Exhausted by performative capitalism? There’s now a retirement home for the under-30s

From working from home to retiring to Malaysia, the step is shorter than it seems — especially if you’ve already burned through all your vacation days before the end of the month and are beginning to suspect that you may never even glimpse retirement. Thus the Gen-Z Retirement Home was born: a retreat designed for young adults “exhausted by modernity” who want to take a break from performance capitalism — or at least find a soft cushion to collapse onto after yet another deadline.

A “retirement home” for the under-30s, designed for those who already feel exhausted before they’ve even properly begun. The Gen-Z Retirement Home promises silence, slower rhythms, shared but unobtrusive spaces, light activities, a temporary reprieve from the daily grind — even the luxury of unstructured time.

The center is located in Gopeng, in the Malaysian state of Perak, a few kilometers from Ipoh, on an eight-acre plot surrounded by greenery (over 34,000 square meters). The monthly fee is around 2,000 ringgit — between $430 and $490 — including accommodation and three meals a day. The project is the brainchild of an exhausted 25-year-old. The heir to a family-run elderly care business, he chose to overturn the existing model and adapt it to his own generation, transforming retirement from an age-based milestone into an early desire for suspension.

If the idea of “retirement at 28” raises a smile, the numbers are less amusing. According to Deloitte’s Global 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, about four in ten young people report feeling stressed “almost always or often,” citing work and finances as their main sources of anxiety. Several analyses reported by Forbes point to even higher rates of burnout-related symptoms among Gen Z workers.

It is therefore hardly surprising that the facility sold out almost immediately. Apparently, you no longer need white hair — or Engineer Fantozzi’s bad back — to feel the need for a break.