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. The bucket list changes.
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. I can't imagine having had to wait an additional 10-15 years to begin our extensive traveling around the world. And it still seems like there isn't enough time to see everything we want see and do everything that we want to do. And who knows how much stamina (and good health) we'll have to do it in another decade or so.
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.
I was fine until I had back surgery at 57 years of age. Whether it was from the ghastly year of pain before the surgery or the surgery itself, both my mental and physical self changed drastically. I aged "30 years overnight" as my friend remarked and my personality changed (oddly enough). Now, I get so very tired easily, have weird nerve symptoms everywhere, no patience with anyone and have much less impulse control. I wonder how it would have been if my back didn't go bad.
The hormone change made me hungrier, thus always having a great
waistline and flat tummy...I don't anymore...not a big deal...but...it is a change.
I feel great tho .... esp with very very low carb intake...so much happier and
less hungry.
Oh, I'm mellower, more patient, don't care what people do or think....
love my solitude and peace more...go out with friends way less.
I'm betting most people would retire earlier if they had the resources. You are fortunate.
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.
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.
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