2-For-1: How Social Security Fits Into Your Plan and The Right Type Of Work

Today, we hit Never Retire checklist items #19 and #20 because they’re related.

But first, here’s a review of everything we’ve done in February.

1. Assessment of your situation

2. Acknowledgement of your situation

3. Acceptance of your situation

4. Theorizing your situation

5. Strategizing your situation

6. Work Less Now So You Can Work Less Longer

7. Living Evenly Across The Lifespan

8. Organize Money And Work Around Life, Not The Other Way Around

9. Pots Of Money For Spending And Cash Security

10. Finding The Floor On Your Cost Of Living

11. How To Backwards Budget

12. How To Afford Travel

13. Your Housing Paying Now And In Relative Old Age

14. The Impact Of The Built Environment On Housing And Transportation

15. The Impact Of The Built Environment On Health And Well-Being

16. Don’t Pressure Yourself To Save

17. Don’t Sweat Over Spending

18. Living The Semi-Retired Life

Posts #19 and #20 come from Barcelona, as we end our month-long, five-city trip in Spain and Italy. I won’t look back on the trip much today, as it relates to semi-retirement. We’ll save that for March’s 20 posts in 31 days, which cover each of the 20 Never Retire checklist items we introduced this month.

Today’s first Never Retire checklist item—how Social Security fits into your plan.

You work, therefore you are entitled to Social Security. It is an entitlement program.

In March, we’ll cover the key rules around collecting, particularly as they pertain to doing work while you collect Social Security. They’re more favorable to a Never Retired person than I originally thought, particularly if you have a low cost of living (as in, you don’t need to earn that much income in relative old age).

This places focus on Never Retire checklist item #20—the right type of work.

Above anything else, my Never Retire strategies and ability to be semi-retired revolve around work. However, my life does not revolve around work. As post #8 in March will detail, the goal is to organize money and work around life, not the other way around.

It’s just that without the right type of work, you can’t put it in its proper place. If you can’t put work in its proper place the idea of Never Retiring becomes as unstable as the prospects of traditional retirement. And it’s not possible to work 40 hours a week and be semi-retired.

So, in post #20 in March, I detail the ins and outs of my situation and discuss how you can find and maintain the right type of work for your situation.

Taken together, March’s posts will provide a guidebook to semi-retirement. All the things you need to think about and plan for to be semi-retired now and for the duration.

So, if you haven’t already, join or upgrade as a paid subscriber to avoid the paywall.