@Standingstones
I’ve always wondered about those people who are forced to work well into their 70s and beyond. I have known many people who worked at the phone company and never put a nickel aside for retirement. They finally got to 65 and had to continue working because Social Security money alone wouldn’t cut it.
@nivek
I don't know if 'forced' is the right word to cover it, perhaps in some cases, but I think for many its due to poor choices in life and mainly not living within their means...I would rather not get that new car I've always wanted and keep my debt low or have none at all so I have my own money to live on when I'm 65 years old give or take...Some people cannot save money to save their lives, I know someone like that, give him 100 dollars it's gone the next day, give him 500 dollars it's gone the next day...He's 42 years old now, where do you think he might be financially when he reaches 65?...I'm not condemning anyone, just an observation...
Not a simple or one size fits all answer.
A good friend of mine died suddenly at 56 and his wife has zero clue about anything - money, insurance, bills, nothing. This is one of those cases where being in a labor union for decades paid off - she received some benefits that helped a lot. How people live like that is beyond me.
My aunt has built a decent consulting business that's still cooking despite the virus. She's 84 and has a lunatic drive to keep going despite health issues, etc. She's staving off the inevitable by throwing herself into her job - and it seems to be working despite the fact she drives us to distraction in the process. Technology issues. Oooooof. But she's in the game.
A friend just retired at 73 with a small business and I was kind of shocked to find out how he was going to wrap things up. His plan is a little shaky and he knows it - surprising considering that he's ordinarily pretty saavy. He's one who just sort of wound up a bit past retirement age and doesn't quite know what to do with himself. I sort of expected him to have things all laid out. I guess not. You never know.
I work with a lovely guy who already retired once and has now put in another 20+. Highly intelligent, well spoken with a memory for detail that Spock would be impressed by. But a train wreck with money and little if any life outside his job. He has an opportunity move away with a woman he knows and "be happy" but he can't quite do it. He has a situation. As his friend I've offered to torch his f*****g house for him more than once - take the insurance and split. He'll never do it and I seriously doubt if he'll ever stop working. He'll just stop one day. Hopefully not in the middle of my shift.
I agree totally with
@nivek and take exactly the same approach. Live within your means, keep debt nonexistent and know exactly what the hell you've got. My Mom was a black hole for money and I guess she instilled the correct values in me, just not as she might've expected. I can pull the plug in 2029 and that isn't really all that far away.
We get a whole lot from our jobs. Plug ins, extensions, what have you. Sometimes you wrap your whole identity up in it. Not everyone does that, but certainly enough do and at some point it affects your thinking about retirement. My bubble popped about three years ago and I've had a real mental hajj in the process of trying to reorient myself. A very good friend joined the party with me two years ago and unlike me he was blindsided. Fell from a greater height and hit harder with no advance preparation. With this damned virus he's not having a particularly successful time of it reorienting himself. Me neither but my situation's much different than his. he never saw it coming because he was too wrapped up in his own nonsense and found out the image he had of himself as indispensable was inaccurate.
If between now and 2029 I get involved in something that I truly have a passion for I would have no problem working as long as I could at it. Failing that I'll be perfectly happy to just yank that ejection handle. I doubt anybody's last words were ever 'please let me work another day'