Retiring with friends is a reality for these group of women

While most of us could only dream of living in a mansion, this group of friends in China just made it their reality. Retiring with friends is something most of us may not consider, but for these women, it was meant to be.

It all started as a joke. In 2008, seven friends gathered and said they would live the retired life together when they turned 60. Back then, nobody took it seriously – the statement was all made in good fun.

“[At first] it was just a joke,” the girlfriends express in a YouTube video shared by media startup Yitiao, showcasing their recently acquired 7,535-square-foot house located in the suburbs of Guangzhou, a major city in southeastern China near Hong Kong.

“We [said that we] would get together when we were 60 and live the retired life together.”

Fast forward to a decade later, the friendship fantasy became a reality. Using their pooled money, the girlfriends built their 7,535-square-foot retirement home in a quaint natural village, roughly 70 kilometers away from Guangzhou’s city center.

The beautiful mansion has a large communal space on the ground floor and seven rooms for each of the ladies on the floors above.

The women, who are all in their 30s, met at work and have been best friends ever since.

“We’ve known each other for over 20 years. We were colleagues, and sometimes we are even closer than siblings,” said one of the girlfriends in a video posted on YouTube featuring their story.

When they returned to Guangzhou, they looked for a place in the suburban areas and found a dilapidated red brick house.

Situated amidst lush paddy fields, the impressive estate spans three and a half stories. The ground floor boasts inviting communal areas, while the upper level houses individual bedrooms for each of the ladies.

They kept its Rome pillars and spent a total of 4 million yuan on renovating this house into the glass-coated mansion of their dreams.

The three-and-a-half-story home is complete with a long dining table for group meals, huge tatami mats for gatherings, and a massive open kitchen.

Furniture that they’ve collected from India and Morocco is also on display throughout the estate.

Outside there is a swimming pool and a tea pavilion – as they are all tea lovers – connected to the mansion via a bamboo walkway.

“We’ll probably cook together, barbecue in the fields, sing, and collect food in the village. We joke that each of us should practice one skill so that we won’t be lonely and fight with each other 10 years later … Some can cook beautiful food, some know traditional Chinese medicine, some play instruments, and some grow vegetables,” the friends said.

“Ten or 15 years later our children might have grown up,” the friends added, “so we also hope that we can still be together in the next years.”

Their setup reminds us of the Golden Girls TV show, where a group of 4 senior women decided to live in one house. It became a sanctuary for the women who were gracefully aging with wisdom and lots of humor.

So is retiring with friends for you? Sounds like an excellent plan!

Watch the video below to learn more about this story.