I think it’s wiser
to forget about whether we can retire or not based on what our working
status or financial situation may be. If you think you have to work,
then there is a natural tendency to moods of resignation,
disappointment and, sometimes, resentment. People get depressed
whenever they are trapped in a story that limits their self-expression
and turns them into victims of the circumstances. This could be
important to consider if you will continue to work past the time when
you thought you could retire.

If you want money for some purpose (whether to meet your basic
needs, sustain a particular lifestyle or to have enough to give away to
others), then do what you always do when you want money. Make an offer
to an existing organization or, if you’re an entrepreneur, find someone
who needs what you have to offer and then deliver. The exchange is
money.

From this point of view, we are always engaged in work until the day
we die. How much time we spend earning money is a choice — not a fait
accompli based on an arbitrary event called retirement. I know that
retirement doesn’t seem arbitrary when organizations and countries have
rules about the age one ‘must’ retire. But I prefer to think that the individual chooses to retire the organization (rather than ‘from’ the organization) and that our choices don’t end when we leave one source of income.

Like actors, musicians, filmmakers and consultants whose whole
careers involve moving from one project, client or organization to
another, we can realize that there are no ‘endings’—just
another ‘what’s next’. When people ask me what I am doing, I say I am
working on a new project. More often than not, they are a lot more
interested than when I used to give them my title and job description.

At the end of the day, retirement is a state of mind. It is whatever we choose to make it.
The word ‘retirement’ isn’t going to go away. But perhaps if enough of
us make it less significant and don’t give our power to it, then we can
create retirement as a time worth celebrating, an opportunity to
complete a chapter in our lives, and a time to reflect on who we are
and what we really value and love—and then commit ourselves to that.

Retirement is analogous to navigating in a sailboat: the water and
the weather don’t care which direction we’re going, and the choice is
100% ours.