Why Wait For Retirement

[Durhampro]

That pretty much sums it up Papa!

[dalgirl]

You have the right idea - we are seeing the world now while we are in our early 50s - kids are grown, we have good jobs, vacation time, etc. Why wait until another 15 or 20 years to enjoy ourselves? Cruising has worked out well for us as we now know where we don't want to revisit and where we would like to vacation for a couple of months in one location - when we retire:D

[nbsjcruiser]

Interesting article on this subject

 

http://lifewise.canoe.ca/Work/2011/04/06/17947386.html

 

One small quote from the article is quite telling I think:

 

"According to a new report from Stats Canada, retirement isn't so rosy - it's fraught with health issues. Retirees over age 55 report more aches and pains, and less physical activity than those who continue working - 24% of full retirees report poor or fair health compared with the 11% partially retired and 5% who had returned to work from retirement.

 

Ban the notion and stay in motion, stresses Davies. Full retirement zaps your physical and emotional health, and creates a financial catastrophe for most."

[halos]

I agree there needs to be a balance....in those years prior to retirement, putting everything in savings and doing nothing fun isn't very smart (unless of course you started saving late and desperately need to catch up in order to retire at all).

 

Although working full time and having nice vacations isn't always feasible because working full time may allow you the money to cruise/vacation more often, but it won't allow you the TIME off. :(

Unless you have many weeks vacation that is.

 

Interesting article on this subject

 

 

 

http://lifewise.canoe.ca/Work/2011/04/06/17947386.html

 

 

 

One small quote from the article is quite telling I think:

 

 

 

"According to a new report from Stats Canada, retirement isn't so rosy - it's fraught with health issues. Retirees over age 55 report more aches and pains, and less physical activity than those who continue working - 24% of full retirees report poor or fair health compared with the 11% partially retired and 5% who had returned to work from retirement.

 

 

 

Ban the notion and stay in motion, stresses Davies. Full retirement zaps your physical and emotional health, and creates a financial catastrophe for most."

 

 

 

That may be true of a lot of people who identify themselves with their jobs.

 

People who have a full/whole life do not encounter those issues after retirement. If you have strong relationships and hobbies and interests outside your career, retirement is amazing. I know this from watching my grandparents. My Grandfater & Grandmother said their life truly began after he retired....they were like two lovebirds. It was a wonderful example that they set.

They were active every day when he stopped working.

[worldspan]

Yes, life is short. Enjoy it while you can. Just make sure you can afford it.

 

Hate to keep quoting Suze Orman, but some months backed she opened her show with "Have you heard that phrase life is short ? Well it is not short!" and she went on to remark how so many are living well into their 80s and 90s now. The average male can expect to live to the median age of 78 and female 82. Again that is median age, over 50% will live later than that.

 

No doubt there are many who pass on in their sixties and even fifties as has been cited in many threads here. But they are the exception rather than the rule. The whole "live for today" thing surely helped get the United States into the economic pickle it has been in the last few years.

 

Yes we love our cruises but as some have also posted make sure you truly have the money for them as 4774Papa says above!

 

Worldspan

[trivia nut]

Hi Michelle,

Sorry to hear about Paul's Dad...glad he had some fun cruising.

 

Saw your post on my Enchantment thread. So when's your next cruise?

Drive down to Baltimore (three hours), park at the great Baltimore terminal (best deal $15pd), and join us next January 28 on the beautiful Enchantment of the Seas. That would be awesome.

 

Tessa is now 18 months old and is such a peach cake. Bet Scotty is adorable and giving you lots of laughs. I remember reading that you had a scare with him on your last cruise...but the three of you need to get back to cruising. Would love to see you again and meet Scotty!

 

Take care (Hi from Bill),

PAT

[Budget Queen]

Like a lot of people our age...late fifties to early sixties...we dream of retirement and the things we will be able to do without a full time job to hold us back.

 

However, I recently read an article I find interesting. It said that a way to hold off retirement a little longer and therefore increase pension/SS amounts is to "semi retire". That being said, it did not mean not working full time. It meant making the most of your time off work via vacation days, etc.

 

One of the problems with retirement it seems is that many people have difficulty making the adjustment from full time work to no work at all. This article says that you keep working full time but instead of saving quite so much for retirement that you spend some of that money in these last years of work to go on nice trips, etc.

 

It makes sense to me in that we all never know how long we will be on this earth. Nothing is sadder than to hear about someone who retires, then passes away shortly thereafter.

 

I know this post is rather sad/happy but I wondered what others think about this. My husband and I just finished a 7 day on the Pearl to the Caribbean and are planning an Alaska trip for July. We both think that our coworkers will think "how do they do it" and really do not care what others think but we have worked all our lives and we feel we have earned it.

 

We do not have grandchildren yet but expect our first one in September. That may change our outlook on things but as for now our kids are married, educated and we just have ourselves to worry about.:p

 

I have always "lived for today". AND travel on average 12+++ weeks/per year, and have done at least 8 weeks for the past 20 years- every year. I still work full time, although I can now retire, I'm not. All the rest of my coworkers- over 100, seldom travel, with many on the "wait until I retire mode". I will speculate, they won't have the means, then either. :(

 

A long time ago, I set up my "vacation" fund, which I have direct deposited every paycheck. Works for me. :)

[4774Papa]

Hate to keep quoting Suze Orman, but some months backed she opened her show with "Have you heard that phrase life is short ? Well it is not short!" and she went on to remark how so many are living well into their 80s and 90s now. The average male can expect to live to the median age of 78 and female 82. Again that is median age, over 50% will live later than that.

 

No doubt there are many who pass on in their sixties and even fifties as has been cited in many threads here. But they are the exception rather than the rule. The whole "live for today" thing surely helped get the United States into the economic pickle it has been in the last few years.

 

Yes we love our cruises but as some have also posted make sure you truly have the money for them as 4774Papa says above!

 

Worldspan

 

I suppose it depends on where you are in life, but at 63, it seems that life has gone by fast. In my teens, it seemed that I would never turn 21. I still think people tend to get into their routines and before you know it, you are getting up there in age. I can probably count on 20-25 more years, but looking back 20 years, that was 1991 and that seems really close.

[Warm Breezes]

Hate to keep quoting Suze Orman, but some months backed she opened her show with "Have you heard that phrase life is short ? Well it is not short!" and she went on to remark how so many are living well into their 80s and 90s now. The average male can expect to live to the median age of 78 and female 82. Again that is median age, over 50% will live later than that.

 

No doubt there are many who pass on in their sixties and even fifties as has been cited in many threads here. But they are the exception rather than the rule. The whole "live for today" thing surely helped get the United States into the economic pickle it has been in the last few years.

 

Yes we love our cruises but as some have also posted make sure you truly have the money for them as 4774Papa says above!

 

Worldspan

 

We have been traveling every year since we were married (23 years now). It has been a priority for us to do so since it one of the things we really enjoy doing together and as a family.

 

I'll admit that earlier in our marriage Suze Orman would have probably told us don't do it, as our finances weren't nearly as secure as they are now and we had no savings. Once in a while we even went into a little credit card debt to do it. We had a mortgage, debt from furnishing our home, car loans, college loans, as we had kids (5 years into the marriage-we waited to finish college and get secure jobs) there were babysitter fees, dance classes, etc. Sometimes it was a struggle but we managed to never be late or miss any of our payments and we always took vacations.

 

Jump forward 23 years...our only debt is our mortgage which will be paid off in 10 years, we have money put away (and continue to put away) for rainy days, college funds (kids are 14 and 16), and retirement (18-21 years away yet).

 

Yet we continue to travel with at least one week + trip a year, plus as many long weekend trips as our schedule will allow us. Our trips no longer even putting a dent in our budget. As our incomes grew our expenses became lighter. We no longer have child care so that money goes towards college funds. We don't buy new cars every couple of years, we try to make them last 10+ years and DH does most of the maintenance on them. We are now in the mode for replacing things in our house as needed instead of buying everything new at once as we did when we first started out (we have lived in the same house for 20 years, DH built our addition and pole barn and maintains the house as needed). We learned how to live with in our means, put money away, and still find the funds to enjoy life now....

 

Like I said before, I almost died when DD was born at the age of 30...I will never pass up a chance to vacation with my family...life is short. I'm glad I never asked Suze Orman for her advice...she would have told us no...I would have missed out on so many family memories and enjoyment in my life for nothing. You can make it work if you make vacationing a priority over other things life has to offer like new cars, new houses, new TV's, high tech cell phones and computerized gadgets. It's all in where your priorities lie.