The Life of a Story in Progress 17: Do you believe in life after work?

August (2013) is going to be remembered as the month in which I (formally) retired. I never thought about “retiring” before. To me, it seemed like something old white men did when they turned 65, no matter what their health or circumstances were. It also had some vague sense of being mandatory while at the same time, being something people looked forward to. The romantic myth around retirement suggests that after retirement, a person is free to pursue hobbies and enjoy their golden years in quiet serenity. After that, I guess they just die.

In my mind, there’s no such thing as retirement. Maybe you can retire for the evening, but any plans one might make for a permanent cessation of purposeful activity (imposed or self-imposed) would seem, to me, to be tenuous at best.

I think the formal and well-defined concept of retirement may have begun as a somewhat benign societal expectation that was, for the most part, anticipated as a respite from hard labor, physical or otherwise.  But like many societal norms and/or patterns, things change.

I don’t know if things ARE different or are just thought to be different from those good old days of yesteryear when formal retirement was routine. Did our grandparents really have enough money to live on for the rest of their lives after retiring at 65? Did they ALL have pensions and large amounts of savings???

Certainly, retirement has financial consequences. Whether you’ll be able to “pursue hobbies and enjoy your golden years in quiet serenity” will be determined by your financial situation. I think people want to plan ahead for their retirement (in whatever form it takes) but for many, getting through the week is hard enough. What about social security? It looks like I’ll be able to collect social security when I reach 65, if I choose, but is social security always going to be there? Some of the latest studies suggest it may run out of money around 2033.

Another myth about retirement is the one in which the old white guy retires, does nothing, and dies soon thereafter.  I don’t think I’ll be susceptible to this fate. I can’t sit around and do nothing. I don’t even like lying down and having to go to sleep every night. It seems like such a waste of time.

Like everything else I’ve ever encountered in my life, I think I’ll have to actually experience retirement and the ensuing years to understand it and have a real sense of its advantages and pitfalls. Am I ready for retirement? I have no idea. I hope I don't have to start playing golf. In any case, I don’t suppose there will be a gold watch coming my way. It’s just as well, I don’t wear watches. But, maybe I’ll get a big plastic chipmunk.