Will you work during your sunset years?
Retirement is such a part of our cultural fabric that it’s viewed as a basic human right.
It’s the final chapter in the American Dream: a home, a family, a secure retirement.
But it hasn’t always been this way.
For much of American history, people worked until they were too sick to work anymore. The idea that a healthy person would voluntarily stop working — regardless of their age — was considered an extravagance privy only to the ultra-rich.
American culture changed after World War II. Retirement shifted from a luxury to a basic right, an entitlement of age. Corporate pensions, coupled with government Social Security, put retirement within reach of every American worker.
That’s changing.
Corporation pension funds shrink, Social Security bounces towards bankruptcy, life expectancy grows longer, and people in their 60’s and 70’s are healthier and able to work.
Retirement is no longer an entitlement. It’s a luxury.
And it’s a luxury you may not experience … unless you grab it by the reins.
You can enjoy freedom, but nobody is going to create it for you. Neither your company nor your government will build your retirement on your behalf. You won’t find a few gift-wrapped decades of freedom under the Christmas tree.
If you want to retire, you’ll need to create it yourself.
Retirement is not a God-given right. With Social Security in question, pensions disappearing, and your own life expectancy growing, you cannot expect retirement on a silver platter.
While that’s scary, it opens incredible new possibilities.
Here’s the massive silver lining:
Now that retirement is in our own hands, we control how, when, and where we enjoy it.
We don’t need to wait until we turn 65. We don’t need to retire in our hometown (unless we want to). We don’t need to spend those days in a rocking chair, living on a meager pension.
We can retire at ANY age, ANY location, and spend those days doing ANYTHING we want. We can fund this through any investments that strike our fancy, such as rental income, index funds or small businesses that create passive income.
The scary news is that we’re in charge. But the liberating news is also that we’re in charge. Our lives are what we make of it.
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ericka
Retirement is not a God-given right.
people are stuck in this mindset. if folks knew there was no social security it would be a bunch of overnight business creations made, next level investing, real estate flippers, and people creating their own personal economy.
No one is guaranteed tomorrow, so i think people live hoping things will take of themselves.
Auntie
You nailed it.
“The scary news is that we’re in charge.”
I realize this. But now what in the blue blazes do I do with this new found control in my own life? :).
It is scary and liberating!
Love your blog!
Abby H.
I LOVE this. One of the funniest moments in my life came when a Delta flight attendant (a dream job of mine; I aim high) sat me down on a 15-hour flight to discuss the positive and negative sides of working for them.
Her first, huge negative was “We no longer have a pension.”
I almost laughed out loud. While I do teach, one of few jobs that offers such things IF you stay in the same place for twenty years (no, thanks), I grew up (as you probably did) hearing how Social Security was definitely disappearing. Since my dad is a CEO at private companies that he routinely grows, sells and then moves on from, and my mom stayed at home with us when we were young, I have also never personally seen the benefits of such things. I do now respect such lines of work as the military, where pensions and great retirement plans exist, but I never once have assumed I would rely on a company or organization to pay for my retirement.
For better or worse, this is the new way. And as somewhat of a vagabond, I like the control. 🙂