Retire now? Or not?

Twenty or Thirty years ago I was gung-ho to retire as soon as I could accumulate enough money to do so. Bev and I bought our retirement home, on the golf course, near a lake in the foothills of California; the business side of my tax practice was going well and I thought I was just a year or two away from “retiring.”

Retirement struck me in the face when I was a mere 20 year old college graduate. No, I wasn’t a prodigy; I just went to a three all-around-year college. My parents both encouraged me to work for the government and when I reminded them I was draft bait and would have to go in the military, they replied “oh, great;” you only have to work 20 years then.

Eight years later, when I got out of the military, having figured out it’s not a great career when the war (Vietnam) is over and peace is forever, and having gone to graduate school at the same time and having a freshly minted MBA degree, I was ready to take on the world.

“Well, son, you need to take the Civil Service exam and get a good government job. You’ll be able to retire when you’re 55!” “No way, I replied.” I’m going to be CEO of a big corporation someday. This was in the last deep recession of 1970. At that time I though Chrysler or IBM would be lucky to have me! Man, was I wrong!

We are bombarded with messages of the #1 goal of life:

Every financial planner in the world and every financial institution in the world talks nothing besides setting aside enough wealth to retire on; usually by some unrealistic, early age. Even though I wasn’t retired, I was spending three and four day weekends at our house up at the lake, playing golf 3-4 times a week, playing tennis a couple of times a week, and thinking this was a great life. Then, the 2 ½ hour commute turned into 3-4 hours with increases in the population in the area; but, most of all, I looked around and said “is this what retirement would be like?”

I am easily bored. I don’t care to sit in my easy chair watching television. I only do that when I’m too tired to do something else, which seems to be happening with more regularity these days, but I have found that not doing something else makes me more tired than doing something.

I will never retire, he says with finality:

We closed up the house, returned to San Jose full time and Bev and I both said we just weren’t built for retirement. I know the older I get, the less tennis and golf I can play and it already, at the young age of 70 years, takes a kick in the pants to get me out on the golf course, and, forget the tennis court. No siree! I would much rather work at my favorite thing which is to help my clients get out of and stay out of trouble with the IRS.

More later......