This is an insultingly out-of-touch article.<p>_Lots_ of people dream of retirement, and _lots_ of people retire happy. Not everyone's lucky enough to love their jobs, or have stimulating positions at companies, or work with people they get along with.<p>Lots of people work in customer-facing jobs in industries where customers are rude, entitled, and just generally disrespectful.<p>Many of those people don't have the option to retire because the venn diagram of those jobs, and jobs that pay too little to afford retirement, is pretty close to being a circle.<p>There's also the issue of there only being so many work opportunities, and whether or not it's correct for someone of traditional retirement age to hang on to a job, possibly at the expense of someone new to the workforce having one fewer opportunity.<p>I would give this article a bit easier of a time if it didn't conspicuously dance around the issue of having an aging population combined with (in many countries) social insurance-type systems not geared to support an age pyramid that top-heavy, but lines like this are just... <i>bad.</i><p>> But can anything truly replace the framework and buzz of being part of the action?<p>Yeah, lots of things. Travel. Hobbies. Going dancing with your partner. Gardening. Hell, using your retirement and pension to kick off a startup of your own. For many people, above all, not being under constant pressure to perform at a certain level.<p>I say all of that as a millennial who both (a) loves my job, and (b) is unlikely to ever be able to afford to (comfortably) retire, barring major shifts in the economy.
The entire thing is just sad. Entire generations of people whose lives are so intimately defined by the corporate grind that they lose meaning when it is taken away. Imagine having the time, money and health to be with your loved ones, pursue your passions, travel the world, or really set any goal you want for the remaining decades of your life, but feeling empty because there are no meetings on your calendar, no OKRs to hit and no bosses to answer to. I have no doubt that such people exist in great numbers, especially in America, but it's about time we start to treat it not as an aspiration but rather a disease to be treated.
In my mind, retirement isn't where I just stop working, it's more about being able to stop working any job that I don't like. I'll choose what I want to do, and the moment it becomes something I dread, I'll walk. Maybe I'll have a side business that I love but which doesn't really have to pay the bills.<p>I've never really understood the folks who strive for the day they can just park on the couch and call it good. I'd go stir crazy in a week.<p>Anecdotally, some of the happiest people I know work until the end of their life. They really love what they do, and don't feel the need to stop.
This article seems to be referring to people who do not need to work to live.<p>If you can, I say retire and if you have the skills, find an Open Source project to work on, or create you own. That way you control what you want to do as opposed to doing what you are told to do.<p>Articles like this, to me, only proves there is a very large the wealth gap in today's world.
Alternatively, retire and find a fulfilling volunteer opportunity you're passionate about. Most volunteer places need people during the workweek, and the best fit is college students or retirees.<p>If you need to be super entreprenurial, start the volunteer organization you'd like to see in the world.
> Hobbies are all well and good for many. But for the extremely driven, they can feel pointless and even slightly embarrassing. That is because there is depth in being useful.<p>I would assume that an "extremely driven" person is capable of finding a useful hobby, but apparently not.
I guess, there are at least two kinds of "retire": 1) retire from doing the job that you depend on for living, 2) retire from doing what you find rewarding.<p>Sometimes both of these coincide. Lucky! Sometimes you grow into accepting 1) to become also 2). Well, lucky too! If you also have a choice to enjoy doing this in later years, then you are very much lucky and happy.<p>Otherwise, like lots of people, we keep on our pursuit of happiness. Retirement from a well-paying yet not that rewarding job, just gives us another chance to catch that happiness, perhaps now being able to detach the 1).<p>Living long and remaining active is no less lucky!
Never retire just reeks of out of touch and entitled. A brother of a close friend made it big with an edtech startup and he loves to tell everyone how he'll never retire and you shouldn't either!<p>Work for him looks like this:<p>- Working damn near anywhere on the planet he wants from a rental that costs $20k a month
- Having a housekeeper, traveling nanny, nutritionist, chef, fashion consultant, etc...
- Having $250M to fall back on at any time
- Going to industry events, conferences, etc... and having everyone praise you and dote over you
- Being able to just not work anytime you don't want to
Pretty sure this is clickbait or propaganda or both.<p>It's alarming that someone is pushing this to the mainstream, I'm not sure how to counter a slow creeping push like this.
It's understandable why the rich, at least, don't want to retire. The returns to status and capital are greater than ever. Zuck made $25 billion today. Who wouldn't want to keep this up for the rest of hir or her life. People in the highest positions of society enjoy prestige and wealth creation of the likes never before seen.
Labor fought hard for retirement and benefits. That's all slowly unravelling, so now The Economist can boldly proclaim that you shouldn't even want that retirement.<p>Labor also fought hard for shorter work hours and work week. I suppose The Economist would like us to work longer and more days a week so that we can really be "fulfilled," too?<p>Not to trip Godwin's law, but there was a "camp slogan" this reminds me of . . .
If retirement is just eat drink vacation, TV then yeah don’t do that it won’t fulfill you, you still need hobbies(work). Free or otherwise, don’t just sit there.<p>There are people thinking of living forever, be careful what you wish for as good luck finding enough things to do for even 100k years let alone 1billion
You might skip this article if you reject any of these key assumptions:<p>1. You "live to work" rather than "work to live." Your personal fulfillment is derived from your utility as a workplace tool.<p>2. Your job doesn't damage your mental health and finances every need (e.g. food, shelter, utilities, healthcare, savings, furnishings, vehicle, debt repayment, etc).<p>3. You have sufficient leisure time to satisfy personal desires & obligations (i.e. connecting with your partner/friends, hobbies, caring for family members, chores, parenting, etc).<p>Unfortunately, for myself and everyone I know, these premises are deranged. But if they resonate with you, then work until you die! Live your best life!
I retired early, and thus I've had some time to think about why I have been able to do so with no discernible purpose and yet still enjoy my days.<p>Where I am now is the realization that I aspire to base my self-esteem on how I treat others and not how they treat me. The vanity, rivalry, and search for power that feels inherent in the work world has no place in my world.<p>I would much rather have the time to spend an hour with my elderly neighbor who is stuck in the hospital than to have the income that would allow me to fly to Tokyo for a Taylor Swift concert, or even just eat at a chic restaurant or drive a new car.
"Pleasure cruises, golf and tracing the family tree are not that fulfilling" ok boomer, but what about video games? I've long had a suspicion that the relative popularity of the FIRE movement among Millenials and Zoomers is largely due to the fact that they've found a hobby in interactive digital entertainment that's leaps and bounds more addictive, satisfying and fulfilling (at least in a shallow sense) than the hobbies of their elders.<p>I enjoy working and don't plan on ever fully retiring, but certainly plan to leave the 9-5 lifestyle and working for others eventually to be a full time entrepreneur / indie hacker at some point. My first project towards that end is Grizzly Bulls (<a href="https://grizzlybulls.com/" rel="nofollow">https://grizzlybulls.com/</a>), an algorithmic trading platform which is certainly going well enough to support myself full time, but I really enjoy my current FTE work too much to consider it for now.