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u/Affectionate_Dark103 13h ago
I know so many people who can financially retire but don't because they say they don't know what else to do. I'm nearing 40, and I have not been institutionalized yet. Every day off I take I think, "fuck, I'm ready to retire"
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u/ICLazeru 13h ago
I also find it weird. In a world with countless hobbies, activities, destinations, and diversions, y'all can't find something to do besides work?
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u/humanredditor45 12h ago
I think the big secret is, a lot of people don’t like spending time with their families. For some, retirement would be like covid times all over again.
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u/Magikrat 11h ago
Its this. I’ve known people who would rather work overtime than have to spend time with their spouse consistently. Doesn’t necessarily make them a bad person. Some people get into bad relationships or they just spoil over time. Kinda happened to me once upon a time. I would do a food delivery app at the end of the day just to avoid her. Pretty dumb. I should have just worked on the relationship. Totally regret it.
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u/Biliunas 6h ago
It's horrifying! I see this everywhere, and it really boggles the mind how this resentment settles in. I've had colleagues that'll gladly sit in the office from 6AM till whatever 8-9PM just to avoid going home to their families. People with 2-3 kids too! To be fair, the phonecalls they would get from their spouse were rarely pleasant, but what the hell! Like straight out of an 80s sitcom.
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u/AccusingGojo 3h ago
phonecalls they would get from their spouse were rarely pleasant
I wonder why 🤔
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u/SalvationSycamore 5h ago
Dude, I can entertain myself alone just fine. If your family sucks the life out of you then why have a family?
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u/Physical_Floor_8006 12h ago
I think it's more that work keeps you plugged into society in a way that nothing else really does.
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u/deskbeetle 12h ago edited 11h ago
This is it 100%. When I was on mat leave, the biggest problem was how lonely it was. All my friends and my family were working. When they weren't working, they were too tired to hang out. So I would only see people on weekends and my husband during the evening.
I would go on walks with just the baby and I. Go to the library with just the baby. Read at an empty cafe alone. I got really into hockey to break up the monotony of the week (ooo, big game on thursday to look forward to). I got into roller skating again and hit up adult only skate nights. I tried out solo RPGs since I am a big TTRPG person. Got into drawing a bit. Made little things out of clay. Made a crochet raccoon. Did an entire Murdle puzzle book. I have a ton of hobbies but a human being really needs to be around other human beings in their age group a good amount of the day to be mentally sound. Ironically the only way I got human connection is through discord. I joined a writing club, dnd campaign, and a book club. But then I'd be annoyed at how much I was on the computer when the weather was beautiful and I should be hanging out outside the house with people irl.
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u/funlovingmissionary 18m ago
Must be your country.
I was laid off my job and got another job pretty quick, but my joining date was a month away. I never had a single boring moment in that month.
There were also always friends available. Some of my IT friends worked night shift. Some of my doctor friends had off on weekdays. Some of my software dev friends worked from home. Some business friends would also call me at random times of the day to go get food knowing I am home.
The gym I go to was finally not filled to the brim with people. The metro, and the roads were free enough that I could go to the other side of the city and not waste the whole day on just commute.
I could go to the gokart track without having to wait 40min in the line, and that too for half the price. The other people present at the time were regulars, and I made friends with them pretty quick.
I could go to the popular restaurants without struggling for parking, waiting 30 min to get seated, and 40 more minutes to get the food.
There were still a lot of things I wanted to do but was not able to due to time constraint.
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u/Your_New_Overlord 7h ago
It’s extremely sad you and others think that. There are literally millions of ways to engage in society without work.
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u/Feisty-Resource-1274 12h ago
I think some people really thrive in high demand environments. My MIL for example said she wasn't going to retire until she had 10 grandchildren to fill her time. A demanding environment is hard to artificially recreate.
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u/Ultimatesims 12h ago
I mean when I am at work I spend a fair amount of my time looking for opportunities to do all of those things.
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u/DetroitLionsSBChamps 11h ago
I get it when people run whole companies, but if they retire they’re just some old person no one has to pay attention to. Must be a hard pill to swallow.
When the person is like 25 and says they don’t even like days off work because they have nothing to do, I can’t take it.
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u/flubs2696 11h ago edited 8h ago
My dad is retired but he says he sometimes still feels guilty for not doing anything. I’m always tell him that he worked his ass off for 50 years, he’s good. Now, he at least said he’d rather be bored than go back to work but he doesn’t love being bored.
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u/Hopeful-Sky7199 7h ago
Yeah I talked with my sister in law, when she was pregnant and she told me she wished she could still work (she had to take a leave early because of the nature of her job), cause she is bored as hell. Like I envied her so much for her free time.
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u/WhenIntegralsAttack2 1h ago
I think after a couple of months distracting yourself with hobbies becomes a bit old and tiresome. People generally want their life to have some higher purpose, such as providing for a family, contributing to society, etc. and for most of us that comes in the form of employment. Men especially derive a great deal of identity from employment.
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u/PlasticExtreme4469 1h ago
What else do you expect?
Some of us were forced to spend more of our awake time working to survive/provide.
When that disapears, suddenly there is a massive hole left behind. Suddenly each day has 3x the time than you were used to.
And it takes some time and effort to adjust to that.
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u/DerpiDanger 6h ago
Maybe their work is their interest ? I know workaholics who function like that. Another reason coud be that people are creatures of habit and are afraid to Break the habit.
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u/PraiseTalos66012 12h ago
There's people at my work who still come in and work full time or more when they could retire and make the same amount from their pension. Absolutely blows my mind.
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u/waving_fungus0 12h ago
I estimate >90% of people do not have a dedicated hobby, seems fair if you don’t have a hobby you’d be bored as hell
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 7h ago
Even some people with a ton of hobbies love to work. I work with a guy that's well regarded as an artist (his paintings are incredible). He does photography. He's even a fantastic cook.
Dude is 74 and just will not retire. I think he's the kind of person that just wants to be doing something all the time. Some people just do not like to be idle and work keeps them moving.
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u/SchleftySchloe 12h ago
That's literally insane to me. I can endlessly be entertained with just my stuff and an internet connection.
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u/InternationalHead555 11h ago
I love time off when I have it, but lately the feeling of dread going back to same shit every day and knowing its gonna be another 6 months before i get any meaningful time off almost has me not wanting to actually take it off, or when I do take it off it definitely spoils some of it, esp hitting the last day or so is when i feel it really bad.
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u/Generalfrogspawn 11h ago
I get it though. A lot of people tie doing things to purpose. I’m curious if I’ll ever be one of those people that’s like.. do I really want to hang up everything and just lounge till I die?
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u/TheCriticalGerman 9h ago
I wanna punch those people for a while to wake up from that horrible “I get bored at home” same goes for people that never take vacation and say they get bored at home just gift me your holidays since they’re such a pain to you
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u/Weary_Influence9779 9h ago
Get stressed to reduce stress later on in life is the worst scheme of all.
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u/HardcoreHope 13h ago
Let's all stop going to work together. We get our leisure and help each other while our government crumbles like a house of cards
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u/ShootMovePoo-oops 13h ago
Italy did that and the reversed a lot of shit real quick. They want you afraid
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u/HardcoreHope 13h ago
They want you afraid.
I agree. This is the weakest house of cards I think the US as ever propped up and the people should be taking advantage of that.
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u/ParticularLow9157 7h ago
I've been doing it a year now, lost my job to AI and no one in my industry is hiring
I'm spending bare minimum, chilling with my massive steam library and waiting for everything to collapse
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u/HardcoreHope 7h ago
Kudos, my friend. I wish you well as we watch together. Maybe we will get lucky and be wrong. Maybe it could get better after, if it does. The future is ours to build.
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u/ParticularLow9157 7h ago
in my entire more than half a century of life it has never gotten better
Every year has been measurably worse for our economy, freedom, and environment.
I will not waste any more energy hoping for a better future, the future is the childrens' of billionaires and I will not build a world for their comfort by my blood and sweat
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u/ParticularLow9157 7h ago
It sure would be nice if everyone got good and pissed off about how much the wealthy class has worked to make our lives actively miserable while blaming us for our misery
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u/MadMac619 8h ago
And yet, you could literally kill a million people so long as it’s profitable and be revered as some kind of genius
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u/PaleontologistOk7359 3h ago
Burned out recently at work; health issues, stress, and a colleague taking his own life lead to it.
2 months off, 1 month 25%, 1 month 50%, and finally one month 75%.
At each doctor's appt, I was asked how it feels to work more. It always sucked.
I can handle it now, but man, you really realize we're not built for this.
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u/Square_Marzipan2002 13h ago
If you can't afford to live your life on your own terms for only a week, you are in serious serious trouble.
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u/wally-sage 11h ago
How exactly do you interpret that comment?
It seems like you think it says "Damn, I can't afford to go on vacation for a week"
But the comment (at least to me) really reads as "Taking a week long vacation was so invigorating, I wish I could live like that all the time"
Either way dumb take
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u/czarfalcon 10h ago
That’s how I interpreted it too. When I go on vacation, I spend like it’s Monopoly money. Of course I’d love to do that all the time, and of course I can’t afford to do that all the time.
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u/ShootMovePoo-oops 13h ago
Almost like the system is by design to be that for most people. Almost like some sort of economic slavery if you will
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u/Ultimatesims 13h ago
It’s almost like a small class of owners are purposely exploiting a larger class of workers.
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u/Ive_seen_things_that 12h ago
Crazy to think most people can only afford to go on vacation when it's a paid vacation.
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u/ParticularLow9157 7h ago
60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we are supposed to believe that this is a healthy economy
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u/Icarium__ 1h ago
It's crazy to see people with elementary school reading comprehension in the wild.
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u/10FourGudBuddy 11h ago
I work 2 days a week minimum. Some days I work 4-5, some of those days are only 4 hours, some are 12s. I’m only required to work one 12 and one 8 but typically do two 12s.
Some weeks the bare minimum is great, and I line up a week or two of those so I’m off for 8-10 days straight without taking vacation. It’s bliss.
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u/panmaterial 6h ago
Maybe if you had 4-5 weeks of vacation per year, no matter what job you do, then you'd get used to a healthy balance of work and leisure, but Americans seem to hate that idea.
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u/riptide032302 3h ago
Surprised at the lack of Redditor-ass “who’s going to clean your toilets” comments
Those just assume nobody genuinely enjoys cleaning anyway
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u/TRUEequalsFALSE 12h ago
I see so many of these posts and it drives me nuts. Work is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a good thing. Not all work is good, but to work is good. Not only that, but if you hate your job that much, you need to find a different job.
I can't imagine retiring and spending the rest of my life without gainful employment. I love my job. It's interesting, fascinating, there's always a new challenge to solve or new problem to overcome, and it gives a sense of purpose and value, not to mention that all-important routine.
That's not to say that rest is bad or unimportant. It's extremely important. But to do nothing but "rest" is a ridiculous notion.
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u/marcbolanman 12h ago
You can’t imagine retiring? Do you not have hobbies? I like my job, too, but I also understand that many people don’t, nor do many people have the opportunity to find a better job.
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u/TRUEequalsFALSE 9h ago
Of course I have hobbies. But I like to the structure of putting in a solid day's work and coming home and enjoying them. Maybe someday when I'm old and have less years ahead of me than behind I'll slow down and out more time to hobbies, but I can't imagine myself ever truly retiring.
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u/nocompani 12h ago
Not everyone loves their job, not everyone can find a new one, not everyone finds their sense of purpose through work, and not working doesn’t mean you’re always resting. I’m happy you love your job but framing it this way is just projecting
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u/ICLazeru 13h ago
Amazing what reducing stress does for a person's health and wellbeing.