I sort of answered this in the 'where would you retire' thread but here is a bit more on how I feel about retirement.
There was a time (a long time in fact) where we earn't an awful lot of money. We had 'stuff' and we did 'things' but it was at the expense of a real life. There are only so many expensive cars, watches and holidays that you can have before they become run of the mill.
When I was 42 (MD of a reasonable sized business) and my wife was 35 (finance manager) we hatched a plan to quit the rat race. This involved murdering the mortgage, credit cards, loans etc (the more you earn the more you borrow) over a 3 year period and then quitting our careers.
Well, we zeroed the debt as planned and to this day 10 years later we still have precisely nothing.
We always knew we would have to generate some income. We have a stash invested for later life and don't want to dip into it now, So we worked out what to do. I set up a small easily managed business and my wife took up a part-time position.
Neither of us much fancy doing nothing any more. We like our different job-orientated social networks and would be loathe to give them up.
What helps is that our business/employment is not as essential as it used to be and that takes huge pressure off of us - so I guess that is why we are relaxed in our occupations now. Plus of course we do not have to work full-time or anywhere near any more.
So to answer the OP: nope, retirement is not for us - at least whilst we have our health and sanity!
