1 in 8 workers will never retire

[catherine]

I am one who will be working till I drop, or become disabled, whichever happens first.

+1

Make that two of us

[flowerseverywhere]

And for this, I believe in things like a living wage, bankruptcy court, and social safety nets. I think most people do, it's just that there's currently a big question of "where" those should be. Many say they are too high; many say they are too low.

yes, that is such a big discussion now. I know many people who view the affordable health care act as a way for the loafers and freeloaders to get free care, despite taking advantage of the portions that benefit them. The welfare queen myth driving a Cadillac while having multiple kids to just get more money. even social security, which people are forced to pay into is considered an "entitlement", while the income disparity is growing. interesting times.

[SteveinMN]

I know many people who view the affordable health care act as a way for the loafers and freeloaders to get free care, despite taking advantage of the portions that benefit them.

Perhaps someone here has seen a survey of the percentage of people who do not have health insurance who oppose Obamacare? I don't like it much myself because I think we should have a single-payer system (like every other developed country in the world and like Medicare and VA, neither of which I see people moving to abolish) instead of an insurance-company-driven system. But I'd be surprised to see many people over the age of 25 without coverage preferring to keep it that way.

My experience is that most people enjoying the benefits of government spending are barely aware of where the money comes from. Makes it hard to have a real honest discussion about how tax money is spent.

[Tammy]

"And for this, I believe in things like a living wage, bankruptcy court, and social safety nets."

Yes. A guaranteed minimum income would be good too.

[ToomuchStuff]

I didn't expect to live past 30 but that is another subject. I expect to work until I die, but I don't expect to have a long lifespan, Growing up and being interested in history, I asked questions that made people say I was talking crazy, like "historically people kept on working until they died, granted for a long time it was farming (self sufficiency), but is there any proof that retirement will stay?" and If the baby boomers are "the largest generation (most numbers), then that means they outnumber their kids, correct? If so there will be a lot of empty houses and the prices will have to come down. What about their medical and housing (with condo's and such), since their won't be enough people then to take care of them all.

[catherine]

My belief is that retirement is a moving target.

It is both a new-fangled and old-fashioned paradigm. It came about in the early 1900s with the Industrial Age. Before that, 65 as the magic age for that gateway to leisure just did not exist. Social Security reinforced the paradigm by providing a safety net for those who didn't have the means to retire. Meanwhile, life expectancy grew.

So now, when people can't fit the mold or don't want to fit this mold, it's big "sky is falling" news.

I think there are so many creative options with which to approach getting older, work and leisure other than "If I don't have a million dollars by the time I'm 65 and can't spend the rest of my life fishing in Florida I might as well go shoot myself."

This is not sour grapes because of my personal situation--I've pretty much always felt that way. It's one of the reasons I quit my job six years ago, at age 55, and went freelance. I really wanted to shake the golden handcuffs no matter what the financial cost.

There are many, many things I enjoy doing in life, and I'm sure I can monetize some of them to keep me going happily and hopefully healthily into old age.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I think if you live in an industrial society that produces vast wealth where machines do much of the work that not having more leisure makes zero sense (now if we went back to a non-industrialized society for sustainability or something, and I neither argue for or against it, that would be another animal!). But really most human tasks automated so humans barely even have to do them, and we're not supposed to gain any leisure from it? That's pretty silly society you've got going on there.

Social Security reinforced the paradigm by providing a safety net for those who didn't have the means to retire.

It was probably to get them out of the workforce (the oldsters). Because it was a depression, it's not like there was enough jobs for everyone anyway. To at least remove some people from the workforce made room for the younger people that needed jobs.

It's one of the reasons I quit my job six years ago, at age 55, and went freelance.

I don't think the jobs most people do actually lead to freelance opportunities (they are usually way to narrow for one thing), it would for most people require new training in some field they could freelance in. I do think about this, the truth is I have very minimal clue what field I could freelance in.

I really wanted to shake the golden handcuffs no matter what the financial cost.

don't think I'd do it if it meant as a direct consequence I would never retire. If it was: burn up all savings and get into debt just to shake golden handcuffs. That would be quite a choice there.

There are many, many things I enjoy doing in life

there are many many things I enjoy doing in life, unfortunately work (doing whatever you have to just for money) has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any of them and does nothing but detract from the things (and people ) I actually genuinely care about in life. At the start of a 3 day weekend I'm all sweetness and love and hope and optimism for everyone, on the average Monday I'll let the world know I hate them and that everything sucks.

Is there a chance I can retire? Yep and so I'm not going to give that hope up as easily as the hopeless people do. Why wave the white flag now? Is there a certainty? Nope. Certainty with the world the way it is - haha - that's hilarious.

[Gregg]

I am one who will be working till I drop, or become disabled, whichever happens first.

+1

Make that two of us

I'll make it a hat trick.

[try2bfrugal]

My belief is that retirement is a moving target.

It is both a new-fangled and old-fashioned paradigm. It came about in the early 1900s with the Industrial Age. Before that, 65 as the magic age for that gateway to leisure just did not exist. Social Security reinforced the paradigm by providing a safety net for those who didn't have the means to retire. Meanwhile, life expectancy grew.

So now, when people can't fit the mold or don't want to fit this mold, it's big "sky is falling" news.

I think there are so many creative options with which to approach getting older, work and leisure other than "If I don't have a million dollars by the time I'm 65 and can't spend the rest of my life fishing in Florida I might as well go shoot myself."

This is not sour grapes because of my personal situation--I've pretty much always felt that way. It's one of the reasons I quit my job six years ago, at age 55, and went freelance. I really wanted to shake the golden handcuffs no matter what the financial cost.

There are many, many things I enjoy doing in life, and I'm sure I can monetize some of them to keep me going happily and hopefully healthily into old age.

I agree with this. We actually could retire and do just leisure stuff. Then we thought about and decided that type of life probably really would not suit us. We don't have the golden handcuffs any more but we still work for ourselves so I don't see any reason to stop and drain our savings.

My personal goal in life is not to not have to work at all, just to not have to work at a job I hate for 60 hours a week and never see the sun except on weekends. We have hobby jobs that make money so why stop? Even if these ended I would probably do something like dog walking and sitting, more urban hometeading, build tiny houses to sell, take classes in converting lawns to edible gardens and do contract work on that, or make crafts to sell on Etsy.

One thing I have thought about is getting a financial planning certification but not being a traditional financial planner but one that follow the Your Money of Your Life type model for people interesting in simple living.

[JaneV2.0]

...
there are many many things I enjoy doing in life, unfortunately work (doing whatever you have to just for money) has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any of them and does nothing but detract from the things (and people ) I actually genuinely care about in life.
...

My sentiments exactly. I stuck out a HSSJ only because it came with a pension (thank you, union) and escaped at the tender age of 47. I had some lean years, made many missteps, and if I had it to do over again I'd make some changes, but I wouldn't have worked a minute longer.