My husband is on his second career and his second family. At 73, he has recently decided to retire but it will be in name only. He’s tired of running a corporation and dealing with stockholders and all of the necessary paperwork. When he retires sometime in the next 2 years, he’ll continue doing exactly what he does now, including going away to his little executive office every day — he just won’t have the stockholders to deal with. He’ll still be free to come home at 4 and take a nap before dinner.

In two year’s time, our daughter will be going away to college. My husband and I have discussed the possibility of doing more traveling around the country once she’s gone and our schedule doesn’t revolve around her schooling. Our son will still have 2-3 years of high school to complete but he’s homeschooled so we’d all just travel and learn together.

As for myself, once the children are raised and educated, I hope to go back to school and back to work — in some capacity or another. And I intend to work, as my husband does, on my own terms and up to the day I die.

I think the general population would be a lot happier and healthier if they learned the joys of being productive rather than working feverishly to attain this increasingly popular “early retirement” myth.

I hope I can find a job where I don’t want to retire from.

That would be amazing!!

Great article! It was good food for thought.