Why We Are Busier in Retirement: The Surprising Truth
by Tracy Gillis - October 2024
When you imagine retirement, you might picture days filled with relaxation, long naps, leisurely mornings, and plenty of free time. But for many retirees, retirement doesn't turn out that way at all. Instead, the calendar can fill up surprisingly quickly.
Once the structure of a full-time job disappears, retirees often discover that they have more opportunities to pursue the things they enjoy. Hobbies, travel, family, volunteering, social activities, home projects, and personal goals can quickly turn those supposedly "empty" days into a busy and rewarding schedule.
What Fills Our Days in Retirement?
Retirement doesn't necessarily mean doing less. Instead, it often means having greater control over what you do with your time. Some of the activities that can fill a retiree's schedule include:
- Pursuing Hobbies and Interests: Retirement provides an opportunity to explore long-held passions or discover entirely new interests. Gardening, painting, woodworking, cooking, photography, golf, reading, music, and countless other hobbies can become a much bigger part of everyday life.
- Travel and Exploration: Many retirees want to travel more once they have fewer work commitments. Travel isn't just the time spent on the trip itself. Planning itineraries, researching destinations, visiting family, organizing transportation, and preparing for a trip can all take considerable time.
- Social Activities: Retirement can open the door to a more flexible social life. Joining clubs, participating in community activities, meeting friends for coffee, attending events, and spending more time with family can quickly fill a calendar.
- Volunteer Work: Volunteering can provide both purpose and social connection. Retirees may volunteer with charities, community organizations, schools, hospitals, sports organizations, or other causes that are meaningful to them.
- Home Projects: With more time at home, projects that were repeatedly postponed during working years can finally move to the top of the list. Renovations, gardening, organizing, maintenance, and home improvements can become regular retirement activities.
- Health and Wellness: Retirement can also provide more time to focus on physical and mental well-being. Walking, exercising, preparing healthier meals, attending appointments, practicing yoga, and simply getting more sleep can all become priorities.
The Psychology Behind Being Busy in Retirement
There is more to retirement busyness than simply having more free time. Leaving the workforce can represent a major change in identity, routine, and purpose. Activities that once seemed like extras can become important parts of a retiree's new lifestyle.
- Identity and Purpose: Work can provide structure, identity, social interaction, and a sense of accomplishment. After retirement, people often look for new ways to replace some of those benefits. Hobbies, volunteering, family responsibilities, and community involvement can provide a renewed sense of purpose.
- Filling the Time Void: A working person's schedule is often dictated by meetings, commuting, deadlines, and other obligations. Retirement removes much of that external structure. Some people naturally create a new routine by filling their days with activities they enjoy.
- Desire for Achievement: Retirement doesn't necessarily mean giving up on goals. People may set new goals involving travel, fitness, learning, hobbies, finances, or personal projects. Completing these goals can provide the same sense of accomplishment that work once provided.
- Social Interaction: Work provides built-in social contact for many people. After retirement, maintaining those connections may require more effort. Clubs, volunteer organizations, community groups, family activities, and friendships can become important parts of a retirement routine.
- Cognitive Engagement: Learning new skills and staying mentally engaged can make retirement more interesting and rewarding. Reading, taking courses, playing music, learning a language, doing puzzles, or tackling new projects are all ways to keep the mind active.
Is It Actually True That Retirees Are Busier?
The answer is: sometimes—but it depends on how you define "busy."
Retirement generally gives people more control over their time, but having more free time doesn't necessarily mean having an empty schedule. Many retirees choose to replace work commitments with activities that are personally meaningful.
It's also important to distinguish between being busy and being stressed. A retiree might have a calendar full of golf games, family visits, travel, volunteer shifts, and hobbies while feeling less stressed than they did during their working years. In other words, retirement can be busy without feeling like work.
For others, the opposite may be true. Some retirees deliberately reduce their commitments and enjoy having fewer scheduled activities. There is no single "correct" retirement lifestyle.
Fun Facts About Retirement Busyness
- Retirement Volunteering: Older adults are an important source of volunteer time in communities across North America, with many retirees using their additional free time to support causes they care about.
- Traveling Retirees: Retirement is often associated with increased flexibility for travel because retirees no longer need to coordinate trips around limited vacation days or workplace schedules.
- Hobby Engagement: Retirement can provide the opportunity to spend substantially more time on hobbies that were difficult to pursue while working full-time.
- Active Social Lives: Staying socially connected is an important part of healthy aging. Friendships, family relationships, community involvement, and group activities can all contribute to a fulfilling retirement.
Embracing a Busy Retirement
Being busy in retirement can be a sign that you've found activities that give your days meaning. But you don't have to fill every hour of your calendar. One of the great advantages of retirement is being able to decide what deserves your time.
For some people, that means traveling several times a year. For others, it means spending more time with grandchildren, volunteering, working on a garden, playing golf, learning an instrument, or finally tackling the home renovation they've been postponing for years.
The key is to build a retirement that reflects your priorities rather than someone else's idea of what retirement should look like.
Don't Forget to Leave Room for Doing Nothing
There is another important side to retirement: you don't have to be productive all the time.
After decades of work, it can take time to become comfortable with an unscheduled day. Sitting outside with a coffee, reading a book, taking an afternoon nap, or deciding at the last minute what you want to do can be just as valuable as having a packed schedule.
A successful retirement isn't measured by how many activities you can squeeze into a week. It's measured by whether you have the time, freedom, and financial resources to spend your days in ways that are meaningful to you.
Planning for an Active Retirement
If you expect retirement to be active, remember that your lifestyle choices can affect your retirement budget. Travel, hobbies, dining out, recreational activities, vehicles, memberships, and helping family members can all add to your expenses.
That's why retirement planning should consider more than simply replacing your employment income. You need to think about how you actually want to spend your time and whether your retirement income can support that lifestyle.
Take a look at 101 Best Ways to Spend Retirement for more ideas about how you can make the most of your retirement years.
Conclusion
Retirement may look like a slower pace of life from the outside, but that doesn't mean retirees spend their days doing nothing. Once work disappears from the calendar, hobbies, travel, family, friends, volunteering, home projects, and personal goals can quickly take its place.
And perhaps that's the real surprise: retirement isn't necessarily about having less to do. It's about having more control over what you choose to do.
Whether your ideal retirement is packed with adventures or deliberately slow and relaxed, the goal is the same—create a life that gives you the freedom to spend your time on the things that matter most.
Can I Retire at 55 and Collect Social Security?
by Grant Marsten - November 2024
Retiring at 55 sounds like a dream, doesn't it? For many people, it is an achievable goal—but it requires careful planning because Social Security retirement benefits generally won't be available yet.
If you're hoping to retire at 55, you'll need to create an income bridge that can carry you from your retirement date to the point when Social Security and other retirement benefits become available. The good news is that there are several strategies that can make early retirement possible.
Understanding Social Security Basics
Social Security is an important part of retirement income for millions of Americans. However, retiring from work and claiming Social Security are two separate decisions. You can stop working well before you are eligible to begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits.
For most people, the earliest age to claim Social Security retirement benefits is 62. Claiming before your Full Retirement Age (FRA) permanently reduces your monthly retirement benefit. For people born in 1960 or later, FRA is currently 67.
What Is Full Retirement Age?
Your Full Retirement Age is the age at which you become eligible for your full Social Security retirement benefit based on your earnings record. For people born in 1960 or later, that age is 67.
You don't have to claim Social Security at your Full Retirement Age. You can claim as early as 62, although your benefit will be permanently reduced. Alternatively, you can delay claiming beyond FRA and increase your monthly benefit until age 70.
For example, someone with an FRA of 67 who claims at 62 can receive as much as 30% less than their full retirement benefit. Waiting beyond FRA can have the opposite effect: for people born in 1943 or later, delayed retirement credits increase benefits by 8% for each full year of delay, up to age 70.
Check out our article What Is Social Security? for a deeper look at how the program works.
Can You Collect Social Security at 55?
The short answer is no—not regular Social Security retirement benefits.
Social Security retirement benefits generally cannot begin before age 62. However, there are other types of Social Security benefits that may be available before 62, depending on your circumstances. These include disability benefits and certain survivor benefits.
Social Security Disability Benefits
If you become unable to work because of a qualifying disability, you may be eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), even if you're younger than 62.
Eligibility depends on both your medical condition and your work history. You generally need sufficient work credits and a medical condition that meets Social Security's definition of disability. SSDI is not simply an early-retirement option for someone who wants to stop working at 55—it is a separate benefit program with its own eligibility requirements.
Social Security Survivor Benefits
Survivor benefits are another possible exception. A surviving spouse may generally begin receiving survivor benefits at age 60, or as early as age 50 if disabled. Certain surviving spouses caring for a qualifying child may also qualify regardless of age.
Survivor benefits have their own eligibility rules and benefit calculations, so they shouldn't be confused with standard Social Security retirement benefits.
For more information, see our article Social Security Survivor Benefits.
Financial Challenges of Retiring at 55 Without Social Security
Retiring at 55 means you may have several years to fund before Social Security retirement benefits can begin. Depending on your circumstances, you may need to finance seven years or more before age 62—and potentially much longer if you choose to delay Social Security.
This period is sometimes called the retirement income bridge. Building a bridge between your retirement date and your later sources of guaranteed income is one of the most important parts of an early-retirement plan.
Bridging the Income Gap
Until Social Security begins, you may need to rely on savings, investments, pensions, rental income, or other sources of cash flow.
For example, someone retiring at 55 might combine taxable investment accounts with rental property income to cover living expenses until age 62 or beyond. This can provide flexibility while allowing Social Security benefits to grow if the retiree chooses to delay claiming.
Learn more about this strategy in Rental Properties for Retirement Income.
Early Retirement Account Withdrawals
One of the biggest concerns for someone retiring at 55 is accessing retirement savings without unnecessary penalties.
In general, taxable distributions from retirement accounts before age 59½ can be subject to a 10% additional tax unless an exception applies. One important exception is commonly known as the Rule of 55.
The Rule of 55 can allow penalty-free withdrawals from a qualifying employer retirement plan, such as a 401(k), if you separate from service during or after the calendar year in which you reach age 55. Importantly, this exception generally does not apply to traditional or Roth IRAs.
This distinction matters. Someone retiring at 55 may have access to a 401(k) under the Rule of 55, but rolling that money into an IRA before taking withdrawals could eliminate the ability to use that particular exception.
Another potential strategy is a series of substantially equal periodic payments, sometimes called a 72(t) strategy or SEPP. These arrangements have strict requirements, and changing the payments prematurely can trigger additional taxes.
For more information, see Traditional IRA Withdrawal Rules.
Maximizing Income Without Social Security
Retiring early means getting creative with your income sources. The goal isn't necessarily to maximize income from a single source. Instead, you want to build a combination of assets and income streams that can support your lifestyle throughout retirement.
Investment Strategies
A diversified investment portfolio can provide an important source of retirement income. Depending on your risk tolerance and financial plan, this could include stocks, bonds, cash reserves, and other investments.
Rather than relying solely on dividends or interest, consider your entire portfolio as a potential source of retirement income. A well-designed withdrawal strategy can combine investment income with carefully planned sales of assets.
Learn how different savings levels can affect retirement income with our Retirement Income vs Savings Calculator.
Passive Income Ideas
Rental properties, royalties, business income, and other sources of cash flow can potentially help support an early retirement. However, "passive" income isn't always completely passive. Rental properties, for example, require maintenance, management, insurance, and ongoing expenses.
For another option, explore Best Part-Time Jobs in Retirement.
Using Retirementize
Retiring at 55 requires more than simply knowing how much money you have saved. You need to understand how your savings, investments, pensions, Social Security, taxes, spending, and longevity interact over time.
The Retirementize online retirement calculator can help you model different retirement ages, income sources, withdrawals, and long-term scenarios so you can see how changing one decision may affect the rest of your retirement plan.
How Retiring Early Can Affect Your Social Security Benefit
Retiring at 55 doesn't automatically reduce your Social Security benefit simply because you stopped working. However, stopping work early can affect the calculation of your eventual benefit.
Social Security generally calculates retirement benefits using your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. If you have fewer than 35 years of earnings, years with no earnings are included as zeros. Even if you already have 35 years, working longer can replace lower-earning years with higher-earning years and potentially increase your benefit.
Example: John vs. Linda
Imagine John retires at 55 while Linda continues working until 67.
If John already has 35 strong years of earnings, stopping work at 55 may not create additional zero years in his benefit calculation. Linda, however, may continue replacing lower-earning years with higher-earning years, potentially increasing her eventual benefit.
Linda could also choose to delay claiming Social Security beyond 67, increasing her monthly benefit further. For someone born in 1960 or later, delaying from 67 to 70 can increase the retirement benefit to 124% of the amount payable at FRA.
The important lesson is that retiring early and claiming early are two different decisions. You can retire at 55 and potentially wait until 62, 67, or even 70 before claiming Social Security.
Why Waiting to Claim Social Security May Matter
If you have enough savings to support yourself, delaying Social Security can be a powerful retirement-income strategy.
For people born in 1943 or later, delayed retirement credits increase the retirement benefit by 8% for each year after Full Retirement Age, up to age 70. That increase is applied to your benefit for the rest of your life.
This doesn't automatically mean everyone should wait until 70. Your health, life expectancy, spouse's benefits, tax situation, investment portfolio, cash-flow needs, and personal preferences all matter.
Fun Facts
- Age 62 is the earliest claiming age: Social Security retirement benefits generally cannot begin before age 62.
- FRA can be 67: For people born in 1960 or later, Full Retirement Age is 67.
- Waiting can pay: For people born in 1943 or later, delayed retirement credits increase Social Security retirement benefits by 8% per year after FRA, up to age 70.
- The Rule of 55 isn't an IRA rule: The separation-from-service exception applies to qualifying employer retirement plans, not IRAs.
- Your earnings history matters: Social Security generally uses your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. Years without earnings can count as zeros.
Conclusion
While you generally can't collect regular Social Security retirement benefits at 55, that doesn't mean you can't retire at 55.
The key is creating an income bridge between your retirement date and the point when you choose to begin Social Security. That bridge could include taxable investments, retirement accounts, pensions, rental income, part-time work, or other sources of cash flow.
It's also important to understand the difference between retiring early and claiming Social Security early. You can retire at 55 and potentially delay Social Security until 62, Full Retirement Age, or 70, depending on your financial situation.
With careful planning, retiring at 55 can be more than a dream. The challenge is making sure your money can support you through the years before Social Security begins—and throughout the decades that follow.
Explore related Retirementize articles such as Retirement Savings Magic Number and Four Percent Rule for additional retirement-planning strategies.
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