Times have changed since I was a kid. Of course, as a Baby Boomer, there was a belief back then that you worked until 65, retired, collected Social Security, and spent the rest of your life enjoying retirement.
Yet, as the years passed and I became middle-aged, people started living longer, working differently, starting businesses later in life, and thinking much more about what they actually wanted their lives to look like.
Now a senior citizen, times have indeed changed!
A recent Business Insider article profiled Americans on both ends of the spectrum. Some are trying to become financially independent in their 30s and 40s. Others are still happily working well into their 70s and 80s. I happen to be one of the latter, though I am glad to report I am still a few years away from 70.
One man featured in the article is still driving a school bus at 82. What started as a financial necessity eventually became something that gave him purpose, connection, and a sense that he was making a difference.
That raises an important question: Why do we assume that retirement has to happen at a certain age?
For some people, retirement cannot come soon enough. They have spent decades working, saving, raising families, building businesses, and meeting obligations. When they reach financial independence, they want their time back. They want to live life, not work for the “man,” and simply be free to wake up when they want, do what they want, and decide how they want to spend their time.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But there are also people who discover that they do not actually want to stop working. They may want to work less, choose their clients, consult, mentor younger people, start another business, or simply remain productive. It gives them purpose.
This is where I think the traditional retirement conversation misses the point.
The goal should not necessarily be to stop working.
The goal should be to reach the point where working becomes a choice.
Of course, there is a major difference between someone working at 72 because they have to and someone working at 72 because they want to. Good financial planning should help create that distinction. It should give you options.
Maybe you want to work only three days a week. Maybe you want to sell your business and do something entirely different.
I remember a story about the CEO of a major corporation who retired and started playing golf every day. That was his dream! Then reality struck him: he wasn’t finding much purpose in it. So, he decided to open his own bakery.
Or maybe you keep doing exactly what you are doing because you truly enjoy doing it.
I also think people underestimate how much purpose work can provide. A career gives us structure, relationships, identity, responsibility, and a reason to get up in the morning. Removing all of that overnight can be a bigger adjustment than many people expect.
That does not mean we should work forever. It means retirement planning should involve more than asking whether the numbers work. We should also ask what life is supposed to look like after the paycheck stops.
I have told numerous clients, colleagues, family, and friends that if you do retire, have a purpose.
This is especially important for business owners. The challenge for many of them is that they miss running the business and facing the kinds of challenges that gave them purpose before retirement. In many family-run operations, some former owners still show up at work just to check in, see how everyone is doing, and remain connected to something they spent years building.
So perhaps the better retirement question is not, “What age should I retire?”
Perhaps it is, “At what point do I want work to become optional?” And, more importantly, “What do I want to do when it does?”
As I said earlier, there is no single correct answer anymore.
Someone may decide they are finished at 55. Someone else may still be working at 80 because they enjoy what they do. Neither is necessarily right or wrong.
Retirement today is becoming less about reaching an arbitrary age when society says it is time to retire, and more about having enough financial independence to design the next stage of life on your own terms.
That, in my opinion, is what successful retirement planning should ultimately provide.
Not an expiration date on your career, and certainly not permission from society, family, or friends to decide when you should stop working.
It’s your life. Live it.
You only have one life.