. This was a huge French study which compared rates of dementia with age at retirement. As far as I could glean from the article, no attempt was made to assess the amount of mental stimulation and challenges that retirees were getting and factor that into the results. Of course such an attempt would be hugely expensive.
A closely related subject often comes up in this Retirement Forum - whether we are bored in retirement. Relatively few of us admit to that here, and there is no reason to doubt anyone. Perhaps those of us who post here are self-selected to be interested in lots of things, I don't really know.
I agree with all of you. As I approach retirement and begin to make decisions, I'm torn between staying active in my business while ramping up leisure activity, or going the more traditional "total" retirement route. I think it comes down to staying active, involved, and connected whether one is working or not.
But I'm curious as to what kinds of decisions other people are making or have made.
I agree with all of you. As I approach retirement and begin to make decisions, I'm torn between staying active in my business while ramping up leisure activity, or going the more traditional "total" retirement route. I think it comes down to staying active, involved, and connected whether one is working or not.
But I'm curious as to what kinds of decisions other people are making or have made.
If you opt for the "total" retirement, will that mean you have burned your bridges in terms of becoming somewhat active in your business later? If so, you may want to remain active in your business with the thought that the "total" option is always there for you in the event you get tired of working part-time.
I had no particular plans to continue working part-time, but I was asked back for special projects and as it turned out I really enjoyed them. I'm so glad it worked out that way. Eventually I got tired of those projects and gave them up. (Different bosses came in - jerks, etc.) Now at 69 I only do one seasonal five-week gig per year - one that I continue to enjoy. It's great not to need the money and to be able to pick and choose like that.
If you opt for the "total" retirement, will that mean you have burned your bridges in terms of becoming somewhat active in your business later? If so, you may want to remain active in your business with the thought that the "total" option is always there for you in the event you get tired of working part-time.
I had no particular plans to continue working part-time, but I was asked back for special projects and as it turned out I really enjoyed them. I'm so glad it worked out that way. Eventually I got tired of those projects and gave them up. (Different bosses came in - jerks, etc.) Now at 69 I only do one seasonal five-week gig per year - one that I continue to enjoy. It's great not to need the money and to be able to pick and choose like that.
Escort, in answer to your question, yes, there would be an element of bridge-burning in "total" retirement. At the same time it would be simple to scale down activity levels and keep my hand in.
Your situation sounds very attractive to me, where you have the activity that you chose, in terms of length and content.
Later retirement = earlier death - skipping the dementia phase all-together, I guess.
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