Has My Heath Suffered in Early Retirement?

I saw the below article the other day and just wanted to put out a short post to re-assure folks. If you’re concerned early retirement might lead to ill health, our experience, after retiring a decade ago aged 43, shows it’s not all doom and gloom.

You may have come across news articles like the one above. Or heard anecdotes about someone retiring and passing away months later. I’m ten years into early retirement. Before we pulled the trigger though, and left the world of work behind, the question of retirement health worried me a lot. A decade of experience has taught me this: you don’t need to worry about this folks.

The reason being: your mental and physical health are (luck aside) in your hands, not in the lap of the Early Retirement Gods. Take a shuftee at these two pictures of me:

The one on the right is me aged 42, a year before we retired. The one on the left was taken a few months ago, aged 52 and nine years into early retirement. I personally feel I look better in retirement, ignoring that rapidly greying wilderness exploding from my chin. I definitely feel better!

Don’t get me wrong: staying mentally and physically healthy is not easy. It’s an ongoing challenge. In that gap between the two pictures, during which I was retired, I put on much more weight and, at times, found myself fending off the black dog of depression. Being in the incredible position of retiring early won’t necessarily make you happy and fulfilled, but in time I sorted myself out. Work at it, and retirement won’t shorten your life, probably the exact opposite in my case.

For my mental health I’ve read widely over time, which has proved very useful. I got immense value from books such as Man’s Search for Meaning and The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly (both books I need to read again thinking about it). Simon Sinke’s Start with Why was very handy too, providing the spark of inspiration which led to me taking up running again after a twenty year break. Factfulness provided a sense of calming perspective on the world, and provided powerful tools for me to navigate the endless negativity in the media.

I enjoy continuing to play around with IT too, currently dabbling with AI tools. Working with Ju we’ve written hundreds of blog posts and a series of books, which have provided more mental stimulation. Ju has spent years studying Spanish, which has helped keep her sharp too, a habit I’ve utterly failed to adopt!

In terms of physical health, the enjoyment of training and competing reinvigorated me. For one thing, it took the shine off drinking (the hangovers were lasting for days, making any kind of semi-serious training impossible). I’ve not drunk in seven years now. I can’t say I miss it and I suspect my body doesn’t either. I lost around 15Kg in body fat and my trousers shrank from 38″ to 32″. I can’t outrun the younger lads, but I’ve managed a 3:01 marathon (so close!) and have gone under 17:30 for 5k. Not bad times for a man in his 50s.

Reiterating the point: we all need a degree of luck to stay healthy but beyond that it’s in our hands. Early retirement in itself won’t make you ill or shorten your life, if you’re willing to work at it – and the beauty of retirement is that you have more time to work at it.

I should add: I know circumstances are important. If you’re forced into early retirement with insufficient income, toxic relationships or already have poor health, that’s a very different situation to the one I was in. I acknowledge that. But if early retirement is something you want to do and are financially well prepped for, then I don’t think you should put it off in case it detracts from your health.

With a strong focus on your physical health, the health of your relationships with loved ones, a good social network (whatever that means to you) and a sense of purpose in life, you can and will thrive.

Cheers, Jay