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If you need to have a paying job to meet your expenses after retiring from your career, then you have simply changed jobs and/or reduced to part time. If you are writing with an advance, then your new job is a writer.
This was brought home in my retirement classes when they chose to replace the segment on how live successfully with no job with a segment on career change job hunting. Those of us who were planning on a real retirement were upset and felt cheated. Career change is an entirely different life than the freedom of real retirement. You have much more in common with your former working life if you are just going to change jobs. The career change segment seemed a lot like the out of college job hunt skills.
And changing jobs can and is done at any age. Retirement is both financially and especially emotionally a completely different life. When you need to work some to meet some of your bills, you have a different life and different than my life where I do not. Semi-retired to me means part time work and that you are in a financial situation where are comfortable with less earned income.
"Working part time is not being retired." (Tesaje)
Ah, the pontificators and their strict, literal use of language! The beauty of the "semi-retired" term is that it describes this middle ground. The difference between my career and the small amount of part-time work I continue to do now (without needing the money) is the difference between night and day. I feel much more retired than not, as I may go a couple of months without any paid work, and it is wonderful and it is by choice. I say I am semi-retired (for one reason) because if I tell someone I am not free this week because I am at work, then I don't have to explain the come-back, "But I thought you were retired". If some purist made me choose between retired, or not, I would say retired, Tesaje nothwithstanding. Why? 1) I applied for retirement and I am drawing a pension from my former career sufficient to live comfortably on. 2) I was 61 at that "retirement" point, and that is an age where it is fairly normal to do just that. 3) I am free to travel, etc. and I have traveled, etc. 4) I have accepted some paid projects and declined others; I am free to do this.
All this is just semantic quibbling and it is silly, but I just couldn't let the above quote go without rebuttal because it is not accurate in all cases.
Ah, the pontificators and their strict, literal use of language!
Have you forgot the purpose of this thread as defined by the OP? For people to express their own personal opinion of what constitutes retirement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider
All this is just semantic quibbling and it is silly, but I just couldn't let the above quote go without rebuttal because it is not accurate in all cases.
Of course it was accurate! It was an accurate representation of Tesaje's opinion.
Now see if you can manage to unbunch your panties and try to appreciate this thread for what it is rather than insult people for having an opinion that differs from your own.
the difference i find in retirement is working is something you choose to do not have to do and that makes a huge difference.
when i was dependent on my job to support a family the stress level was high.. i worried about everything going right, about not getting layed off and about advancement..
now its kind of on my terms of what i want to do... if the stress level gets to high then i stop, if i dont like what im doing at work then i pack it in...
psychologically a job is very different if your doing it mainly for other reasons then your dependent on it .
I have used the term "semi'-retirement" many times on this forum. To sum it up, for me retirement = no longer having to work full time.
I will be semi-retired because I will have to will always have to work but not full time. Dropping down to part time and still being able to pay the bills is absolutely a form of retirement. The days I do not have to work will be my own. And they will not be relegated to weekends. I get great pleasure having a weekday off now when I am working full-time so when I can do that on a permanent basis I will be even more happy.
I would love to get an exiting, interesting part-time job but realistically I am going to start training for a field that allows for part-time days and flexible hours. That's the "semi" part of the semi-retirement. The "retirement" part will be the free-time-to-do-whatever-whenever-I- choose-part.
There is no one single definition of retirement. One can "retire" from a job, a house, a marriage etc. It's just a matter of changing one's life whenever the opportunity arises.
I mentioned on a board (maybe this one, maybe another) that I was going to retire in July. I mentioned that I had to work part-time to make ends meet since I still had kids around (I have since worked that out and don't need to anymore, and no, I didn't sell my kids). Anyway, someone told me that I wasn't going to be retired if I HAD to work. I thought a lot about that and for a time tried to figure out what i would call it and settled on semi-retirement.
I just saw another post on this board where someone mentioned they had to work part-time in retirement. Does anyone not consider this retirement? If you have to work, but it is part-time or casual and is doing something you want, maybe you could call it semi-retired, but that is just semantics.
So what do you consider retirement? I'm not interested in arguing the point, just seeing what everyone thinks.
For me, I have come to believe that retirement is one of those words that has lost its meaning. It used to mean something very specific, but in the last several decades has come to mean many things. I think retirement is now defined by individuals, but generally means you can leave your career and have enough financial security to pursue your dreams and passions. that would include someone that has to work if they can still pursue their passions, either through that work or in the free-time that comes with the new job. In July when I take my pension and leave my career, even though I choose to work part-time at things that interest me, I will call myself retired.
I have come to believe that if you are working you aren't retired.
Long and short of it when we retired ( worked not one day since) we relocated to a new house. Others were still under construction and their were construction workers about. When folks told them they were retired the workers quickly asked do you have a job? If they responded yes they were quickly told you get up and go to work just like me and you aren't retired. After thinking about it I have accepted that drawing SS and a pension are doing just that and just because your employer stamped you retired when you left if you are working you are working. Oh yeah and you don't need to be retired to draw down your investments. I sometimes see people who are retired from a career now working part time trying to explain to people that they are retired but have to go to work tomorrow.
If you need to have a paying job to meet your expenses after retiring from your career, then you have simply changed jobs and/or reduced to part time. If you are writing with an advance, then your new job is a writer.
This was brought home in my retirement classes when they chose to replace the segment on how live successfully with no job with a segment on career change job hunting. Those of us who were planning on a real retirement were upset and felt cheated. Career change is an entirely different life than the freedom of real retirement. You have much more in common with your former working life if you are just going to change jobs. The career change segment seemed a lot like the out of college job hunt skills.
And changing jobs can and is done at any age. Retirement is both financially and especially emotionally a completely different life. When you need to work some to meet some of your bills, you have a different life and different than my life where I do not. Semi-retired to me means part time work and that you are in a financial situation where are comfortable with less earned income.
I suspect retirement is in the eyes of the individual and is a personal perspective on their life.
i would imagine you could say that if you work your not retired and you wouldnt be wrong.
for some like myself and marilyn we always wanted to start a little photography business or i always wanted to work selling financial products and getting my license.
these are things i could never do at this stage if i needed an income... but when we retire it would be a dream to be able to do these things and not have to worry about making money at it
i would imagine you could say that and you wouldnt be wrong.
for some like myself and marilyn we always wanted to start a little photography business or i always wanted to work selling financial products and getting my license.
these are things i could never do at this stage if i needed an income... but when we retire it would be a dream to be able to do these things and not have to worry about making money at it...
It really gets tricky when you are working at your hobby and getting paid for it and that could really be true retirement. Just like coin collecting etc.
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"Working part time is not being retired." (Tesaje)
). Anyway, someone told me that I wasn't going to be retired if I HAD to work. I thought a lot about that and for a time tried to figure out what i would call it and settled on semi-retirement.
