Or do you not intend to? Or have you already? Retirement is coming up for me in a few years, so I’m considering my options.
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Monthly briskets, brewing alcohols, fine overcomplicated precision woodworking with exotic wood inlays because “bubinga” is fun to say, road trips for natural features and new taco joints, painting, restore/modicfy cars, and a concerning amount of day-drinking because that is the only way I can get through the day knowing what the world has come to when I can’t distract myself with any of the other things.
What do I want to do when I retire? Pretty much nothing! I want to watch TV shows and soccer games, play video games, sleep in, take naps during the day as I see fit, hang out with my wife, and shit-post online.
But I know that hobbies, side-projects, and socializing are important for delaying cognitive decline and staying active. So I’ll probably, begrudgingly, do some of that shit too.
Still a decade or two before I can even think about retiring though. And things can change. So who knows.
I am retired and you’re describing me, other than the fact that you’d have to pay me to watch soccer. I watch bicycle racing instead. It’s a damn nice life.
Pretty much what I do now, but between the hours of 8-5.
I just took a week off and was so wildly productive at home, so I assume it would be the same if I could ever voluntarily retire. Haul wheelbarrows of mulch, tend to the garden, make bread and tepache, take care of the animals. Clean up the house. Like a stay at home mom who didn’t have to take care of kids, would just manage the house and yard.
In reality it is probably only disability that would force me into retirement though. So I’m not sure.
I just made a batch of tepache. My first time. Delicious!
I used to bake sourdough quite a lot, but then I developed a wheat allergy. Before the allergy I thought quite a bit about switching careers and baking for a living.
If you like fermenting, I highly recommend ginger beer from ginger bug. You need organic ginger for the bug (I think the non organic must be irradiated or something, ginger alone I find the conventionally grown won’t ferment.) Once the starter is established you can use it to ferment any juice.
I have a ginger bug going. I made naturally carobanted “cola” using it. Def would love to try making ginger beer!
Play video games. Make myself go outside for twenty minutes a day. Do some stretches as exercise. Hope my daughter visits me.
haha, retire. as long as we’re dreaming, i guess i’ll spend my time riding unicorns on the moon.
but seriously, if this is somehow really an option for you… i’d teach community education classes. art, programming, basic cooking, whatever. i’ve met a lot of great friends in community ed. i think it’d be rad to contribute back.
The main thing I really want to do is something that will let me give back and help people, so all of that sounds great. I thought about teaching, but I’m also really sick of IT, so I’m not sure. I did recently get a chance to speak to some college students about IT and really enjoyed that, so maybe that would be OK. Otherwise I’ve considered personal training or maybe even opening a gym.
Yell at clouds
Not die. But that’s a tough ask as my current retirement plan is unaliving.
I don’t expect to be alive by that point
Whatever the fuck I feel like that day. Maybe some gardening, maybe some backpacking, maybe just laying on the couch and fucking around on my phone all day. The best part of this mythical retirement I’m teased with, is that I wouldn’t have any obligations on a day-to-day basis.
The obligations thing is huge. Like literally anything I end up doing - even work - will be because I want to and not because I need to.
I want to grow enough killer weed to tank the local economy.
Sounds like a job / work to me
If you enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t have to work a single day in your life.
I did enjoy what I was doing for a long time, but eventually it got old. It’s like loving chocolate cake but then having to eat it every day for 20 years. Eventually you want something else.
Go back to college. But this time to stay
That would be pretty neat to do. What would you want to study?
A lot of things. Psychology. Physics, maybe try for more engineering degrees, humanities, creative writing, whatever feels right.
Probably sleep late, then spend some quiet afternoons digging through the wreckage for a can of something that doesn’t seem too radioactive. Maybe get into painting or something.
Not starve or be homeless.
OK Boomer has entered the chat. Seems most comments are from those looking forward. I left the paycheck life in 2019. Except for 2020 (catching up on every episode of The Office), I’ve been having a measured good time. I have lucky stars to thank. Got married in ’85. Adopted a daughter in ’91. Wife and I inherited a home when my mom died. We spent 30 years saving for retirement instead of paying a mortgage/rent. Was self-employed the whole time in marketing communications. Wife was a mid-level manager in health services, retired 2 years before me. We spent decades living below our means. I threw the towel in at 62. I think being self-employed (and a one-man show) prepared me for my after work life. I wasn’t going to miss the office life and friends because I didn’t have any, in the conventional sense. These days I work in the garden, getting dirt in my fingernails. I teach QiGong and Tai Chi pro-bono to a dedicated senior group at a local park, and I’m getting a similar gig with the city rec services to do the same. I’m a small-time landlord (one-unit granny flat behind the house). I recently transitioned from Mac to Windows (sorry Linux users, I know…) with great success. I drive a 25 year old stick-shift Toyota truck and hope it makes it to 300K. At 66, I exercise almost every day, and while I could be convinced to take a nap in the afternoon, I never do. My wife is a pickleball queen, and we manage to have lives together and apart. We both have pretty good health for oldies. Several of my peers have died recently, and the end of the road looms closer for me than ever before. My life is devoted to staying healthy and paying it forward as long as I can keep it together.
This was a good read! I’m also lucky in that I’m part of an actual retirement plan through the state, although I am also putting money away as well. I actually plan on working, but not in my current industry. Maybe give different things a try and just focus on enjoying myself.
Least ok boomer boomer I’ve ever seen
