NoahAg said:
I'm 46 and have plenty of hobbies/interests to keep me busy for a lifetime if I retired today. I'll never understand people whose whole identity is wrapped up in their career and don't know what to do in retirement.
I was going to say exactly the same thing.
I am coming to the end of my career, and I no longer have the enthusiasm I once had to climb the ladder or to learn new tech. There's got to be more to life than TPS reports, daily status calls, knowledge shares, requirements sessions and all that. There was a longish period I was between jobs due to a layoff and I was sad at first but changed my attitude and then began to love it. Gym in the morning, trashing H1Bs and CEOs in the afternoon, reading, investing, gardening, I didn't have time to do everything I wanted to do even without a corporate job.
Now I have a job but it afford me a lot of time to do other things as it is much below my capability level but I am basically the type that never gets bored. I can always find something to do to keep occupied and don't need anyone else. Once you achieve this status, life is golden.
I was having the same discussion last night with my sister in law's husband. He had called me, he is a couple years older and I told him I was thinking of retirement in a few years as some of my classmates had retired. His reply was you will get bored in a week or two. No. Maybe true for him as other than watching movies, he has no other hobbies.
Luckily, financially I can retire today if I wanted to. However I find it difficult mentally to end that chapter. So I will go on for some more years and then pull the cord.
