Never Retire - Have You Ever Shrugged And Said, "I'll Never Retire"
Why this newsletter came to be
I wrote an article on Medium last month where I illustrate why I came up with and decided to focus on the Never Retire concept.
Obviously, it’s no secret that I would like to convert free subscribers to paid subscribers. It’s how I make a significant portion of my income and can continue my work as a full-time freelance writer.
As always, I appreciate your support.
If you’re already a paid subscriber, times two!
I hope this article helps shed light on why I write about retirement the way I do and gives you a glimpse into what you can expect going forward.
Bottom line—it’s personal to me. And I tend to write about what’s ongoing in my life.
Here’s a direct link to the original article, however you can read it in its entirety right here in this email.
‘I’ll Never Retire’ — Have You Ever Said These Disheartening Words?
You don’t have to follow the same old and tired advice
After hearing countless people throw their hands up in the air and say —
I’ll never retire
I decided to make it the focal point of my writing.
Here on Medium and then in my Never Retire newsletter.
But the impetus wasn’t simply that I heard people saying I’ll Never Retire, it’s the response large swaths of the personal financial media provide to this often helpless cry.
You know the drill.
It goes a little something like this —
You’re one of the countless numbers of people who look at how much they have saved and their prospects for saving going forward. You run the numbers every which way and determine the most likely outcome — you’ll Never Retire.
You regularly seek information on your conundrum.
The upside to your research — you’re not alone. It’s always nice to be going through something with other people. Even if you don’t know these other people. Only that they’re experiencing the same or a similar struggle on the idealistic road to traditional retirement.
You’re part of the nation’s retirement crisis!
But, instead of a gold watch, you get shitty advice.
That’s the downside.
The Apple or Google algorithms know you’re on the hunt for solutions. And they serve them up. Through no fault of their own — your phone is merely the conduit for the information you consume — the solutions in the articles you scroll suck.
When you stop and reflect, it’s really kind of crazy.
Most of these are you track to retire at 65 articles offer the same drivel.
They’re all like here’s your age, here’s how much you should have saved, and here’s how much more you’ll have to save to reach $1 million (or more) by the time you’re 65 (or whatever age you want to retire at).
As a 46-year old who will Never Retire, I can tell you this is pretty much useless.
If you’re not on pace now, what’s the likelihood you can exponentially increase your savings to reach some lofty nest egg number?
Not saying it’s impossible. Just that it’s unlikely.
Because here’s the deal — these articles start from a blame the victim premise.
They treat what is clearly a collective problem like individual-level failure.
As if you’ve just been pissing your money away thus far and simply require the discipline necessary to save more and spend less on your way to seven figures. I’m sure cases such as this do exist. However, I’m willing to bet they’re not the norm.
So what to do?
I don’t know exactly because no two situations are the same, which is, in part, why the aforementioned advice is so bad.
However, generally speaking, I suggest the following. It’s basically what I did when — a few years ago — I came to the realization that I’ll Never Retire.
I choose to live the semi-retired life now and (hopefully) Never Retire because I don’t believe in a life of expiration dates. One where you grind it out in your prime in increasingly elusive hope you’ll live full throttle at some point after you turn sixty.
There’s an epidemic of people kicking and screaming on the road to retirement. They lament the reality that they’ll Never Retire. It makes sense, given the prevailing narrative on retirement. You feel like a failure if you’re not hitting your savings benchmarks along the way to a life of apparent leisure come 60, 65, or whenever.
It makes so much more sense to embrace your reality, particularly when you stand a low, maybe non-existent chance of changing it.
This means you might have to make adjustments to how you use work and money to help facilitate your life.
Once you not only embrace your reality, but actually get excited about it, you can start to craft a personal financial strategy that suits you.
For most of us, it will include the following elements, which I’m in the process of writing about in my Never Retire newsletter —
Your physical and mental health (which is tied directly to the previous three points, particularly the third one) (part four)
The state of the work you do (part five)
Tying all five bullet points together (part six)
Let’s focus on tying it all together.
Instead of stockpiling your money (investing, saving cash) over the course of, say, forty years, then beginning to draw it down in traditional retirement, you let it work for you more evenly across the lifespan.
Instead of busting your ass working 40 hours a week (and often more) in your prime, you maintain or find work you can do at a more even pace across the lifespan. You do this with the hope that you’ll situate yourself better physically and mentally to work in retirement.
I use a pots of money approach to personal finance to execute on these ideas.
If, like me, you’re of modest means, you probably have to do this amid a relatively low cost of living.
So you’re spending less, particularly on your big expenses (housing and transportation) to make the money you earn, spend, and save now take you further in the near- and long-term.
Think of it as a faucet that’s dripping super slowly, but surely over time. That’s how cash functions over the course of the semi-retired life, which is what you can choose to live once you accept that you’ll Never Retire.
As opposed to traditional retirement where, each year, you turn the faucet on, take a fixed amount of water, and try to make it last until your next withdrawal.
There’s stress involved in both scenarios — and probably any other you devise — however I’m not built to handle the stress of a nest egg draw down strategy like the ones typically used in traditional retirement. Particularly if I’m not feeling so great about the amount of money I have saved.
So I opt for the slowly dripping faucet.
If you’ve ever heard yourself say ugh, I’ll Never Retire consider the slowly dripping faucet approach to managing your money now and for the duration.
Naturally, you’ll have to make sense of and fit each element listed and point made here to match your own concrete circumstances, needs, and wants.
Bottom line — there’s nothing wrong with coming to the Never Retire conclusion.
You didn’t do anything wrong.
Thankfully, the world’s catching up to those of us in this situation—
The Growing Movement That Will Transform Retirement As We Know It