What will you do in your old age?

I know most of us here in Misc are like 35+ years old. So our parents are old and probably retired. Do you know what your parents do all day? Would their lives drive you crazy if you were living them?

What will you do 20+ years in the future when you are retired and the children are moved out on their own? We're the first generation with video games and RPGs as part of our culture -- will you sit around playing games all day?

Do you think you'll actually end up doing all day what you think you'd love to end up doing all day?

Bullgrit

Doing nothing would kill me quickly. I'm slowly building a bunch of crafting skills, that I'll use in my retirement. I've built rigs to coil and cut wire into rings for chainmailing, and have been making costume grade chainmail armour for the last few years. A few of my pieces are now in the hands of several indie actors. One appeared in the last season of "Standard Action."

Along the way I started making simple chainmail jewellery using the same equipment that I'd made to produce rings for armour, and supplemented by bits and bobs I buy from my wire stock supplier. A run of good luck resulted in a whole bunch of sales; enough that my rigs and all the wire stock that I currently have was paid for.

To build the rigs took some basic carpentry skills so I acquired some basic woodworking tools, and have been slowly adding to them. I've got a slowly progressing project to build a stand to hold my 2 bows and modest collection of reproduction medieval cutlery.

The whole costuming thing made me want to produce various accessories, like hats, boots, and archery quivers so I'm trying to pick up some basic leather working skills.

And then there's bow making. I started out making bows with PVC plumbing pipe and oak, which shoot surprisingly well. i wrapped one of them in deerskin to make it look like a more authentic Mongol style horsebow, so that a friend could use it for CosPlay. I'd like to move into making bows from fibreglass and carbon fibre, but that's in the future.

I suspect that my retirement will be more busy than my working life.

I am an electrician, so I will probably do that for just about forever. That and fishing, biking, hiking, horseback riding, kayaking, swimming, oh, and fishing.

My dad's a general contractor. He just laughs when the subject of retirement comes up. Not a happy laugh.

My mom (they're divorced) goes on trips, volunteers one or two places, goes to my sister's a lot to help with the grandkids, helps my brother with his kids, and complains that she doesn't have any time to get stuff done.

I'm transitioning back to some kind of regular work schedule after grad school and a few years of under-employment. I still have more projects to be done. I started making wooden utensils and writing (again), and go out a lot more with friends. Not concerned about retirement.

My mother and step-father both live retired in a small rented house in a rural area. My step-father is tending his garden, my mother goes shopping twice a week and like do bake. They're still quite mobile at age 79 and 74 and don't suffer any serious health issues, so their style of living may last for some more years.

Me, I don't make any real preparations for my retirement in 12.5 years. As a 36-years diabetic I prefer living for the present as long as I'm able to. My only real plan/wish/dream ist to travel to the Mediterranean Sea by bicycle, spending my 67th birthday at a cafe on the Côte d'Azur.

Everything else will have to wait until I know my health situation at the time. Although being a fan of hobbies without strict physical requirements (roleplaying, reading, writing, ...) probably helps.

Bullgrit said:

Do you know what your parents do all day?

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They seem to divide their time between looking after grandkids (my neices and nephews) and heading down to England to help look after their parents.

Would their lives drive you crazy if you were living them?

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Probably.

What will you do 20+ years in the future when you are retired and the children are moved out on their own?

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Retirement is a tricky one, since my private pension officially kicks in at 60, while my wife is considerably younger and her pension won't kick in until 66 (or older if the government changes it again in the interim). Realistically, we'll probably resolve that by my working as long as I reasonably can and her stopping as soon as possible, but there will still likely be a good number of years when I'm retired and she's still working. (And that also means that by the time I do retire, my health may well not be holding up too well - I'm lucky enough to still have three grandparents living (and the fourth died at 95), but in all cases their health noticably deteriorated in their mid-seventies.)

Do you think you'll actually end up doing all day what you think you'd love to end up doing all day?

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Unlikely. I'm actually extremely lucky in that I mostly enjoy my job, and I spend my evenings playing RPGs or teaching kids to play the bagpipes. So I mostly do what I love now. Retirement would obviously bring the job to an end, while age will inevitably bring the piping to an end at some point. So I'm not at all sure that represents an improvement.

That said, maybe I'll finally find the time to write that novel I've always wanted to get around to. It would probably be hideously over-written dross, but since it would be more about the process than the result I don't think that's a problem.

Well, I am retiring August 1st. 33 years at the same place and just 55, lucky I was that I am grandfathered in their pension plan, I am leaving with 70% of my salary, a good 401K and health care.

At this time I am putting in for a passport. Want to plan to travel, just go somewhere. First place is here in the US, want to see the Grand Canyon, thinking about a seven day slow river trip package and then the Zion National Park. After that, Ireland. Would like to see some of the undergrounds of the world, travel the rivers.

whats this retirement thing you keep talking about?

As my parents didn't get to 60, I expect to work until I die.

My mom is on disability and she has been since early 50 something

My step dad died at 59 - rough lifestyle

My bio-dad was deported to another country so never met him.

My mother went back to university in her 50s, got a Master's degree and a research position, and a few years later got her PhD. Now she spends her time writing articles and giving lectures at conferences -- living the dream that she couldn't live before because she was raising children -- and editing academic papers for an increasingly wide circle of clients. My dad spends his time gardening and brushing up his photography skills. In between they drive around buying the best ingredients they can, which my mother then turns into some truly wonderful lunches and dinners. Not a bad life.

To me, retirement is still too far away to think about seriously. I put a load of cash into a couple of funds every month, and I hope that when the time comes it will be enough. I'll have a state pension (which will definitely not be enough to live on), but I'm earning quite a lot now so I'm planning ahead. But I'm self-employed, so I can keep working past retirement age, at least part-time.

Hopefully the wife and I will move somewhere warmer and sunnier than Northwest Europe; perhaps back to the Caribbean, or maybe Spain. Then build my dream kitchen and spend my time there.