Or do you not intend to? Or have you already? Retirement is coming up for me in a few years, so I’m considering my options.
Yell at clouds
I will probably spend a full year doing Not A Damn Thing™. After that, who knows. Volunteer somewhere maybe.
I kind of enjoyed being a tutor in college so maybe go back and be a staff-level instructor (lower level courses). If it wasn’t actual work (for pay) probably I’d focus on contributing to open source projects I thought would really help people.
I considered this, but I actually kind of want to get away from teaching what I currently do for a living.
“when”? Lmfao it’s a big fat “IF” for those of us 30 and under, buddy.
36 here, I don’t expect to retire
40, not planning on it
51 here. I haven’t picked out a grave site, so I don’t have any idea where I’ll be when I can’t work any more.
J/k. Compost me or something. Don’t waste any acreage remembering me. Point being I guess I’ll retire when no one will pay me for anything, and I hope I’m still around for a bit after that but I doubt it.
For those of us 60 and under
Or who had kids, or an illness or a divorce or death of a spouse, or got laid off, or …
Travel. Hopefully I am healthy enough and have enough money to go and live in many different places.
I can’t even conceive of that. I’d sit and rot until I died. I’ll be working in some capacity until death.
The trick is to work for yourself instead of for someone else. This is what hobbies are for obviously those can be difficult to achieve under the current system of work for literally every goddamn fucking hour of your life other than sleep and eating but I assure you there is plenty of fulfillment to be found doing something for yourself and sometimes depending on what it is you find a passion for you can even turn it into a little side hustle job to make some extra money
I’m afraid that I’ve never had a hobby, I don’t derive pleasure from the completion of tasks. Work is the only thing I really do.
I don’t expect to be alive by that point
Make progress on the this is something I want to do list. I’m making progress now but interesting projects build up faster than time to do them. My current list should last about 3000 years…
Make good, free games. I want to be financially stable enough that I can just make cool stuff and give it away, and not worry about trying to monetize it, or protect it from pirates. I just want to create for the sake of creating. I’ve got no interest in starting a business/company/indie studio/whatever the fuck else it is people think I should be doing. Added bonus, if anybody ever takes issue with something I’ve made, I can happily tell them where to stick it. It’s free, you have no right to complain
Get some fucking peace and quiet.
haha, retire. as long as we’re dreaming, i guess i’ll spend my time riding unicorns on the moon.
but seriously, if this is somehow really an option for you… i’d teach community education classes. art, programming, basic cooking, whatever. i’ve met a lot of great friends in community ed. i think it’d be rad to contribute back.
Play video games. Make myself go outside for twenty minutes a day. Do some stretches as exercise. Hope my daughter visits me.
OK Boomer has entered the chat. Seems most comments are from those looking forward. I left the paycheck life in 2019. Except for 2020 (catching up on every episode of The Office), I’ve been having a measured good time. I have lucky stars to thank. Got married in ’85. Adopted a daughter in ’91. Wife and I inherited a home when my mom died. We spent 30 years saving for retirement instead of paying a mortgage/rent. Was self-employed the whole time in marketing communications. Wife was a mid-level manager in health services, retired 2 years before me. We spent decades living below our means. I threw the towel in at 62. I think being self-employed (and a one-man show) prepared me for my after work life. I wasn’t going to miss the office life and friends because I didn’t have any, in the conventional sense. These days I work in the garden, getting dirt in my fingernails. I teach QiGong and Tai Chi pro-bono to a dedicated senior group at a local park, and I’m getting a similar gig with the city rec services to do the same. I’m a small-time landlord (one-unit granny flat behind the house). I recently transitioned from Mac to Windows (sorry Linux users, I know…) with great success. I drive a 25 year old stick-shift Toyota truck and hope it makes it to 300K. At 66, I exercise almost every day, and while I could be convinced to take a nap in the afternoon, I never do. My wife is a pickleball queen, and we manage to have lives together and apart. We both have pretty good health for oldies. Several of my peers have died recently, and the end of the road looms closer for me than ever before. My life is devoted to staying healthy and paying it forward as long as I can keep it together.
Least ok boomer boomer I’ve ever seen
This was a good read! I’m also lucky in that I’m part of an actual retirement plan through the state, although I am also putting money away as well. I actually plan on working, but not in my current industry. Maybe give different things a try and just focus on enjoying myself.
Travel a little, volunteer in the community, use any (if any) excess funds to try and better the things around me, cook more, adopt pets.
Not starve or be homeless.