Retirement at 55 also means a massive financial cut. Some have to sit on the couch because going out is too expensive – voluntary work & co. is not for everyone.
Exactly, that is the important question many have to face in all its consequences. I have often heard that people want freedom/leisure but are hardly willing to pay a price for it; that simply doesn't exist.
I think there are many ways to shape one’s life then. I myself had and have it that way, but of course also with massive financial cuts. But freedom always has two sides, because if I don’t find a meaningful purpose in life, then I feel like I have nothing. Tips from outside like "get yourself a dog, watch the grandchildren or travel more" can sometimes fit well in individual cases, but often it doesn’t work out as one imagined beforehand. For me, that was very difficult, honestly, and it still is from time to time; people are simply very different, which is why there is no universal recommendation.
For me, it was/is the case that there must be something (work, hobby or similar) that gives me a purpose and doesn’t just kill time. There have been great experiences but also rather times of felt emptiness because you are no longer “needed” anywhere. I am firmly convinced that you cannot foresee this life phase because then you feel differently than you do right now. You can only decide for or against it and then see that you make the best of it for yourself.
Would I do it that way again? Yes and no. I miss my job now and then and am just as often glad that I no longer have to do it. As everywhere, there is no right or wrong, at least that is how I feel about it.
We know people who sold their house and, also for the man’s health reasons, both stopped working early and have to bridge some years until the first pension payment. Basically, I find this idea interesting but from our perspective, they cannot do anything with the freedom/leisure and now have constant stress because of his hobby, which she has to participate in since she has time now. You wonder why they stopped paid work and what the originally planned life design was.
I believe that in all these considerations, interpersonal relationships play the biggest role and how willing or able I am to reshape my life. I personally sometimes find it really hard but do I want to tell that to a working person? But retirement at (early) retirement is not per se a salvation, as some might think.
Anyone who VOLUNTARILY retires at 55 has planned ahead and/or has a good pension.
But it is of course not a life concept for everyone. You should just include it in your considerations. You can also do a side job that still allows you freedom.
That’s true. Or he/she is able to live with restrictions, sell the house/apartment and live completely differently. I know people who become part of another way of life. I know life designs like sand on the sea and not all cost more money, but they all have a price to pay.
I discussed this with my husband this morning and also directly asked him which problems we (as persons) would carry with us. We unanimously came to the conclusion that we would carry no problems with us.
There is the possibility that you might not see that so easily in your own bubble… just as a possibility. And if it’s only that you have a special need for peace (I, for example, do) or certain expectations of your environment which are apparently stronger than those of your current neighbors who are happy to live there, then you already have something personal that you do carry with you.
A doctor once told me about a study that early retirees have a shorter life expectancy. I found that statement funny, but today I think there might be some truth to it if the often hoped-for "salvation" does not occur because you take yourself along into retirement after all. You simply can’t get rid of yourself…