This is inspired by the preceding retirement thread. Since we live in such a wealthy society that there is even such a thing as Retirement just what does that mean for each person?

For some it apparently is an opportunity to flee from a paycheck job. But: What then?

For others it is an opportunity to run to something they have always wanted to do. But does the reality match the expectation?

For, both of these retirement is definitely a gift.

But, there are those whose whole lives are centered around their careers. Their focus and their social lives depend on their career. I know several people like this and I suspect each person in the Forum does too. For these maybe retirement is an upheaval that is more like a curse than anything else.

What is it to you? How do you turn the gift given by a wealthy society into something that is satiisfying and useful?

The After Retirement time is just another opportunity to do some of the things you've always wanted to. That said, it is also an opportunity to give yourself permission to do nothing at all with no guilt whatsoever!!

What you do with your time is all a matter of attitude..not money or anything else.

I work when I want to and play when I want to and I'm not rich by any means. I just have "enough"...........

Figure out what is truly meant by the concept of "enough" and you will have a good life since you will stop any self torture from wanting "more".

It has given me the time to focus on the things I enjoy doing, rather than what pays the best. So I teach part time at the local community college (because I enjoy it) and I rehab/repair/restore vintage bikes. I also restored a vintage home, and have made an offer on another one to restore next.

My wife and I spend much more time together, doing the things we both enjoy doing.

I did nothing for about six months.

I learned early in my career that there is a lot more to life than my job. I enjoy my work, have a ton of friends here and am well-respected but it does not define who I am. In around 6 years, it will be time to retire and move on to the next phase. I'm looking forward to the added freedom and time. I have a great life now but retirement will be even better.

Tomorrow I'm going to call HR and have them start the process. I should be out of there on Jan 24.

I'm planning on being busy, but on my own schedule. For instance, if I look outside and it's like today, cold and rainy, I'll just stay home! If it's nice, I'll be able to wait until mid-morning for it to warm up a little and go for a ride.

I have heard of these people whose lives are centered on their careers. That may be a wonderful thing or it may be a terrible thing. All I know is that it is a thing foreign to me. I sometimes enjoy my job, more in the past than now, but it has always been a means to an end. A way to pay for the things I really care about and want to do.

I will qualify for "full" retirement in 22 months per the rules I have worked under for the last 27 years. I hope that holds until then, but my company was recently bought by another company. Our work outlook looks very good, but nobody knows what changes they may make to benefits. If they make my expected retirement deal go away, I will likely bail out and find my way with whatever I do get out of them for the time I have put in. Either way I will need some supplementary income to keep the family going along, especially until I am old enough to draw SS and to withdraw my investments without penalty. But I hope not to need to show up every morning at a place I have to stay all day and do things that serve others' interests more than my own.

My hopes for retirement are to have more time and flexibility to pursue my passions, bicycling, music and my family. I want to get more involved in local bicycling advocacy, possibly in a part time professional role. I might do some part time work at a bike shop. I definitely plan to put some big miles on my bikes.

Retirement? Bah!

My youngest is in 7th grade, and retirement is out of the question until she graduates from high school. I would like to work as long as I am able to, to some extent out of necessity. My idea of indolence is getting four weeks off a year.

Latitude 65 et al,
I started that last retirement thread and glad that there is still discussion to be had on the subject. I couldn't imagine doing a job like I had (school principal) without fully investing into it. Not a 9 to 5 and leave everything at work kind of deal. That said, I've been fortunate enough to have many people and interests in my life. Retirement so far has meant sleeping in till 7, more time to ride, play racquetball, read, listen to good music and get to some of those projects that have been put off for too long. While all of this is good, I still feel as though I am able to contribute. Me time is great, but we time (in a larger sense) is better for me. My kids are grown and seem to be doing well. I'll take some of the credit. I've worked with thousands of young folks over the years and still get great feedback as I bump into old students. I don't feel as though I need to work but I want to still be involved. Has very little to do with money or prestige. I think it has to do with purpose and balance.

Retirement is what I was born to do! I get up early every morning, so I'll have more time to loaf. I start the day with nothing to do, and end the day with half of it not done.

For me, it's been a nice slow-down. After 33 years as a probation officer in a rural area, involvement in at least 13 committees, boards and such, moving away and reducing all that has been great. Stir in two new grandsons and a granddaughter on the way, things couldn't be better. I ride more. I write more. I read more. I shoot (photos) more. Money's OK. While I am never bored, everthing is a bit slower. I love it. It't been a little over six years, and except for those 6 weeks I was asked to return as an "interim", I haven't looked back.

Nearly all benefit, for me. I had a job I liked, and intended to work until at least 66 (full Soc Sec age for me), but I was offered a buyout in late 2007. The newspaper business and the economy were going down in tandem then, and I figured things weren't going to get better, so I reluctantly took the deal. Good thing: About half who got the offer turned it down, and they were laid off with a much less generous package six months later.
I'd intended to ride my bike six hours a day for a year, then make a slow cross-country trip, something I'd thought of for years. Unfortunately some health problems intervened (non-self inflicted, just one of those weird things), and I haven't been able to do that. But I'm doing a local radio talk show, writing for a couple of magazines (I was a newspaper reporter in real life) and have time to do the gardening and other hobbies I'd dabbled in before. Money's a little tight, mostly due to one big year the IRS can't ignore, but I wouldn't go back.
If there's a moral to the story, it's this: Have plans and a backup, because the plans might fall through. I fully expected to be spending my summers and falls on long bike tours, and still may be able to. For now, though, 20 miles is a long, painful ride. If I hadn't found other interests, I'd be eying the gun cabinet.

It will most likely mean moving for me. I won't be able to afford to live here on retirement income. Retirement would mean that I don't have to lug mail 10 miles a day with arthritis.

Society may be wealthy but I'm not. I doubt I will ever be able to afford retirement. My plan is to eventually switch over to being self-employed and move somewhere less expensive. As long as I don't go blind and I have a computer and a fast internet connection I can continue to work regardless of my physical location (I'm a graphic designer). My boyfriend and I are starting to do some independent game development now; who knows, we may get lucky and make enough to live on from it.

Ride more.

I love my career and the opportunities that it provides. I don't have the philosophy that I am going to wait to do something after I retire. I want to enjoy life to the fullest while I have great health and the economic capacity to do what I enjoy. I have traveled to all 50 states, most Canadian Provinces, Several Mexican States, 6 continents and 64 countries.

I see many waiting to do things after they retire. They often lose their health and vitality before they have an opportunity to accomplish their desires.

My philosophy is to life life LARGE whether you are employed or retired.

I do understand that some jobs are horrible and retirement would be a blessing. I am so fortunate that my job gives me pleasure and an opportunity to continue learning.

Retirement is not on the docket for me; don't see it happening. Not pleased, but not devastated, either. And since I plan on living another 40+ years (I'm 51 now) and PEDALING all that time, I guess I need to have someplace to pedal TO. Local circuits for recreational riding are already getting stale. That factor, among a few others, has caused me to lean away from more distance rides and look at ones with more playful and technical challenges.

THIS.

And I will start that the day my kids no longer need to have my daily attention. My present job gives me one day a week off DURING the week, so I have a day that would be like that, kid-free; I seldom let those days go without at least 2 hours in the saddle.

I like my work an I am not eager to retire, but I sure would like to have more time off. For several years I have been working an average of 6 days a week. I'm always on call. I can't count on having weekends or Holidays off. I don't know ahead of time if I will be home at 6 p.m., 8 p.m. or 10 p.m.

As I approach age 60 I would like a reduced work schedule. I think working 3 or 4 8-hour days a week would be ideal. Full retirement would be too much of a shock.

Why 65? 65 was the age chosen by Bismark in Germany, the first country to have a universal, publically-administered old age pension system. In those days, not may people lived to be 65 (wasn't the average life-expectancy 40-something?), and if you did you probably wouldn't last much past 70.

Needless to say, things have changed.

Retirement is a purely personal choice. It seems to me that one of its purposes is to disengage from the commercial, institutional, corporate,or professional life in order to live a different way. As these posts show, this is not for everyone. If you want to be free of all except a few personal, family, and civic responsibilities and live each day as you choose, retirement is a great way to go. If you like the work environment, your particular line of work and/or the social networking that employment brings, then perhaps retirement is not such a good idea. I've always slightly resented having to give so much of my life to a profession. After all, it's only a profession, not a way of life. I was not a teacher, I only worked as one. As my previous posts in the other thread indicated, life is full of variety, but so few people can experience that variety because that have to put so much time into their jobs and/or careers. If you like what you do, keep doing it. It you imagine a different way of living, retirement is your golden opportunity. I believe a lot of ego is wrapped up in our work. Many of us feel important or crucial to the enterprises we are a part of and are reluctant to give up that feeling. But when you retire you will find that you're still you and that the world of work that you left gets on very well without you. It is great to wake up every morning with the realization that there are any number of things you can do with your day. How dismal to think that you have to spend it like the other days of the week because of your job. As for money, if you have enough to live as you like, there you go. Most of us have more than we need. Money comes and goes, but time just goes. As one of my favorite writers said, a person is rich in proportion to the number of things he/she can leave alone. One of the greatest elements of retirement is that you can afford to leave a hell of a lot alone. I have said all this after 20 plus years of teaching literature, something that I enjoyed very much, but that portion of my life is over and I wouldn't dream of going back.

For those in NYC, ReServe.

That's a bunch of bunk - retirement or pensions have been around for a long time. It is not a matter of a countries wealth but rather how a society treats it's older people. It's also a matter of how one prepares for the time when they are no longer able to care or to work. Retirement in general is not a "gift", it is what many people have worked hard for. No body will give me my retirement, I don't even consider social security a "gift", like others, I paid into it year after year - I expect a return on that investment. When I retire, and it will be a few more years for me, I plan to enjoy what I worked, saved and sacrificed for.

Started a related post Is Retirement Dangerous to My Cycling Future?

This apparently is a very emotional issue for you, as it is for many. For much of the world's population people work until they can no longer do so. There is no such thing as even the opportunity to stop working and do what the individual wants instead of what necessity requires. It is the opportunity that is the gift our society gives us. What we do with that opportunity is up to us.

From what you say you are doing a lot to have the resources to enjoy a pleasant retirement. In the meantime I hope you are making every effort to live each day as fully as you can. My personal observation is that people who count down to retirement day before they start living seldom live long enough to enjoy that retirement. But sometimes we are trapped in a lousy job by the need to survive. I have a saying that expresses that:
Whatever you do:
Do it for fun, or
Do it for survival, or
Don't do it at all.

Bests

Being stuck in a job that you look forward to retiring from does not mean that you are waiting until retirement to start enjoying life.

I dread retirement.

It is 10 years away but I see it as a loss of control of my life. Right now I have my life just where I like it. A great combination of work and play. I get up every morning anxious to start work and get things done.

For me, being retired will more chores around the house, more travel (away from bike and friends), doing more things with my wife I don't enjoy that she wants to do and since I am retired, I can't tell her I am too busy.