Come and visit me. We'll do the wineries.

Cliff, we are the same age (54 at the end of year) except you are just a tiny little bit better looking.

I keep saying a few more years for the past three years. I know I will be bored out of my mind once I stop. I really, really enjoy what I do due to the lack of a boss looking over my shoulder. Working my own hours has spoiled me over the last 30 years. You know what happens when I take a couple days off? I feel like I am wasting my life away being none productive. Like you, I just NEVER take days off unless its family vacation. I sneak in two day without going to the job site was like heaven but that damn phone still rings. I answer, no big really. By the third day, I am itchy to go back to see what's going on. Self inflected, I suppose?

I stopped riding my bike for two months due to the mass amount of work we have at the moment. Seems like everyone wants to talk to me, take me to lunch all at the same time. Maybe they are all home? I don't have too many hobbies like you now. Done some in the past and want to continue once things slow down but I know very well that they just don't slow down once I am committed to my clients. I like to bike race again and that requires a lot of time. One thing, I don't think I will be doing too much around the house. Getting tire of it but my plan is to buy a retirement home on a flat but biggish (our standard) lot for all my cars and a bit of track driving. Need instructor to wrestle that rear engine, that's for sure.

From my vantage point (78 yrs.old), I can say everybody should give real effort to what some have said in this thread about diet, exercise, lowering stress, keepiing socially connected, etc., etc. You all know what's good for you. It's a matter of motivation and incorporating those things into your life style as much as possible. Of course my old friends & school mates are "old" and sometimes you can get a shock when talking to them - like imagine an old girl friend you're still friends with (from 45+ years ago) calling you up and telling you she's trying to choose a home to go into. When you tell friends about fixing your roof, and they go into a panic warning you about ladders, handling tools, heights, etc., and you don't think anything about doing something like that. You have to give life a good chance to be well lived by doing your best to live it well and taking care of yourself. Another thing I mentioned in a thread about this a long time ago is you also have to realize your interests and preferences change in your old life just as they did as you progressed through your younger life. Don't hang onto things because you think you should but let your interests wander and change naturally. Sadly the age thing marches on and only has one way of ending, so don't waste the time and energy you have.

Damn it, Marv. I hate it when guy say this siht to me. You know why? Because it all makes so much sense and its all true. I just have to sink my teeth into it and be discipline to do exactly what you say. A bit frightening.

Great but would the New Zealand government let me in right now?

Good point.

Maybe in a little while when things have settled down a bit.

For sure! :)

At 55, I need to pay off a few small bills to be able to allow my wife to retire. She has a big stress job that never seems to leave her alone (taking client calls while on our paddleboards). If she can retire, it will make my life much easier, and happier. I will have to keep working for the benefits, but financially not that far off now.

I'm hoping to retire at 62, but depends on health insurance.

I had 10 weeks off earlier this year from the Covid shutdown, and loved it, did many projects around the house, and just got into a relaxed groove....I can't wait for the real thing !

73. Retired 8 years. Eat, sleep, golf and fish...and nothing hurts...thanks be to God! I spent 42 years wrenching on a concrete garage floor so I have to attribute no aches and pains to divine intervention. I still maintain my own vehicles and I will admit it's getting more difficult rolling around on the floor to change oil and rotating tires. Wife is healthy too. Life is good.

Looking at retiring in 5-6 years. Already have plan, wife and I started a choose and cut Christmas tree farm two years ago. By the time I retire it should be up and running.

I've been working from home since March because of the COVID restrictions. Keep the same work schedule but with no commute I've been able to get stuff done around the farm. Feels like semi-retirement I guess.

A lot of work but a lot of fun. A very good friend of mine had a XMAS trees farm that my son and I helped with in December for over a decade. We also helped with new planting and transfer of more mature plantings. He sold it last year after his with became sick.

What they did very well, and I am sure you have done your homework, was have locally made crafts available for sale in the check out building, which was appropriately rustic for the holidays! They crushed it.

For me, I'll work and volunteer as long as I can. We hope to sell our farm in five years and find an acre or two instead of 60!

Vash - you're in your prime my brother

Words of wisdom here gents.

879 days left to go. 67½ unless I decide to go earlier due to health. I have arthritis from head to toe. Back, neck and knee surgeries. there ain't a spot that don't hurt. But, I like the action of working.

Back when I was in my 30's and still navigating my career, a mentor told me a person has three parts to their day.

8 hours sleep
8 hours work
8 hours play

Personally, I could never stay on that ratio, but I never forgot how ideal this sounded.

I also believe that once one stops working all together - their life doesn't have the same value. The trick is to shift to working for yourself more than for others. Even if you're helping someone else - it's your call to do so. Not someone else's.

I am still sorta working for a living, I own 1/2 the business. Just my business partner and myself on the "payroll" or draws from the company. We had a great finish to 2019, and have large cash reserves.

We have many projects lined up for August, and we will be pretty busy. I do the books, and process the imagery right at home. That just does not keep me really busy, so work is almost like a part time hobby, that is crazy profitable.

Today my wife rousted us up a little earlier to make a run to Sam's for a new supply of fruit. I got home, and changed one of the air bags on my El Camino that had split. It is 12:30 local time and I have yet to do any work for the business. I am downloading a backup of all of our email from the email service provider. I do that one per week, so technically I am working, but clicking a button to download a file is not real tedious when I am sitting at the computer anyway. The boss never yells at me except to go to mow his yard, or fix his old high mileage cars. Occasionally the bosses wife makes me work in her gardens. I get even with the boss by drinking his beer, and sleeping with his wife.

Personally I have no debts, and money in the bank. I regularly forget what day it is and most days feel like another Saturday. The company owes about 1/2 the market value on our Cessna 182T bank loan. We don't want to stuff all the cash into it, and not be liquid so we keep making payments.

So to me, it feels like being retired, and I just have a income from the business and I can wait to start drawing Social Security that I have paid into since I was 16.

I pretend to be retired everytime a telemarketer calls trying to sell me tools or contractors insurance. It's the only way to get off their list

I’m loving retirement. Up early and take the dog for her run in the woods. Do some work around the house. Around three in the afternoon take the boat to the lake and have cocktails and poo poos while throwing the ball for the dog. Life is also good for the dog.

Very nice! :)

Recipe for poo poos???