I jacked in work at 50, because I was in a position to do it. And because we're only here once, and none of us knows how long we've got.
It depends on what you do for a living, as a builder my life is very physical, I come home knackered most days, the prospect of running a boardgame business is an absolute doddle, walk the dogs a few times a day, can't wait. I agree you have to keep fit and keep the grey matter going, no point otherwise.
If I had a job what was labour intensive, boring, mundane or made me miserable, then I'd have retired already, 100% We make video games, which are highly complex with many moving parts. That's one of the reasons I love it. One of the things that strikes me about retirement is the lack of context switching. I have lots of hobbies and the weekends are never spent on work or in front of screens of any kind. I'm usually fiddling on vehicles, houses, with friends. Monday I'm back in front of screens, on calls, in meetings. From what I've read of dementia (2 rellies died of it) keeping your mind active, context switching with complex tasks can help combat it. Not questioning the validity of others choices BTW in anyway, this is a highly interesting subject and it's interesting to see peoples life choices
Building is certainly not labour intensive, boring mundane or making me miserable, but it is bloody hard work, it's very interesting, rewarding and challenging, but tiring.
It seems we may inherit my wifes parents house in Brittany, still no kitchen there after 12 years…so at each visit I have had various building projects to tackle. Plastering, dorma window repairs…pointing. Really enjoying it tbh. Add in learning French, keeping the mind sharp and body active. I just dont have time for a full time job these days!
Very popular now and has been for a few years, many board game clubs about my son goes to two a week and this year the person who runs one of them has opened a board game shop selling games and few extra bits, Made it into a game cafe with tea,cake and soft drink's also evening clubs, All the best if you go the game route, Agree most trades are rewarding but the body after 42 years at it is now telling me time stop
My career was in software testing, latterly with AI in network optimisation & forecasting, and the work was similar to your experience with interesting topics, young 'uns to mentor & guide, working with multiple offices in multiple time zones etc. But I'd had enough of having to deliver in shorter & shorter intervals due to time being consumed by poor/late requirements & poor/late coding with poor/non existent processes. By the time it got to test I never had time to do what my experience told me was a quality job... and then getting blamed for either delaying the delivery or raising more issues than resolving. See the post office & Horizon... So, yes I agree that the 'work' can be fulfilling but it can often be other aspects of the work (environment) that makes the decision to retire a lot easier. Context Switching! Ha! that takes me back to when I used to do (software) performance testing. But what can start to happen, both in life and with computers, is that you spend all your time actually switching contexts and none of your time actually running in each context. Now I am retired I still context switch between vehicles, gardens, houses, cooking etc but can take my time in each area and even take time with a tea break whilst in the act of switching. And besides I always found that the work context switch got in the way of the multiple other non work tasks. As with everything it's horses for courses and if you have a fulfilling job then there is no reason to retire. I have also seen many wither on the vine pre retiring. What was it I read somewhere? It's not a work/life balance but a work/life choice.
I'm starting to think the healthcare issue is a bit of red herring... we presently live in a reasonably sized market town where it's nigh on impossible to get a doctors appointment & the nearest hospital is 20 miles away with the inevitable queues. Which I suspect is not that much better than the folks in Cornwall. Besides why buy somewhere drab to live because it has the good heath care you'll be needing in 15 years rather than enjoying somewhere lovely you would really like to be and when you're sitting in a puddle of your own making in 15 years time there might be other options available....
Life is short and there are no guarantees, if financially your ok embrace it. Not to be morbid but I know of a few people that have dropped dead heading for work at my place very close to retirement, tomorrow isn't promised for any of us. I've been trying to cut back since during Covid to be honest and things have just got more and more expensive over here in North America since then. We went down to one car. Trying to reduce unnecessary driving, cut back on luxury items and eliminate any subscriptions if you can. I don't have a home line either. basically I have been reviewing all my insurance policies, Life, home, auto and bike looking for savings. Even groceries I go for quality over quantity it actually works out well because the bonus is you eat less. Honestly I think all of us trying to live with a little less is a good thing, bikes excludes of course lol
I never ever thought I would need healthcare until I was retired even 80 Nope 49 and my life changed in an hour consultation Now I live for each day and this moment in time as that's all we have time has no promises
Trying to retire this year or next, 5 years ahead of state pension age. Work is pretty thin on the ground at the moment. Some health issues over the last couple of years haven't helped. I should be able to afford it in the long term, keep what work that raises it's head going plus some almost annuity income that comes from hosting existing client sites. My ex wife's dad passed away a couple of weeks ago in his mid eighties. He had a serious stroke the year that he retired and was pretty well housebound. Not an ideal way to spend your retirement and I'm frankly surprised that he lasted as long as he did...
I agree, but I do think people sometimes decide to move to the other end of the country when they retire and then discover it’s not as rosy as they thought. My parents moved to Devon in retirement and it was ok for a few years but when my dad got ill they were 200 miles from us. He ended up in a home and my mum was on her own after he died. Not exactly easy to just pop round to see her and now she has had to go into a care home as she couldn’t manage herself. Our friend in Cornwall has ongoing health problem and it’s very hard for her to get access to specialist help.
People who love their jobs and constantly throw everything at it often struggle come retirement, they need reminding that there really is life after work. I can think of two colleagues (both knew Mike Hawthorn growing up near Farnham) who were examples of both ends of the spectrum. They both popped back into work over the years post-retirement. Bernard Pink was a totally different person, literally had a new lease of life, a spring in his step with a timetable full to the brim, John (forgotten your surname, sorry) was also a changed person but was a shadow of his working self, I think if they'd asked him to come back in he would have jumped at it. RIP the both of you.
Seen clubs in Pubs, social clubs, Snooker halls also cafes that open after hours once a week and generally places where they can get a bit of space, been growing in strength year on year and the games have moved on from Cluedo/Monopoly also plenty of short 30min card games available which are good fun, keeps the grey matter alive well i try to
