Retirement at 62 Boosts Well-Being

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I retired at age 52 from law enforcement, was traveling in South America like an 18 year old 3 days later, and have enjoyed my life overseas and back home tremendously over the last 6 years since. I have less money than many others, but free time is more important to me. You will never know beforehand when your time has come. The trick is to have something interesting to do. Never retire to the front porch to sit. Now that I've spent time in South East Asia and China, its time to see Nepal. Most Americans would look at me like I'm nuts to travel with no hotel in mind, and little sense of exactly where I'm going, but that is the point of what I do.
Start thinking now of WHAT you will do when retired!

Mark 2:45PM August 30, 2010

This is a cross-sectional study. There is no evidence that this increase in well-being is sustained a few years after retirement because that is not what was studied.
Eleanor Krassen Covan,
Professor of Gerontology

Eleanor Krassen Covan, PhD of NC 10:35AM August 20, 2010

I know very few in our online community of close to 100,000 women 50+ who want to "retire." (VibrantNation.com.) What they want is freedom of choice to do meaningful things. In the old sense of "retirement", which was equated with marginalization from the mainstream and "leisure" in the non-productive sense, that stems from a whole other generational mindset. While I'm sure getting extra money at 62 is a boon, I'm doubting if many of those who retire at this early age are "not working." They're at least doing part-time or volunteer work--by choice...and many are in school or retraining tooling up for new careers. The other question I'd ask is who was tracked? Were they Boomers? It's pretty early on to tell who would be happier long-term since so few Boomers have actually reached and/or surpassed 62...How will these folks be feeling at 90? Thirty years is a long time playing golf, if that's the implication.

Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. of NY 9:28AM August 19, 2010

Liz G in Wa of WA:
"Retirement at age 62 heralded well-being surges regardless ... whether or not they retired willingly."
twitter.com/PotomacWill

PotomacWill of DC 6:31PM August 17, 2010

Folks who voluntarily retire at 62 usually are more comfortable financially than those who continue working. Plus, they're *choosing* to retire. ISTM, that must skew the statistics. Did Calvo take that into consideration?

LizG in WA of WA 10:49AM August 17, 2010