I feel like the real problem is tying one's purpose to employment. If you can't find value in your life without someone telling you what to do you should take some time off work and reflect deeply on that.
You don't have to sit at home in retirement. You can go out and be involved in any number of communities - volunteer, join local government, go do fundraising for a cause you care about. The biggest difference there is that if you're not enjoying it you can just leave and not worry about how you're paying rent.
I certainly feel a lot better than where I was latterly. Would have preferred some projects that got a bit sidetracked for various reasons. Overall, pretty happy not having a full-time job. As I clean some things up though, definitely looking forward to having a more scheduled (if part-time) plan.
Can work for money or not, but if you are and your employer creates unacceptable or undesirable conditions you can immediately say Fuck You and just go do something else without worrying about covering the necessities of life.
Nah. That's not how it works. I could retire, but choose to keep working. The idea that you can simply step out is based on the idea that you don't need work.cbut in my case I need it for its social aspects and to stay motivated to do things. I still have the same issues as other people where in the mornings I just want to stay in bed. But I still go to work. Because I know it's ultimately a better choice.
It means you get to choose what to work on, instead of being forced to do work you don’t want to do to keep a roof over your head and food on the table.
sorry if this comes across the wrong way, but you don't have to be retired. there's plenty of purposeful things you can find to give your life meaning. Given that you don't need to be paid, there are even more opportunities that could benefit from your expertise that you've built up over your career or careers.
Different people make different choices on how to spend their money. Some spend their money on cigarettes, or sports season tickets, or modifications to cars, or collections of things. Some give most of their spare money to their church or a charity. Some send money off to relatives. Some travel.
Hotels wherever you are probably aren't $100 a night.
If you have a mortgage below $1000 you have something that almost no one in a western nation will ever see again. Congratulations, but your anecdote is irrelevant to basically everyone.
The current 30 year fixed mortgage rate is about 6.3%. It should probably be higher. A $1000 payment would mean a loan for about $160000 - significantly less if property taxes and insurance are included in that mortgage payment. There are very few places in the world with a significant number of available jobs where most people can buy a house for that.
Let's look through the midwest and throw a dart at Akron, OH. You're within commuting distance of Cleveland, you've got a university and an airport, there are probably jobs.
Property taxes are 1.8%. Home insurance is hard to estimate but let's pretend $1500/yr. Average home sale price is around $137K. That puts you closer to $1200/mo, and most places are far worse.
If I had a few million in assets I'd be retired