This poll is for readers 65 years and older. We know many of you work as you travel, but we don’t really know if it’s by choice or necessity. Work camping is a big deal these days, whether serving as a host at a campground or RV park for free rent and maybe a little money, or working the holiday season at an Amazon warehouse.
If you work, why? And please leave a comment about your circumstances. If you work by choice, not necessity, is it just something to do, or … why?
Again, a reminder. If you have a slow internet connection, it may take a few moments for the poll to load.
##RVT996b
Retired early. Don’t consider myself rich, just better off than my parents were. Live on a small Pension and decent SS plus haven’t drawn on my annuity or 401k savings yet. Sold the big house and downsized putting the cash in the bank for travel. Don’t use the term fortunate when I think of my situation. I planned, received a good education, saved, worked hard, and am frugal. Could return to work if I cared to but don’t.
Work – no. Been fully retired since 2000. I set monetary goals when I was in my 30’s and have met them all. Navy retirement, Social Security, and good savings plan help me maintain a very nice life style. Also, quitting smoking and giving up alcohol have added at least $100.00 a week to the pot (based on today’s value of booze and smokes).
Just learned to live with in our means. Not rich just able to live and enjoy life.
Retired and able to self sustain. Saved like crazy when working and the effort has paid off for us.
NO I don’t drink or smoke which saves a lot of money
As of the moment, I’m retired. Wife is working for another 2 years. 2024, we will both be retired and begin pulling from the IRA’s. That income will be over what we are bringing in now.
Don’t work. Pension , SS, planned savings for a lot of yrs has made it possible for us to travel and enjoy life. Been fully retired for 15 yrs.
Need to work, no. But, I have had several different jobs over the last 9 yrs when I get bored. Not working right now.
The only reason I do not have to work is the financial assistance I get from my daughter and her husband. Her logic was wonderful: she and he said I supported her for many years and now it is her chance to repay the gesture.
Retired in 2018, wife is retiring in May of this year. We are going to start our full time RV adventure in July going to Florida. From there, who knows. We will take it one day at a time. We are looking at living on our SS, so we will be budgeting to live within our means. If something came up to work a PT gig, might do it just for extra income.
We own our own Carbide Cutting tool Distributorship. We have our own lines of Carbide End Mills. We love what we do and have no intention of fully retiring. Our work is challenging at times and keeps us mentally stimulated, which we consider to be a great side effect! It is one of the few jobs that I know of that we can do from anywhere we are. So, while we don’t actually need the money, it is a great feeling to be able to do what we want, any time we want!
Good financial planning has kept us going for 20+ years. Wife (75) and I (83) both have SS, Retirement pensions and I am retired military. We also have an outstanding Financial Planner that has helped us maintain our “alternative lifestyle” of RVing full-time fiscally sound. After many, many years of hard work and sound financial planning we are able to RV without working. I will say though that in years past (when we were a heck of a lot younger) we did work-camp; more for the enjoyment than money.
Don’t know yet. Wife is retired, I quit at 63.5 and plan to travel. Believe we have enough until I retire and start drawing on my retirement accounts.
Neither of us smoked or lived extravagantly while working and were able to save. Put three kids through college and paid off the mortgage and now have a comfortable retirement. Modest life + planning = happy retirement.
Got more pocket change now than when worked everyday. waiting for the “GOLDEN” years to start, got years in but no gold. Just keeping on keeping on and enjoing what is left.
How about a simple “No” as an option?
We planned our retirement, savings, investments while we were young. Raised a family and retired at 55. Yes, it can be done! Happy trails!
We have been retired for 11 years – no need to work due to careful planning and saving – very blessed!
Not 65 yet but we have been retired since ’17.
Switched from paychecks to RE investment income. When collecting rent gets old we can turn it all over to a manager or cash out the equity. Probably keep the RE forever. Tax consequences of death are better than cap gains…
Spent 40 years working and paying 100% of my bills to retire at age 60. Invested very wisely resulting in comfortable retired lifestyle……
Do to the Grace of God and some good luck, early investing in the stock market, Social Security and some inheritance we have a good steady income stream and do not have to work . This removes the stress of ” how are we going to make it ” Happy Camping !
We don’t need to work at this point to make ends meet. We’re pretty frugal and manage to live on military retirement, VA disability and Social Security.
Prudent savings, plus the Canada Pension Plan, into which we paid all of our working years, and we are comfortable. Not wealthy, but comfortable.
I’m retired and don’t work because my younger wife is still working. We’re saving for the day we will both be retired.
Thankfully, my wife and I both receive pensions from our previous employer as well as Social Security. We both have received some inheritances from our parents, nothing staggering, but helpful nonetheless. Our stick-n-brick home is paid for as is all of our vehicles. We are doubling the payments on our 5th wheel and getting close to paying it off. I, or we, occasionally take on odd jobs in the area where we live; some of of the jobs pay, some don’t. Mainly it keeps us busy and hopefully helps a few people along the way. We are blessed beyond measure and do our best to never forget it.
No. We lived “below our means” for many years in order to retire comfortably. So far, it’s working, but we are not foolish enough to think tomorrow won’t be different. We still live below our means, because we are used to it. Also, we preach this approach to our kids and hope it sinks in to their plans. I think it is something we made happen after the nest was empty. At that point, preparing to retire is the last step. Ya gotta have a plan ’cause there is a tomorrow.
While not rolling in extra money, wise use if those limited funds allow us to live comfortably. We purchased our RV by taking out a low interest loan on our house. Short term and pay extra on the principal each month, making the loan pay off much sooner.
Retired at 50, in 96, and went to Alaska in 97, 80 days and 12000 miles. On way back thru Jackson Hole started working at the Virginian RV Park. Went back for about 17 years working there or Bar J Chuckwagon. Would travel some then end up in Apache Jct, AZ for winters. Took 2 more trips to Alaska then back to Virginian. Met lots of people and made several friends and visited cousins and friends along the way.
Not rich but got enough to travel. Bought 3 new trucks and 2 campers and drove over 600,000 miles in 20 years. Most of these miles driving around the Tetons and Yellowstone in summers.
We got paid to work, with campsite, and didn’t spend my retirement until way into winter. Now we’ve settled down with a home and smaller camper but still travel to Wyoming every fall.
No. And “No” should have been one of the survey responses.
My wife and I retired in 2016 and worked part time for 3 years. Now we don’t work and are doing fine. Not rich but we manage to do what we want.
Retired at 62 because no one knows when the grim reaper will show up, and I wanted to share in the fun of picking and choosing when and where and how you want to spend your day. It only took me 44yrs. to get to retirement and I earned it, saved a little on the way, not rich by any means but content with life
Same here. Wholeheartedly agree! 👍
I was offered a tele-commuting job working a Help Desk, my hours, my days, committed to working 10 hours a week. This was a no brainer.
We are blessed in that we have enough retirement income to make it fairly comfortably. We have to be careful and not spend much on extras.
I am 86 years old and finally retired completely 4 years ago. Worked part time after first retirement for 17 years to supplement SS and pensions. Now we just spend less to make ends meet.
We retired two years apart, at 66 and 67. With our Social Security, my pension and good investment planning when we were young, and not going overboard on spending, we are actually better off now that when we were working. Expenses are down, the house and TT are paid for. I can do most of the remodeling to the house and that saves by not paying others to do it.
We instilled this type thinking in my daughter. She is well on her way to a comfortable retirement.
If younger people would only save part of their paychecks for retirement, instead of blowing it on big money items, they could also live comfortably during retirement.
PS: After working most of my life, 53 years, I have no desire to work again.
We are 68 years old, retired and have been full-timing for 2 1/2 years. We have enough to get by relatively comfortably with what we have. However, we decided to work camp this season just to try it out for something to do. As a side benefit, we put together a plan to add to our retirement nest egg and pay off all credit card debt during this gig.
I must admit, the work is harder (more physical) than I anticipated but I am committed to finish the contracted season. When we are done, we will kick back, travel for a month in the direction of where we will winter over this next year. Not sure I want to do this again unless it’s an easier gig. The money is good but ………..
I was lucky enough to have two careers, both of which resulted in generous pensions. So the answer is no – we have all we need and don’t work any more.
I do volunteer work that gives me free rv sites to offset expenses during the winter.
How was “No” not a choice?
No
I retired 6 years ago. However, my wife is still running her CPA office and I am unable to convince her to join me. Perhaps she’s avoiding spending that much time with me; she won’t say. Also, if they keep extending the tax filing deadline we’ll never have time to go anywhere.
We’ve always saved for our retirement and our nest egg is substantial and secure. If only we could get the kids to follow our example, we’d sleep better.
Last year we managed one trip between tax and forest fire seasons. I’m always hopeful, but they’re predicting a long fire season in CO this year too.
Our RV is fitted with enough solar and battery for off-grid living and makes campground crowding a minor issue for us. But, forest fire smoke can still be a big problem.
I enjoy working on older cars that no one wants to be bothered with. This includes projects that have stalled. I have the owner help along the way. This teaches them the ins and outs of their vehicle and gives a sense of pride that they helped to get it done. I only ask for gas expense.
This lifestyle is not cheap when it comes to issues with your RV. So, it is always good to have a reserve handy when problems arise! Also, when you have worked hard all your life, it is hard not to keep doing something. We are at Yellowstone NP now and what a beautiful place to work!
The answer today is NO, however, we’ve already seen what 2008-2.0 looks like with higher fuel prices, groceries, rent, home prices, income taxes and general inflation. No telling what is instore for the coming 4 years.
We’ve been retired for 6yrs now and have sufficient funds to take care of our needs. We are so blessed. Medical is taking a quarter of our income but being full timers we do well.
Don’t need to work as we put together a 5 year plan to retire when I was 56 and she was 49. Been living the good life for 17 years now. the first 8 were as full timers in our Winnebago Journey pulling our Jeep around the southwest going to 4 wheel drive rallies. Everyday is a vacation day for us.
No work. I worked hard for my money, now it works hard for me. And I don’t have to watch what I spend like I hear from so many other Rvers.
Luckily, neither my wife nor I have to work since retiring 12 yrs ago.
Both my wife and I are retired, however I do choose to still work part-time to able to afford the newer camper we purchased back in October, a little larger and a little more expensive. It’s only 3 nights a week, in the middle of the week, so that gives us the weekend and Monday to go camping all around Florida. If we had chosen not to buy a camper and be stay at home bodies, then no I wouldn’t need to work part-time.
We (72/68) were able to put the legal maximum in retirement funds for years and lived well within our means until 2014. With SS and pensions, we haven’t touched the retirement funds (except for RMD) and have a comfortable life. Grateful every day!
I’m in a similar situation, but I volunteer five days a week at a local Humane Society. It gives structure to my days. I feel very fortunate.
In our 70’s, we were of a generation of hard workers and doing what we could to get ahead. We both started out dirt poor and used the military to lift us up. Through it we obtained more education and better jobs when we got out. We now have enough to enjoy our RV full time, do everything we want to do and still have some to leave to the kids. We have our Covid shots and life is good. We travel rural away from big cities. We stay away from news and politics as best as we can.
After 58 years starting at 14 as a caddy on a golf course and finalizing as a school bus driver with several professions in between I decided if if can’t live on a GM pension and SS I’d starve to death, so far I’m a long way from looking like I’m starving. Lol
PS I’m 78 now.
Both of us have been retired 10 years now. Neither of us work. Our motto is, “There is no shame in being poor”. We both came from good poor economic stock and not ashamed of that. We adjust to our financial level and really do fine. Medical expenses in the US are the real threat though.
While my retirement plans got serious torched by the abrogation, we survive. I had a small business that was based on discretionary income. That died at that time. We just have to plan very carefully for our RVing to afford the expense. It seems I have lived most of my life at the bottom right corner of a spreadsheet. We get by.
It’s called retirement for a reason. I just don’t have the time for work anymore. Too much to see and do!
do not work
No, I don’t need to work. I was very fortunate when I did work and with fortunate investments I was able to retire at age 49. We are able to save a little and spend a lot. Now in our late 70’s we still have our health and travel in our Motor Home five months of the year. Stay safe, Stay well, Safe travels
No worky here.
We are fortunate enough to have a pension, combined with social security, that lets us go about our full-timing lifestyle without worrying about income.
As in the words of the immortal Maynard G Krebs…”work? I deny it’s bitter existence!”
But seriously we live on our SS but each year we return to Hillcrest Christmas Tree Farm from the last weekend in Nov to the 1st of Jan and don our suits as Mr. and Mrs. S Claus. Mainly for the enjoyment of the children. We get paid a small fee because those who live in this area are not well to do.
Happy RVing and hope to see you down the road!
One of the things my father did when I was a newly-married 20-something was to harp on me about saving and investing, living below our means, take full advantage of employee 401K offerings and match, and invest in an IRA. Now 67, my wife (65) and I are comfortably retired and enjoying the fruits of our labors. We don’t have to work, although I would like to try a 2-3 month stint as a campground host at a Federal or State park, just for the opportunity. Wife is not convinced though.
Why not a “no” option? We are blessed. Years of both of us working in Silicon Valley allowed us to retire 20 yrs ago. We aren’t extravagant, though. If blessed to live a long life want to make sure we have money to keep us comfortable & ability to live out our years at home.
I’ve been retired from the U.S. Air Force for 28 years, fully retired for 7 years, and my wife still works (for another five years). So we have my military retirement & Social Security, and her income.
No, we don’t need to work.
Don’t need to work to make ends meet, but just have to watch spending.
Don’t need to work, don’t want to work!
I don’t need to work as both my wife and I have retirement money plus our past investments.
No (that should have been an option).
Nope, but willing to volunteer once the pandemic is over.
I don’t need to work.
No i don’t work. Did for 2 building seasons for Habitat for humanity. Getting too old for that. Live well on pension and S.S. My RMD pays my property taxes. 1/2 of each stimulus checks went to Feeding America.
We retired early with very good pensions and investments so do not need to work. As a retired nurse i am very glad i managed to retire before covid hit
We’re “retired” with 2 pensions and ss. We don’t need to work but camp hosting from April to October allows us to be in the best areas of the country (weather wise) with a guaranteed FHU spot in a primo park, during the peak season when just finding an open spot is a problem. It keeps our bones somewhat active without the burn out. The rest of the year we spend boondocking all over the west with stops in Arizona and Colorado to visit kids/grandkids. Not stopping anytime soon!
We do not need additional income to make ends meet. However, workcamping provides a way to soften the cost of camping, and allows us to give back, remain active, and see the country. Priceless.
Neither my husband nor I work. I have a small craft business, that might buy a cup of coffee somewhere!
No, we are comfortable without any fancy stuff.
I’m not a full-timer. I live in a condo but go on extended trips in my Class C RV (when possible). My social security covers my condo mortgage (after recent refinancing). Rental income from a house I bought years ago provides for my other expenses. I worked until age 75 then retired to stay safe from COVID-19.
All play. No work for $$$. Volunteer at local food bank for social ties.
No need to work any longer, pensions and rental property incomes supports our life style along with part time RVing in our motorhome.
Volunteer is enough for me now.
I’m VERY fortunate that for 30+ years, I worked in a Civil Service job that now provides me with a fixed pension, something VERY few of today’s workers have. After selling my “stick & brick” several years ago along with the fact that I live simply, I can easily “make ends meet” and therefore do not NEED to work. If something attractive came along, I would certainly consider it but, I can live a good life without HAVING to work.
No I don’t need to work, however I also don’t just spend. I am always researching before I just purchase. Like my dad use to say “Money doesn’t grow on trees” and I can’t believe it but he was right.
Military retiree for 31 years, wife has a small pension, we both have SS. Do some volunteer work. Don’t need other jobs, nor want them. We own our home and vehicles. No bills except normal monthly things, insurance, utilities, etc. We’re happy.
No working for us. I was a financial planner and we are living the plan. Plenty of assets to provide whatever we want. We considered Workcamping, but didn’t want to be tied to one place for so long. We have settled into Jojoba Hills SKP Resort where we both spend a lot of our time contributing to the resort with our work on several committee as volunteers. We are free to take off when we choose.
No need to work at this time. We are over 70 and have pensions and investments that provide ok monthly income with our SS. We are not traveling around the world for a year but we can travel around North America, once COVID allows, as we want. Wouldn’t mind working a summer in a park someday, but that’s all.
Since COVID we do not work. Fully Retired and do not need any extra income to pay our bills.
Happily retired since the age of 62 ! Do not work, the wife still does work though. She loves her job and the money is good so we live comfortably.
Retired. No mortgage. No debt except for paid-in-full, monthly expenses. Extremely pleased I invested in my future years ago and am now reaping the rewards.
No. I have worked long enough and my income is adequate for my needs – plus I can help others.
Both of us were able to retire early. We are debt free and can manage well with our SS incomes. Have investments that sometimes work well and cash stashed in other places that we can get to if needed. Have many hobbies, travel with RV whenever/wherever we want, still have sticks and bricks…life is good! Don’t miss going to work!
We are living on SS but it doesn’t quite cover everything. Our retirement accounts will probably last as long as we will, but in order to not deplete them will get a little part-time work.
Doing ok with retirement funds. Hope to volunteer to give back to community when and if I heal up from hip surgeries.
Started outside the home at 14 pumping gas. Mowed for landscaper. Moved furniture nights and weekends through college. Worked a career for 36 years. Maintained 1-2 side businesses throughout; flipping houses; remodeling; earth moving; rental equipment; rental houses; mechanical work. Invested when I could. Never got a trophy just for showing up. Got spanked for doing mean things. Left home and never moved back. Found my own loans without co-signers. Found legal and monetary advisers for myself and parents.
Wife worked in a bank. Had a shoe store. Raised two successful boys. Ran a business out of the home, as well as run the house.
Never took a penny of Government money. We WORKED!
Retired to full timing. We earned the right to not work. Any work I do now is volunteer.
I don’t need to work but if I could not travel in the motorhome I would probably find something to do either work or volunteer to keep from getting bored.
Don’t need to work, and don’t want to work.
Both fully retired at 68. Retired military pension and SS. Invested wisely with a strong market. House and motor home paid for. DH volunteers with USCG Auxiliary. All is well. Plenty of resources.
Don’t need to work. Don’t want to work. Been there, done that. Plenty of hobbies to keep me entertained, travel not the least of them.
Happy to be retired, and just enjoying our travels! We have no desire to work at all, and pension and SS are enough! We are full timers and know how to budget. Happy Trails 😊
We don’t need to work in retirement. (For the poll.)
I get a lot of help from my friends.
Ok, why did a question that starts “Do you” but didn’t have a NO as an option? I have a sign that say, “I’m retired. Stop asking me to do things” ! What’s the point of retiring if you have to continue to work, to just change jobs?
Yes Roy, ” I agree”!
Occasionally we will do work kamping if the job seems fun and doesn’t require working so many hours that we can’t get away to see sights, etc.
No I don’t need to work. My expenses and income are in balance.
Don’t need the money but I occasionally work part-time for my last employer creating training materials for the sales team.
Don’t necessarily need the money but working on a grant proposal project for a children’s hospital.
I worked too many years in my life not to enjoy retirement. retired and not tied down to a job allows you to travel when, where, and as long as you wish.
No.
nope. happily retired from my profession, from my retirement y part-time job and from my retirement part-time volunteer position.
Don’t need to work. No desire to do that anymore. Enjoying life. Budget is small, and hope to keep it that way.
We could get along without the money, but we wouldn’t be able to support our motorhome.
Worked for a few years as a campground host and in maintenance after retiring in 2014. Stopped working after 2018. Now enjoying my retirement. Any ‘work’ I do now is to help friends with what they need done. Especially those that are older and need the assistance.
We are fortunate enough to be able to live on our retirement income so we don’t have to look for work on the road. When we are parked in one place for a few months (winter) I like to volunteer in the local library.
Dont need to work during Retirement. Budget is not as much as I would like but neither of us need work.
Thankful that we don’t have to work to meet our daily needs!
Not yet and with luck I won’t need to work but who knows what the future holds.
Retired a few years ago. I’ll soon be 65. Don’t have to work unless I decide to take out a big loan to buy something. As of now, everything is paid for.
Just retired. Have my military retirement and my state retirement both medical benefits and SS starting and the wife starts with her SS in less 6 months. We should be good to go. I look forward to part time work and enjoy grand kids and travel taking them along when possible.
Since retiring we have been too busy to consider work other than around the house. Yes it would be fun to do a job that we could meet new people but we both see doing that as taking a job from those that need it. It feels good just to “work” on projects that have needed doing for the last 50 years while we were at work.
We need jobs but having to be realistic, I CAN”T work, physical condition isn’t even up for a 4 hr shift as a Walmart greeter. I’ve exhausted my 403b pension, DH most of his, since our health was too bad even before we were 62 and had to dip into principal, not just earnings.
Don’t need to work. I planned for retirement in 1973. Investments paid off as planned. Some folks, “live to work, and some of us, work or live”.
Fortunately my retirement income is sufficient that I can enjoy the RV lifestyle and travel.
With a small retirement, SS, IRAs and Medicare – our finances up to this point are sufficient. We’re in our young 70’s and looking forward to many more years of an active lifestyle.
DH just went back to work 2x month, used to work 2x week. I planned to work till 65 but health was poor. I went part time at 61. Retired at 64. At 61 I had to access my 403B plan to pay for health insurance. Then we ran out of Cobra time and had to go into debt for medical issues. When Obama Care came in our health problems got worse. We travelled a little bit in 2014, and 2016, on Amtrak and staying in AYHI hostels. I bought my camper in 2016,with a small inheritance. It’s beginning to seem like DH is hospitalized in even years. I am hospitalized in odd years. Our retirement savings are gone- we are living on SS we both accessed at age 62. My 403B cashed out in 2020. There is no alternative to putting the health care not covered by Medicare and Medicare replacement on credit cards. There are no drs who do compassionate charging unless you go thru the health department, and they will verify all your income sources- Florida requires assets under $3,000 and monthly income less than ours.
No need to work. We have all we need and then some. Life is good!
Would like to but physically cant so we make do with my money wizard wife and we enjoy
Retired with sufficient retirement funds to maintain our RV travels and lifestyle without working.
The same for us. We were lucky to have great pensions and generous 401Ks.
Health insurance.
Not currently working for pay – although I did do some consulting until recently. We didn’t need the money but the extra bump was nice. Now I volunteer. I like to keep my mind active and learn new things. Would not do anything that interfered with our travel plans.
Retiring in 3 weeks! Woo Hoo! Hubby retiring in August. We hit the road full-time the end of September! We both have great pensions and investments to be able to live comfortably in retirement without working. Ready to join this wonderful community and enjoy the journey! Hope to see all of you on the road. 😀
49 years was enough for me, if I can’t make it now I may as well quit life. Although it was difficult to slow down and settle in, we are adjusting. And with this wonder
Don’t work. 74 and enjoying life.
Have a good retirement. But after I retired we worked in Jackson Hole for about 18 summers in a campground.
Worked at a golf course for 3 years as a ranger/starte/front desk for something to do , after retiring at 64, but quit after they wanted me to work weekends. Didn’t need the money, it was enjoyable and free golf. Enjoying my retirement now.
No, we live off our pensions and investment income, but it’s only been 2 years. So you never know, we might just have to go back to work one day to keep us in the lifestyle we love (or move in with the kids).
I worked long enough, and for the Postal Service. Happily retired and never looking back.
strictly speaking, we could get by on SS, but we workamp so we can enjoy eating out regularly and buying whimsical things when we want.