Why ER May Not Be Your Best Option

[Onward]

Every so often you read something that completely contradicts everything you have ever experienced or witnessed. But in the interest of diverse viewpoints ...

Why Early Retirement May Not Be Your Best Option - Yahoo! Finance

Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging says, "It may be the mental rigors, the social engagement, or even an aerobic component of work itself." Whatever the exact reason, getting out of bed each day to face the work day creates a healthier and happier you.

So that's the expression I used to see every day on the faces of all the commuters around me. It was health and happiness. Geez, I mistook it for something else.

 

[chris2008]

For certain we plan "getting out of bed each day to face the work day" as this clever guy wrote.

I think for DH and myself we will have enough "work" in ER to stay mentally in good shape by
- keeping our house, garden and other belongings in good condition
- taking care of our investments
- taking care of an aging parent
- planning the next trip
- planning and cooking a healthy and tasty diet
- working out regularly and keeping our bodys healty
- maintaining a busy social network with friends and family.

But this is work by our own choice, without commuting, without bosses, without colleagues pushing parts of their job on our desk.

At the end of the article the guy gets it: "The new retirement is no longer trading work for leisure, but trading work you no longer want to do for work you love to do at the rate you want to do it."

 

[rescueme]

"Steve Beck is cofounder of MarketRiders, an online investment advisory and management service helping Americans invest for retirement."

His investment advice didn't work, so he's telling people it's not his problem, so they should continue to w*rk until they drop?

BTW, invoking practices based on religion/science rather the intelligence and self-determination of man/woman is too much over the top for me (e.g. "the devil made me do it").

Worthless article, IMHO.

 

[growing_older]

Stanford's Center on Longevity discovered that maintaining the rigors of work actually keeps people functioning optimally

Does this mean the sedentary lifestyle, road rage, obesity, heart attacks and ulcers are all part of functioning optimally?

 

[Rambler]

Yeah, I guess it is all that happiness from work that makes it so hard to get up on work days. ...and it's that great health from work that makes my stomach churn and ache all the time.

 

[haha]

Something I have noticed is that people's default assumption about me now is that I have a job, no matter what time of day I encounter them. A few years prior I think their default assumption was that I was retired. So people seem to be holding on to jobs longer when they can.

As to contentment, not sure about myself. I have always sought time and place control, but many jobs offer at least some of that. I think a better job might have suited me more when I was younger than actual retirement, but we do definitely get lazy. Just like most of us would not work ourselves as hard physically as the football coach would work us, work of us will also not work ourselves as hard mentally.

Ha

 

[FIREd]

Since I retired, my BP has gone down, my bad cholesterol has gone down, my anxiety attacks have almost disappeared, my GI track has started functioning normally again and I sleep better. Yeah, that ER thingy is killin' me...

 

[JBmadera]

Since I retired, my BP has gone down, my bad cholesterol has gone down, my anxiety attacks have almost disappeared, my GI track has started functioning normally again and I sleep better. Yeah, that ER thingy is killin' me...

I'm guessing the same will be true for me....good bye meds.....

 

[GregLee]

... science, which shows that unused systems run down and go dormant, the results are clear: use it or lose it.

Taking this to refer to our bodies, I think it's true that the results are clear. But of course, it doesn't have to be work that keeps our systems tuned up; in fact, work doesn't work that well. Recreational exercise will do it, or just purposeless calisthenics. I've been spending an hour a day exercising since I retired, and it works great. Just an hour a day is not that much effort.

 

[flyfishnevada]

It only creates a healthy, happier you, if that's what you enjoy doing. I can't believe that working a crappy job, like my old one with the overbearing boss, politics, legislative tinkering, etc., etc, etc, would have made me happier than what I do now.

I love it when someone writes advice from a very narrow, personal perspective and then tries to apply it to the masses. These pinheads should be encouraging older workers to retire in this economy to open up jobs for younger unemployed workers if anything. If they spent half as much time preparing people for the lifestyle side of ER as opposed to the heavily hyped financial side, the problems discussed in the article would likely disappear.

As for not knowing what I'd miss at work until I ER'd, he's right. I now know I am missing the stress, anxiety, being told what to do all day, an hour commute, my micromanaging boss, inept management, lots of "do just enough to get by" coworkers, whining members the public, etc.

Once again, thanks for reminding me why I retired early and continue to stay that way.

 

[youbet]

I love it when someone writes advice from a very narrow, personal perspective and then tries to apply it to the masses.

.

Ahhhhh.......... Isn't that what we mostly do here? No wonder you're a happy board member!

 

[W2R]

Whatever the exact reason, getting out of bed each day to face the work day creates a healthier and happier you.

Anecdotal evidence to the contrary:

I have never had a happier time in my life than the fifteen months since my retirement. Period. None of my childhood was this happy. My teen years were awful. Adulthood before ER was much nicer but still nowhere near this good. That surprises me because I considered myself to be a very happy person as an adult, but ER ratcheted up my happiness level quite a bit. Fifteen months into ER and I still haven't stopped grinning.

Health? Well, I am healthier than when I was w*rking, that's for sure, although I have a long way to go. I am still getting older, but that's no surprise. Today we are off to the gym again in the middle of the day, to pursue improved physical fitness.

 

[Midpack]

At the end of the article the guy gets it: "The new retirement is no longer trading work for leisure, but trading work you no longer want to do for work you love to do at the rate you want to do it."

I think this is the key for me. I'm retiring end of May or Jun and I will take some time off. But I will look for work and when I find something I really want to do, I will whether it takes 3 months or 5 years to find such a job. I won't care about pay anymore and if my fun new job goes south, I won't hesitate to leave. Many different paths for all of us, all good. FI has always been the goal for me, not retiring.

And I already have my summer job lined up. I'll be racing sailboats (someone elses boat, let them bear the expense, i sold my boat) all summer for no pay, a dream job.

 

[East Texas]

Anecdotal evidence to the contrary:

I have never had a happier time in my life than the fifteen months since my retirement. Period. None of my childhood was this happy. My teen years were awful. Adulthood before ER was much nicer but still nowhere near this good. That surprises me because I considered myself to be a very happy person as an adult, but ER ratcheted up my happiness level quite a bit. Fifteen months into ER and I still haven't stopped grinning.

Health? Well, I am healthier than when I was w*rking, that's for sure, although I have a long way to go. I am still getting older, but that's no surprise. Today we are off to the gym again in the middle of the day, to pursue improved physical fitness.

It's been five years for me and I still can't quit grinning.

 

[powerplay]

It's been five years for me and I still can't quit grinning.

I just passed the 1 year mark and I agree on the grinning and am happy to hear that it continues.

 

[Retire2013]

I can't wait to start grinning with you all. Four more years to go!

 

[Alan]

I've just passed my 1 year ER anniversary and I'm still absolutely loving it. I've started volunteer work as a Tax Aide working 8:30 - 1pm, 2 days a week for this month and next, and it is nothing like "working for the man". It has interrupted my exercise schedule a little, but I ride my bike down the cyle trails to and from the library so even the journey is very pleasant.

As the article says, working on your own terms at something you enjoy is quite a different experience.

 

[freebird5825]

from the article..."When at work, 54 percent of respondents reported feeling "strong, creative, motivated, active, and positive." When away from work, a mere 18 percent noted these same positive emotions."

As the lady customer said to the waitress after Meg Ryan faked the big O in the diner in the movie "When Harry Met Sally"...
"I'll have what SHE's having."



I'll have 4 years of FIRE clicked off on April 1. I have never felt so alive and happy. Yes, I do occasionally get bored, but that's why laundry and dishes and gardening were invented for those periodic so-what-do-I-do-now moments.

 

[Alan]

Yesterday was my birthday and we had a $25 gift certificate for a restaurant at The Marriott hotel in the town center. It was a beautiful day so at 11:30 we walked into town, about an hour's walk, down the waterway to the hotel and had a lovely leisurely meal. We were well in view of the main entrance and as the business folks came walking in towing their overnight luggage it was great to think that those days were well and truly over.

The vast majority of my business trips in my last few years were to places where I was going to be making presentations, giving employee evaluations, or getting beat up by site management for the "failings" of the organization (those were the days that needed a double application of anti-perspirant ).

 

[Onward]

I could maybe believe that w*rk keeps you sharper, but it's the sharpness of a threatened animal fending off predators. I'll take a bit of dullness, thank you!

Coming up on one year of ER and still grinning in disbelief, exactly like this guy:

 

[flyfishnevada]

Ahhhhh.......... Isn't that what we mostly do here? No wonder you're a happy board member!

I suppose so, but no one deemed me an expert or publishes my work as such. Well, of course, I have deemed myself as an expert.

 

[Tigger]

So that's the expression I used to see every day on the faces of all the commuters around me. It was health and happiness. Geez, I mistook it for something else.

(screenshot from the movie "They Live")

 

[LightningDawg]

Five years and counting!
I have plenty of hobbies to keep me occupied. I will NOT miss work one bit. If I could afford to quit now, I would.

 

[traineeinvestor]

The studies (some more rigerous than others) seem to be all over the place in terms of whether early retirement is good or bad for you. Here's a sample:

1.Retirement, Health and Life Expectancy – Linking Retirement to Health and Life Expectancy This one concludes that people who retire at 55 suffer more health issues than people who retire a 60

2. Ephrem: This one concludes that people who retire early live longer. For some reason which I can't quite put my finger on, this intuitively sounds the most appealing

3. No link between early retirement and longer life And one that tends to sit on the fence.

None of these studies is conclusive (all the ones I have seen either lack control features or are somewhat inconclusive) and a lot will depend on what you make of it. Personally, I'd like to believe that retiring early is a good thing if you keep yourself mentally, physically and socially active. Alternatively, unless and until someone comes up with conclusive evidence that early retirement shortens life expectancy even in people who are happy, healthy and active I'm going with early retirement (hopefully early next year, but certainly no later than the end of 2013).

 

[Midpack]

(screenshot from the movie "They Live")

Excellent. Describes the culture in many developed countries, certainly for the USA. Somehow most people heed all the signs even though they are not literally there...