I'm 6 years off receiving a state pension ( UK ) but my lifelong retirement plan was work my way up the property ladder and renovate a house, make it lovely and do b&b when or if I could no longer work, because I knew I couldn't earn enough money being freelance to put retirement money away, I've been living hand to mouth for years!
I finally bought a 6 bedroom house with a 2 acre garden age 58 and made it look like a palace with a lot of back breaking work, alongside my regular job and also launching a new business,!!!! I got Ill with exhaustion, fell off a ladder and broke all my toes, and had to stop b&b, just then I received an inheritance which provided me with a subsistance income, plus, I discovered a small private pension it didn't know I had!!!
This past year the UK gov has taken care of me because I can't work due to covid! So I have effectively been retired and living in a palace!!!
I Can't believe my luck! I'm far from wealthy, but not having to worry about paying the bills makes me feel like a millionaire!
However.....after a lifetime of working like a donkey most of it alone and being financially insecure, it can't get used to this soft life with no demands on me! I'm not short of ideas of how to fill my time, but I feel suddenly rudderless, and to be honest, a bit bored!
I realise how lucky I am, and I would no way want to revert back to worrying about money all the time, but being poor forces you into challenges you'd rather not undertake but yield great results, I have come to the conclusion that God makes life hard for some of us to force us to find our potential and grow spiritually too.
Im now wondering if having it all is another challenge!?