I've spent the last few days deer hunting with several fellow hunters who are much older than me. They come from all different backgrounds. It makes for different conversations. Most of them are in their 60's and 70's.

Some in their 60's are still working. I listened to the conversations as they wandered from subject to subject during lunch and breakfast.

A typical theme during conversations they were having about working and retirement was: "What am I going to do when I retire?"

I thought about that as I heard something similar a few different times.

It seems that they just keep working because they don't know what else to do. Or they don't know what they want to do. Or they're afraid of the unknown. The unknown being that time after working is over.

It's very intriguing to me.

It makes me think that identifying that "something" to do after work is a necessity.

I think it needs to be HUGE!

I also think that something real estate people have done differently than most working folks is identifying that "something".

And going off on a little philosophy here, I think that the sooner in life we can figure out that "something" to do after working, the sooner we can quit. Possibly by motivation alone. Itll help us make the decisions to move the way we need to.

My "something" has always been to not have a job.

I never wanted one. Period.

For what it's worth. Just a few thoughts I had listening to others talk about that kind of stuff.

I've heard guys say this too. Most of the ones I've heard say it really mean - "with no money to be able to afford to do anything, what am I going to do with all of the time I will have."

Working and moving around keeps the legs strong and they help the heart to pump. Sitting is not good. They say on tv that sitting is the new smoking.

I feel so much better when I get up and do something at one of the buildings. I do sell stuff on Ebay but make sure I get up and move around.

Also, I had cataract surgery but the capsule with the lens in it is getting cloudy so they want to make a hole there with a laser. Four bad things can happen. I found out that if I stop drinking diet drink, my vision gets better. I know that a cataract is made out of sorbitol which is a sugar by product. So cut down on sugar and don't drink anything that has those sugar free chemicals in it.

Cavemen said the same thing.

NE,

You and I will always be doing something!

And MANY here on this board.

I retired at age 41 and have been loving life since! Dabbling and buying when and where I want. When the financial pressure is off it's like a fun hobby.

Statistics show that men die 18 months after retirement when they don't have engaging activities.

I run into a lot of guys who have said the same. I think the problem is they have never developed any outside interests. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said a man should have two hobbies and two studies going all through his life. They should all be different than his work. And he should be able to change them frequently to find which might suit him better.

Somehow I learned that early in life and if I was dropped off at a library to look up something, often I never got to it because I would go on tangents of many other subjects. My parents at a certain time brought me the entire volumes of the world book encyclopedia. I almost wore them out. I think just about every day I would take one off the shelf just to look through it. I think that gave me a thirst for many subjects. I now do the same somewhat on the Internet. I do really well in the game of trivial pursuit. Does it help me make money? I don't know, maybe it does maybe it doesn't but it makes me incredibly interested in life,.. my wife says most mornings I get up and jump out of bed like a seven-year-old on Christmas morning. Lotta guys in my early life that I worked with,... if we went to a company party only could talk about work, the people at work, what they knew from work.

Many years ago I went to one of those who real estate seminars and the guru asked people to write down if they had all the money they wanted, and the education they wanted what they do? I watched how so many people struggled with that question and most said "travel" like that was the answer to happiness. While I've traveled a lot,.. it's nice but you get tired of that too after a while. The older couple next to me at that time was really struggled with the question,..the husband was saying well what you want to do?(They already had travel down) so he kept repeating,Uh, uh, you want to go fishing? I had a feeling she was in the fishing person by looking at her but that was it they couldn't think of anything to do. Was kind of sad.

I always had way too many somethings to do. Full time job, raising a child, side job when I was younger, rental management as I got invested. Sewing, quilting, refinish furniture, crochet, read, remodel, garden. I was so glad to retire to slow down and enjoy some of that. I also starting thinking about retiring and setting it up at age 20, knowing the government job would allow me to retire at 55. When young I figured I would go work somewhere else for 10 or more years, but I was tired of my career.

Now I seem to have less time to do all those things, but I take it at a leisurely pace, a cup of tea and some internet reading before heading out of the house in the morning. I took on the project of remodeling a smaller house for my parents to move into, helping nephew build his new house, getting daughter settled in her house. (because I have house knowledge!) With child on her own, my husband has become a pilot, so we fly when the weather permits (he still works). Today I will be picking up leaves at one of the rentals. But it is all on my time frame. Got off the blood pressure meds and some bothersome physical issues have resolved. I get to have breakfast or lunch with friends once in a while. A glass of wine at the end of the day, and no frantic evenings trying to do more.

So the key is to have other things besides work, all through your life, not just because you retire. At work, so many people did nothing but make dinner and watch TV when they got home. They could not understand all my other interests.

I agree with keeping busy. I feel bad about those who never developed a second or third way to generate money after they retire. (Long live passive income). If course, it was never discussed in school. I'm school, it was always get a job, work till retirement, then live off social security and your savings. Sadly, that's what many still believe will happen. Then they are surprised when they find inflation has wasted away their dreams. They then experience the results of poor planning.

Keeping my mind and body fit and agile are always top of the list. Too many folks amass a pile of cash, but by the time they're 60 they can't get out of bed without taking a cocktail of pills.

Get to and maintain a healthy weight. That "healthy at any weight" movement is B.S. Know what your real healthy weight is--and BMI too in case you're a muscly type. Get to that weight. No excuses. Approach it like a business. Set goals, don't fall for scams/fads, develop strategies, implement, enjoy the results. Your doctor can help.

Stay mentally alert. Read. Test yourself solving new kinds of problems. I never enjoyed Geometry & Algebra so much as AFTER I didn't have to study it for a grade. I use formulas I create in my custom spreadsheets, always looking for new tools to simplify and expand my deal analysis capability.

I'm already semi-retired. Yes, I have a day job, but I work out of my basement office at home. Corner office too...window and everything. Work at my own pace, within reason. Talk to my supervisor once every 2 weeks for project updates. See the wife for lunch every day. Dress in jeans and a t-shirt or hoodie today (it's 31 degrees this morning). Commute is a 15 second walk upstairs. Coffee here is good: I make it myself...fresh ground beans! It's won't be a shock to my system when things go 100% retired.

Funny, I was talking with my wife last night about how much we've averaged on hired out maintenance costs over the last 2 years. If I "retired" from my day job and just did the maintenance myself vs. hiring it out, plus added in the money we're bringing home today as profit...It would be more than the salary from my day job. We've "almost" hit the magic point. I don't want to be a maintenance man, but if I showed up to work one day and there was a pink slip in my email box, I could seamlessly transition to full-time maintenance and life would go on. Not my goal to become our maintenance man--I like my day job in IT..it's challenging and fun solving problems--but I have the OPTION. How many Americans can say that?

OPTIONS = FREEDOM!

Ive done some thinking on this issue as im getting to that stage in life.

I have a couple of fellow dietitians at the VA I worked at getting ready to retire at the end of this year.

And yes they do worry about what they will do with their time after they retire.

The funny part is one is already big into crafts and should have to trouble filling her time doing this.

I've offered both that they can help me with the maintenance on the rentals. Funny; both have declined!

I have a couple of fellow dietitians at the VA I worked at getting ready to retire at the end of this year.

And yes they do worry about what they will do with their time after they retire.

The funny part is one is already big into crafts and should have to trouble filling her time doing this.

I've offered both that they can help me with the maintenance on the rentals. Funny; both have declined!

I have been retired for nearly a month now....

Square dance 4 nights a week. Built a loom and started weaving. Plans to build another 7 foot triangle loom. Still have lots of fleece to process from last spring's shearing.

Re-joined the gym. Agree that physical fitness is the key to youth. Helping my spinning group plan the annual Spin-In. More active in doing good works through my church. I spent Wednesday helping a widow (without any family) move out of her house, today we help her move into a mobile home in a senior park. I like belonging to a church that actually helps people.

I plan on doing lots of landscaping work on the farm this spring. I want it to look gorgeous to help my AirBnB in the guest house on the farm. Profits from the AirBnB are earmarked for a special purpose.

We still have 2 apartment units to remodel when my elderly tenants pass on or move to a nursing home.

So, I think I am keeping busy enough...

I find it interesting, I'm leaving the day job this coming year after working at the same place for 33 years. While technically I'm retiring, I don't look at it that way, rather than the next chapter which is full-time LLing.

My business partner retired last year from his banking job. Fairly quickly he took a part-time job at a title company. He'd been on the bank side of it so many times that it was fairly easy for him to shift into that position.

In any case, it had little to do with money and more to do with needing something to do, I think. So, his "hobby" is a part-time job. :)

- John...

I have zero interest in retiring from LL, its an easy job I can do until I die.

But on the construction side? Yeah that is a royal PITA I can see hanging that up at some point.

A lot of people don't have much in the way of hobbies, other than working 40-60 hours a week and watching TV in their spare time. I see a lot of retired people sit in their garages and smoke and drink all day. They also don't have a lot of money, "doing stuff" costs money.

I have a ton of hobbies, that I would just do instead of construction if I retired. Restore/buy/sell and tinker with old Mercedes on the side? Check. Crew/race/sail whatever/wherever sounds interesting? Check. Play with firearms, check. Tour battlefields in Europe and get really into the nitty gritty of various wars that catch my interest, check on that.

Volunteering would keep you busy NE at retirement

Think about how rewarding it would be to help out - REALLY