I come from a middle class background and I haven't personally seen what retirement based on your own savings looks like. My grandparents lived off of social security, my parents are living off of a combination of pensions, social security, my mom sort of working as a consultant when she gets bored and generous company stock benefits from when my dad was working as are most of my relatives of that generation.
Because of a lot of dumb decisions made earlier in life, my retirement savings are relatively meager. But on the other hand, I don't dream of the day that I can retire. My job as a software developer is not physically demanding and my job was my hobby for 10 years before I started working professionally. In 20 years of working, I've never hated my career. I imagine retirement for me to be doing contracting/consulting/ teaching part of the year instead of working for a full year.
I wouldn't need to retire to enjoy my hobbies -- I enjoy my hobbies everyday and get paid for it. My only other hobby is exercise and I don't need to retire to enjoy that.
Because of a lot of dumb decisions made earlier in life, my retirement savings are relatively meager. But on the other hand, I don't dream of the day that I can retire. My job as a software developer is not physically demanding and my job was my hobby for 10 years before I started working professionally. In 20 years of working, I've never hated my career. I imagine retirement for me to be doing contracting/consulting/ teaching part of the year instead of working for a full year.
I wouldn't need to retire to enjoy my hobbies -- I enjoy my hobbies everyday and get paid for it. My only other hobby is exercise and I don't need to retire to enjoy that.