Working Instead of Retiring, Because You Want To
The idea of retirement has never meant anything to me. I’ve never envisioned myself retired, I don’t dream about it, I don’t wish for it, I don’t put off things until I’m retired. So ‘rethinking retirement’ doesn’t mean much to me. To a lot of people, however, rethinking retirement is difficult or even terrifying. (In fact, the New York Times today published a story on retirees who are scared about their finances, and, who knows?, maybe will end up working again.)
There is a new crop of books coming out that address the idea (read ‘fact’) that many Americans will not be able to retire, for financial reasons. Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life by Marc Freedman addresses the issue from a positive vantage point. It’s not that you can’t afford to retire; it’s that you are excited to do something new after, say, age 50. Here is basically what Encore is about:
In one of the most significant social trends of the new century, members of the baby boom generation are inventing a new phase of work. As they search for a calling in the second half of life and focus on what matters most, the individuals profiled in Encore stand to transform the nature of work in America.
Author Freedman, of San Francisco, is the founder of Civic Ventures and was selected by Fast Company as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs. He’s the author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
My daughter is already thinking about getting out of the rat race and doing something more worthwhile than what she does for a living now.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I frankly have no issue with retiring. We’ve taken 2 long (over 12 month) sabbaticals (a decade apart) and neither of us can wait until we retire. I realized a long time ago that when all the fluff and justification was taken off my work all that was left was working (dying) for a paycheck. We have already learned from experience that we do not need jobs to define us and fill our time. We’ve earned our retirement and fully intend to enjoy it.