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I am coming up with a new word - generiatric - old fart, no other label...
A friend of mine turns segmented vases as a hobby. I mean really nice intricate ones made from over 1,000 pieces. His house is full of them. All of his relatives have a couple as do many friends. It was almost like an intervention for a few of us to convince him to get them in galleries. I haven't seen him in a while, so I am not sure how that is going but I think he is making decent money from it. IMO, he is still retired.
That was always my point. What others see you as doing has no bearing on your retirement status. It is what your own personal viewpoint is that matters. Back when I was in High School, and we had to do weight training as part of practice, my dad, who was a house builder, used to ask me why I wasted my time lifting weights. "You want to lift weights? I got a whole truck of weights that need to be unloaded, and you get paid for it too."
Its all perception and not objective action. And yes, I went to work for my Dad for a few summers, lifting his weights. And if you've never mixed bags and bags of cement, lime and sand by hand, then carried a 5 gallon bucket of mortar in each hand to keep pace with the masons, then you don't know what weight lifting is! Those summers spurred me on to do the best I could in school to get scholarships so I could go to college and become an engineer to get a better paying life that I would enjoy and not HAVE to work with weights if I didn't want to.
So I still stand by my definition: A successful Retirement is having the financial wherewithal to do whatever you want, and not worry about your standard of life being affected. Whether you are working or volunteering or lifting weights at the gym or lumber off a truck, if thats what you want to do, and you don't have to do it to make ends meet, then you can consider yourself retired. IMHO, of course.
Technically, I could quit my job tomorrow, downsize to a nice smaller fully paid for $250k house, not far from where we live now, and we could easily live off our pensions, DWs SS, and savings until I collect my SS at 62, and live on a fixed income of over $80k a year, plus our IRAs forever.
We talk about this same thing at work all the time. We are blessed, lucky, and rewarded for our hard work and smart living to be in the situations we are. We LIKE what we do, we like the recognition and benefits, and the money as well. So many of us prefer to keep working at our jobs because we want to increase that retirement number even further, to do more and enjoy more later, since it isn't a hardship at all to do it. Many don't see it that way,mand that's fine. Plenty of people in our company are gone at 55 to 58, because they said they didn't want to have to work anymore. And a huge percentage of them are back as contractors after a year or two, and not because they needed to at all. And I run in to work acquaintances all the time, aged 58 to 68, back at work. They ironically say they LOVE being retired. "Then why are you back at work?" "Why not? I ve got plenty of time and can get paid well on my own timetable" Perception!
No one can define what retirement is to you except you, and even you may not know what you want until you live it for a while.
Last edited by Perryinva; 10-10-2015 at 06:36 AM..
Is a definition of retirement a question we need to know for ourselves or is it an explanation we use for others who wonder why we aren't going to work?
my wife and I were having a vigorous discussion about what constitutes retirement. Our conversation was based in a previous thread where someone posted an article about a couple who "retired" in their early 30's. I just have a hard time with the idea that someone can "retire" from something when they haven't even done for a decade. To me, it cheapens the accomplishments of people who have dedicated their entire adult life to a particular profession or activity.
Based on our subsequent discussion, we relied how hard it is to nail down an exact definition of retirement. Is it retirement when a woman chooses to stop working to stay at home with her children? Is it retirement when a person completes 20 years in the military and then starts another career? Is is retirement when a 62 yo stops working and takes a part-time job (or volunteers full time)? Is it retirement when someone "comes into money" at age 30 and no longer needs to work? I don't know. What is retirement to you?
I understand your question and this question is in the context of my above post. If not retired what would you or others call them? What suggestions are there of how to title their living/financial/labor stated. Retirement is what I am now. My criteria for deciding could change with the month and evolving perspectives.
Well then, Perry, opinions have relevance to those who hold them. That's pretty basic. My opinion is that if, for the most part, you're still holding down a job, especially if you need the money, you're not retired in the strict sense. You may have retired from something else but "retired" and "working" are mutually exclusive terms in most cases. Escort Rider's situation is an exception. He's doing what he does on a very part time basis not for the money but because her loves to teach. There are others who fall into that same category. Some love the socialization aspects.
Certainly postings in this forum over the years along with personal life experiences and other peoples experiences still has my definition evolving.
To me retirement happens when you can choose what you want to do. You can support yourself without having to rely on working for your income.
BTW it's a great idea to start discussing retirement when you are young and still working. Good to find out now if you want to be busy 22 hours a day and your spouse wants to just sit in the recliner!
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