No way I was working till I dropped !
Lots of people want to work till their health gives out when they should have retired long ago.

I’m fortunate. I love what I do for a living. My husband and I work from home, we have a flexible schedule, take breaks to go hiking in the middle of the day, take a day trip to the lake, go the matinee with friends, read till 10am on a weekday, etc..

And when we work (we make films and build websites) we get the chance to be creative, work with interesting people and travel to cool places.

And we’ve recently added a deepened spiritual practice to our routine. Now it has richness that was missing before – we’re happier than we ever were. I recently read a wonderful book by Andy Feld called, “Wake Up! Your Life is Calling.” The author and his wife live a similar lifestyle to mine and my husband’s- and after we read his book we started to work together and become friends.

In his book, Andy talks about an inward practice (meditation or contemplation) to help gain answers or just as a way relieve stress and worry. Once those negative feelings begin to disappear from your life, why would you want to retire? Retirement to me means sitting out, not participating in something meaningful.

Backgammon and golf and going to the movies with friends are great, but add a career that I love to the mix and I am truly a happy camper.
thanks for listening,
Kim

There are still major expenses like repairs living the RV lifestyle, but it does satisfy many of the elements you mentioned. We have many RV friends and plenty of free and low-cost recreation living this lifestyle. There are many opportunities for work and volunteer that is as active or laid back as desired; much of it fun and leading to adventures you’d never have in a stix ‘n brix life.

Jaimie Hall Bruzenak
author of Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road

Another thing to keep in mind is that in retirement it is hard to blame one’s job for not being content or happy. A that point it is all on the retiree.

Also what #48 said. I’m 34 and share the sentiment.

Also agree with Zumba – don’t get bored!

My “plan” is to live cheaply (small, energy-efficient place with a garden) in a community full of younger people who I can adopt, since I don’t expect to have family to look after me when I’m old.

As to health … the thing Americans are WORST at … my plan is to continue daily yoga, balanced nutrition, dancing and more dancing, a glass of wine every night and green tea every morning, and to stay away from doctors who’ll try to put me on (expensive, for-the-rest-of-your-life) meds for conditions that are a natural consequence of aging.

All that said, I have been involved in company 401(k) plans for twenty years and also am fully funding my HSA. You have to cover all your bases – social/emotional, physical, and financial.

* Brown bag your lunch

AMEN! I can’t believe how much money I used to spend before I started bringing left overs. It’s a fortune over time.

* find positive supportive people

My wife, bless her heart. Without a supportive spouse, it would be an uphill battle.

* turn the negative people into chairs

If you mean keep on doing your thing and ignore them, that’s what I do when I hear people say that paying off your mortgage early is not a good investment. In the culture of debt, there are those who think that there is “good” debt. It amazes me to no end. Yes, there is “good” debt, and that’s the one you pay off. We are unable to learn from history, which blows my mind; otherwise, a look at what happened during the Great Depression would suffice to settle this issue once and for all.

I’m 40 years old and I’ve been “retired” for 3 years. My definition of retirement, however, is “to do what I want, when I want, within reason.”

This definition is not money centered, which, in my opinion, is why I am the happiest I’ve been in my life — because retirement, for me, has nothing to do with the acquisition of financial wealth — it is a state of mind, primarily of contentment, in doing what you want to do, at least “most of the time.”

But if you’re single, and “doing what you love” doesn’t pay enough enough to even make rent or basic utilities, then it’s folly. It’s better to go to a job you hate and be able to keep a roof over your head, then have no work at all, or work that pays minimum wage, and constantly be fearful of ending up homeless due to not having enough money to even live frugally on.

I like the idea of saving for retirement as if for some relative you don’t know well. I don’t know who I’ll be or what I’ll want in 30-40 years. I would love to keep working, but what if I can’t? I would love to live healthy and die quickly, but what if I don’t? I will need money for living, money for health care, a social network to keep me going, people I can trust in case my mind goes before my body. I will have to provide myself all these things. Fortunately I can look to my in-laws, my grandmothers, and my parents for different ideas on how to manage that stage of life.

I know a few elderly men that died soon after their wife died. But not my grandfather… He enjoyed life to the end! His secret was that he had an excellent social network (and a small dog too). It helped him that he owned a store and was a spectacular saleman.

His routine was, to meet a group of guys for morning breakfast, then at lunch he did the same, but with a different group of men. In the afternoon, occasionally he’d have a friend over to keep him company.

If I could go back I would pick something I loved. I can’t imagine spending another 30 years with the majority of my time doing something I don’t like, regardless of the money. In fact, my husband is about to be done iwth school and get a job, and my plan is to collect unemployment for as long as I can, have kids and stay home for awile, then go back to school to be a pastry chef. I know I will make only half what I am making now but I just don’t care. As long as I have enough money to be comfortable (we live very frugally) I would much rather love my job than be rich.

To those of you still choosing your majors/career paths – I say pick something you love and would be happy to do for at least 40 hours a week for the next 30 or 40 years! If it pays well, great, but don’t think you need to make $70k a year to be happy. If you live frugally you can still be happy on much, much less.

As for happiness in retirement, I will quote Lincoln: Most people are as happy as they make their minds out to be. I.e., it’s a choice. If you know that you need a more structured environment for happiness (which can come from different activities with work being one of those), then make sure you have that. Self-knowledge is key–unfortunately too many of us don’t give ourselves the times for that self-discovery and knowledge to propel our lives to that which we aspire.

1. A quote from the movie Into the Wild: “Happiness only real when shared.”

2. The Roseto Effect – Where people lived longer because of their sense of community.

I think that this is a huge part of planning for retirement as well. I hope to have plenty of people around to share the last years of my life with.

I would say to learn to enjoy solitude. Some consider it loneliness, however, it is all in your mind.

A certain amount of retirement will be spent alone (i.e. no kids, spouse passes, etc.) Learning to function well alone I would think would be a good skill to learn

Any young person…make sure you get into a stable career that pays an actual real living wage and has plenty of jobs available. Don’t just get into something because ‘you’re good at it’, or ‘you love it’, because if it doesn’t pay a living wage, you’ll be working low-wage jobs for the rest of your life, financially insecure, and NEVER be able to take a break or retire.

Although my husband is officially retired, he can’t just sit and twiddle his thumbs. He started another business and emphasizes it’s just a hobby…a hobby that takes up all his time. He is the type of person that needs to have challenges so I guess working on projects make him happy. We’ve already decided on a future hobby that we’ll do together when he eventually sells this present company, and that is probably to direct and produce a film. I’m really excited about that one!

Keeping active (lots of exercise, involved in my children’s lives), learning/acquiring new skills and staying healthy (making home cooked meals from scratch etc.) have definitely given me happiness in retirement.

Whatever you do, don’t get bored!

Both are FDIC insured up to $250,000. They are online savings accounts that are great for storing money that you don’t have to use monthly. It takes about 3 business days to electronically withdraw your money from ING Savings. I don’t have a Smarty Pig account yet, so I don’t know how long it takes, but I know several happy customers.