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Retirement - when to take that step (leap?)

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thermistor-guy:

--- Quote from: dobsonr741 on March 13, 2024, 11:45:43 am ---And there is health span. I started listen to this guy, decided to get my measureables in order, to get the best out of retirement, whenever I’ll get there. https://peterattiamd.com/

--- End quote ---
Peter Attia's YT channel is good value: https://www.youtube.com/@PeterAttiaMD/videos

For physical training topics, I listen most often to Jeff Cavallier: https://www.youtube.com/@athleanx/videos
My physiotherapist has been following Jeff for 10 years.

watchmaker:
Our take on retirement is that it improved our health and well being.  I am now 71 and lost 40 pounds in the last 3 years.  My wife is firmly entrenched in the community and has forgotten her past life. We still do restorations, but on OUR schedule (only during snow months).  We both are active in trail work.

I am in the USA.

You are just unaware of the effects of all the swirl  (commuting for example, or the general cultural anxiousness) on your state of mind.

We did make the decision in the 1980s that we would ensure our ass end was covered and would forego trips to Cancun paid for from home equity loans.  Our vacations were centered around national parks and such, which also kept us in shape.

I grew up in the lower 5% and talked a lot with a very frugal great aunt (1st generation USA Soct) who in her later years had to give up a very nice upper middle class apartment to live in senior housing.  She told me about outliving your resources.  Lessons all taken to heart.

To me, forty years in any occupation is enough.  At 65/70, if you are in the right position, there is still time left to enjoy new endeavors.   I believe you CAN make this happen even as late as your early 50s.  But the longer you have waited, the more discipline it will take.

Also, the adage that physical change is exponential after 60 is pretty close to truth.  I sat on my ass this winter and I went for a hike last week that was the most unenjoyable thing I ever did (only 4.5 miles and close to 4 hours).    It was solely an exercise of perseverance.  Last summer I outhiked my kid in the White Mtns.  Wake up call!!

My exit plan is to have a drop dead heart attack in the woods.  I have made it clear that when I get hit with a serious physical or cognitive impairment I do not want resources wasted on me.  If a treatment will not return me to function, what is the point?

cosmicray:
I will attempt to answer this question with an anecdotal (true) story ...

I've lived here for slightly more than a quarter century. I have known my neighbors across the road, since their children were entering secondary school, a very long time ago. Two years ago, on a Saturday, I was over there standing at the front fence chatting with the wife of the couple. She had been a local heath care provider for ~43 years (wearing various hats) and had retired 2 months previously as an APRN. She was in absolutely tip-top medical shape, worked out regularly, had two adult children (both retired from different branches of the US military), and two grandkids (that visited occasionally). The following day she was being wheeled out to an EMS unit with a stroke. No prior warning of any kind. Of any person I know, who cared for their health as much as she did, she was the last person I would have expected that would happen to. Because of the type of stroke, she had no ability to communicate, nor consciousness. She was effectively on life support. Several days later, once the entire family had gathered, and based on her explicit advanced directive, there was full agreement to terminate life support. All organs were donated. Several months later there was a memorial service, with a wake the following day.

At the time that happened, she was 5 months older than I was. That experience made me laser focused on both managing my health, and on making sure that I am doing things I want to do. Not sure what else to say, other than enjoy your life while you have it. Life is precious.

jmelson:
In June 2021 I woke up one morning and my right hand was partly numb.  I had felt this before, from sleeping on my arm wrong.  It usually came back within minutes.  But, this time it DIDN'T come back.  It took me 10+ minutes to button my shirt.  I needed to get on a Zoom call and had to write down the password, and could NOT write anything but jerky lines.  That's about when I realized I was having a stroke.

Well, after a few weeks the mental fog cleared, I went for some therapy, and they put me on anti coagulants and statins.  This was an occlusive, not hemhoragic stroke, and it did fairly minimal damage - I was LUCKY!  I still have a bit of an issue typing, and if I have to write out a paper check, woe be to the bank employee who has to read it!
Hopefully, the stuff I am taking will prevent another stroke.
Jon

nctnico:
I don't think there are ways to prevent a stroke but being fit sure helps to get through it better. One of my family members was found after a couple of days because the neighbours had not seen him going out of the door for a while. The fire brigade had to break in the door in order to resque him. As he is (yes, present tense!) a very active and thus fit person, he had no problems going through the physical revalidation process (except being slightly bored by the exercises). OTOH, I've seen other people having big problems doing the exercises due to lack of being fit. Those are likely to not reaching the full potential of recovery.

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