The New Retirementality, Fifth Edition

Preface

The world continues to awaken to the realities of this strange institution we have created called retirement. Ideas that sounded novel when I first wrote them down 18 years ago now appear to be fairly common sentiment. My inspiration for this fifth edition has come from both the 60-plus rebels who have decided to live life on their own terms, as well as insights from those much younger.

For example, when Ryan was six years old, he visited with me in my library, where we discussed life, writing, and other macro themes that prevail upon the minds of precocious kindergartners. Ryan is quite possibly a writer-in-waiting. He is also the son of my wife's horse trainer. Shortly after our visit, his mother sent this note to me:

One day I was explaining what “retirement” meant to my son Ryan. He looked at me in a very puzzled way after digesting the meaning of this strange concept and then said to me, “Mommy, when I get older I will never retire because I am going to love my job.” After pondering the concept for a minute longer he continued, “And you will never retire either, will you, Mommy? Because you love your job, too, right?” I just laughed and reassured him that “No, I will probably never retire either because I truly do love my job.” I smiled and thought how lucky he was at the young age of six to already have so much figured out. If only we could have more people entering our workforce with the focus not on that magical date of retirement, but rather on enjoying their ...