Never Retire: The Runaway American Dream

Retirement is still dead and dumb in the United States

In response to yesterday’s Never Retire newsletter story, I received a comment from a subscriber that I would like to address. And—don’t worry—I won’t berate and accuse her of being ungrateful and not saying thank you.

This is what she said—

While I find these posts about Spain interesting — I promise I do! — it seems this newsletter has strayed a bit far from the original topic of unique ways of viewing/attempting retirement… 🙁

I have been trying to figure out how to say this without coming off as rude or uninterested, and I understand the correlation, e.g. from a recent post about never retiring from life, but I haven’t been as excited about new posts that have become increasingly less explicit about “never retiring” and more about the experiences of life abroad.

I don’t have a great suggestion, aside from moving some of the expat content into a separate newsletter, similar to what you plan to do for cycling (in which I’m also interested!), but I understand it might be too much to manage three newsletters.

Just a bit of humble feedback from one Founding member. Still appreciate the consistency of your writing!

Not rude at all. And—in fact—I have received this feedback before.

A few thoughts, because all subscribers—and people contemplating a paid subscription—deserve to know where my head is at and why. To that end, if you have questions or comments, please feel free to send them along. If you reply to this email, they come directly to me.

Never Retire: The Things They Say About The Food In Spain

• There is no doubt that I have strayed from the original Never Retire premise of the newsletter.

• Part of this is simply the natural evolution of my writing as it pertains to the topic.

• Part of it is the reality that my reality for the last three years has been focused on making this move to Spain. As the move got closer, I started writing more about it. Now that we’re settling—and almost settled—in, living in Spain is my life. So, naturally, I write about it.

• There is considerable interest in moving to Spain or doing something similar. A lot of people are getting a lot out of the Spain-focused posts. I hear from them, too.

• There is a connection between what I am doing with my life and Never Retiring.

• Never Retire evolved into an umbrella concept that means more than simply Never Retiring from work. It’s about not letting yourself slide into stagnation at any point in life, but particularly the second act of life when we’re prone to resisting challenges and change that can help keep our bodies and minds vibrant in favor of the comfort level we achieved in life and or worse the bitterness we have allowed to accumulate.

• My experience—my reality that I relay—is simply my way of dealing with all of the above and more. Of getting ahead of it so it doesn’t become a thing.

• All of this said—I still think retirement is dead in America. And, even if/when it wasn’t, I think/thought that retirement is a dumb idea.

• So, I have been thinking about this—about finding the sweet spot—a lot. And, don’t worry, I will find it.

• It’s part of the reason why—later this year—I will move all bicycle-related discussions and obsessions, along with most urban planning-related talk, to my forthcoming Substack, Friki de Bici (Bike Geek).
  
  

  Never Retire: Unexpectedly Rediscovering An Old Passion In Valencia, Spain

• I will also focus more on the original, core Never Retire themes and subjects.

• Now, more than ever, retirement is dead in America. Now, more than ever, it’s a dumb idea. To be clear—quitting work isn’t a dumb idea. Many subscribers are retired or plan to. The less work you can do, the better. However—often, as I have seen it in my own family and elsewhere—retirement does lead to stagnation and what amounts to a quiet exit from life.

• Even if they’re “happy” people often sell themselves short in life, confusing happiness with the anxiety relief they experience by limiting their experiences and exposure to new, different or otherwise challenging things.

• We associate retirement with some odd need to slow down. People start planning to slow down before they even begin retirement. It’s enshrined in America’s bankrupt culture. Always has been.

• But—with retirement deader than ever—it takes disproportionate effort to achieve the runaway American dream. Time and resources that can be better spent on a different, more fulfilling focus. Which might be a focus on Never Retiring from whatever it is that contributes to your livelihood and vibrancy, and helps you successfully navigate pivotal points in life, such as middle age.

• Or to find new challenges, purpose and meaning in life as a way to illustrate the broad Never Retire notion.

Already, it feels a little like the original Never Retire newsletter where we railed on the state of retirement in America as it relates to the aforementioned non-culture of grinding it out—and for what—in the United States.

The way I work and view life—in the moment and over the long-term—illustrates my conception of Never Retire. Yours won’t be the same as mine, but as I continue to articulate and rearticulate what Never Retiring means to me—now, from Valencia, Spain—I hope you can take what I am doing and adapt it to your own unique situation.

As I noted yesterday, building a Substack to the point where you can sustain it as your primary line of work—that’s my goal—isn’t easy.

I need your support.

The person who provided the feedback at the outset of today’s story is a founding member. At $100 or more, you get a founding membership now and never pay again because I will comp you for life.

This one-time cost—as well as annual and monthly subscriptions—helps me find the time to find the sweet spot to deliver the ideal mix of information as it pertains to Never Retiring. To—as I am living it—challenging yourself out of a good and comfortable situation or ensuring you don’t retire yourself into a life with less zest than you have the capacity and potential to live.

This is what democracy looks like.

More than four months after floods ravaged towns south of Valencia City, they’re still in the streets here, calling for the city’s right wing leader to resign after he—to put it super mildly—mismanaged the response. We’re going to get a lot of rain here this week, but hopefully it’s not too bad and everyone stays safe.

After eight years of left-wing leadership that helped transform this city into what it is now, here’s hoping the right wing gets shown the door sooner rather than later, which would be the next scheduled election—(as I understand it, as a person just learning about how local politics work here)—in May 2027.