Never Retire - We're Redefining The Word 'Retire'

After I posted the Never Retire story of a new subscriber, I thought I had made a mistake.

Never Retire - He Lives In Seattle. He's A Landlord In Utah. He'll Never Retire. A Subscriber's Story.

I said He’ll Never Retire.

However, in part of our conversation, the subscriber, Tommy, said he will probably retire in some cheap location around the world.

So I emailed him and apologized for the error.

His response—

No no, I plan to always work, it will just change as i age

But he said he will probably retire!

Maybe I’m making too much of this, but I don’t think so.

When I was growing up and until just a few years ago (I turn 47 years old on Monday), the word retire meant one thing—

Quit work altogether and live off whatever you have saved and coming in via a pension and/or Social Security.

Now, we throw retire around like it no longer carries specific meaning.

It means different things to different people, but generally indicates a point in your life when you will transition and put into motion a personal financial plan you’ve been working on for a while.

One where you didn’t waste your prime years in the rat race. On the personal financial hamster wheel.

Unlike traditional retirement, it won’t be a clean break between working and not working or saving and not saving.

Rather, it will be the culmination of a variety of factors.

For me, it looks like this—

• My partner and I will have saved enough money to make our move.

• We will have found our ultimate floor on cost of living.

• My partner will shift from her present work to something completely different.

• I will keep doing what I do for work, but probably at roughly half the time.

• We’ll keep doing what we’re doing outside of work, but in a new, more financially and socially conducive environment. But we’ll do these things two to three times more—in total—than we’re doing now.

And I’ll also be fluent in Spanish.

For you, it’ll look similar in theory, but most likely completely different in practice.

¿Tu sabes?

Language changes with the times. Certain words go in and out of fashion. Others that were once culturally acceptable end up having no place in our collective vocabulary.

Now, when someone refers to retiring, you can no longer make the assumption you might have made 5, 10, 15 years ago.

It might just be that they’ve hit a critical juncture in their Never Retire plan.

There’s no need to throw a Never Retire party.

Just up the ante on, as they say in Italian, dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing.

And eating good, but simple food!