After seeing thoughts on this bounce around many of my favorite blogs including Get Rich Slowly, Frugal Dad and Girl with the Red Balloon on retirement, I figured I should contribute. While I am just starting out in my career, I understand the importance of saving early for retirement and not running out of cash and all of that jazz. Aside from that, I had not really thought about what I want in retirement, which led me to the thought that if I don’t know what I want I don’t know if i’ll be saving enough or not enough for retirement.
The way that I see it, I can make my retirement much easier by doing many of the things that I’m working towards right now: being debt free, living a frugal lifestyle, keeping my burden on the environment low, staying fit and eating healthy. Doing these things can/will keep me relatively stress free, healthy and financially fit into my golden years. Mainly, what I’d like is not to have to worry too much about money or my personal/mental health. Hopefully, I wont be worrying about money ever again. Apart from not wanting to worry about any of the aforementioned things, I wasn’t really sure (and still am not completely) what I do want from retirement.
While at the airport I bought a book (shame on me for not going to the library beforehand, I know) called twelve by twelve. The author takes up residence in a cabin of the aforementioned dimensions for a few months during the summer, and writes about his transformations. He gives up his car and starts biking, buys less food because he grows his own, and doesn’t really work because he does not need the income. He spends time meditating, reading and the like. In his words, he has more time to just “be”.
While reading the parts where he was “be”-ing, I couldn’t help but think to myself that I wouldn’t be able to stand it, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to stand it for the amount of time he was putting into it daily. That lead me to my next thought about retirement: I don’t want to/won’t sit around and do nothing. JD mentions that no one in his family retires, but some of the people on his side stopped working an managed a farm in their later years. This sounds like something much more my speed. I’d get to farm/ranch and be a steward of the land, still have things to do, but still be able to relax and not do much if I desired. One person I know does a similar thing. He worked for years in the city and now that he’s older and retired, he manages a ranch.
I’d also like to be able to assist family members in need. Be it college savings or financial help for younger kids or grandkids, or something of the like. One of the main things that I’d like to do is locate (and obtain) a vacation place for the entire family to gather and enjoy each others company once or twice a year, as well as enjoy on their own. Spending time with the people that I enjoy is important to me, and right now, it’s one of the things I’m sacrificing to get out of debt. While I can deal with it now, It’s definitely going to chafe in the long term.
Another thing that I’m trying to make a theme of the blog that I’d continue to do while retired is fixing/doing things myself. I’ve always enjoyed building things for myself that are functional (I’m not good enough to make them look good), and doing handyman type stuff in general. Not having to work full time would allow me more time to do projects like this, and ensure that they are finished completely and done right, something I occasionally have a problem with these days due to time constraints. Along with enjoying the work, I’d also be saving money as I’d only need to purchase parts for the tasks that I’m doing, instead of pay the labor as well.
That being said, even with doing all of these things, I don’t think I could completely give up working. I’ve always wanted to start my own company doing something of some sort, and I figure that I’ll have the experience, knowledge and the connections to do it. While I’d still be “retired” and possibly taking disbursement from a 401k or a pension or whatever, I’d still like to have a business.
Looking over this, many of the things that I’ve listed here are relatively cheap, and some have the potential to be income generators. While this isn’t a difinitive guide to my retirement, it is very nebulous version of my goals that can help me plan and save for the future, whatever it may ential.
- What do you want your retirement to look like?
- Are there certain things retiree’s do now that you want or don’t want?
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Just found your blog via the guest post your wrote on Punch Debt in the Face. Loved your thoughts on retirement and thought I should say hi.
When I retire I want to be healthy. So I got to take good care of my body now. And I’d like to be able to work when I want to, volunteer when I want to and travel when I want too. So I have to be safe and save up so I can afford to do those things then. And I don’t want to play golf, unless it’s putt-putt!
Sometimes when I think about things I’d like to do when I retire (have my own business, go hiking in Nepal, etc.), I wonder if those are really goals I should be building to now. Who knows what my priorities will be when it’s time to stop working? I bet, and especially with kids in the picture, they’ll be entirely different than what I’m picturing today.
@ Jenna – Thanks for stopping by. It’s always good to have a fellow debt puncher in the midst. I think your first goal of being healthy in retirement is an important and often overlooked one. What good is retirement if you are unable to get around well enough to enjoy it, or it’s constantly broken up by surgeries on knees, elbows and the like? It sounds like many people are moving away from a “traditional” Sit around and do nothing retirement to something that’s more part time retired, work/volunteer some and do nothing some of the time. I’m not sure how old you are, but I have a feeling retirement is trending this direction.
@ Pop. You make a good point there. It obviously wont be easy to take children hiking in nepal, and it won’t be easy hiking if you’re old because, well, you’ll be old and your knees, lungs wont be as good as they are now. Would you prolong retirement to do some of your “retirement” goals now?
@ Jeff – I guess it’s important to me because I’ve had health problems in the past so I want to be always recovered and mobile in the future. I’m in the sub-30 year old category and would agree with that trending statement. Prove yourself in the corporate world, chase you passion and hope they collide. Then work and retirement never really seem like “work” or at least I hope it ends up that way.
@ Jenna – I definately agree that health is the one thing worth protecting the most. It’s something you cant really get back easily if you lose it. Retirement could turn into people working for 5 years then taking 1 or 2 off. Who knows, but its something to think about.
@Jeff – Now that is an interesting idea for future retirement trends! I’d have for my year off to be spend rehabing a knee replacement or something!
Retirement to me is being on a tropical island in the Pacific, doing something online for 3 hours a day, surfing for 2, eating an awesome lunch on the beach, playing tennis in the afternoon, get a massage, then a light dinner and a movie!
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