How Long Do You Plan On Working?

[YankeeFan]

The demise of 89-year-old Helen Thomas got me thinking.

At what age would you like to retire? Are you the type that wants to retire the moment you think you have enough to survive on comfortable, or will they have to drag you off of the field.

Me? I'd retire tomorrow if I could afford it.

But my dad is 76 and still works 6 days a week. He's a lawyer & still loves what he does. He can afford to retire, but he'd rather work. It keeps him busy & mentally stimulated.

He doesn't play golf or have a lot of hobbies, and while he's taken more vacations in recent years to travel with my mom and to spend time with the grandkids, I don't see him retiring any time soon.

The multi-millionaires that could retire in luxury are the ones who really confuse me when they continue to work, but then I guess they wouldn't have made millions with out that kind of drive.

 

[MTM]

I'm with you Yankee fan, I'd retire today if I could afford it. But I wouldn't stop working. I'd string games for my paper and pick and choose when I want to work.

Realistically, I'm 50 and have no idea when I'll retire. It's at least 10 years before my son is out of college, so I don't see retiring before then.

My father-in-law retired at 54 with two government pensions, but there's no way I'll be able to afford not working in four years.

 

[RickStain]

The second I have the money to retire.

So ... Never?

 

[Brian]

Anyone under the age of 35 fell on the floor laughing reading this, which then turned into curling up into a ball on the floor crying.

Ah, the future. It's gonna suck.

As for the hypothetical that retirement will be an option for anyone in the future...I think 55 would be the perfect time to hang it up. Still young enough to enjoy retirement, but old enough to not regret getting out of the game too quickly.

 

[Buck]

Hopefully at 60. I'll do it sooner if I can, and it certainly wouldn't surprise me if I had to work longer.
Sixty doesn't get full Social Security pay out, but I'll do it if I can afford to.

 

[expendable]

I'm going to fall over dead at this same desk around 85 at the rate I'm going.

 

[canucklehead]

I'm determined to retire at 55, which is in 10 years. Then again, the way this business is working my employer may come and tell me I'm retiring before then, like it or not.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Depends on if and when I can find another job.

In a perfect world, as soon as I win the lottery.

 

[DanOregon]

I don't think many who work in journalism will get that choice. It will be made by someone else. All you need to do is look around a newsroom.

 

[Ace]

Yeah. I'll shoot for the end of the week. Anything past that is gravy.

 

[Boom_70]

I am going to leave the office at 6pm today

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I don't.

I'm just going to walk the earth. Like Kane in Kung Fu.

Walk around, meet people. Get into adventures.

 

[Beef03]

Kind of banking on that massive heart attack at age 35 to take me out.

In reality I will end up working myself into the grave, even if it is not in this industry. Retirement is mandatory right now at my shop at 65, Don't think I will make it that far here, will be happy to make it past February. Even if I do make it that far I will probably still have to work somewhere barring winning the lottery.

 

[Boom_70]

With new health care plan I am able to pursue my dream of making pottery.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If I could do it all over again, I'd take some easy government job that they were handing out to anyone who wanted one in the mid 1990s, do that for 30 years and retire at 55. Hell, I'd be almost halfway home.

 

[poindexter]

If I could do it all over again, I'd take some easy government job that they were handing out to anyone who wanted one in the mid 1990s, do that for 30 years and retire at 55. Hell, I'd be almost halfway home.

Yeah, I feel the same way. Government jobs turned out to be the Goldman Sachs for Joe Six Pack.

Those sweet-ass retirement packages are fantastic, as long as the whole pyramid scheme holds out.

 

[DanOregon]

Last I heard, they were still hiring:

 

[mustangj17]

Anyone under the age of 35 fell on the floor laughing reading this, which then turned into curling up into a ball on the floor crying.

Ah, the future. It's gonna suck.

As for the hypothetical that retirement will be an option for anyone in the future...I think 55 would be the perfect time to hang it up. Still young enough to enjoy retirement, but old enough to not regret getting out of the game too quickly.

Exactly. I'm 24 and I will never be able to retire.

 

[Football_Bat]

I can see a point in about 20-25 years where the government will say you've got until x-date to apply for Social Security, and after that you're SOL. There will be a rush for the exits at that point.

I'm afraid there won't be any SS left by that time. Better get your 401K's in shape, because that may be all you have.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

If I could do it all over again, I'd take some easy government job that they were handing out to anyone who wanted one in the mid 1990s, do that for 30 years and retire at 55. Hell, I'd be almost halfway home.

Yeah, I have nightmares about that regularly. In 1993 when I got out of the Navy that would have been the way to go. I, on the other hand, thought it would be a good idea to go to college and get a journalism degree so I could make less than a janitor in the county school system.

Oddly enough, my cousin has one of those plush government jobs that pays him about 2.5 times what I make with benefits and days off that make me cry, but I'll retire before him because he is as fiscally sound as a Chinese peso.