Retiring early is great. I’ve been writing about the FIRE movement since I first published this post in 2009. But what do retirees age 65-75 do that’s so great compared the the rest of us?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics & USNWR comes out with an interesting survey that seeks to find out what retirees age 65 to 75 do all day compared to the working and younger population. Apparently, not much more!
The BLS said retirees age 65-76 do more of the following: sleep, leisure sports, TV, and household activities and less work (duh) accounts for the biggest differences, a whopping 3 hrs!
In other words, whether you’re working or not, your life doesn’t change much except for the fact you don’t have to set the alarm clock anymore, and you get to watch almost 2 hours more of “Lost” and “24”! Got to love statistics. This average retirement sounds very boring, but then again by definition, average is boring!
In my opinion, the most desirable benefit of retirement is freedom of choice. To be able to do whatever you want, whenever you want sounds priceless to me. I look at my parents lifestyle’s and I think, not bad! Cruise around the world visiting places like Cairo and Istanbul, while being able to visit their children along the way.
My father started a private business out of fun, rather than need. And my mother gets to focus on her readings about health and various teachings rather than slave away at job she didn’t love entirely.
I’m happy for them, especially for my mother, who I hoped for the past 5 years of her working career that she’d retire sooner. Below are the Bureau’s findings.
How Seniors Age 65 to 74 Spend Their Day in Hours
(Results for the total population age 15 and older are in parenthesis.)
Sleep & personal care 9.51 (9.39)
Eating and drinking 1.46 (1.23)
Household activities 2.27 (1.73)
Purchasing goods and services 0.92 (0.77)
Caring for household members 0.09 (0.53)
Caring for nonhousehold members 0.31 (0.23)
Work 1.23 (3.73)
Education 0.02 (0.47)
Civic and Religious activities 0.54 (0.33)
Leisure and sports 7.12 (5.18)
Watching TV 3.96 (2.55)
Sports and exercise 0.29 (0.27)
Socializing 0.62 (0.54)
Reading 0.77 (0.32)
Relaxing/thinking 0.41 (0.27)
Leisure computer use 0.35 (0.31)
Telephone calls, mail, and e-mail 0.25 (0.21)
Other activities 0.29 (0.20)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008.
Readers, if you knew you could retire by the end of this year, how would you feel and what would you do? I’d probably continue working for several more years just because I’d be so excited I didn’t have to!
You can sign up for my free newsletter here. I’ve been retired since 2012 and have enjoyed my time away from work. Writing on Financial Samurai for over 12 years has been a great pleasure.
In fact, for those of you thinking about retiring, the best time to retire may be under a Democratic Presidency.
Related:
What Is The Ideal Age To Retire?
How To Build Passive Income And Retire Early
Top Financial Products To Help You Retire Earlier
Regards,
Sam
This is really help me.
Thanks for the great article
.-= Rynax´s last blog ..Personal Finance Tip: 5 Ways To Make Finances Easier =-.
thanks !! very helpful post!
I just discovered your blog and am enjoying working my way through your posts.
I’m in my mid-forties and retired for a year and a half now. It’s true that you don’t gain as much time as you think you will because of increased time spent sleeping, eating, and on household activities (and for some, TV.) But for me, the enjoyment of these “mundane” things is far greater now. When I worked, I didn’t enjoy sleeping because I didn’t sleep very well, or long enough. Without the alarm to wake me up, I sleep as long as I need to, stay up as late as I want, and enjoy much better sleep. I used to grab food on the run or eat at my desk. Now eating is about actually enjoying my food, my environment, and the company of my friends and family.
TV is not one of those areas where my time has increased. When I worked, that’s all I had energy for, eating dinner at the coffee table and watching some mindless TV before bed. Now I very rarely watch TV, usually only to watch a DVD movie–I don’t have time to sit and watch TV–too many other things I’d rather do (and have the mind-share for now!)
And while I don’t really love the housework and yard work, to make the budget work, I’m willing to have these small “part-time jobs” eat into my fee time in order to generally do whatever I want whenever I want to.
Retired Syd! Really good to hear from you. That’s awesome you are able to be retired in your mid-40’s. Doing those little “part-time jobs” must be fun now. Seems like you are having a good amount of fun being retired.
Are there times though that you long for that itch to get back into the work force? This is something I wonder, but have no way of answering until I’m right there with you. Part of my “hedge” to counteract that itch, or potential regret of retiring early is to actually start Financial Samurai with my friend. I figure if I’m bored, I can always just write, and I absolutely love interacting with readers.
Was there a moment at some particular age where you said “I want to retire X years from now”? Did you have a monetary target? I’d love to hear your insights.
Best,
RB
I’m retired now and live in at the Resort at Squaw Creek in Lake Tahoe for half the year. The other half, my wife and I go explore different countries and live it up.
At the Resort, there is golf, hiking, swimming during the summer and during the winter, it is ski-in/ski-out at the biggest mountain in Tahoe!
We love retired living.
Rgds,
RSC
My #1 goal would be to find something I loved to do, and then work on it forever!
RB, I think you're totally right about about continuing to work even if your able to retire. If I was able to retire by the end of this year I would probably look for a fun job that I'd love going to everyday. Maybe I'd ref hockey games or work in a bike shop.
A lot of people think I'm nuts because I'm 24 and always talk about retirement. I guess in my mind retirement is more like financial freedom that would enable me to do whatever I want and not have to worry about the financial ramifications.
-Gen Y Investor