This is a follow-on to JDs retirement question.

It seems that retirement means something different these days. Back in the day, when you retired you quit working. I think this still applies to some of the older generation (at least, it applied to my uncle who, when he retired, stopped doing ANYTHING and turned into a lump we all poke and make fun of) but it seems like the younger generations see "retirement" as just another phase in their working life. One which will mean they continue to work (in some form or another) and probably bring in some income, but which does not mean living a life of 100% leisure.

My personal theory is that it has to do with life span and attention span. Back in the day, people died within 10-15 years of retiring. Our generation however, can expect to live another 30-40 years after retirement - potentially your retirement years could last longer than your work years lasted. Add to this that we're used to always having something going on and I think people get antsy at the thought of sitting around for half of their life.

I think the goal is to find something to do in semi-retirement (the years after you end your main career but before you stop working completely) that you enjoy, is rewarding and, if possible, is lucrative - or can at least supplement your savings a bit.

So, after that long intro, I'd be interested to hear what people plan on doing during their retirement. Do you want to continue working? Start a business? Travel? Go to school? Or are you going to say 'screw it! I worked and now it's time to relax baby!' Or perhaps some combo of the above? Do you have an outside situation which is going to impact those plans?

Since I started the question, I'll answer first...

I can't see myself as someone who will ever retire completely. I'll always need something going on to keep me occupied. I also know that I'm going to have to provide for my mom when she gets older since she's 56 now and only has about $30k in retirement savings and only makes about $35k/year so that won't be increasing much. So, I've been trying to think of a business that I could run which could combine my interest in travel, my interest in learning about other cultures and meeting new people, my interest in education and my interest in providing a source of income to provide for my mom.

What I've come up with (and this has changed several times so who knows) is to start some kind of self-sustaining (as much as possible) hostel/education center. I'd like to have it in an area with a heavy concentration of outdoor activities to attract those who love the great outdoors but still want indoor toilets but close enough to cities to market to businesses to use as a corporate retreat/training center. I got the idea from a hostel I stayed at in Kentucky. It was situated near several state parks and great climbing areas but it was only an hour from Lexington and a few other moderate sized cities. The guy who owned it operated the hostel side but also conducted corporate visioning sessions for many of the city businesses. It was a family run operation with a small restaurant attached which was open to the public 3 nights a week and served a limited but good menu.

I'd like to take his idea and expand on it a little bit. I'd like to offer 3 kinds of accommodation - camping, 2-4 person yurts and a couple big dorm rooms. I'd like to have a moderate sized meeting facility attached which I could rent out to businesses/groups or potentially use to conduct "financial education" or other types of retreats where people could come for a weekend, stay at a reasonable cost and attend classes.

I'd like to have it be as self sustaining as possible with wind/solar electricity, a garden and some other ideas I have. I'd like to offer just basic foods (salads from the garden, sandwiches and soups which I would make) and perhaps a selection of local wines/beer. Ideally I'd like to turn it into a bit of a local gathering place offering a cafe/coffee shop with live music, book readings and perhaps a small used book store attached.

I see it appealing to corporate/association/church groups, small families, and traveling individuals and offering a variety of price points to meet any budget.

This idea appeals to me for a few reasons:

1 - I think it would be kind of seasonal which would allow me at least a few months to travel each year
2 - when I'm not traveling I'd be mixing with and meeting other travelers
3 - my mom could work and live there, at least during high season, which would give her income in retirement without having to stress about finding a job. And she'd love it. She loves talking to random people.
4 - I think operating costs (once it's up and running) would be pretty reasonable

So, that's my general plan at this point. It's one of the reasons I moved to Oregon. I think Oregon offers the right mix of outdoors and medium sized cities that this would require. it's also a center for green businesses so there I think there would be a lot of support for such an enterprise. I've mentioned it to a few people in my hostel travels and it always gets a good reaction (which could just be people being nice).

So...what are your plans?

I can't say I have plans as detailed as yours, but here's what I would like to do:

1) Build an eco house with my own hands. I've always been interested in eco houses, but I feel that don't try to optimize the various systems together enough. So I would love to build my own with as many connected systems as possible to get the maximum efficiency. Something like solar hot water combined with geothermal and infloor heating to start.

2) Freelance writing. I do a little bit of this now, but I would love to give it more time in retirement. As is I find it hard to do five blog posts a week. This might also expand into a small publishing business depending on my interests.

So those are my big plans.

Tim

I guess I'm there,,,,,,,,,,,,,have been retired for several years, my wife is in the last year teaching at the local college and then she will retire too ,,I don't do a lot of anything,only what I want,have did several projects around our house over the last few years,building flowerbeds,planting a ton of trees, running yard lights to the back yard, laying pavers everywere ,putting our several bird fountains ,etc,you get the picture, I go drink coffee with a friend or two and my wife and I take little trips to various places , I love to go to art shows , plays, go watch a lot of football and baseball games and some basketball as well as volleyball, do a little fishing now and then , we also from time to time check our garage sales just for the fun of it ,in the future when she is retired we intend to go to several places in the U S of A ,I want to go to the Little League World Series and the College World Series as well as go to the Diamond mine in Arkansas, planning a trip to Vegas next summer so all in all I try to not get involved in anything that involves stress ,had my share of that over the years ,being retired is neat, I recommend it very much ,I always thought 50 or 60 was old but when you get there it ain't bad !!

I definitely agree that one should have some plans or passion for retirement. Where I work, they are very forgiving about people "retiring" and then coming back...often because they take a while to hire replacements. They also hire a lot of retiree part time help. So I see a lot of people retire, then come back as they realize they really don't have much to do. They make their yard look impeccable, change the oil in their cars, play 72 holes of golf, then get bored and want to start working. So you need a passion. I've long thought that traveling would be mine. Health permitting, backpacking would be pretty great.

As my passion for my job morphes into something I really care about (the environment or more specifically, energy conservation/clean energy) I could see working into or through retirement, on a consultant basis or even as a volunteer with non-profits and the like.

@bearcat fan: My officemate, who's 58, says the same thing about age. He says that when you're age, you think that age is old, but then you realize that since no tomorrow is ever guaranteed, you're lucky to have lived the life you have!

@Mandy: Your idea sounds absolutely incredible. I'll be there on opening day. Just make sure you follow the lead of the Kentucky hostel and find a place near some good rocks!

Ryuns, rocks are a requirement. The place I stayed at in KY offered many "adventure" packages with various outfitters in the area. I'd want to do something similar. Set up some partnerships with local outfitters.

I haven't thought about it much, but I now plan to copy Mandy's idea!

No, not really, but it does sound fabulous and may be some sort of jumping off point for somethign I"d be interested in.

I honestly don't know what I"ll be doing in 5 years, much less 35!

There's an idea! We can do a string of GRS hostels across the continent.

canadiandream, I love the eco house thing. Every year on the mall in DC they set up green houses that unis all over the country build and bring to show. it's really amazing some of the things they've done.

Its a long ways off but so long as I don't have carpal tunnel I hope to be doing some art for arts sake. I am currently a Graphic Designer and all my creative juices go into that. I'd love to wake up in the morning fresh and work on a sculpture or painting instead of laying out text.

I also hope to spend more time fishing and hunting, as those are two deeply relaxing activities for me.

I've always wanted to do an arts/humanities degree, probably in Religious Studies (from a strictly secular perspective) and I tentatively plan to do that in my retirement.

Of course, I hope to travel extensively and maybe I'll finally get around to learning some more Dutch.

I basically want to do all the stuff that doesn't pay the bills.

I'm inclined toward pretty traditional volunteering.

Chicago has a great architectural society and I want to be a docent (give tours) for it, but don't have the time for the class or the volunteering yet. Or being a docent had any number of museums.

And I've always loved math; so I would be happy to volunteer for GRE classes or in local schools.

But who knows this might change. In previous jobs, I've been able to do those types of things and work, but now it's an impossibility. I can't wait for the day I have freedom again!

I'm gonna skip retirement, live like a hermit and continue to invest 75% of my salary until I die. My goal is to shock my heirs when the estate lawyer says they will inherit 184 million dollars after a lifetime of no frills lifestyle.

I've got some hobbies that I wouldn't want to try making money from so I think I'll just do those, visit family and frieds and whatever else comes up. If I think I need money, I've wanted to be a professional organizer for years. I just love decluttering and organizing.

Our current thought is to buy a small camper or Airstream trailer and be nomads for a while, traveling around North America. I work as a writer and editor, which is the ultimate portable job; I've worked from home since 1992 and have taken my job with me wherever I've moved. I have a friend who's a magazine editor, and he and his family are already living this existence in their late 30s/early 40s. They're spending a few years traveling around the country with an Airstream; he works as the editor of a magazine for Airstream owners. He and his wife are homeschooling their young daughter. My own former editor was living on a boat when I first started working for her, and then she switched to an RV; she lived and worked in RV parks in Florida and Arizona for five years or so. I'm not sure I want to spend all my retirement in such a rootless existence, but I do think it would be fun for a few years. My girlfriend has a law degree and wants to spend her retirement helping people in need with legal issues.

I've thought about this off and on, not because I'm actually making retirement plans (I'm 32 and I've only been seriously saving for a little over a year) but because if I knew what I would do if I didn't have to work, then I could figure out a way to make a living doing it. But I have no idea what I want to do. I have no single passion that I would spend all my time on if I could, I have dozens of hobbies and dozens more that I want to try someday. If I didn't have to work, I'd probably do more volunteering and take on part-time jobs in areas that interested me until I got bored of them. That's something I suppose I could do now, but in addition to the uncertainty it would also likely involve a large pay cut.

I'd actually like to teach after I retire from day to day work, if that's ever financially possible . Or maybe better put, I'd like to ease my career into teaching as I get older and get sick of dealing with deadlines, etc. Of course I'll probably need to establish myself better before living out this dream...hehe.