Living Your Dream at 60!

Living Your Dream at 60. What will life be like? What do you really want? Over the past few weeks I have been seeking views from fellow financial bloggers both from UK and US, digital nomads, younger people I know – all sorts of people from many different backgrounds, the broad question is ‘What is the life you would like to be leading at 60?’.

Many people are already tearing up the rule book, making the most of digital technology to have a different working pattern, literally working from anywhere in the world. They don’t want to be tied down to 9-5 desk jobs, watching their days vanish in commuting. Some are aiming for FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Others, even those in their 50’s are choosing to redefine what they consider would be a successful retirement. Gone are the days of working for a single employer until you are 65, then collecting a pension and a long service watch, then fading into the sunset.

Some like myself have already reached that magic figure, and to quote Lesley “much of the time do whatever the hell we want“. I couldn’t put it better!

A couple of things stood out

• Francesca sums it up well – ‘peace of mind, the time and flexibility to travel whenever desired and to spend lots of time with family and friends’ is pretty much the general theme
• Travel features in just about everyone’s list, but there is a wide variety of what form that travel will take, from sailing around the world to lots of different short trips. Tresser has the right idea with ‘Traveling in unique ways, making friends with strangers and living life’
• I loved Samantha’s comment that inertia is a killer, and she wants a new horizon. I absolutely agree. I can safely say that sitting on a chair in front of daytime TV, is not for any of the people I have spoken to!
• Creativity comes across. littlemouse mentioned that she wanted to connect to her creative side. Lee is going to be spending time on her art. Several are going to be writing. Being creative is certainly very important to me, and it has been since I first thought about retiring

Hence it looks like the themes I am promoting on Cracking Retirement are pretty much spot on!

Rather than picking out just a few key responses, I have included everyone’s comments. There’s such a fascinating variety, it was a shame to leave any out.

I have drawn the input from several online communities, and many age groups. Some of them will link to blogs you haven’t encountered before, and give you a few different ideas. You’ll enjoy the journey I am sure.

Have fun building your own ideas for Your Dream at 60.

 

Carola, who blogs at  Notes on Travelling says ‘I’d like to continue my steady unsteady life, moving from place to place, staying sometimes a few days, sometimes a few weeks. I’d just like to have a bit more money for posher accommodation than I often book.’

Financial Muse who blogs at Financial Muse says I honestly would like to spend a few years living on a boat to travel around the world. I already know I have a love for travel and, based on the few cruises I have been on, I love being on the water as well. Of course it would be different being on a much smaller boat, but this way of discovering the world seems interesting, exciting, and unique to me.

The founder of Levitate Student says  I am 53 so 60 is not too far away…. I would like to look back on a career where I championed for the rights of students and vulnerable clients. I would want to reflect with pride on the individuals I had supported as a money adviser and look forward to future opportunities to work for causes I believe in. I would like to know my blog provided me with an outlet for my passion, helped me develop new skills and was a springboard to new experiences. 

Faith  is heading towards that magic number,. She works as a Digital Nomad running her own business as a business consultant and social media manager, wants to continue house sitting across the world, and is definitely ‘done with the grey haired old lady routine that a lot of youngsters stick us with. As she says – “I did the same when I was in my 20’s lol, but I realize now that our generation ain’t like our parents (which we always knew) but now we go out and prove it.”

Hollie from Thrifty Mum  says – By the time I’m 60 I want to be in a position where I can pass on the help I’ve been given to raise my family so I’d like to be able to work/volunteer part time and be there for my future grandchildren if that’s what I’m blessed with. Tony Robbins’ motto is to create a business where you’re a business owner not business operator. My intention isn’t to strive to earn more and more money from work that I’m doing or end up employing my family/friends. It’s not my personal goal. So creating businesses which either run themselves or ones I can sell on would be my desired future. However, by keeping your needs small and low maintenance, this is quite easy to achieve, then you can spend more time with the people you love doing things you enjoy.

Kimberly wants to have the financial freedom to move about the world at our leisure. To be able to take great trips to places we want to see on our own schedule. Age is only a number!

Francesca who runs From Pennies to Pounds would like to be living by the sea, either in England or another country, with a new husband 😉 , my daughter nearby with grandchildren running around. I would like to not be worried about money at all – I would like to have enough saved up to not have to rely on a pension and work as little or often as I would like.
Frequent travel is something I would aim for, as that’s something that my Nana and Grandad do and they are blissfully happy, and seem much younger than they are.
So ultimately, at 60 years old I would like peace of mind, the time and flexibility to travel whenever desired and to spend lots of time with family and friends.
Everything that I do currently is working hard for the future, so fingers crossed!

Gabrièle I imagine my life at 60 to be fully financially stable and most of it coming from passive income so I can travel with my husband, create events for Women in Transformation and also doing meaningful work of service, of giving, of making a difference in the life of other fellow humans.

Faith from Much More With Less says By the time I’m 60, my children should have left home, but otherwise I’d hope much of my life would be the same. We’ve already moved from London to the country, and love our new home. I enjoy working part-time as a journalist and blogger, while my husband enjoys his job fund raising for our local hospice. Hopefully by then we’ll have the house and garden more sorted and have more free time together for holidays and outings. Here’s hoping anyway!

Paula from Mummy vs Work hopes that by the time she and her husband are 60, they would like to have sold up and moved to the countryside or seaside, away from the hustle and bustle. We would have helped our children through uni if that’s what they choose to do then get them onto the property ladder, it will be our time to unwind as hopefully we will be financially sound enough to not have to work anymore!

Raphaelle says  I definitely want to make sure this traveling lifestyle fits in my life no matter how old I am!

Helen from The Complaining Cow (I love that name…) writes –  By the time I’m 60 in 12 years time I would like my book which has been an Amazon bestseller for the last two years to have been a bestseller for 12 without having to write too many updates! I’d like loads and loads more people to have been empowered to Complain more and not be fobbed off by big biz. A newspaper col would be good which I could continue to write on a weekly basis in a fight to ensure that there is always someone fighting for the consumer! I’d like to have earned enough to go on loads of holidays and ensure that my now 9 but would be 21 son can go to uni if he wants without owing the cost of house. (And here is a shameless plug for Helen’s book )

Pete from Household Money Saving would like to be partially retired by 60. I hope to be making a small income from something that I enjoy, until my pension kicks-in when I reach 68. Or 78 the rate things are going!

Tresser has a lovely story to relate –   I moved to South America last year at 42. I came here on a cargo ship and the captain told me on the trip before me (they sail the same route back and forth), they had two 71 year old female passengers. They didn’t know each other and got on at different ports in the US. But they sailed from the US all the way to Chile and got off at every port for a visit. I thought … that’s me at that age. Traveling in unique ways, making friends with strangers and living life.

Michelle at Time and Pence says When I am 60 I hope to be able to look back and think “I made it”, “I created an income which means I no longer have to work, but if I want to do something a couple of days a week I can”. I hope at that point money won’t be an issue and we can continue to enjoy living the life we live now with a few extra treats!

Jane would like to still be writing at 60 – either blogs or novels

Emma from The Money Whisperer – We are dual citizens with Australian and U.K. passports – by 60 I fully intend to be spending our lives chasing the sun! I have kept my Australian assets to go towards a retirement property on the Gold Coast somewhere where we can head for a few months every year while the weather here is miserable!
The things we are putting in to place now – generating multiple income streams from rental property, investments, consulting etc – should allow us to give up work well before 60 and still enjoy the security of ongoing cash flow to fund our traveling lifestyle!

Morgan  of Morgan M Woods says that by the time I’m 60 I would love to be self sufficient, probably have a small holdings of some sort with chickens and other animals around. Somewhere in the countryside but also maybe also near the sea. I would love to have grandchildren around me and be there for my children and grandchildren. I will be financially secure and be able to give back to everyone who helped me when I wasn’t so financially well off

Jennifer blogs at www.BruisedBanana.Travel. At age 60, I plan to be living life and traveling just as I do now at age 40. Isn’t 60 the new 40? (I guess that’s what I thought). According to some experts, some among us are lucky enough to re-invent ourselves about every 25-30 years. As I see it, I’m just entering Second Adulthood. Who knows what I’ll do with my Third Adulthood when/if I get to it? (I certainly don’t intend to be watching daytime TV though).

Lesley who has a cooking blog at Thrifty Lesley says – I’m past 60 and have achieved my financial goal. Mike and I left salaried work at 50 as our property Lettings were making enough to keep us. Since then we’ve bought and sold a lot and our pensions have kicked in. So we now have a six figure income and much of the time do whatever the hell we want. We worked hard to get where we are and got here by being focused on where we wanted to get to. 

The Vigilante who blogs at I Vigilante says I expect I’ll be playing with grandkids and nieces/nephews in a setting that will resemble Brett Fravre in jeans throwing footballs through tire swings. Except since I keep spraining my ankles, I might be in a wheelchair or running on metallic legs. Also bits of travel here and there with the Mrs. are certainly on the docket, but not priority over fun with family and friends.

Deborah at Sawyerrs House has a great dream ‘In all honesty, when I’m 60, I’d love for my 2 girls to not be able to keep up with me whilst they wonder which exotic location I’ve decided to go to despite my Harley Davidson being parked outside my home‘ I can buy into that!

Jane from Lady Janey says – By the time I am 60, I hope that a cure will have been found for my MS or that there will have been further significant medical developments, which will help improve quality of life for sufferers. I’m hoping that I’ll still be writing for as long as possible so I can continue my fight for excellent customer service albeit just from my sofa! Instead of relying on our pensions in our sixties, we’re currently focusing on investment in rental property and building a rural holiday home in the countryside to generate an extra income stream. (Like Jane, I also hope that a cure for MS will be found soon, as I have 2 very good friends who suffer from it!)

Gabriele who blogs at Enskats World Travel Blog – Difficult to answer for me how I imagine my life when I’m 60 (+). I’m 45 now and didn’t think five years ago that I would leave my country. Now I did. How can I know what will be in 15 years. I’ve no answer on it. So many things can happen in-between this years … Bad ones and good ones as well.

Eileen from Your Money Sorted says I am focused on leaving teaching at 55, then spending a year travelling round Europe in a campervan. After that I plan to be playing sport, travelling, seeing family and friends and generally enjoying life to the full. I plan to fund this by still running my Your Money Sorted business, which will fortunately allow me to work from anywhere in the world. The excitement of knowing that this is only 9 years away focuses me daily 😃

Leyla who writes at Motherhood Diaries says I would like to be comfortable and self sufficient, running my business at home with my children and, hopefully, grandchildren around me by the beach somewhere hot. 🙂 

Samantha I want to keep moving, keep learning, and keep dreaming. I grew up outside of a retirement community in Arizona and I noticed how the people who didn’t stay active in mind and body usually crapped out much earlier. Inertia is a killer. I want to have a new horizon to stride towards whether that is writing a book, seeing Morocco, learning to tango, etc.

Martyna from Money Saving Girl hopes to retire around 60. In order to have a comfortable life when at retirement my husband and I we have been acquiring properties as we believe that will be the nicest pension protection asset when we finally stop working

Sara I’d like to live somewhere where I can do most of my daily tasks by bicycle or on foot so that I can stay healthy. Where I live now has a lot going for it, like being quiet, beautiful and completely private when the trees have leaves, but you pretty much need to go everywhere by car. I also would like to feel like a part of a community, something we are really trying to build right now. Also, our oldest will be 33 so maybe a grandkid by then if we’d be so lucky. 

Littlemouse says – Well, there is the dream life and then there is the real life. So how about a little bit of both. I have been frugal most of my life, and had fun being frugal, was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth but had the best parents in my world as in no violence, no drinking/smoking or cursing, no pressure. They just let us grow up in peace and be ourselves and just grow and be loved, 24/7.
So back to the question.
I want to feel peace when I retire. To continue to be able to help people in little ways that will make them feel loved and that they matter. I like to be stay healthy, in mind, soul, and body. I would like to have a pet or two. Possibly buy my own piece of land/cottage as I treasure solitude, nature and natural silence – we have way too much noise in our daily lives. I like to be in touch with the mystery in our universe and like to continue being so curious about so many things. I would like to reconnect to my creative side which had to be set aside due to a demanding career. There is so much need out there, and I would like to be able to contribute as in perspective, possibly wisdom, kindness to those out there that were not blessed with a solid base early in life. And I want to continue to believe in angles and want to make everybody feel that they can be part time angels too, humanity need angels, no matter what the big wig politicians do or not. As a people we can still be kind to each other, it is possible, and isn’t that what really matters?

David Jack Taylor from Thinking Thrifty is hoping to have been retired for 10 years! I’ll never give up blogging because I love it, however I plan to be doing it from a hotter foreign land by age 50. I bought a café to help things move along quicker, I’ve gambled that it will give me a better return than the bank ever will.

Nords from the The Military Guide says – pretty much the dream you’re living when you’re in your 40s, only without kids and a little slower and with more recovery time between events? When you’re FI with kids you’re still on a parenting schedule– either the school (or your homeschool) or your family time. Nights & weekends still tend to be family instead of downtown, although you can certainly enjoy whatever free time you get while they’re at school. But it’s probably best to be home in the kitchen (perhaps baking cookies) by 3 PM.

FI Journeyman who blogs at The Financial Journeyman  says – We don’t have children. Hopefully we will be spending our winters in the southern states or the islands. We like the spring, summer,and fall in Pa. We like to travel and plan on taking a few trips per year. It will be nice to travel without thinking of having to return to a job. My life will be focused on exercise, reading, following my teams, maybe a side gig. We will also do more volunteering. I see it being similar to my current life, but without an alarm clock.

Lynn from Mrs Mummypenny says Twenty years until I am 60. We will be retired having made a mint from the Mrs Mummypenny empire. And we will be travelling the world in luxury from Thailand to Hawaii, to Gambia to Seychelles. Practising yoga every day living a zen life. Home will be by the sea somewhere beautiful.

Lee  who blogs at Homely Economics – Twenty-two years from now when I’m 60, I want to be working harder than ever on my art 😊 If my only income can be from both my art and writing then I’ll be a happy granny 

Finally

Here’s to a happy and healthy ‘Age 60’ for everyone. Looking at all the very different yet similar comments above, it’s going to be great!

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