Sounds like Hollywood! We had a video playback guy drop on a show at WB. Paramedics pronounced him dead on stage and the producers insisted he be taken away with CPR being performed. Otherwise he would have laid on stage for a few hours until the Coroner could get there and hold up filming.

"i joke that dating ballet dancers derailed my early college days, but really that is just an excuse. i just didnt take life seriously. i started my career at age 29, not 22."

Sounds like you enjoyed yourself and still remember some of it, look at it a different way I had 8 friends that didn't make it to age 30, that changed how I looked at life.

I struggle with this. We have worked long and hard to reach retirement. The last thing I want is to lower our standard of living. If anything, I would like a better house in a better location...or maybe a vacation house in a more tropical climate to winter in.

I saw some of dad's bills near the end of his life. Page after page of extensive care, and the bottom line was always patient owes $0.00.

My wife dealt with insurance companies in her job at the university. She tried to get me to read all the different options and I told her to figure out what was the best option for us as she was the pro, and I will follow her advice, if she has any photography needs, I got that.

Good luck! I'd be concerned if I were in your position.

I get it! I too, aspire to the above. My wife planted a seed regarding a home in Italy a while ago. This is a very seductive dream.

But the question is? How long to enjoy? I ask myself this repeatedly. Every day.

Wow!

the diversity of this group is always appreciated.

thanks for letting me look at this from different angles.

I don't think it's worth worrying about. Make your life wherever you're at in whichever cycle - early, middle, or late. I sort of lived my life backwards, to the concern of my parents & family. I moved around, worked plenty of different jobs, spent a short stint in the army, put myself through school, did a lot of loose life traveling, & started teaching in my early thirties. I couldn't believe they paid me through summers, so I could continue traveling and spending time in the mountains. I didn't get rich, but part of the richness of life was the luxury of free time to do what I wanted in addition to a job I really enjoyed. I've been retired for 17 years now & am happy I had the opportunity to do things while I was young enough to do them effortlessly. I don't feel I particularly missed out on a whole lot, taking into consideration everyone's life is different and it's wasted time wishing you lived like someone else's life.

We have had everything paid off for the last 5 years, and 22% is currently going into my growing 401K. I will have 23 years of earned pension, but that won't be growing any higher. If I lost my job tomorrow, we would survive just fine compared to most of my co-workers the same age.

It's amazing how many folks have given no thoughts whatsoever to retiring, or the planning necessary, they just plan to keep working as long as possible ?!?

Perfect post, especially this:

Yes. Marv hit the nail on the head. It gave me comfort and perspective. Brilliant.

When I started my business my first employee was 17 years old and worked part time for me.

He had just moved here from Connecticut, his parents cashed out of their house and moved to Florida. They were in their early 50's and decided to take a mid life retirement. Take a couple of years off then go back to the grind. I thought that was an amazing idea.

In 2004-2006 my business took off, I was making more money than I knew what to do with. I thought about that couple and said, you know what, lets have some fun now while we are young and able.

There are some exceptions in this thread, your typical retiree worked until 65 then cannot do half the things they used to (cue all the internets awesome guys who still can, I said TYPICAL)

Cashflyer and I call that the great American Lie.

You bust your butt for 40 years and when you can finally retire you can barely enjoy life.

Therefore, I decided to have a LOT of fun in my 30's. If I had put all the money I pissed away in retirement accounts I may be considering it now. I have no regrets, we had a blast, we were always on adventures, we were in clubs partying, we were hiking trails in the mountains. I was racing cars (SCCA crap)

I do not see myself fully retiring until I am in my mid 60's, the key word fully.

I have a plan to scale back over the next 5 years (I am 55 now) and then going on more adventures, hopefully my body holds out, I have some damage I am dealing with now.

I also have to consider my in laws are in their late 70's now, my wife and I will probably have to take care of them. I suspect I am going to lose a few years to that as well. Which takes me back to my 30's, I had a lot of fun.

Right, I've known folks that got and went through millions of dollars and have nothing to show for it. Some of those folks were in their 30s and 40s. That sort of extreme lack of forethought is boggling.

We are doing OK, but not great. I wish I'd done a better job when I was younger, the power of compounding an all that.

Glad that you are going to be OK. It's just unfortunate (but life) that your plans may be changed for you.

i wouldnt trade my life for any other version. the "Devil i know".

my youth, was epic. i did pretty well, for a goofy chinese kid growing up in west texas. i had a blast.

i just want to retire while i still have the juice. energy, health, etc. i just KNOW the reason i can't. it was my youth..haha. i played. i'm still paying the cover charge.

This is what has pushed me to retire. It is starting to get a bit harder to do physical things and much harder to find anyone to do them with. I am in much better shape than the handful of folks I know that are my age that seem to struggle to do anything, and it scares the crap out of me that I may be right behind them. In fact, many have already passed in their 50s/early 60s. I would love to play some team or pickup sports, but there is not much opportunity...and not really into individual sports (never really did those). To me, retirement seems an opportunity to get more exercise and sleep...and eat better. Maybe do all the delayed or half-finished projects. I would start something new...but not yet sure what that would be. It is hard to travel and/or make new friends during COVID.

When I was in my early 20s, I always thought that I'd have at least 3 careers. That's because you get too old or lose interest in any line of work eventually, but there is always something else that you can do if you are willing and have a good outlook on life. If you're feeling trapped in your job, then obviously you just need to change jobs. If your friends all have you thinking that you hate your job but you don't actually hate it, then you need to change friends.

I think of retirement as ending one career and starting another one. I don't think of sitting around and doing nothing as my goal. My goal is to stay busy, set and achieve more goals, and not stop until I die.

My situation is a lot like JimS, and 930. But rather than play, I was starting from scratch and what I was doing was very very hard to do. I was like the guy in Steve Jobs' speech - the 1% that did not give up. I was paying my dues and now it's time to boogie. Instead of retirement I take time off, then come back to hit it hard. One of my biggetst accomplishments is to train others, make the business semi-automated, and make myself redundant so that I can think big thoughts and push back from the desk to contemplate it all.

I plan on going at 55, money will be tight. I do have two pensions, but going that early will mean they are only going to pay about half.

I’ve seen too many people working until they are 70 with bad joints and poor hearing- how fun is that? I want to go when I can enjoy it. I have many skills like most people here, we’re very handy and if I need money, I can always do something to fill the gaps; hopefully I won’t need to though.

I started late investing money and knew better, so all blame goes on me... I will for sure have enough money to go 5-10 years at my current lifestyle. After that I still have monthly pension checks and by then maybe SS.

Great line.

My only regret is not pausing more, appreciating the moment. I am getting better at it.

In retirement, I would stay busy in my shop fixing/refurbishing/selling mowers, and tractors that I buy for pennies all throughout the year. There are no titles, or sales tax, and all transactions are cash, so no records to keep. I can easily make a 200% profit in one afternoon, and can walk away from them whenever I want (no customer work). I would finish alot of projects around our 10 acre farm, go camping alot more, and do more hiking/biking/kayaking in neat places.

We would also step up our gardening/greenhouse, and raising chickens.