Quite often here, we talk about extreme frugality or Squirreling Gone Wild – stories of extreme penny pinching and why people behave in such ways.
This article in Yahoo! Finance talks about extreme workaholics – people that just can’t stop working. We are not talking about people within the standard working age bracket; rather, these are folks that are into their 90’s and even over 100 years of age!
I have to hand it to these people. It’s truly inspirational to see folks of such an advanced age being that active and eager to work. Just the idea that they are even physically and mentally capable of working is fantastic. Great to see that it’s possible to do such things. As someone with a very dear grandmother of 95 years of age, who is a great, great lady that’s mentally sharp, this article resonated with me.
It got me thinking……how long do I want to work? Personally, I would like to work as long as I felt like I was enjoying myself and physically capable. Tough to put an age on it, but I can see working until 60 in some capacity as long as I can do it. Hopefully it’s because of wanting to – not needing to. It’s up to me to make this option a reality, and I have a long, long way to go to get there:)
How about you? At what age would you like to stop working? Or maybe the question is: at what age are you realistically targeting being able to stop working because you have to?
I saw that article and thought ‘Yikes, I don’t think that could be me!’. I give them tons of credit though.
Ideally, we would retire when we had enough saved and could travel all we want (within reason). I certainly do not see that happening anytime soon. I don’t think either my husband or myself would be excited to work another 50-60 years, but I am also sure that work probably keeps these people young.
Everyday Tips – good point on work keeping those people young. It might give them some social outlets and keep them engaged in life. To me, it comes down to working because you want to, and not because you have to! If only that could be the case earlier in life:) Not for me, but that’s ok.
I am not one of those delayed retirement to the extreme people (yet) but I can say that I still enjoy working at age 63. I am fortunate enough to be able to choose to work, and would not miss any meals if I didn’t work at all. This being said, I think the ideal situation is to choose a career that you love so much that you don’t want to quit. At a given age, one can always cut back, or pick and choose, but this is much different than the mindset of “I can’t wait until I retire! I will not let the door hit my backside!” That is not a good way to live.
I once hired a secretary who was 63 years old. She said that she needed to work because it kept her feeling younger. When I retired twenty years later, she was still working…and doing well!
Hubby and I are aiming to be able to retire at 52. I want to be able to physically work until I die (hopefully after 85), but I don’t want to actually work. I want to travel, volunteer, tour the country with my husband for Curling tournaments, take cruises, join old lady bingo groups, continue board gaming, have a billion potlucks with friends, bug my nieces and nephews about personal finance, etc. I just don’t want to have to work.
I saw that article and thought ‘Yikes, I don’t think that could be me!’. I give them tons of credit though.
Ideally, we would retire when we had enough saved and could travel all we want (within reason). I certainly do not see that happening anytime soon. I don’t think either my husband or myself would be excited to work another 50-60 years, but I am also sure that work probably keeps these people young.