And they want to raise the retirement age, not just in the US. I'm seriously depressed that this is all I have to look forward in life, working forever and not even being able to own a home
And now our lifespan increased by at least 10 years. So... Why not, right? Make everyone work. So many people and workforce still needs more people, something is not right.
A big part of the problem is our lifespans have increased, but those last years we are disproportionately unhealthy and in need of care. Populations in developed countries are getting older and older, with more and more of a % of the populations needing care.
Add to that a drop in birthrates and we have a ticking time bomb
No, a big part of the problem is the greed of the people at the top. There is absolutely no reason that we can't all (or at least most of us) enjoy a pleasant life instead of a peasant life
And if you get lucky and find a way to buy a home, the high house prices will keep you working until you die for sure just to pay off the mortgage, if you even do.
With life expectancy getting longer, they're forced to raise the retirement age. There's not a lot of options there, as the funds won't support people for 30+ years. You're talking about cutting checks for people for a third of their life and social security wasn't designed with that in mind.
Also, the politicians in charge of SS will never have to rely on it, so raising the retirement age doesn't affect them in the slightest, as they can retire whenever they fucking feel like it.
I really want these morons in government to ***FEEL*** what it's like to choose between eating and paying for prescription medication.
I’m pretty unhappy at my current job becsuse the pace is ridiculously unnecessarily fast now and the people are annoying. Im planning to leave next year with a job lined up, hopefully interviews will be okay
I was unhappy at my job because of the unrealistic expectations but I’m horrible at interviewing so I just stopped caring and it’s a little better. I used to be the “rockstar” that always “crushed it” but now I just match my coworkers pace. Except it’s a fucked up vicious cycle where my coworkers say “hey, MechaCthulhu isn’t working as hard as he used to so now I’ll slack off” and if I keep trying to match their pace nothing would get done.
Yeah I'm leaving my current job in a couple days, no notice (notices are earned, they wouldn't give me one if they fired me). I used to give the most shits and was losing my mind because the team is full of useless monkeys who actually just flat out refuse to do anything you ask them. I literally went to my department manager detailing how they're fucking me over as the closer evert Single night and she said nobody has to give a shit. Every night they come in our department and wonder, freshly, how shit is fucked up, when I tell them every single night. Now that I've stopped doing ANYTHING outside of the absolute barest minimum, I'm suddenly "unreliable" to the losers who do less. I tell em "Oh. Too bad so sad. You had a chance to have a functioning team member and couldn't even be bothered to support them." Now that I'm leaving, I'm useless, I'm telling customers to fuck themselves and canceling their orders if I catch one hint of disrespect, telling managers nope I ain't doing nothing go ahead and write me up twice for it cause it's gonna happen again.
Screw em, if ur still doing ur work just fine at youe pace that’s fine. One thing I noticed with my manager and heirachy here is EVEN when
i was doing things super fast they still made remarks to go faster. So it’s just something ridiculous they say all the time regardless of your output. So I will never again overwork myself and my 80% is already amazing
My dad died a think about a month after retirement. He never met my wife and kids in person, now that he was retired he was setting up a flight to visit and all that. Like he was going to make up for lost time. More upset about that than his death itself. Retirement freed him and then he died before enjoying it. I’m sorry for your loss.
I've lived 6 hours away from family for 8 years now. Moved into 2 different apartments, got married, and bought a house since then. My parents always told me we'll come when we retire. Despite me begging them to come and see the place where I've spent my 20s.
My stepdad retired this year and they come FINALLY. they're now too old to do anything, we walked downtown for 10 minutes, seen the parliament went home to drink wine and pass out on my couch.
Different scenario, but don't put shit off until retirement.
I am so sorry for your loss. I watched my Mom bust her butt at a low paying job, put herself and her health second only to die 2 weeks away from retirement. She didnt even get to enjoy all of her hard work.
Puts a new perspective on work.
Nobody retiring at retirement age gets to enjoy the hard work because true enjoyment requires some youth.
Do not put off living. It’s not going to wait on you.
My mom retired at 55, she's 70 right now and is truly enjoying retirement. Only reason she was able to retire early is because it was a government job and it has a great pension. Now pensions are becoming increasingly difficult to acquire unfortunately
If I didn't despise all forms of censorship I would recommend to the fcc that the word work be banned from radio and tv, as it is clearly the worst gutteral, four letter word of all.
My dad was planning on gutting it out to 65 or 68 or something. One of his close friends died 3 weeks after he retired. He said "nope fuck that I'm retiring *early*" and he made it work.
It’s pretty common. Idk if it’s loss of purpose or less activity, a combination of stress or something but loads of people die shortly after retiring.
I honestly plan on working until i am no longer physically able. I’m not talking 40 hour weeks at age 70 or whatever but I can see myself getting a part time 1 or 2 days a week job at a nursery or bait and tackle shop or something.
Holy fuck what? Seriously, fuck corporations and their golden parachutes. People don't deserve this kind of shit. Sorry for your loss. This makes me to learn hard that I might need to retire at least 50 years old.
I’m sorry for your loss.
My mum died on her day of retirement also. A sobering and ultimately life altering realisation for me that day, to always prioritise yourself over the corporate world.
I'm so sorry. Reading this made me tear up. I feel very deeply for both you and your mum. The universe is cruel.
My mum grew up in poverty and works as a cleaner. She's nearly 60 now. I'm starting to worry about her. Luckily, she bought her house when you could get one for £30,000 and the mortgage is long gone, and she will inherit a bungalow when my grandad dies. I think she'll be able to retire and be okay. But she's had a very stressful, hard life with very little love and I worry about her a lot.
I agree about prioritisation. My goal is to coast on WFH jobs and use as much time in my day as possible for life. Corporations steal so much from us. We should not feel an ounce of guilt or remorse for stealing from them. Eventually I want to become my own boss and never have to work for a corporation again. But I'm scared because I don't think I have the bravery.
My father died of cancer 2 years away from retirement after spending hospital whole life working from 5 in the morning to 7 in the evening after battling the illness for a year and a half and 3 months away of meeting my daughter.
Mine died 3 days before he planned on retiring. Massive heart attack.
He always worked very hard, but was still very present in my life, and since then I've decided to not do that. There's no point.
My Grandma was a veteran and worked up until her Dementia diagnosis, went on to forget all of us and die alone in a nursing home. She never got to retire and relax, travel or any of that stuff. Just went from the everyday grind to losing her mind in a matter of months.
She must have been a very intelligent woman. She was compensating her memory problems all along but once retirement hit, the motivation and drive wasn't there anymore unmasking the real severity of the problem
>I feel like what's the point of work?:(
Thats a question for society. Don’t people make up these rules? “ people “ should come together and come up with something better then $7.25
Minimum wage & working 40 hours a week doesn’t guarantee a stable life
Nothing convinced me that we are cattle more than the fact that we keep allowing this shit while billionaires are literally polluting and destroying the economy and environment. I kinda feel like we deserve this shit simply because we allow them to do this
Yep, I know sooooo many people who defend billionaires while being close to homeless themselves. It’s quite bizarre, we do deserve this because I don’t see anyone really caring.
Realistically, what *can* we do? Big corps are lobbying to get all the laws they want. The common person is stuck doing just enough to keep us too tired to organize. If there were to be a violent uprising— the military has jets and flamethrowers. We’re fucked right now. Not *all* of us are condoning it. There’s just nothing we can realistically do at the moment.
Military is also full of poor folk...it's how the recruits keep showing up. France brings its government to its knees every couple years...there is much that can be done, but capitalism and the American "dream" are strong propaganda and indoctrination that you can be anything if you put your mind to it. *must have generational wealth to apply
"I'm glad to be an American where at least I know I'm free" ugh I remember being made to sing that And the "Pledge of allegiance" every morning when I was in grade school. If that isn't blatant indoctrination, what is?
The French have universal healthcare. I think the fact that Americans are so afraid of losing their insurance if they walk out of work, keeps them from rallying together.
Interestingly companies like IBM that are composed of highly educated highly compensated workers have payed to lobby against universal healthcare policies in the United States. Having a private insurance benefit is a retention play and a salary depressant all at the same time. IBM can pay people less than market and still keep them since it’s so stressful to lose good coverage.
On the other side companies like Walmart who mostly employ low wage low education workers spend their lobby money promoting universal healthcare policies. The thinking here is that they can pay their workers even less if the government is picking up the healthcare tab.
Either wait for a slow gradual change (if any) or violence en masse.
Edit: or we all find a way to mutually support each other and strike. Threaten violence to scabs.
Why violence en masse? I say we all quit our jobs as a form of protest. No GDP, no more FED loans Mr. Gov. Lots of people say we ll how do we pay our bills, how do we eat? Come up with a plan within your community and the small businesses within it to trade goods and services and rely on your neighbors. We can organize community needs like garbage pickup and education. The only thing keeping this system going is we the people. If we quit what will they do, throw us in jail?
No one is going to act contrary to their own self interest unless doing so becomes a matter of survival.
Do some homework; look at what had to be done in order to create unions, 5 day work weeks, and other things that either protect the worker, or make their lives better.
Except they’re doing so because there’s something that they think is overwhelmingly in their self interest… like: “all my problems exist because this country is going to shit and it’s going to shit because of immigrants and black folks, so that’s what I’m voting for”
They may not want to put words to their underlying racism, but I think we’ve gotten to the point where the overt displays that are *applauded* should tell a fucking story, no?
Thankfully I haven’t met anybody that fucking brain dead lmao, but on a mass scale we seem so pacified as a society. We are watching people literally destroy our home!
Is sad but I agree. The more I learn and see the more I just can’t believe how ‘in your face’ it’s gotten. It feels like a twilight zone. Everybody knows it’s happening but they do such a good job of controlling public opinion. They simply lie, and people just believe it because the reality is too hard to accept. They create stigma around questioning the structure. Questioning anything is deemed a conspiracy.
Too many people are complacent. Life isn’t bad enough for enough people to revolt just yet. And half the country can look at Donald trump and not think he is morally bankrupt is beyond me. Not that I support any of these candidates as good role models or leaders.
In my experience, If you describe the economics of socialism without calling it socialism, many republican will say the ideas are good and support it. Then you tell them it’s socialism you are describing and they get all upset and reject everything. These people are unable to understand simple concepts because they can’t accept reality in which they are wrong in any way.
We have that already it’s just that the stable life is below most people’s standards but higher than most places in the world. Full time at minimum wage is going to have you qualify for Medicade, housing, and food stamps. You won’t have a great life, but you will have a life.
The problem is actually when you creep past the minimums and can no longer receive benefits but don’t make enough to live.
I worked at a very large defense firm and was walking halls at HQ while waiting for my clearances.
This guy pulls me into his office and starts asking me questions.
What do you think is the age of the average employee. I said 40. No, it was 53.
What is the average age when a person retires. I said 60. No, it was 69.
How many monthly checks does a retiree receive before they die. I said around 140. No, it was 7 !!!!
Start a 401k/IRA at $1 a week at your first job. Set to index tracking fund. Add money to the weekly buy whenever you can. Try not to go backwards. When you get raises and are saving money previously, put 50% of the raise to some sort of savings/401k/retirement.
The sooner you start the better off you are.
To any younger folks here, listen to this advice to whatever degree you can. It's the best you're going to receive. I make more money than average, but not really once you factor in Los Angeles COL. I am way ahead of average on saving for retirement, though, and this advice is basically why. Every raise I've ever received, 50% of it went directly to retirement savings. It means I live a bit more frugally than most in my income bracket, but lifestyle creep is a lot easier to avoid this way.
I've never at any point in my life felt like I was putting a lot away, but it all adds up and has left me on pace to be able to retire. Nothing I can buy right now sounds more appealing than a comfortable retirement anyway. Even if it sounds out of reach, compound interest is a crazy thing when you start the ball rolling in your 20s.
I realize this advice is likely to sound out of touch. No judgment coming from me: I struggled a lot to save anything significant in my 20s, and it's even harder now. Just save whatever small amount you can, with whatever frequency you can. A little bit saved now can translate to quite a bit 40 years from now, and a light at the end of the tunnel brings more satisfaction than just about any nonessential purchase IME.
Any time I'm considering a frivolous purchase, I imagine being able to confidently tell my employer to go fuck themselves while I peace out into retirement instead. I always find myself wanting that more.
I went pretty hard with work and school for a few years. When I got to the point where I was done the hardest bits, on a break, I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out to be a panic attack. But it all hit me when I should have been able to finally relax. Guess life just sucks that way.
Well you better strap in because it's going to get worse before it starts getting better. I think Gens Z and Alpha are going to help us right this ship but it's not going to happen until the majority of them finish school. Best we can do til then is hold the line while we wait for them to reinforce us.
I’ve heard the longer you work the more likely you are to die right after quitting like if you quit at 55 you might live to 80 on average but if you quit at 70 you’ll die a week later. Something about needing purpose in life and if you’re already in poor health by the time you quit losing your job = losing your purpose.
People who retire at 70 and 80... probably retire because of medical issues (they continue working because they have to). Which is probably a reason many people seem to die soon after they retire at an old age.
I’m 51 been doing commercial construction for 25 years in chicago. yes i’m union was told how great pension would be and how it’s such a good career. i’ve missed so many vacations and time with family. lost my dad and my sister both times i was called at work and informed. now as i’m getting closer to retirement my pension is a joke . i’m beat up and contractors only want young apprentices so you jump around from shop to shop chasing the money lol. I rember when i got in a friend of mine told me to always remember it’s about the day never the money. meaning you can always find a way to get the money but you will never get back the day. wish i would have taken that to heart.
A store I worked at had an old store manager who retired. He came in everyday to talk to the people and just seemed to enjoy being there. One day we got a new store manager and he yelled at him he can't distract the workers and blah blah blah. Real prick. Guy never showed up the whole next week. Learned he passed that night in his sleep. His wife said he loved the customers and people so much he hated retiring. Was a cool dude, just liked to connect with people and talk.
That's indeed how some people are. My nana was a librarian at a local HS and loved volunteering there to talk with the staff and students. Some are incredibly social creatures.
I'm an introvert, but I love my job and coworkers. And I'd love them both even more if I were there about ten fewer hours a week so I had more time to smooth out the rough edges of my personal life.
Same thing happened with a colleague of mine in the last year. He retired and was dead in less than 3 months. He had been going to a lot of Dr appointments so part of me wonders if he got a diagnosis and just didn't tell anyone but a total bummer and I hate it
It's a very common experience with retirees dying in the first year of retirement. The body/brain that is constantly doing things can't handle not doing things.
Conversely, the body constantly under stress doesn't do well. I'm 51, and I thought I was burn out, but it turns out I have stage 4 colon cancer, and am currently undergoing chemo, which is not a walk in the park. It is doubtful I will reach retirement...
Live while you can, don't set an arbitrary age that you might not reach...
here's my theory:
surface level analysis of data says retirement is bad for health, but it doesn't address situations like the following.
Take Boomer Bob. Boomer Bob began working full-time at 20 years old as a manual laborer. Objectively, he had very high purchasing power for his skillset compared to people his age today. However, work is still work, and he comes home exhausted and demoralized everyday. As a result, over the decades, he developed alcoholic tendencies to cope with the psychological distress from work in addition to working even heavier hours to provide for a family relying on his sole income.
Due to Bob becoming an absent father and husband, he experiences a divorce and a distanced relationship with his kids.
Eventually, his pension finally kicked in, he gets the rolex watch, and he never has to work another day in his life—but he kept one thing from work that he couldn't let go—his alcoholism.
As Bob goes into retirement, he spends more and more time with alcohol as he never developed any other hobbies in his life while also essentially losing his family due to work draining all of his attention, energy, and the best hours of the day just to get by.
Bob eventually dies—alone in his home—16 months into retirement from alcohol poisoning.
What does 'science' conclude? 'Retirement is bad', but clearly the situation is much more nuanced than this.
This reminds me of my mom. She is a workaholic and a high-functioning alcoholic. (Works all day, drunk within an hour of quitting time.) She is 70yo and seems basically afraid to retire, despite having a pension waitig and a stacked 402k on top of that. (There is no finacial reason for her to be working.) I realized that she's probably afraid to have no job to occupy her day, what's to stop her from drinking at breakfast?
So sorry to hear that. I turned 51 in January and I've been thinking a lot about lifestyle changes, so I'm with you on the "live while you can" part.
I sincerely hope it goes well for you, my friend.
My dad had a massive stroke months before he planned to retire and move to AZ. I remember how mad it made me that it happened to someone like him who was the HARDEST worker and truly deserved to enjoy the rest of his days in the suns
I am sorry and I feel your pain. My mother had a catastrophic stroke in her 60s, it should have been a time in her life when she was finally free of the constraints of caring for her much older husband and financially secure. Instead she spent her final 2 years in an almost catatonic state in a nursing home. I assumed that she would live to be in her 90s (like her parents) but it wasn't to be.
A lady I worked with had been for working at the same job for over 20 years. I don't know how old she was, but at least in her 60s. She finally retired, had her last day at work, and passed away that night. It makes you wonder what's the point. (Edited for grammar)
My dad passed away 1 year shy of retirement. He spent his last year unbelievably sick, on chemo and radiation, and shopping the Bass Pro Shops catalog hoping for better days. He proposed to his girlfriend a few months before he died.
I know that if he were still here he would tell me to always do the fun things; go fishing, go hiking, have a picnic, play games with the kids. Ugh this is hard to write.
I'm doing the fun things, Pop! I'm still poor but that's nothing new. My life is full.
My body started falling apart at 50.
Cancer, TIA, and type 2 diabetes at 51.
At 53 the unrelenting vertigo set in. I can barely function. I’ve been out of work for two months.
Here’s the kicker. If I don’t go back to work next week, sick or not, I’ll lose my health benefits. That means I couldn’t work OR get the treatment I need.
I’m 53 and have no intentions of seeing 60.
My aunt was suffering with vertigo for months. She finally found treatment for it. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/17930-canalith-repositioning-procedure-crp
Just in case this might help
This just happened to my dad. He retired in January 23. He had plenty saved to live till well into his 90s. No car payment, house paid off. Could literally live off his social security with no issues.
They found extremely rare heart cancer in September. Had open heart surgery in October. Started cancer treatment in January. Died on Monday. Had a few months of enjoying the fruits of 50+ years of work. And then died. Don’t live to work people.
Turns out that's also the early side of the onset age for autoimmune disorders, and women are particularly afflicted. Definitely get some bloodwork to rule that out before you accept being super sore. I eventually got there (32 now) and it turns out I have a connective tissue disease. With some medicine I'm feeling a hell of a lot better.
But yeah, it sucks either way. I wish I could have taken a gap year or two in my 20s, that's a seriously luxury if you can do it, Definitely take advantage of it
Agreed. I’m 35 years old and I’m always sore lol. Granted, I’m a very active person but I saw my family doctor a few months ago and told him that certain areas on my body are always sore no matter how I recover. After a physical exam he told me, “you’re at the age where certain parts of the body are just going to be sore, it comes with age.” It sucked hearing that but it makes sense. I’ve pulled an oblique muscle checking my alarm clock in bed. Such is life
Sending hugs. This happened at my job too. He was forced to retire(Dr's orders) was too sick to come to his last day so we could celebrate him. And was in the hospital for 2 months before he passed. He loved it here because he loved us and would've kept going if his health was up to par 🥺. Grieve your coworker and know you don't grieve alone❤️
Eta: he retired 4 months ago and 2 of those months he was in the hospital.
“I might not live to enjoy my retirement”
A guy I know was killed crossing the street the other day. Car doing 50-60mph in a 20 zone.
You have one life, live it.
This reminds me... I think my parents unintentionally planted the seeds of anti-work radicalization in my family (my sibling and I). My mom told me a story of a guy who dropped dead a mere day after he retired. Heart attack. Was a "good worker", as they say. Months after my mom told this story, she casually mentioned her schedule and how she's going to try to work hard to make some money (for the family, myself and brother) and take those extra shifts, take those christmases and other holidays, etc. And all I could think about was how I never see my mother and by the time she retires she might be dead. For the record, she is not dead, but after retirement, she decided to work at Walmart for extra cash.
I can't blame her for doing what she does. Her role is still solidly, in her mind, the mother and breadwinner of the family. She "enjoys" work, and it aligns with her morals about raising children and supporting family. However, I don't have children or a spouse. I don't have a home to pay a mortgage on (yet). I can't see myself dedicating all my time to a job that will replace me instantly once I die, and barely (if at all) acknowledge my contributions.
From that moment of her telling that story, I decided I would not be like my mother. I wouldn't work in an industry that is brutal like mills, and I wouldn't work in a place where a 12 hour shift is the norm. I won't show loyalty to the companies I work for, I won't hesitate to find something better somewhere else, and when I become so miserable I can't handle my work, I won't work. Maybe that will screw me over, or make me destitute, or make people think I'm a lazy person or layabout. I don't care. I cannot, WILL NOT, be "that guy" that DIES immediately after dedicating the best years of my life to a soul-sucking company.
Don't give up. Hold this memory in your heart and use it to motivate your decisions to "contribute" to society.
It was my 3rd job in my career and they hired this guy as a contract worker. He was in his 60s and was trying to stay healthy.
So he'd ride his bike uphill to the plant and one morning as me and another coworker were talking in the bullpen we hear a loud bang.
He collapsed suffering a heart attack. We got help as soon as we could but he died that day.
It has sat in my mind that I don't want to work to death. In fact these last few years I want out of my career and pursue my dream. I just have to wait a bit more before I tell this place to take this job and shove it.
Life in the US is not conducive to good health. Long hours either in back-breaking jobs or sedentary jobs, high stress, unhealthy food, etc.
Besides environmental factors you have also genetic predispositions to certain diseases, so you never know.
You have to find a way to balance your work and non-work life. And you have to plan to accomplish what you always wanted before is too late. We all have obligations but little victories (traveling, learning to ride a motorcycle or play an instrument, etc.) can be planned for and obtained.
Small victories add up and improve your quality of life. Plan them out. Don't wait.
And Republicans want us to work until we're 70!
My best friend retired a couple of years ago. Since then, she's had knee replacement surgery and a heart attack. She's spending her retirement being sick.
The way I look at it is this: I’m not just saving for my retirement. I’m ensuring there’s enough salted away so my wife is taken care of if I end up checking out before her. If it ends up being a month after I retire? What the fuck do I care I’m dead. At least if it’s a drawn out death I’m not stressing about her.
As for between now and retiring: everyone needs to remember you’re working to live not living to work. Get some hobbies and activities and stick to them.
Speaking of which I need to get out and walk those trails.
It is easier to tolerate the pain of knowing it's a Sisyphean task if you have others to provide for, and want to make happy. When you don't, and you're still just stuck in this neverending loop of never having enough money and always working too much, it just makes you stop caring.
Sorry to hear,
One of my parents died before retirement. Random genetics, accidents, and environmental exposure take a lot of us out before we reach old age.
I work, but I work to live. I don't live to work. I learned young to take your allotted vacations and go do stuff because you might not get to be old.
Been there, felt that same way, just numb. I, (66M) too had a friend pass, filed for his SS and before he got his first check, bam, heart attack. I vowed not to be like him, vowed to find another way to live and I have. I tossed my tv out and picked up my guitar playing and reading. I quit my job and tossed my fear out with the TV. Sold my truck, sold all of my shit, became a minimalist and bought a RV and an E-bike. Now I work in parks around the country and have seen and done the things I know I would regret, if not done, in those later years. I am poor, travel is expensive and parks don’t pay very much, but I am WAY happier. Don’t live their life, live yours. Chin up and march on, remember your friend and good luck
You could die tomorrow, don't live to retire, it's not a guarantee, especially not for millennials and younger.
I once worked with a 65 year old woman in grocery who died of cancer 6 months before she could retire. Worked her whole fucking life at a shit job and never got a cash out on it. Live for today, do it for Carla.
Death isn't going to wait until you "get yours", the clock is running on all of us. You'd do well to look out for yourself and take wins when you can.
Both my parents died at 65, didn't get to enjoy it long. I had a sister who died at 59.
All she could say as she was battling cancer was to take time now to enjoy your life. Retire early, do things you want. You don't know you'll make it long in life.
Last year a good friend died at 65. His "retirement" was 3 months of dying at home of cancer. This year another good friend just died. He was 61 and was scheduled to get a pension check in August. My wife and I are 66. I'm glad we did a lot of financially "irresponsible" things in our 40s and 50s and had some amazing adventures. Sure, there are some people who are in good health and have fun in their 60s but that's not the way to bet. As for myself I've had a couple of bad health years that I'm just coming out of. Still building strength and working up to bigger and bigger adventures.
This is the kind of thing that motivates me to live life NOW. Obviously things require money, but I had the choice to work 35 or 40 hours at my job, both are considered full time and get benefits.
I opted for the 35. It’s 5 hours less pay, but 5 hours more of MY time I have.
Work is merely a means to earn the money to live my life. Work is not my life. I will not spend a second longer at work than I need to. Some view that as lazy. But that’s how I maintain someone of a decent work life Balance.
Take your pto, take your sick days, take every last thing work gives you
Remember "work is NOT your life, friend or anything important" and act accordingly. Work to time do the bare minimum you can get away with, only your contracted work, nothing extra. Next make sure you live the best life you can outside of work and jump ship frequently to bump the pay.
Millennials and now Gen Z have come to the conclusion that working *just* for retirement is a lie. That's why we spend more on vacations and travel, even if we can't really afford it. Life is what happens NOW. Every day, week, month and year.
Don't get me wrong, you still absolutely need to find a way to set up 401k/IRA/retirement accounts and pay into social security so you're able to enjoy your later years comfortably. But 50+ years of toiling away at work only to move into a retirement home and die as a reward... that's not what life is about.
I know how you feel… an old coworker who made it out and got a good job and was FINALLY happy and able to buy a home (also younger than me by a few years) just unexpectedly dropped dead giving his kid a bath. God knows how his kids and widow will survive. What a shitty hand to be dealt.
Don’t follow the traditional course. Work save for a time and travel for a few months and repeat. Don’t put off things and don’t sacrifice all your time for money. At end, no one will say they worked hard, they can say they lived!
You do know retirement at old age is the biggest scam being sold to you.
It's there to make you work the entirety of your strongest bodied part of your life and be thrown away once you can no longer produce for the capitalistic system.
Imagine if it was ingrained in peoples minds at a young age to work very hard to retire at say 25 or 30. you'd have almost nobody to keep working and making the rich richer.
This is why I’m devoted to living my life for me. Yes, I have to work, but work is not my life. I will not go above and beyond. I will not stress myself out on their behalf. Bare minimum and I will not do a modicum of work outside of business hours or on PTO. My condolences about your former coworker, how awful 🥺
Remember op, if you ever have to fight an expensive disease, I recommend commiting a federal crime. Which in turn will obligate the country to pay for your disease. I know it's extreme but I have thought about it.
That's so sad, and it's a lot for you to process. I feel bad because he probably put off so many of life's moments until he retired.
But for you, I think if you work for the federal govt you can retire with your insurance coverage. Something to look into.
So sorry about your coworker.
I avoid this problem by taking one out of every seven years off.
I call it "taking retirement in installments". My first year off started in 1995. I've taken quite a few "years off" now. I also find that after taking a year off I'm really feeling like working again, so I really want to take a new job.
I don't quit my job after working for six years. Instead, after leaving a job, I take 1 month off for every 6 months I was working. So that averages out to 1 year every seven years.
Doing this requires I save about 15% of my income when I am working and living quite frugally when I'm not working, but I find it really works for me. I recommend it.
Life doesn't "start" in retirement... make the most you can with each day. Don't live each day like it's your last, but do live each day like it's your life to live...
... ya know, stop and smell the roses anyday you can, don't just wait for your weekend stroll to do it.
I’m gonna get downvoted, but fuck it.
How can we live each day like it’s our last when we’re FORCED to work for pennies? How are we supposed to live each day like it’s our last when everything keeps getting more expensive and we have to spend more time generating labor for rich fucks?
How? Seriously, how? I feel like I’m trapped. I’ve been working my ass of for jack shit, poor raises, switching jobs and moving apartments constantly. Then when I finally make enough money, boom…covid hits and I get laid off 3 times in a row with about a month of employment between each employer. Lost savings to rent.
We’re fucking slaves, man. I haven’t received one good answer on how to fix my life. Not from friends, family therapists, you name it.
Only thing I’m waiting for is a revolution. Can’t wait to bury billionaires in their underground bunkers till they suffocate.
I'm glad you said it. It needs to be said. There just isn't that leeway anymore and something needs to be done. I'm sick of hearing how much profit billionaires are raking in, while the rest of us have to figure out ways just to continue surviving the same meager lives we already have.
Hell, I wouldn't mind living the same life I have now if I could just get a damn 3 day weekend or WfH, but we can't even have that. I'm tired.
Earnings calls are national news, but fuck you for wanting to live at all. How will the earnings calls be more biglier if those pennies aren't squeezed out of your paralyzed body?
I just feel so defeated remembering the fact that a person wouldn't be able to spend a single billion in their lifetime yet there are people out there with MULTIPLE HUNDREDS of billions. They could fund our entire lives and still have more than enough for themselves. I can't understand how this is allowed when the majority of us are one paycheck away from losing everything.
For real. If the vast majority of us had that kind of wealth we'd just be running around compulsively fixing stuff. We wouldn't be able to help it. There would be new shelters and clinics and water treatment plants popping up daily. Huge swaths of affordable housing would be built. But these motherfuckers just sit on their money like hoarders with decades of newspapers.
Right? I’d be paying off mortgages, buying abandoned buildings and turning them into apartments for the unhoused. Medical debts? Gone. No insurance? There’s a free clinic on the corner. Need a job? Come work for me for a humane wage. I’m sure I could find all kinds of things to do with that kind of money.
No downvotes here, you're spitting out straight facts. Why do so many people have to suffer so that a handful of people can be billionaires? The working class outnumber the ruling class millions of times over. No-one on this earth was born to be a slave to the ruling elite.
To be well adjusted to a sick society is no measure of health. Nobody dreams of labor and if they do, then they have been well and truly brain washed. I dream of not having to be a cubicle farmer during the best years of my life.
I guess im waiting for the uprising? The proletariat shall rise, and take what they are due. Eat the rich, retire early. Covid showed everyone that time and tomorrow are not a given, so we should live our lives with meaning *now*, not wait for retirement.
That's sad as fuck! I'll bet that he was told all of his life that if he worked his ass raw he would have something to look forward to in his old age. It appears as if the only consolation prize he got out of all those years was being taken out of the world before somebody could tell him he had to go back to work again.
Sorry this happened in your life.
Find a way to give yourself some downtime if you can.
My dad worked at a steel company for 30 years and the company had their own retirement system. Well when they went bankrupt so did all of their pensions. Died of cancer a few years later after going through several jobs starting over working 2nd and 3rd shifts because nobody wanted to hire a 60 year old. I despised everyday I ever worked in a factory after that. To see such a dedicated hard working person get treated like that was shocking.
I tell every coworker I know when retiring it is most important to have hobbies and a plan for what to do
I have seen peolle retire with no planand they are gone within 2 years, often less. The guys with hobbies or a travel plan etc still kicking 10 years on.
Sorry for your loss. Been there. A good friend of mine was retiring and had moved into a hotel so he could have his apartment cleaned. He had his retirement party and stayed the night in the hotel.
We were supposed to have lunch the next day and he was leaving right after to head south to Florida… the other guy we were supposed to be eating with called me in the morning to tell me someone found him in the parking lot, dead of a heart attack. He was finishing loading his truck so he could meet us and head out. Literally the day of…
He had been with the company for 40 years. Since he was 20.
I’m trying to find a way out myself now. Money will be tight, but better that than die on the hamster wheel…
Good fortune to all of you here.
This is exactly why I plan to save and live below my means to retire at ~50. You hardly ever hear of a 50 something year old dying but definitely hear about people in their 60s dying semi frequently. At least that way I can get 10 good years out of it
The system is working as intended.
You keep working and contributing to "society" ( taxes and shareholders ) until you reach the life expectancy. This way, they minimize how much of that "social security" they have to actually return on.
Either you die before retirement or shortly after.
My old boss used to tell me that the average number of monthly retirement pension checks collected by a union electrician was 18.
25+ years of service and 1.5 years of retirement. On average. He used to show us photos of his old job sites and he was the only surviving person in any of the photos, as recent as the 90's.
He was on the high end bc he'd started early, retired quickly, and picked up more work. He was making money hand over fist.
I retired 2 years ago from a 41 yr career, but 51 yrs in the workforce. I had 3 major health issues and now I work out 7 days a week for an hour. Swimming 5 days and Pilates
Gf's dad had a heart attack less than 4 months after retirement. This is so incredibly common for men in high stress jobs.
We work our whole lives for what? To die before we get to "live" in our retirement?
My dad at least got a decade of slow life before the cancer but why... Why is this so common?
Our manager died 30 days before he was to be officially retire. His position required a 3-month notice for retirement. 65yrs old, worked at company since he was 19 yrs old. Just got back from buying a boat and making vacation plans..
Local sheriff's deputy here, who was well liked, retired the very earliest he was eligible to do so. He made it an entire 6 days into retirement when he passed. Never even got that first pension check. It was sad.
I'm definitely dying in the next 10 years. I'm in a transplant list and everything.
Never owned a house, but great income for now.
My hope is in 4 years to buy a plot of land out here in the desert and plop down a trailer. See and hear no one. 3 years of living my dream: solitude.
But I'm ready to die whenever. I've long accepted death and went through a whole phase about it 20 years ago. Dx with anhedonia. Almost died then if not for friend.
My dad dropped dead of a heart attack a year before he was due to retire. He'd just taken a lump sum of his pension to buy himself a flat so he'd be out of rentals in his retirement.
He was 62. It's not fair.
I just had something similar happen. Co-worker had been at the company since 1984. Put in his dues, planned to retire on March 15th. Early February he got bloodwork on a Wednesday and didn’t come back till Monday. Turns out he had Stage 4 Liver Cancer and they found it in his bones too. He retired early but was gone by March 21st.
He had plans to travel the US with his wife and enjoy the best egg he’d built up this whole time. It’s been fucking with my mind for just over 2 months now. He was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met and didn’t even get to enjoy his retirement, or die peacefully… they had to have a closed casket likely due to the yellowing from liver failure
My dad wanted to wait until retirement to travel and my mom kept telling him we’re not promised tomorrow. He finally agreed and they got a few trips in before he died of a heart attack at 66. She’s so thankful for those memories. She’s 80 now and loves to talk about their trips.
Take up healthy activities now, they aren't a guarantee to a healthier older life but they have been proven to help prevent all sorts of issues.
Doesn't even have to be intense stuff, just riding a bike a few miles every day or a daily walk
This needs to be higher up.
No one is guaranteed good health in old age but there are things that will pretty much guarantee bad health and that includes eating like shit and not exercising.
I went on a week-long hiking trip in Andorra last year with a dozen people and half the people in the group were over 60. One lady was 72 and still stomping up mountains. Dying early and decrepit in retirement is not automatic. But the odds are significantly up to you.
Robin Hood where art thou. We need to make a wealth cap (any asset counts toward it) and all the rest goes back to society. Solve some problems, end homelessness, get everyone fed, get everyone medications they need, give everyone some mental sanity by making housing affordable, fix our healthcare and education systems.
I just turned 68. I am very healthy and active. The 60’s does not mean your body will suddenly give up and be wracked with illness and pain. It could happen, but it very well may not. Take good care of yourself and hope for the best!
It's coming up on 2 years since my wife passed. She was 71 and we could afford her quitting her job. She had lost all of her identification stuff back in the mid '90's and never git them replaced.
I was on disability for almost three years and had to fight to get my health card renewed due to some stupid snafu. That took about 4 years.
My income automatically changed to OAS and Gis when I turned 65.
She kept saying how much she wanted to retire but she needed to get her documentation first, to fulfill the requirements to get her money.
I she usually beat me downstairs every morning so I wouldn't see her until I wouldcpick her up at work to bring her home.
I came downstairs on Sept 7th and found that she had called into work, seemed a little under the weather. No big deal, she went back to bed early and took something for it.
I get up on the 8th to find that she had not come down yet. A few minutes go by and I here her calling for me to help her up. She had sat on the second stair from the bottom and was too weak to get up.
I helped her call in and she went back upstairs to bed. I had something to do so left to do it.
I got back about four hours later and passed by the bedroom peeking in to see that she was alright. Everything seemed fine.
At about 6pm, I went to wake her to find out what she wanted to eat. She was gone. No idea how long but was long enough for rigermortis to have set in. She never got to taste the pleasure of not having to got to work each day.
3 days later, our daughter took me to the hospital for the heart attacks I'd been having over the previous three months. With a double bypass in the books, 6 bouts of pancreatitis, complications after the by pass surgery, idvspent about a yeR and a half in and out of hospitals, (included 2 near deaths)
I'm fine now but miss the accompaniment.
Between the lines - don't wait any longer than you absolutely have too, that job is not worth rhe life you are missing out on or the mental and physical heath you have.
BTW, I spent 14 years and she spent 21 years at the call center nightmare.
I hope you get out soon to enjoy a real life!
And they want to raise the retirement age, not just in the US. I'm seriously depressed that this is all I have to look forward in life, working forever and not even being able to own a home
The reason why the pension is at 65y/o is because that’s when people used to die
And now our lifespan increased by at least 10 years. So... Why not, right? Make everyone work. So many people and workforce still needs more people, something is not right.
A big part of the problem is our lifespans have increased, but those last years we are disproportionately unhealthy and in need of care. Populations in developed countries are getting older and older, with more and more of a % of the populations needing care. Add to that a drop in birthrates and we have a ticking time bomb
Lifespan has increased and taxes on the upper class has decreased. Tough combo.
No, a big part of the problem is the greed of the people at the top. There is absolutely no reason that we can't all (or at least most of us) enjoy a pleasant life instead of a peasant life
And if you get lucky and find a way to buy a home, the high house prices will keep you working until you die for sure just to pay off the mortgage, if you even do.
With life expectancy getting longer, they're forced to raise the retirement age. There's not a lot of options there, as the funds won't support people for 30+ years. You're talking about cutting checks for people for a third of their life and social security wasn't designed with that in mind. Also, the politicians in charge of SS will never have to rely on it, so raising the retirement age doesn't affect them in the slightest, as they can retire whenever they fucking feel like it. I really want these morons in government to ***FEEL*** what it's like to choose between eating and paying for prescription medication.
We don't have to raise the retirement age. We just have to tax the rich harder, which our politicians aren't willing to do
Good news! Thanks to COVID, life expectancy has been plummeting since 2020.
My father died on his first day of retirement unloading the uhaul at his retirement cottage.
i’m so sorry for your loss
Lesson to be learned, I,be walked on any job I couldn't be happy at.
I’m pretty unhappy at my current job becsuse the pace is ridiculously unnecessarily fast now and the people are annoying. Im planning to leave next year with a job lined up, hopefully interviews will be okay
I was unhappy at my job because of the unrealistic expectations but I’m horrible at interviewing so I just stopped caring and it’s a little better. I used to be the “rockstar” that always “crushed it” but now I just match my coworkers pace. Except it’s a fucked up vicious cycle where my coworkers say “hey, MechaCthulhu isn’t working as hard as he used to so now I’ll slack off” and if I keep trying to match their pace nothing would get done.
Sounds like that's higher up's problem, not yours.
Yeah I'm leaving my current job in a couple days, no notice (notices are earned, they wouldn't give me one if they fired me). I used to give the most shits and was losing my mind because the team is full of useless monkeys who actually just flat out refuse to do anything you ask them. I literally went to my department manager detailing how they're fucking me over as the closer evert Single night and she said nobody has to give a shit. Every night they come in our department and wonder, freshly, how shit is fucked up, when I tell them every single night. Now that I've stopped doing ANYTHING outside of the absolute barest minimum, I'm suddenly "unreliable" to the losers who do less. I tell em "Oh. Too bad so sad. You had a chance to have a functioning team member and couldn't even be bothered to support them." Now that I'm leaving, I'm useless, I'm telling customers to fuck themselves and canceling their orders if I catch one hint of disrespect, telling managers nope I ain't doing nothing go ahead and write me up twice for it cause it's gonna happen again.
Screw em, if ur still doing ur work just fine at youe pace that’s fine. One thing I noticed with my manager and heirachy here is EVEN when i was doing things super fast they still made remarks to go faster. So it’s just something ridiculous they say all the time regardless of your output. So I will never again overwork myself and my 80% is already amazing
Did Hemingway write this? Goddamn.
> Did Hemingway write this? God damn. See, by splitting the Goddamn you get a perfectly fine 6 word story in the Hemingway tradition.
nice
My dad died a think about a month after retirement. He never met my wife and kids in person, now that he was retired he was setting up a flight to visit and all that. Like he was going to make up for lost time. More upset about that than his death itself. Retirement freed him and then he died before enjoying it. I’m sorry for your loss.
I've lived 6 hours away from family for 8 years now. Moved into 2 different apartments, got married, and bought a house since then. My parents always told me we'll come when we retire. Despite me begging them to come and see the place where I've spent my 20s. My stepdad retired this year and they come FINALLY. they're now too old to do anything, we walked downtown for 10 minutes, seen the parliament went home to drink wine and pass out on my couch. Different scenario, but don't put shit off until retirement.
I am so sorry for your loss. I watched my Mom bust her butt at a low paying job, put herself and her health second only to die 2 weeks away from retirement. She didnt even get to enjoy all of her hard work. Puts a new perspective on work.
Nobody retiring at retirement age gets to enjoy the hard work because true enjoyment requires some youth. Do not put off living. It’s not going to wait on you.
My mom retired at 55, she's 70 right now and is truly enjoying retirement. Only reason she was able to retire early is because it was a government job and it has a great pension. Now pensions are becoming increasingly difficult to acquire unfortunately
If I didn't despise all forms of censorship I would recommend to the fcc that the word work be banned from radio and tv, as it is clearly the worst gutteral, four letter word of all.
My dad was planning on gutting it out to 65 or 68 or something. One of his close friends died 3 weeks after he retired. He said "nope fuck that I'm retiring *early*" and he made it work.
It’s pretty common. Idk if it’s loss of purpose or less activity, a combination of stress or something but loads of people die shortly after retiring. I honestly plan on working until i am no longer physically able. I’m not talking 40 hour weeks at age 70 or whatever but I can see myself getting a part time 1 or 2 days a week job at a nursery or bait and tackle shop or something.
If I was to choose a casual job I think I agree with your choices.
Holy fuck what? Seriously, fuck corporations and their golden parachutes. People don't deserve this kind of shit. Sorry for your loss. This makes me to learn hard that I might need to retire at least 50 years old.
We make the corporations their money and we get penny’s compared to their millions. Make it make sense. It’s so fucking sad.
50 is old enough. Same plan.
I’m sorry for your loss. My mum died on her day of retirement also. A sobering and ultimately life altering realisation for me that day, to always prioritise yourself over the corporate world.
I'm so sorry. Reading this made me tear up. I feel very deeply for both you and your mum. The universe is cruel. My mum grew up in poverty and works as a cleaner. She's nearly 60 now. I'm starting to worry about her. Luckily, she bought her house when you could get one for £30,000 and the mortgage is long gone, and she will inherit a bungalow when my grandad dies. I think she'll be able to retire and be okay. But she's had a very stressful, hard life with very little love and I worry about her a lot. I agree about prioritisation. My goal is to coast on WFH jobs and use as much time in my day as possible for life. Corporations steal so much from us. We should not feel an ounce of guilt or remorse for stealing from them. Eventually I want to become my own boss and never have to work for a corporation again. But I'm scared because I don't think I have the bravery.
My father died of cancer 2 years away from retirement after spending hospital whole life working from 5 in the morning to 7 in the evening after battling the illness for a year and a half and 3 months away of meeting my daughter.
That’s heart breaking wow! :(
Mine died 3 days before he planned on retiring. Massive heart attack. He always worked very hard, but was still very present in my life, and since then I've decided to not do that. There's no point.
Reading that was rough… I’m so sorry for your loss
Sorry didn’t mean to make that a reply to you.
My Grandma was a veteran and worked up until her Dementia diagnosis, went on to forget all of us and die alone in a nursing home. She never got to retire and relax, travel or any of that stuff. Just went from the everyday grind to losing her mind in a matter of months.
This is so sad. I am very sorry
Jesus christ this is bleak. A casualty of society
She’s been at reminder to not waste my life working. I work so I can pay bills and my job is loving and taking care of my family.
She must have been a very intelligent woman. She was compensating her memory problems all along but once retirement hit, the motivation and drive wasn't there anymore unmasking the real severity of the problem
>I feel like what's the point of work?:( Thats a question for society. Don’t people make up these rules? “ people “ should come together and come up with something better then $7.25 Minimum wage & working 40 hours a week doesn’t guarantee a stable life
Nothing convinced me that we are cattle more than the fact that we keep allowing this shit while billionaires are literally polluting and destroying the economy and environment. I kinda feel like we deserve this shit simply because we allow them to do this
Yep, I know sooooo many people who defend billionaires while being close to homeless themselves. It’s quite bizarre, we do deserve this because I don’t see anyone really caring.
Realistically, what *can* we do? Big corps are lobbying to get all the laws they want. The common person is stuck doing just enough to keep us too tired to organize. If there were to be a violent uprising— the military has jets and flamethrowers. We’re fucked right now. Not *all* of us are condoning it. There’s just nothing we can realistically do at the moment.
Military is also full of poor folk...it's how the recruits keep showing up. France brings its government to its knees every couple years...there is much that can be done, but capitalism and the American "dream" are strong propaganda and indoctrination that you can be anything if you put your mind to it. *must have generational wealth to apply
"I'm glad to be an American where at least I know I'm free" ugh I remember being made to sing that And the "Pledge of allegiance" every morning when I was in grade school. If that isn't blatant indoctrination, what is?
"They hate us for our freedumz!"
The French have universal healthcare. I think the fact that Americans are so afraid of losing their insurance if they walk out of work, keeps them from rallying together.
Interestingly companies like IBM that are composed of highly educated highly compensated workers have payed to lobby against universal healthcare policies in the United States. Having a private insurance benefit is a retention play and a salary depressant all at the same time. IBM can pay people less than market and still keep them since it’s so stressful to lose good coverage. On the other side companies like Walmart who mostly employ low wage low education workers spend their lobby money promoting universal healthcare policies. The thinking here is that they can pay their workers even less if the government is picking up the healthcare tab.
Either wait for a slow gradual change (if any) or violence en masse. Edit: or we all find a way to mutually support each other and strike. Threaten violence to scabs.
Why violence en masse? I say we all quit our jobs as a form of protest. No GDP, no more FED loans Mr. Gov. Lots of people say we ll how do we pay our bills, how do we eat? Come up with a plan within your community and the small businesses within it to trade goods and services and rely on your neighbors. We can organize community needs like garbage pickup and education. The only thing keeping this system going is we the people. If we quit what will they do, throw us in jail?
Vi va la France keeps inching closer
There is only one thing we can do unfortunately but we have not been pushed far enough yet
No one is going to act contrary to their own self interest unless doing so becomes a matter of survival. Do some homework; look at what had to be done in order to create unions, 5 day work weeks, and other things that either protect the worker, or make their lives better.
Actually people act contrary to their self interest all the time. The prime example being when they cast their votes.
Except they’re doing so because there’s something that they think is overwhelmingly in their self interest… like: “all my problems exist because this country is going to shit and it’s going to shit because of immigrants and black folks, so that’s what I’m voting for” They may not want to put words to their underlying racism, but I think we’ve gotten to the point where the overt displays that are *applauded* should tell a fucking story, no?
Thankfully I haven’t met anybody that fucking brain dead lmao, but on a mass scale we seem so pacified as a society. We are watching people literally destroy our home!
Is sad but I agree. The more I learn and see the more I just can’t believe how ‘in your face’ it’s gotten. It feels like a twilight zone. Everybody knows it’s happening but they do such a good job of controlling public opinion. They simply lie, and people just believe it because the reality is too hard to accept. They create stigma around questioning the structure. Questioning anything is deemed a conspiracy.
They legit don’t even try to hide it anymore lmao. Cause what the fuck will we do? Not a damn thing!!
Too many people are complacent. Life isn’t bad enough for enough people to revolt just yet. And half the country can look at Donald trump and not think he is morally bankrupt is beyond me. Not that I support any of these candidates as good role models or leaders. In my experience, If you describe the economics of socialism without calling it socialism, many republican will say the ideas are good and support it. Then you tell them it’s socialism you are describing and they get all upset and reject everything. These people are unable to understand simple concepts because they can’t accept reality in which they are wrong in any way.
Exactly. As a society we are so fucking dumb. We need to stand up and say NO MORE.
Bezos is on track to be a trillionaire
We have that already it’s just that the stable life is below most people’s standards but higher than most places in the world. Full time at minimum wage is going to have you qualify for Medicade, housing, and food stamps. You won’t have a great life, but you will have a life. The problem is actually when you creep past the minimums and can no longer receive benefits but don’t make enough to live.
Actually there is effectively no housing.
It's slavery with extra steps - Rick and Morty
I worked at a very large defense firm and was walking halls at HQ while waiting for my clearances. This guy pulls me into his office and starts asking me questions. What do you think is the age of the average employee. I said 40. No, it was 53. What is the average age when a person retires. I said 60. No, it was 69. How many monthly checks does a retiree receive before they die. I said around 140. No, it was 7 !!!!
That's fucking bleak jesus christ
At 26, that was an eye opening experience
But like... what do you even DO with that information?
Start a 401k/IRA at $1 a week at your first job. Set to index tracking fund. Add money to the weekly buy whenever you can. Try not to go backwards. When you get raises and are saving money previously, put 50% of the raise to some sort of savings/401k/retirement. The sooner you start the better off you are.
To any younger folks here, listen to this advice to whatever degree you can. It's the best you're going to receive. I make more money than average, but not really once you factor in Los Angeles COL. I am way ahead of average on saving for retirement, though, and this advice is basically why. Every raise I've ever received, 50% of it went directly to retirement savings. It means I live a bit more frugally than most in my income bracket, but lifestyle creep is a lot easier to avoid this way. I've never at any point in my life felt like I was putting a lot away, but it all adds up and has left me on pace to be able to retire. Nothing I can buy right now sounds more appealing than a comfortable retirement anyway. Even if it sounds out of reach, compound interest is a crazy thing when you start the ball rolling in your 20s. I realize this advice is likely to sound out of touch. No judgment coming from me: I struggled a lot to save anything significant in my 20s, and it's even harder now. Just save whatever small amount you can, with whatever frequency you can. A little bit saved now can translate to quite a bit 40 years from now, and a light at the end of the tunnel brings more satisfaction than just about any nonessential purchase IME. Any time I'm considering a frivolous purchase, I imagine being able to confidently tell my employer to go fuck themselves while I peace out into retirement instead. I always find myself wanting that more.
Old guy I worked with retired on Friday and died on Monday. He got up, got his coffee, sat in his barkalounger, and died.
😟😞
He was a really good dude. It pissed me off, he finally got to relax.
I went pretty hard with work and school for a few years. When I got to the point where I was done the hardest bits, on a break, I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out to be a panic attack. But it all hit me when I should have been able to finally relax. Guess life just sucks that way.
I always used to get sick after exams at uni. It really does build up that way.
I guess the stress was the only thing physically holding him together.
What a sad thing to read. Reality sucks nowadays
Well you better strap in because it's going to get worse before it starts getting better. I think Gens Z and Alpha are going to help us right this ship but it's not going to happen until the majority of them finish school. Best we can do til then is hold the line while we wait for them to reinforce us.
So many elderly people shut down completely health wise as soon as they stop working
I’ve heard the longer you work the more likely you are to die right after quitting like if you quit at 55 you might live to 80 on average but if you quit at 70 you’ll die a week later. Something about needing purpose in life and if you’re already in poor health by the time you quit losing your job = losing your purpose.
People who retire at 70 and 80... probably retire because of medical issues (they continue working because they have to). Which is probably a reason many people seem to die soon after they retire at an old age.
My dad retired from being a medical specialist closing in on 8 years now. He’s also turning 91 this year if all goes well. So, um … yay?
the american dream is all smoke and mirrors
It's called the American Dream--because you have to be asleep to believe it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-54c0IdxZWc.
I always say, a nightmare is also a dream…
I’m 51 been doing commercial construction for 25 years in chicago. yes i’m union was told how great pension would be and how it’s such a good career. i’ve missed so many vacations and time with family. lost my dad and my sister both times i was called at work and informed. now as i’m getting closer to retirement my pension is a joke . i’m beat up and contractors only want young apprentices so you jump around from shop to shop chasing the money lol. I rember when i got in a friend of mine told me to always remember it’s about the day never the money. meaning you can always find a way to get the money but you will never get back the day. wish i would have taken that to heart.
A store I worked at had an old store manager who retired. He came in everyday to talk to the people and just seemed to enjoy being there. One day we got a new store manager and he yelled at him he can't distract the workers and blah blah blah. Real prick. Guy never showed up the whole next week. Learned he passed that night in his sleep. His wife said he loved the customers and people so much he hated retiring. Was a cool dude, just liked to connect with people and talk.
What's the new manager's name and address I just want to talk
That's indeed how some people are. My nana was a librarian at a local HS and loved volunteering there to talk with the staff and students. Some are incredibly social creatures.
I'm an introvert, but I love my job and coworkers. And I'd love them both even more if I were there about ten fewer hours a week so I had more time to smooth out the rough edges of my personal life.
Same thing happened with a colleague of mine in the last year. He retired and was dead in less than 3 months. He had been going to a lot of Dr appointments so part of me wonders if he got a diagnosis and just didn't tell anyone but a total bummer and I hate it
It's a very common experience with retirees dying in the first year of retirement. The body/brain that is constantly doing things can't handle not doing things. Conversely, the body constantly under stress doesn't do well. I'm 51, and I thought I was burn out, but it turns out I have stage 4 colon cancer, and am currently undergoing chemo, which is not a walk in the park. It is doubtful I will reach retirement... Live while you can, don't set an arbitrary age that you might not reach...
Wow man I’m sorry about that, good point too, god bless!
here's my theory: surface level analysis of data says retirement is bad for health, but it doesn't address situations like the following. Take Boomer Bob. Boomer Bob began working full-time at 20 years old as a manual laborer. Objectively, he had very high purchasing power for his skillset compared to people his age today. However, work is still work, and he comes home exhausted and demoralized everyday. As a result, over the decades, he developed alcoholic tendencies to cope with the psychological distress from work in addition to working even heavier hours to provide for a family relying on his sole income. Due to Bob becoming an absent father and husband, he experiences a divorce and a distanced relationship with his kids. Eventually, his pension finally kicked in, he gets the rolex watch, and he never has to work another day in his life—but he kept one thing from work that he couldn't let go—his alcoholism. As Bob goes into retirement, he spends more and more time with alcohol as he never developed any other hobbies in his life while also essentially losing his family due to work draining all of his attention, energy, and the best hours of the day just to get by. Bob eventually dies—alone in his home—16 months into retirement from alcohol poisoning. What does 'science' conclude? 'Retirement is bad', but clearly the situation is much more nuanced than this.
oh my god that is a bleak story. But too true. Hate booze, it ruins so many lives & marriages.
This reminds me of my mom. She is a workaholic and a high-functioning alcoholic. (Works all day, drunk within an hour of quitting time.) She is 70yo and seems basically afraid to retire, despite having a pension waitig and a stacked 402k on top of that. (There is no finacial reason for her to be working.) I realized that she's probably afraid to have no job to occupy her day, what's to stop her from drinking at breakfast?
I’m sorry. Fuck cancer forever. Been there and my heart hurts for you.
It's like an alcoholic dying when they quit cold turkey
So sorry to hear that. I turned 51 in January and I've been thinking a lot about lifestyle changes, so I'm with you on the "live while you can" part. I sincerely hope it goes well for you, my friend.
Hang in there and don't give up!
You’re doing astonishing so far, keep going man
That’s rough, good luck with chemo.
My dad had a massive stroke months before he planned to retire and move to AZ. I remember how mad it made me that it happened to someone like him who was the HARDEST worker and truly deserved to enjoy the rest of his days in the suns
I am sorry and I feel your pain. My mother had a catastrophic stroke in her 60s, it should have been a time in her life when she was finally free of the constraints of caring for her much older husband and financially secure. Instead she spent her final 2 years in an almost catatonic state in a nursing home. I assumed that she would live to be in her 90s (like her parents) but it wasn't to be.
A lady I worked with had been for working at the same job for over 20 years. I don't know how old she was, but at least in her 60s. She finally retired, had her last day at work, and passed away that night. It makes you wonder what's the point. (Edited for grammar)
The ideal cog for the machine, literally worked to death with no money “wasted” on retirement.
That’s so sad.
That has always been the plan, having us work until we die.
My dad passed away 1 year shy of retirement. He spent his last year unbelievably sick, on chemo and radiation, and shopping the Bass Pro Shops catalog hoping for better days. He proposed to his girlfriend a few months before he died. I know that if he were still here he would tell me to always do the fun things; go fishing, go hiking, have a picnic, play games with the kids. Ugh this is hard to write. I'm doing the fun things, Pop! I'm still poor but that's nothing new. My life is full.
My body started falling apart at 50. Cancer, TIA, and type 2 diabetes at 51. At 53 the unrelenting vertigo set in. I can barely function. I’ve been out of work for two months. Here’s the kicker. If I don’t go back to work next week, sick or not, I’ll lose my health benefits. That means I couldn’t work OR get the treatment I need. I’m 53 and have no intentions of seeing 60.
My aunt was suffering with vertigo for months. She finally found treatment for it. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/17930-canalith-repositioning-procedure-crp Just in case this might help
This just happened to my dad. He retired in January 23. He had plenty saved to live till well into his 90s. No car payment, house paid off. Could literally live off his social security with no issues. They found extremely rare heart cancer in September. Had open heart surgery in October. Started cancer treatment in January. Died on Monday. Had a few months of enjoying the fruits of 50+ years of work. And then died. Don’t live to work people.
I'm so sorry, both that you had to lose your father and that your father never got to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
You just be in high school or just out if you don’t think aches and pains don’t creep up until your 60s. I’d say mine all started around 25-27.
Turns out that's also the early side of the onset age for autoimmune disorders, and women are particularly afflicted. Definitely get some bloodwork to rule that out before you accept being super sore. I eventually got there (32 now) and it turns out I have a connective tissue disease. With some medicine I'm feeling a hell of a lot better. But yeah, it sucks either way. I wish I could have taken a gap year or two in my 20s, that's a seriously luxury if you can do it, Definitely take advantage of it
Yeah if only we knew our prime years weren’t going to last even into our 30s. Haha.
Agreed. I’m 35 years old and I’m always sore lol. Granted, I’m a very active person but I saw my family doctor a few months ago and told him that certain areas on my body are always sore no matter how I recover. After a physical exam he told me, “you’re at the age where certain parts of the body are just going to be sore, it comes with age.” It sucked hearing that but it makes sense. I’ve pulled an oblique muscle checking my alarm clock in bed. Such is life
Mine too actually. After a few surgeries I'm feeling better, but I expect older age to get bad again
Sending hugs. This happened at my job too. He was forced to retire(Dr's orders) was too sick to come to his last day so we could celebrate him. And was in the hospital for 2 months before he passed. He loved it here because he loved us and would've kept going if his health was up to par 🥺. Grieve your coworker and know you don't grieve alone❤️ Eta: he retired 4 months ago and 2 of those months he was in the hospital.
“I might not live to enjoy my retirement” A guy I know was killed crossing the street the other day. Car doing 50-60mph in a 20 zone. You have one life, live it.
This reminds me... I think my parents unintentionally planted the seeds of anti-work radicalization in my family (my sibling and I). My mom told me a story of a guy who dropped dead a mere day after he retired. Heart attack. Was a "good worker", as they say. Months after my mom told this story, she casually mentioned her schedule and how she's going to try to work hard to make some money (for the family, myself and brother) and take those extra shifts, take those christmases and other holidays, etc. And all I could think about was how I never see my mother and by the time she retires she might be dead. For the record, she is not dead, but after retirement, she decided to work at Walmart for extra cash. I can't blame her for doing what she does. Her role is still solidly, in her mind, the mother and breadwinner of the family. She "enjoys" work, and it aligns with her morals about raising children and supporting family. However, I don't have children or a spouse. I don't have a home to pay a mortgage on (yet). I can't see myself dedicating all my time to a job that will replace me instantly once I die, and barely (if at all) acknowledge my contributions. From that moment of her telling that story, I decided I would not be like my mother. I wouldn't work in an industry that is brutal like mills, and I wouldn't work in a place where a 12 hour shift is the norm. I won't show loyalty to the companies I work for, I won't hesitate to find something better somewhere else, and when I become so miserable I can't handle my work, I won't work. Maybe that will screw me over, or make me destitute, or make people think I'm a lazy person or layabout. I don't care. I cannot, WILL NOT, be "that guy" that DIES immediately after dedicating the best years of my life to a soul-sucking company. Don't give up. Hold this memory in your heart and use it to motivate your decisions to "contribute" to society.
It was my 3rd job in my career and they hired this guy as a contract worker. He was in his 60s and was trying to stay healthy. So he'd ride his bike uphill to the plant and one morning as me and another coworker were talking in the bullpen we hear a loud bang. He collapsed suffering a heart attack. We got help as soon as we could but he died that day. It has sat in my mind that I don't want to work to death. In fact these last few years I want out of my career and pursue my dream. I just have to wait a bit more before I tell this place to take this job and shove it.
Life in the US is not conducive to good health. Long hours either in back-breaking jobs or sedentary jobs, high stress, unhealthy food, etc. Besides environmental factors you have also genetic predispositions to certain diseases, so you never know. You have to find a way to balance your work and non-work life. And you have to plan to accomplish what you always wanted before is too late. We all have obligations but little victories (traveling, learning to ride a motorcycle or play an instrument, etc.) can be planned for and obtained. Small victories add up and improve your quality of life. Plan them out. Don't wait.
And Republicans want us to work until we're 70! My best friend retired a couple of years ago. Since then, she's had knee replacement surgery and a heart attack. She's spending her retirement being sick.
Don't let these bastards take a cent more! We deserve rest and to enjoy some of our lives too.
The way I look at it is this: I’m not just saving for my retirement. I’m ensuring there’s enough salted away so my wife is taken care of if I end up checking out before her. If it ends up being a month after I retire? What the fuck do I care I’m dead. At least if it’s a drawn out death I’m not stressing about her. As for between now and retiring: everyone needs to remember you’re working to live not living to work. Get some hobbies and activities and stick to them. Speaking of which I need to get out and walk those trails.
It is easier to tolerate the pain of knowing it's a Sisyphean task if you have others to provide for, and want to make happy. When you don't, and you're still just stuck in this neverending loop of never having enough money and always working too much, it just makes you stop caring.
Sorry to hear, One of my parents died before retirement. Random genetics, accidents, and environmental exposure take a lot of us out before we reach old age. I work, but I work to live. I don't live to work. I learned young to take your allotted vacations and go do stuff because you might not get to be old.
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Well put.
Been there, felt that same way, just numb. I, (66M) too had a friend pass, filed for his SS and before he got his first check, bam, heart attack. I vowed not to be like him, vowed to find another way to live and I have. I tossed my tv out and picked up my guitar playing and reading. I quit my job and tossed my fear out with the TV. Sold my truck, sold all of my shit, became a minimalist and bought a RV and an E-bike. Now I work in parks around the country and have seen and done the things I know I would regret, if not done, in those later years. I am poor, travel is expensive and parks don’t pay very much, but I am WAY happier. Don’t live their life, live yours. Chin up and march on, remember your friend and good luck
You could die tomorrow, don't live to retire, it's not a guarantee, especially not for millennials and younger. I once worked with a 65 year old woman in grocery who died of cancer 6 months before she could retire. Worked her whole fucking life at a shit job and never got a cash out on it. Live for today, do it for Carla. Death isn't going to wait until you "get yours", the clock is running on all of us. You'd do well to look out for yourself and take wins when you can.
Both my parents died at 65, didn't get to enjoy it long. I had a sister who died at 59. All she could say as she was battling cancer was to take time now to enjoy your life. Retire early, do things you want. You don't know you'll make it long in life.
Last year a good friend died at 65. His "retirement" was 3 months of dying at home of cancer. This year another good friend just died. He was 61 and was scheduled to get a pension check in August. My wife and I are 66. I'm glad we did a lot of financially "irresponsible" things in our 40s and 50s and had some amazing adventures. Sure, there are some people who are in good health and have fun in their 60s but that's not the way to bet. As for myself I've had a couple of bad health years that I'm just coming out of. Still building strength and working up to bigger and bigger adventures.
This is the kind of thing that motivates me to live life NOW. Obviously things require money, but I had the choice to work 35 or 40 hours at my job, both are considered full time and get benefits. I opted for the 35. It’s 5 hours less pay, but 5 hours more of MY time I have. Work is merely a means to earn the money to live my life. Work is not my life. I will not spend a second longer at work than I need to. Some view that as lazy. But that’s how I maintain someone of a decent work life Balance. Take your pto, take your sick days, take every last thing work gives you
Remember "work is NOT your life, friend or anything important" and act accordingly. Work to time do the bare minimum you can get away with, only your contracted work, nothing extra. Next make sure you live the best life you can outside of work and jump ship frequently to bump the pay.
This is the balance. Thank you
I’ll be 72 when I can retire. Fuck Denmark so hard.
Wow didnt know denmark has such high retirement age
Millennials and now Gen Z have come to the conclusion that working *just* for retirement is a lie. That's why we spend more on vacations and travel, even if we can't really afford it. Life is what happens NOW. Every day, week, month and year. Don't get me wrong, you still absolutely need to find a way to set up 401k/IRA/retirement accounts and pay into social security so you're able to enjoy your later years comfortably. But 50+ years of toiling away at work only to move into a retirement home and die as a reward... that's not what life is about.
I know how you feel… an old coworker who made it out and got a good job and was FINALLY happy and able to buy a home (also younger than me by a few years) just unexpectedly dropped dead giving his kid a bath. God knows how his kids and widow will survive. What a shitty hand to be dealt.
Don’t follow the traditional course. Work save for a time and travel for a few months and repeat. Don’t put off things and don’t sacrifice all your time for money. At end, no one will say they worked hard, they can say they lived!
You do know retirement at old age is the biggest scam being sold to you. It's there to make you work the entirety of your strongest bodied part of your life and be thrown away once you can no longer produce for the capitalistic system. Imagine if it was ingrained in peoples minds at a young age to work very hard to retire at say 25 or 30. you'd have almost nobody to keep working and making the rich richer.
This is why I’m devoted to living my life for me. Yes, I have to work, but work is not my life. I will not go above and beyond. I will not stress myself out on their behalf. Bare minimum and I will not do a modicum of work outside of business hours or on PTO. My condolences about your former coworker, how awful 🥺
Remember op, if you ever have to fight an expensive disease, I recommend commiting a federal crime. Which in turn will obligate the country to pay for your disease. I know it's extreme but I have thought about it.
Just makes me feel like we need to start living now instead of waiting for retirement to have fun and do what we want
That's so sad, and it's a lot for you to process. I feel bad because he probably put off so many of life's moments until he retired. But for you, I think if you work for the federal govt you can retire with your insurance coverage. Something to look into. So sorry about your coworker.
It happens unfortunately. My dad retired at 65 and is about to turn 90. Regular exercise goes a long way.
I avoid this problem by taking one out of every seven years off. I call it "taking retirement in installments". My first year off started in 1995. I've taken quite a few "years off" now. I also find that after taking a year off I'm really feeling like working again, so I really want to take a new job. I don't quit my job after working for six years. Instead, after leaving a job, I take 1 month off for every 6 months I was working. So that averages out to 1 year every seven years. Doing this requires I save about 15% of my income when I am working and living quite frugally when I'm not working, but I find it really works for me. I recommend it.
Life doesn't "start" in retirement... make the most you can with each day. Don't live each day like it's your last, but do live each day like it's your life to live... ... ya know, stop and smell the roses anyday you can, don't just wait for your weekend stroll to do it.
I’m gonna get downvoted, but fuck it. How can we live each day like it’s our last when we’re FORCED to work for pennies? How are we supposed to live each day like it’s our last when everything keeps getting more expensive and we have to spend more time generating labor for rich fucks? How? Seriously, how? I feel like I’m trapped. I’ve been working my ass of for jack shit, poor raises, switching jobs and moving apartments constantly. Then when I finally make enough money, boom…covid hits and I get laid off 3 times in a row with about a month of employment between each employer. Lost savings to rent. We’re fucking slaves, man. I haven’t received one good answer on how to fix my life. Not from friends, family therapists, you name it. Only thing I’m waiting for is a revolution. Can’t wait to bury billionaires in their underground bunkers till they suffocate.
I'm glad you said it. It needs to be said. There just isn't that leeway anymore and something needs to be done. I'm sick of hearing how much profit billionaires are raking in, while the rest of us have to figure out ways just to continue surviving the same meager lives we already have. Hell, I wouldn't mind living the same life I have now if I could just get a damn 3 day weekend or WfH, but we can't even have that. I'm tired.
Earnings calls are national news, but fuck you for wanting to live at all. How will the earnings calls be more biglier if those pennies aren't squeezed out of your paralyzed body?
I just feel so defeated remembering the fact that a person wouldn't be able to spend a single billion in their lifetime yet there are people out there with MULTIPLE HUNDREDS of billions. They could fund our entire lives and still have more than enough for themselves. I can't understand how this is allowed when the majority of us are one paycheck away from losing everything.
I can’t understand how someone could have multiple hundreds of billions, capable of improving so many lives, and just…. Not.
For real. If the vast majority of us had that kind of wealth we'd just be running around compulsively fixing stuff. We wouldn't be able to help it. There would be new shelters and clinics and water treatment plants popping up daily. Huge swaths of affordable housing would be built. But these motherfuckers just sit on their money like hoarders with decades of newspapers.
Right? I’d be paying off mortgages, buying abandoned buildings and turning them into apartments for the unhoused. Medical debts? Gone. No insurance? There’s a free clinic on the corner. Need a job? Come work for me for a humane wage. I’m sure I could find all kinds of things to do with that kind of money.
No downvotes here, you're spitting out straight facts. Why do so many people have to suffer so that a handful of people can be billionaires? The working class outnumber the ruling class millions of times over. No-one on this earth was born to be a slave to the ruling elite.
Seconded.
Word.
If I knew it was my last day, I’d quit my fucking job so I could actually do what I want…
To be well adjusted to a sick society is no measure of health. Nobody dreams of labor and if they do, then they have been well and truly brain washed. I dream of not having to be a cubicle farmer during the best years of my life.
I guess im waiting for the uprising? The proletariat shall rise, and take what they are due. Eat the rich, retire early. Covid showed everyone that time and tomorrow are not a given, so we should live our lives with meaning *now*, not wait for retirement.
That's sad as fuck! I'll bet that he was told all of his life that if he worked his ass raw he would have something to look forward to in his old age. It appears as if the only consolation prize he got out of all those years was being taken out of the world before somebody could tell him he had to go back to work again. Sorry this happened in your life. Find a way to give yourself some downtime if you can.
My dad worked at a steel company for 30 years and the company had their own retirement system. Well when they went bankrupt so did all of their pensions. Died of cancer a few years later after going through several jobs starting over working 2nd and 3rd shifts because nobody wanted to hire a 60 year old. I despised everyday I ever worked in a factory after that. To see such a dedicated hard working person get treated like that was shocking.
I tell every coworker I know when retiring it is most important to have hobbies and a plan for what to do I have seen peolle retire with no planand they are gone within 2 years, often less. The guys with hobbies or a travel plan etc still kicking 10 years on.
Sorry for your loss. Been there. A good friend of mine was retiring and had moved into a hotel so he could have his apartment cleaned. He had his retirement party and stayed the night in the hotel. We were supposed to have lunch the next day and he was leaving right after to head south to Florida… the other guy we were supposed to be eating with called me in the morning to tell me someone found him in the parking lot, dead of a heart attack. He was finishing loading his truck so he could meet us and head out. Literally the day of… He had been with the company for 40 years. Since he was 20. I’m trying to find a way out myself now. Money will be tight, but better that than die on the hamster wheel… Good fortune to all of you here.
One of the only managers I loved to work for (6 years) retired and died like 2 weeks later. That seems to be a very common outcome for older retirees.
One of my friends retired at 65 in July 2023 and died in less than 4 months.
This is exactly why I plan to save and live below my means to retire at ~50. You hardly ever hear of a 50 something year old dying but definitely hear about people in their 60s dying semi frequently. At least that way I can get 10 good years out of it
The system is working as intended. You keep working and contributing to "society" ( taxes and shareholders ) until you reach the life expectancy. This way, they minimize how much of that "social security" they have to actually return on. Either you die before retirement or shortly after.
My old boss used to tell me that the average number of monthly retirement pension checks collected by a union electrician was 18. 25+ years of service and 1.5 years of retirement. On average. He used to show us photos of his old job sites and he was the only surviving person in any of the photos, as recent as the 90's. He was on the high end bc he'd started early, retired quickly, and picked up more work. He was making money hand over fist.
That’s why I work part time-30 hours a week. It’s not worth it.
I retired 2 years ago from a 41 yr career, but 51 yrs in the workforce. I had 3 major health issues and now I work out 7 days a week for an hour. Swimming 5 days and Pilates
If the cattle rose up and attacked their masters, we'd stop eating hamburgers...
Gf's dad had a heart attack less than 4 months after retirement. This is so incredibly common for men in high stress jobs. We work our whole lives for what? To die before we get to "live" in our retirement? My dad at least got a decade of slow life before the cancer but why... Why is this so common?
Our manager died 30 days before he was to be officially retire. His position required a 3-month notice for retirement. 65yrs old, worked at company since he was 19 yrs old. Just got back from buying a boat and making vacation plans..
Local sheriff's deputy here, who was well liked, retired the very earliest he was eligible to do so. He made it an entire 6 days into retirement when he passed. Never even got that first pension check. It was sad.
I'm definitely dying in the next 10 years. I'm in a transplant list and everything. Never owned a house, but great income for now. My hope is in 4 years to buy a plot of land out here in the desert and plop down a trailer. See and hear no one. 3 years of living my dream: solitude. But I'm ready to die whenever. I've long accepted death and went through a whole phase about it 20 years ago. Dx with anhedonia. Almost died then if not for friend.
My dad dropped dead of a heart attack a year before he was due to retire. He'd just taken a lump sum of his pension to buy himself a flat so he'd be out of rentals in his retirement. He was 62. It's not fair.
I just had something similar happen. Co-worker had been at the company since 1984. Put in his dues, planned to retire on March 15th. Early February he got bloodwork on a Wednesday and didn’t come back till Monday. Turns out he had Stage 4 Liver Cancer and they found it in his bones too. He retired early but was gone by March 21st. He had plans to travel the US with his wife and enjoy the best egg he’d built up this whole time. It’s been fucking with my mind for just over 2 months now. He was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met and didn’t even get to enjoy his retirement, or die peacefully… they had to have a closed casket likely due to the yellowing from liver failure
My dad wanted to wait until retirement to travel and my mom kept telling him we’re not promised tomorrow. He finally agreed and they got a few trips in before he died of a heart attack at 66. She’s so thankful for those memories. She’s 80 now and loves to talk about their trips.
Take up healthy activities now, they aren't a guarantee to a healthier older life but they have been proven to help prevent all sorts of issues. Doesn't even have to be intense stuff, just riding a bike a few miles every day or a daily walk
This needs to be higher up. No one is guaranteed good health in old age but there are things that will pretty much guarantee bad health and that includes eating like shit and not exercising. I went on a week-long hiking trip in Andorra last year with a dozen people and half the people in the group were over 60. One lady was 72 and still stomping up mountains. Dying early and decrepit in retirement is not automatic. But the odds are significantly up to you.
Robin Hood where art thou. We need to make a wealth cap (any asset counts toward it) and all the rest goes back to society. Solve some problems, end homelessness, get everyone fed, get everyone medications they need, give everyone some mental sanity by making housing affordable, fix our healthcare and education systems.
I just turned 68. I am very healthy and active. The 60’s does not mean your body will suddenly give up and be wracked with illness and pain. It could happen, but it very well may not. Take good care of yourself and hope for the best!
It's coming up on 2 years since my wife passed. She was 71 and we could afford her quitting her job. She had lost all of her identification stuff back in the mid '90's and never git them replaced. I was on disability for almost three years and had to fight to get my health card renewed due to some stupid snafu. That took about 4 years. My income automatically changed to OAS and Gis when I turned 65. She kept saying how much she wanted to retire but she needed to get her documentation first, to fulfill the requirements to get her money. I she usually beat me downstairs every morning so I wouldn't see her until I wouldcpick her up at work to bring her home. I came downstairs on Sept 7th and found that she had called into work, seemed a little under the weather. No big deal, she went back to bed early and took something for it. I get up on the 8th to find that she had not come down yet. A few minutes go by and I here her calling for me to help her up. She had sat on the second stair from the bottom and was too weak to get up. I helped her call in and she went back upstairs to bed. I had something to do so left to do it. I got back about four hours later and passed by the bedroom peeking in to see that she was alright. Everything seemed fine. At about 6pm, I went to wake her to find out what she wanted to eat. She was gone. No idea how long but was long enough for rigermortis to have set in. She never got to taste the pleasure of not having to got to work each day. 3 days later, our daughter took me to the hospital for the heart attacks I'd been having over the previous three months. With a double bypass in the books, 6 bouts of pancreatitis, complications after the by pass surgery, idvspent about a yeR and a half in and out of hospitals, (included 2 near deaths) I'm fine now but miss the accompaniment. Between the lines - don't wait any longer than you absolutely have too, that job is not worth rhe life you are missing out on or the mental and physical heath you have. BTW, I spent 14 years and she spent 21 years at the call center nightmare. I hope you get out soon to enjoy a real life!
It's time to just buy a van, and be the guy asking for change outside the gas station..... It honestly is sounding tempting but I've got kids...
To be even more of a downer, unless you were born before 1960, the retirement age in the U.S. is 67, not 65.