but you can retire! why work?

But you can retire! Why work?

Not infrequently, I ponder my answer to this question. Of course, when I think about it, I write about it. And have done so on multiple occasions through the years. If you are at or getting close to retirement age, have you given thought to the question and how you would reply to it?

When asked why you work, what is the first thing that pops into your head?

But before you come up with a quick reply…please

Take a minute and think about your answer to that question, “But you can retire! why work?

• I would guess that the first thing that came to you is money; you need to make more money for retirement, the kids’ education, the house on the beach you have been dreaming about or any of the thousands of reasons that we think we don’t have enough.
• But I’ll wager that money isn’t the real reason that you’re working, not when you begin to dissect some things.
  1. Saving money for retirement sounds good. It is a sensible goal but when you dissect it, you know that you will never reach the amount of money you think you will need to retire- there is no way to know how long you will live, or determine when you’ll need to replace the washer or the car.
  2. Furthermore, even when you get to the point of earning the amount of money that will but you that lake house or to take that vacation around the world, most likely, you’ll think up a new goal- a new reason to save your money, to keep working.
  3. Right?
  4. Years ago, when all of my colleagues were dreaming about retirement and all the golf courses they would play all over the world, I knew that the word, the life-style was something I would never aspire to do. And I’ll bet most of those former colleagues are working at something-perhaps not full-time but working.
  5. We are hard wired to work, it’s in our DNA; most of us need the challenge of learning a new technique, of experimenting with a new site or ad or…
  6. Whether we work alone or with a team, there is something that hovers on the periphery of our consciousness: We are providing a service, we are achieving proficiency, we are providing others with a living or the opportunity to earn a living.

• It really isn’t about the money, is it?

“We read from the experts over and over again that the reason for the failure of a new anything ( business, life style change, diet or exercise plan) occurs because we never start… we’re overwhelmed by the study, the frustrations, the disappointments, the struggles and the experimentation which are never experienced because we never get started.

Successful people do not get mired down in anticipation; after an analysis -which might be minutes or days- they make a decision and launch into all of the steps which must be done. Contrary to the hype, we learn that the Brady’s and the Gates’ and the Jobs’ have failed as much as they have succeeded.

They know that failure is a possibility. But they start it anyway.”

And then there’s other some considerations too.

There are more and more data on the need to exercise the mind as well as the body. Thinking is work and our brains only mildly taxed when we watch television, movies or stare at our phones.

So another reply to the question, ‘but why can retire: why work?

As always, thanks for reading,