The retirement quandary

While I know a few of my friends and ex-business colleagues that are retired, about half of them, if not a majority, are still working. When I ask the busy bunch “when are you going to stop and start smelling the roses?” they respond that they don't know, that they're enjoying their occupation so much that it's more fun than work for them and that, in the end, they don't see themselves giving up their activity. I'm certain that if we want to be brutally honest, those of us who are tied to an occupation secretly envies the group who claims to be retired, and vice-versa.

Very few of us actually retire by choice; many do it, because a career comes to an abrupt end as a company changes hands, a job is eliminated, or we're let go because of economic circumstances, redundancies, we cost too much or don't perform well enough. Getting a new job at 50 is hard and, except for menial jobs, almost impossible when we become sexagenarians. So what's the magic window of time for exiting the “rat race” and slowing down? Is there even one? I would be tempted to say that the previously listed circumstances are wonderful alibis to let us into this “other side” of life that is retirement, but with one caveat, we must keep on doing lots of things that we never had the time to achieve while we were busy earning a living.

My wife and I stay very busy and our daily world is fully absorbed by our hobbies, sport and all. It certainly pays to have other interest in live others than work-work-work and to make money. We don't live a life of rich and famous but exercise religiously, eat very well, read a lot and enjoy everything we do. This may sound like a banality, but at the end of each day, we never fail to ask ourselves: “How could we manage to live and take care of all these daily chores of life when we had to work for a living?”