To Retire or Not Retire……Is That a Question?

Over the past two weeks, I spoke to two clients who have become friends. I remember several months ago, talking to them about their upcoming retirement, their goals in retirement and their joy at looking forward to that date.

They were going to travel, spend time with their families, and play tennis and golf all day. These were men in their late 60’s who have been professionals and successful in business their whole lives. I noticed that after their retirement, they were calling me more often…just to catch up, see what I was doing and just spend time on the phone. They wanted to meet for breakfast, lunch, or anytime, but some time.

So, I had to ask……what are you doing now, what is your day, doing anything exciting? The answer was “been there, done that, and ready to go back to something” ……. wow, what happened to the travel, golf and tennis. What happened to sleeping in, each day a round of golf or tennis; what happened to every day being the same day of leisure and spending time with the family?

His reply was, “I did all that for 7 months, played golf, traveled, and saw my kids and grandkids, and now I am ready to return to the planet. I just didn’t get it” …….and I asked, being the lawyer I am, what didn’t you get? His response was the essence of this blog: Everything I did for fun, play golf, play with the grandkids, sleep in, were things that gave me some recreational time from work; when the work had ended, my recreation became work, with no break. Monday and Saturday were the same, sleeping in became a habit, not something to look forward to; my golf game became a chore, and breakfasts with my friends became boring.

Remember the trite but true saying, “don’t give up your day job”!

Why do we have to give up anything……because we are grayer, balder, or slower, so what? If we love what we do, or if we even like what we do, then why shelve it? Who tells us when to retire, social security, the IRS, well-intentioned friends and relatives? There is no age limit on smarts…and we have them. A three-day weekend is fun because we work. A vacation is fun because we work. TGIF is fun because we work. I cannot imagine all days being the same, all breakfasts with friends being a tad boring, and sleeping in, not a treat.

So here is what I say: Let me see how many miles I can get from this body of mine…. I will change the oil, regularly, rotate the tires when needed, and look out to not hit any huge potholes. With that said, let’s give a shout out to the next 3-day weekend because I for one, am looking forward to it.

Take it for what it is……It’s just how I see it.

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