Why does it seem like everyone wants to retire early?
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Anonymous
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Why does it seem like everyone wants to retire early? Is it because they started in a very high stress job in their early 20s and are burned out by 50? Or are there other reasons.
I just turned 50. I plan to retire at 65. My job is okay in terms of stress, but I am not stressed to the point of wanting to retire early |
Anonymous
| I would "retire" today if I could. There are so many other things to do with my time, from family stuff to travel to exercise to volunteering. I have burned out in past jobs, yes, but the bigger stress is balancing work (and commute) with home life. |
Anonymous
| People have more options for their off time, in a way that earlier generations didn't have. |
Anonymous
| I want to retire because my job as a college professor has changed massively from what it was when I entered the profession. It is almost entirely a different animal today. Admissions standards are lower, students are less prepared, everyone is only interested in the explicitly vocational aspects of my field and we spend much too much time combatting plagiarism. Our class sizes keep getting bigger and our service requirements are out of control because there are so few full time faculty. most of our administrative leaders are not academics and they don’t understand what we do. Every few years they bring in a new team of lame consultants who don’t understand academia and they come up with even more bizarre tasks for the faculty accompanied by new and wacky jargon. I am just not sure I can take another round. I am sixty. t |
Anonymous
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I'm 47 and am aiming to retire in about 10-12 years.
The reason is that I've worked hard my whole life and would like an extended period when I'm still healthy and strong and I can enjoy the world as I see fit. Work is fine for now, but I can't travel, exercise, go to movies, develop hobbies anywhere near what i'd like. |
Anonymous
| Why would you want to keep working? Life is limited. I belong in a nice small town near a beach in Thailand running a laid back cafe. |
Anonymous
Talk about dream vs reality. Good luck with that. |
Anonymous
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For me, burnout. Everything about my litigation-focused fed job got worse over the last few years: the amount and nature of the work, the people, the location, the politics of it. My last few years were very stressful. I retired as soon as I could.
It was challenging and rewarding work and a good career but now I want to take care of myself and enjoy life while I’m still young and strong and healthy. |
Anonymous
| Because Americans are becoming lazy and value leisure over industry. |
Anonymous
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I'll say maybe 5% of people who want to retire early do retire early. People can keep fantasizing about retiring early it's not happening for most people.
And further our economy cannot support everyone retiring early. |
Anonymous
| People want to retire when they are still in good physical shape so they can enjoy travel, golf, etc… |
Anonymous
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Why should I continue to devote 40+ hrs a week to something? Time is precious, and there’s so much more to discover.
Retired at 52 |
Anonymous
| People can still enjoy life (travel, etc) and work hard at the same time. It's all about balance. |
Anonymous
| My job is all-encompassing. I don’t always work long hours, but I am constantly on call by my staff or clients. The job has changed a lot over my years, where no one really cares now about the product, they just want to do the bare minimum and get paid. So I am constantly running quality control and having staff issues. I have not taken more than a week off at a time for 20 years, and usually have to work part of that. Plus the holidays are our busy time of year. And incomes have declined over the past few years. I want out. |
Anonymous
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I’ve had 10 coworkers die in their 50’s early 60’s… some COVID some not and I’m thinking 35 years of work is enough.
I’ll work part time. |