Early retirement sounds amazing, but it can take a toll on your mental health

[dixonge]

Early retirement sounds amazing, but it can take a toll on your mental health

Scared, worried, anxious, full of self-doubt, on top of the normal retirement issues of depression, binge-drinking and loneliness. deteriorating health. It's amazing any of us are still alive! Geeze...

 

[NW-Bound]

I saw the same article yesterday.

Yep, retirement is not for everyone, whether early or late.

Working is not a crime, so I will not knock it.

 

[Dawg52]

Twelve years in and no mental health issues. That's what my shrink tells me anyway.

 

[DenverGuy42]

I think that if you don't know yourself well enough to know retiring is the right choice for you - you shouldn't retire.

But please don't tell those of us who know themselves well enough to know that retiring is the right way to go - that we'll go crazy with mental issues, die earlier, have no one in our lives, miss working (really? that one is crazy to me)...

A little over four years in and wouldn't change my decision at all.

 

[RobbieB]

No doubts, no regrets, busy with home improvements, being retired gave me time to find a mate so not lonely. Drinking less than when I was working and having more fun.

I guess I'm good at retirement!

 

[DallasGuy]

The article uses a physician as an example. From the physicians I know, they have a hard time letting go of the prestige of being a doctor. I wonder if that plays a bigger part in the mental health of FIRE'ing for someone like that vs someone like me who was "just" a computer programmer. Sure, I could tell someone that I was a computer programmer but that profession doesn't carry the same panache as being a doctor or some other high prestige career. It was easy for me to leave my career behind because I no longer enjoyed it and my life wasn't as tied up in a title.

If you're a doctor and you FIRE'd and you disagree with me, please correct me.

 

[NW-Bound]

Twelve years in and no mental health issues. That's what my shrink tells me anyway.

The right amount of self-medication can help. For me, it's just a couple of bottles of Cognac and Bombay Sapphire a year. Cheap non-prescription drug.

It could be an addiction carried over from the working years, when the medication helped to deal with the Dilbert environment.

 

[dixonge]

Every morning I drink coffee and read, then go walk through a 500-year-old colonial city at over 8000 feet of elevation. Back at the apartment, we have oatmeal for breakfast then go about our day. Food from the market as needed, some yoga, lunch. Then it's hobby time - never-ending sorting and organizing of photos, practice some jazz on the keyboard, do some more genealogy work, practice my Spanish.

At no point in my day do I suddenly long for a phone to ring requiring me to go help someone fix a computer or printer or copy machine...

 

[Pellice]

I've said before: we should really have a pinned thread in one of the forums which says: "Put your 'Fear FIRE' articles here." Do these writers only interview the 1% or the 5%? Now, it's different if you are really lacking in funds to support retirement. But among those who are reasonably secure - even in modest circumstances - I estimate 90% are MORE emotionally healthy than in pre-retirement.

Really, let's have a thread. It would keep these articles tidily organized, and we could see how many of them repeat the same language and recommendations. "create a detailed vision ...." (Most here have recommended to keep at least the 1st 6 months fairly loose - and, besides, I hate the 'create a vision' language, too much like the Kabuki theater stuff we did at work).

Enjoying yet another day with lovely weather, making a beef stew, getting ready to thin my winter garden and enjoy 1st thinnings of beets, spinach, and cress in a salad. I think of what I would be doing at w*rk right now and smile.

 

[Dtail]

2 of the best years of my life and some days just do nothing.

 

[Boose]

I would love a sticky for "Fear FIRE" articles. I enjoy them, in some perverse way.

 

[T-Minus]

Plenty of mental issues here. Trouble deciding whether to work out, take a nap, go out with friends, swim in the pool, plan another road trip, read a book, play my guitar, attend an art class, or make lunch. Man, I’m getting tired just thinking about all of it!

 

[Rianne]

DH transitioned into consulting, an LLC business from home. Some don't consider this RE, but he does. His life is 1000X better than at megacorp. He stays in touch with co workers that were true friends and is involved in the food science world he loves. He didn't go to college for 12 years to totally forget about his passion. The megacorp world/politics drove him out. Not the love of the science.

 

[travelover]

Working was what made me crazy.

 

[NW-Bound]

Working did not make me crazy. It was the coworkers.

 

[travelover]

Working did not make me crazy. It was the coworkers.

Cow-orkers were mostly fine at Mega, but upper management had some real gems.

 

[ziggy29]

This totally depends on knowing yourself and your situation. If you underestimate your need to "produce" or "feel useful" through work, yes, you may be miserable. Ditto if you overestimated your financial ability to call it quits.

 

[NW-Bound]

Cow-orkers were mostly fine at Mega, but upper management had some real gems.

Upper management was indeed awful. Lower and mid management would take the side of the workers in private, but dared not say anything. One succinctly described the situation: "Those who show they have a pair of b*lls will get castrated".

Workers are a mixed bag. Many spent more time watching and debating what others did or did not do, instead of minding their own work. Some competitive aspects may be good to maintain progress, but when does it cut into collaboration or teamwork? And then, some companies stressed it all on teamwork, not understanding that 100% collective effort without personal recognition proved to fail miserably in Communist countries.

I quit!

 

[oscar1]

@dixonge I’ll repeat my post from a similar thread on the ER forums: (How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Ernie J. Zelinski)

I can’t recommend this book enough. It focuses on the non-financial things in retirement that are key to you being happy. Very easy read with a few paper exercises you can do to inspire your retirement lifestyle:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Retire-Ha...s,170&sr=8-1