Live in a country with a decent amount of vacation days.

Don't wait until retirement. Balance your life now. It's going to be a long slog.

You don't need to find an amazing career that you’ll love doing until you die. People who get that are extremely lucky, and it's not the norm. You just need a job that will support you while still giving you time to do the things you enjoy.

Follow this: https://youtu.be/YHxwY3Fz2gU?feature=shared

I dealt with it by choosing to not have kids years ago. I didn't ask to be born, and I refuse to force that on anyone else.

Once things become too difficult, I'm pulling my own plug.

Live with underlying existential dread for decades. Watch as "doing what you love" becomes "hating what you used to love because you're forced to do it so that there's enough numbers in the computer to prove that you're worthy of continued existence." Contemplate the pointlessness of it all on a daily basis. Be reminded that your feelings are invalid because "other people have it worse" every time the topic comes up. Nod listlessly as "successful" people tout their own hard work while ignoring any factor luck and privilege played, then tune out when they shift into the dissonant duet of "I succeeded because I am exceptional" and "anyone can do the same if they just work harder."

Wake up the next morning and realize there's roughly 30 more years of this, barring a massive coronary or aneurism or something.

Don't hold on to things you haven't done before you retire... It is a waste of time and regretting not doing stuff, which lasts for moments, is the folly of youth.

Also what/who you want to do changes as you get older...

/sauce greybeard who is 10 years off retirement.

A pivotal piece of advice once shifted my perspective on work. It was put simply: 'If the thought of retirement is your main motivation, you might be in the wrong job.' This implies that if you're constantly counting down the years to retirement, you're essentially wishing for time to fly by quicker. But those years are valuable, and letting them slip away in anticipation of something else isn't worth it. The key is to find a career that reduces your stress and enhances your life now, not just in the future. While financial security is undeniably important, it's also crucial to recognize when you have enough and to prioritize your well-being and happiness in the present.

Plan the things you want to do into your life. Drop the notion "when I retire I will..." If you can fit the stuff you want to do into your Annual Leave then that's a big win. If not then you'll need unpaid leave. One good time is between jobs.

I've pretty consistently chosen less hours and better working conditions over pay since I started to have that choice. It's made it a lot more tolerable. I'm currently on a four day week, with a minimal commute, good perks and a relatively stress free job that I took a pay cut for. My retirement savings look pretty slim, but due to my health the chance of a long one isn't much higher anyway.

Not without it's issues. Pay is pretty significantly below the median. Fortunately I'm not interested in having kids and I'm content living cheaply, even if it sounds boring. But I'm in a weird dead zone for government support; for instance - if I earned more, there are programs for "middle income" housing and the like that I earn too little to qualify for. Low income housing programs are a joke - with wait times being as much as a decade -but even if it wasn't I'm not high priority anyway. Also no way on earth I'm ever getting a home loan, even though mortgage repayments would be less than rent and I could conceivably make the deposit.

The alternative is much worse. I don’t want to be poor and/or homeless. I want to be able to take vacations and not worry about surprise expenses. I want to actually be able to retire someday.

The alternative is a much harder life to live, in my opinion. For me, giving up 40ish hours a week for the peace of mind it worth it. Yes, work is not how I’d prefer to spend my time, but it allows me to spend the rest of my time doing as I’d please.

Trying to out-earn my age. Can you guess how that's going so far? :/

Was just talking about how difficult work is going to make the next three days, so that I can't wait until they're over, but that's another week of my life where I'm wishing for days to pass so I can try to be happy again. Lame. Lame as fuck.

As a kid, I was traumatized by the idea that I'd need to work until I'm old and then maybe spend another decade or two being too old to do the things I wanted before I eventually die. I was so distraught over "the way things are" that I constantly fantasized about running away and building my own tree house in the woods to live in, à la Swiss Family Robinson style.

And this was a time before inflation and property prices got out of hand. We were still fed the idea that getting a college education and a good paying job would help us live comfortably, while still saving up for retirement.

Then I joined the US military, thanks to the advice of my uncle who was a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant. 20 years later, at only 38 years old, I officially retired and earned myself a pension equal to about half my monthly pay, which I will collect automatically for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, the military did away with the pension program about 7 years ago, so any newbies will have to do their new BRS program. (Basic Retirement System; basically the federal govt's version of a 401K) I was lucky enough to be grandfathered into the old pension program when I retired 2 years ago.

On top of that, a bunch of physical and mental injuries accrued over 20 years (thanks to serving during wartime) has earned me the coveted 100% Permanent & Total disability rating with the VA, which means I get free medical and dental for life, as well as a monthly paycheck from the VA that's bigger than my pension. I'm making more money in retirement than I did while serving! So I can be fully retired now.

My wife also served in the military, but she didn't make it to retirement. She was medically discharged about 12 years into service. But fortunately, her medical issues also earned her the rare 100% Total & Permanent disability rating from the VA as well. So she enjoys all the same benefits as I do, including a sizeable VA paycheck every month for life.

While I was serving, I bought houses in 2 separate places I was stationed, and I rented them out when I left. I hired on a property manager to act as landlord in my absence (since they're in different states from where I currently live) and they take 10% of the monthly rent as their pay, which incentivizes them to keep tenants in the house, as they don't get paid if it's empty. They literally take care of everything; I only get contacted if they need to make a financial decision, i.e. hiring a plumber, replacing a washing machine, etc.

I make sure to charge afforable rates for rent, not price-gouge like a lot of landlords do nowadays. I'm not relying on income from these houses, so I don't need to squeeze every penny out of them that I can. I'm very quick to fix issues, too. These houses were in excellent condition when I lived there (one was a brand-new build when I moved in) and I want to keep them in immaculate condition, so I make sure to do quality repairs and not just cheap patch jobs. I charge just enough to cover my mortgage (which was really cheap when I bought them around a decade ago) plus the property manager's share. When both houses are paid off, that rent money (minus 10%) is just passive income to supplement my pension and disability pay.

I've also been living in my childhood home for the past couple years, which my father owned until he passed away last week, so I will be inheriting the house and all 6 acres it's on. Basically a free house. Oh, and the military paid me a separate monthly housing allowance to afford rent/mortgage payments while I was serving, so I didn't have to spend any of my own money on the 2 houses I bought. The military covered my mortgage while I lived there and tenants are paying my mortgage now. So I technically own 3 houses that I didn't need to spend any of my own money on.

Besides all this, I also have some investments going through my cousin, who works for an investment firm. I'm pretending those investments don't exist until actual retirement age, so they'll accrue in value over the next couple decades and hopefully be a sizeable retirement nest egg.

So through a lot of dumb luck (and some smart choices), I've managed to not only avoid working until I'm too old to enjoy life, but I actually have some decent income to live comfortably on. I'm not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm living cozy enough to relax and enjoy the second half of my life at my own pace, without a job to afford my way of life.

This is what life should be like for everyone. We're not here to work for the rest of our lives, that's just capitalist propaganda, fed to us since grade school. We only get one shot at life, so it should be lived! There should be plentiful options to make passive income in the second half of your life so you can enjoy living. But the capitalist machine doesn't work if there are no workers to power it, so we're stuck in this broken worker bee system for the majority of our lives.

Maybe this isn't the answer you're looking for: my job is my passion and the idea of retiring sounds horrible. I image it will only happen when I'm too senile to keep doing what I love, and that's clearly not something to look forward to. But who knows... I know old people who are tired and just want to rest.

(I got lucky, since I happened to be passionate about computer programming. I know most other people don't have the same option.)

Of course there are better systems, but the rich and powerful hold all the cards.

Poorly.

Dunno but I am hoping aliens invade in the following years and make our existence more enjoyable than this ...

I simply work part time on purpose. I don't have my own place (flatmates) so we all split the COL. It's not truly freedom, but it feels a lot more free than when I worked full time. I usually have enough to save a little and also because of this I am able to travel a few times a year. But you have to be REALLY able to manage your finances to live like this. I have no credit card and prepay everything ahead of time. It leaves me with a lot more time to enjoy LIFE. and feel less constantly tired as well.

• I live in the UK, so I get 25 days off work, and I take full advantage of that, I rarely do staycations.

• I'm about to buy a property and I'm deliberately going to get a mortgage where my monthly payments are not as much as I can possibly afford, but a bit less. This means that it will take me longer to pay it off, and overall it will cost me more, but I will have more disposable income today to spend on life's pleasures.

• I don't have kids and don't plan to.

• I stay physically active, just simple going to the gym 5-6 days a week. And I think this is really important. It will keep your body in shape and by the time your 60 or 70, you'll be able to do much more than your average peers who spent their middle age doing office jobs followed by evenings in front of the TV. And here, instead of my 41-year-old self, I'm going to use the example of my mum. She's turning 70 next year, but it was only when she was 68 that she started taking swimming lessons and she got to love it. It was also around that time that I floated the idea to her "why don't I take you for holidays to New York". She was all "no, no, I'm too old, it's too much walking, you took me for a holiday to London when I was 55 and I was totally exhausted, I wouldn't be able to do New York at this age." Now that she's had over 1.5 years of almost daily swimming (and cycling, she's also a keen cyclist) - she said yes. She said she's feeling perfectly fine doing long walks, she's more energised, and she already gave me a list of what she wants to see in New York.

• Other than physical activity, scientists seem to agree that the other two pillars of long and healthy life are good sleep, and good diet. For the former, I recommend reading Why we sleep by Matthew Walker. And good diet means varied diet, vegetable-rich diet, and low-calorie diet (too many books agree on that for me to recommend a specific one).

Drugs, mostly

You don't.

But changing it probably involves a lot of dropping heavy, sharpened pieces of metal on a certain class of people.

For me I decided young that I needed a career that would take me places so I could have life experiences and maybe get a few bucks.

I applied to everything everywhere while I was working and always thought "it may suck, but at least it will be different."

There are better systems, but IMO I was never able to find or capitalize on them so i needed to focus on what my current goals were keeping in the back of my mind that this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Be aware that your peers that do amazing work and get promotions, get that easy job or just get a lucky break only affect your life negatively if you let it.

Positive "coping mechanisms" help when dealing with stress (exercise routine, yoga, whateverworks for you), when negative coping mechanisms hurt.

I've been lucky enough to live and work in some amazing places, and 35 years later we have finally found a place we want to "settle".

Cry myself to sleep.

On top of being too old, I'll be too poor, so I'll probably just neck myself around ~70.

I can't imagine stopping to work. If I retire, I'll have no money. I cannot count on pension either.

But I have an IT job, it's just sitting in front of the computer all day; it's not like a physical job I wouldn't be able to do at old age.

Don't think about it.

Living with disability like I do means that process has sped up significantly.

I don't.

If you're lucky enough to find something you're passionate about you may not begrudge the work week. I never have, so i work to live, got into a reasonable paying sector, didn't waste money on oversized property or flash motors, as they're not my bag, but used the cash to go adventuring at weekends, snow boarding in winter, the job takes up more time than I'd like but i'm earning freedom tokens. That mentality helped me at least.

First off, I'd try to find as much balance and joy as possible now. Don't wait for retirement. None of us know if we'll even be around at that point.

I also make sure to vote for people who want more work/life balance and more universal public services. Vacation time, family and parental leave, universal healthcare, affordable education, etc. Those are all things that free you mind to think about life and not just the basic necessities and surviving.