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Retirement is a Bankrupt Industrial Age Idea
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This article was published on July 10, 2009. So far, 5 people have left their thoughts. Share your own thoughts.
Retirement is a really bad, bankrupt, industrial age idea that was never a good idea in the first place. It was invented by big businesses to steal the best 40 years of our lives so they could discard us when our good years were all behind us.
What makes it so wrong? A few very important ideas:
1) A goal realized is no longer motivating.
Retirement is a goal that can be realized, and once it is realized, it’s not what we were promised. In the Industrial Age, the average life expectancy for men after retirement was 18 months. No longer motivated. Out to pasture. Stick a fork in them – they were done.
Men are beginning to live longer after retirement, but for reasons connected to Lifetime Goals – they’re finding meaningful things to do after they stop going to work every day (or choosing to continue going to work).
2) The very concept of retirement teaches us to put off doing anything really meaningful and substantial with our lives.
I heard it hundreds of times growing up from future pasture-geezers still in their 40’s – “When I retire, I’m going to….[fill in the blank.] What a horrible way to live – always hoping for a future time when you’re actually free to do something with your life.
3) The other really bad notion of retirement is that you’re supposed to work until your 65, then begin enjoying life.
The not so subtle message here is that work and play do not mix, and that you are really supposed to live two lives – your work life, and your meaningful life (shouldn’t work be meaningful, too?). And the ideal way to do it is to live your work life first, and hope you have time left to live your meaningful life afterwards, when you have no energy left to do so.
Wealth is the freedom and the ability to choose what to do with my time.
The retirement game teaches us you won’t be free until you retire. What a load of crap. Stop living for a future that never arrives. Don’t be that guy who, when you’re gone, others say “Too bad he didn’t get to enjoy his retirement.”
Lifetime Goals give us something to begin to enjoy today that we find meaning in, the rest of our lives. Do you have Lifetime Goals that you’re already living, without any need to be retired to get after them? Life should be meaningful, fulfilling, and satisfying today.
Tomorrow never comes. Carpe freaking diem already.
Add Your Own
Thoughts
Victoria
07/10/09
Carpe Diem… means today not 20, 30 or more years from now! ‘Think, Feel an Do’ your best today! Why miss out on happiness while you are ‘waiting’. You do not need to wait for when and what. I am 100% with you on this.
Karen Highland
07/14/09
My husband’s parents have both retired 5 times between the two of them! They keep finding meaningful things to do. I agree with all that you’ve said and would add one thing… retirement mentality teaches us to squander the years of our life when we have the most wisdom and experience to offer others. Its not only a bad idea for us, but it robs society of that wisdom.
Great post.
Chuck
07/15/09
Victoria – thanks for the post – “waiting” for that future best time to live life is such a bad idea!
Karen,
Great way of saying it – we "squandor the years of our life when we have the most wisdom and experience to offer others…& robs society of that wisdom. Thanks for clarity you’ve brought to this!
Gus
09/22/09
Hear hear.
Aaron
09/23/09
What a brilliant idea! We should all get rich so we can enjoy life.
Chuck
09/25/09
Aaron,
LOL – I hope that’s not what you got out of this blog post. As I mentioned in the post – “Wealth is the freedom and the ability to choose what to do with my time.” Riches are money, but wealth is freedom (time). I propose we focus on wealth/freedom/time and use money to get us there.
When somebody figures that out, they can then know how much money it will take for them to have the choices they want. In many cases, it takes very little money to be wealthy and be able to choose what to do with my time to create success and significance in the world around us.
Depending on the what impact we want to make, we’ll need varying amounts of riches/money to create that wealth/freedom. Mother Theresa was extremely wealthy with no riches. Bill Gates is both rich and wealthy – with $60 billion in a charity to create a huge impact in the world around him. Which one is right? Both.
Pursue wealth (freedom to choose what to do with my time) and that will tell you how rich you need to be. Do it the other way around and you’ll come up empty every time. Making money is not an empowering vision.