Retirement Plans, Or The Lack Thereof

I’m sitting here at my computer at eleven o’clock P.M. trying to come up with a blog topic. I’ve already written my business blog entry of the day; it’s about the value of networking. This is supposed to be a personal blog, and everything I think of has to do with business.

What does that say about me? That I’m obsessed?

In today’s networking meeting, a financial planner stood up and asked the group “who here plans to retire?” Everyone sort of laughed, because…well, who wouldn’t? I thought about it, and wasn’t entirely sure I actually did want to retire. Retirement doesn’t look all that great to me, to tell the truth. What on earth would I do if I no longer had to work for a living?

We all think that when we retire, we’ll have endless days to relax, play with our grandkids, take vacations, paint watercolors, fish, or improve our golf games. Get real.

I watched what happened when my parents retired. Neither of them was terribly enamored with their jobs, but I expect they did miss them when they left. Suddenly they had to live with each other all of the time. There wasn’t any real reason to get up in the morning; they did so at five-thirty a.m. out of habit, and filled the days with naps. Depression came next, followed by health problems. My dad died three years later. My mom’s doing all right, but her life lacks structure and she usually doesn’t know what day it is. She doesn’t need to.

Nope, retirement doesn’t look all that good. I think I’ll just keep working for another fifty years or so. After all, I’m doing what I love.