What's the difference between people who retire early and who never retire? The answer is actually pretty complicated. The answer likely is something that looks and feels a bit like both
By Shelly Strom, for Think Save Retire
“If I just grit my teeth and put in my time at work, one day when I’m 60 or 70, I can leave my job and spend my time doing what I really want to do.”
Does this sound familiar? It’s likely this is what your parents or grandparents preached to you at your high school and college graduations or the day you started your first real job.
This retirement mindset can lead to unnecessary misery at best or, at worst, be the cause of significant, potentially debilitating stress. Which is why a growing number of us are rejecting it.
But what does that leave us with?
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to contemplate things like “retirement,” regardless of when to retire. In a perfect world, each of us would connect with our core purpose and the money part simply would work itself out.
In reality, though, figuring it out requires some exploring and perhaps serious soul searching. Everything from finding out how people who never retire stay energized and what makes you happy regardless of your retirement.
Working with a purpose leads some to want to work forever
For anyone seeking a vision for their work life, hearing the stories of people who happily worked into their 80s and 90s can be instructive. Betty White, for instance, is probably one of the first to come to mind when we think about people who seem delighted to keep working. At 97, White is America’s longest standing sweetheart and also falls into the “never-retiring” self-identifying category. Read more.
