I've never known a happy, healthy retiree who functions without a schedule.

My mom retired at 70 and schedules classes, grocery shopping, and even cleaning her apartment same way she did when she was working, except now those things can take place during the day. At first I rolled my eyes, but she is undoubtedly the healthiest person her age that I know. She's fanatical about walking and light weight training as well.

My in-laws sit in their recliners, watch Fox News, and get sicker and more paranoid every year.

Which life do you want?

I'm a single parent and feel like I will never be able to retire. I am hoping for somewhere in the early 60s but that might be more of a fantasy.

Having kids later in life with cost of college etc makes retiring before 67 very hard.

I am turning 56 and have an 11, 15 and 17 year old and a stay at home wife. They also are all on my medical plan.

It will be pretty common 70 year olds in the office.

The key is to live and raise your kids in a low COL , high value city until you're able to save a million in your retirement acct. you're free to move to the city of your choice once your financially not strapped.

OP, I'm mostly grateful. I'm 62 and I can't afford to retire now but I moved into a poor neighborhood 15 years ago and learned that every time I was unhappy with my career, I could just look at my neighbors (the janitor, cashier, security guard, and the unemployed) who would be so happy to have my problems. Yeah, at times it's been rough on my ego but all in all I'm doing fine. And now that the neighborhood is gentrifying I see nice young people spending four times what we did on a tiny house. Not to mention the people who grew up in this neighborhood who can't afford to stay here at all. That's just not fair. I don't envy anyone dealing with the economy the way it is now. I worry a lot about what my kid is facing.

Anyway, all this is to say that I wouldn't mind being able to retire now. I'd like to have the flexibility to flip my company the bird if they don't appreciate me for what I do for them. And I'm totally ready to get fully involved in fun and engaging volunteer work that I choose to do. But seriously, my brother died at 61 on disability and had to rely on his family to subsidize him. He was in chronic pain and was miserable and wanted to die. I'm not going to go out that way, thank whatever gods may be for that. I'll take it.

I'm a woman and I hope to work into my 60s and beyond. Studies show a strong relationship between working and being in better mental and physical health. A moderate level of non-stressful work is really good for people, in many ways. I don't plan to work in a corporate office but in a different type of atmosphere- school, library, social services place.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone has their own numbers that work for them. It is different for all.
I say a paid off house and at least a million. Or 1.5 million (at least) with whatever mortgage.

A million per person? Or per couple? If it's per couple, we're fine but per person? Not so much.

You could always double your retirement savings in an instant the way I did by having your spouse die.

(in other words, careful what you wish for)

OP I'm embarrassed about it too. It's because we bought too much house and I was a sahm. I regret the first but not the second.

The post-job cognitive decline -- how much of that is people cutting back on work due to cognitive decline?

Anonymous wrote:
I disagree with many posters' premise that if you're not formally occupied, you will decline quickly and die.

There are personalities who do quite well with free time and nothing to do. My parents. Myself. My husband. We eat well, stay slim, exercise our minds, and above all, lower our stress levels.

Retirement does not equal waiting to die, EVEN if you don't do much.

Sure. I agree with you. If your entire purpose in life is your career, then what is THAT? That might actually be the reason for an early decline...those people never understood living. When people quote stats, we have to understand all the tangentials involved before we can understand the real information. I taught for thirty five years. It was tough not to be defined as a teacher...weird, in fact. Then I realized that I could now live my life. And there is more to life. Some careers don't let people live, so they don't know how.

You do what you need to do and do what you like to do. If you need more retirement savings continue to work. If you really enjoy your work, continue to work. People generally retire when they have saved enough and there isn't enough satisfaction from the job to keep going. The energy it takes to work at 60 is a lot more than at 40. When you are 60 getting on a plane on Monday at 6:30am becomes real misery when at 40 its just a real pain in the butt.

I disagree with many posters' premise that if you're not formally occupied, you will decline quickly and die.

There are personalities who do quite well with free time and nothing to do. My parents. Myself. My husband. We eat well, stay slim, exercise our minds, and above all, lower our stress levels.

Retirement does not equal waiting to die, EVEN if you don't do much.

Anonymous wrote:95% of the people I know who have retired were 65 or older. It should feel normal.

+1

We have saved aggressively, been prudent in our spending, and our house will be paid off this year. We are putting two kids through college, paying full price.

HHI $230K.

I cannot retire until I'm 65-66.

I feel normal. I think people in the DC area have been able to retire earlier, at least in the past. Even though my DH and I are 50+ we are newer DC metro residents and will probably be working until social security kicks in, for me that will be 69 for full benefits.

My relatives who didn't work full time have lived longer than the ones who did. I think early retirement = early death is for workaholics and people with rewarding jobs.