Retirement

Life used to be so simple. We learned till our early 20s, earned till our mid-60s, and then retired happily to our La-Z Boy. We paid our dues early in our career so we could coast with our three-martini lunches (especially if we were male and pale). Society’s outdated three-stage model (learn, earn, retire) taught us...

I used to think the whole “age is just a number” line was a bit of a cop-out, an empty cliché. Not so much anymore. And I can thank Satchel Page, a pitcher from the Negro Baseball League. Satchel was recruited to join the Cleveland Indians soon after Jackie Robinson became the first black Major Leaguer. Paige became the oldest rookie in Major League history at age 42, even though he wasn’t sure of his actual age. It was a good thing, too. Paige continued...

We learn in our teens. We earn in our twenties. We yearn in our thirties. We burn in our forties. We discern in our fifties. And, we adjourn in our sixties. But, what if we lived life as a mash-up? Maybe we ought to “unlearn and return” to new subjects and experiences throughout life. Live by the “learn, earn, yearn, burn” rule and I promise you heartburn and a midlife crisis. The Game of Life was created by Milton Bradley in 1860. Isn’t it time you deviated from that linear, one-size-fits-all board game?

In 2018, I went scuba diving in Indonesia with my then 80-year-old dad. One morning before our first dive, I took an online longevity quiz that said I’d likely live to 98-years-old. I asked my dad how long he thought he’d live. He mused for a moment, and then to my great surprise, said, “98!” What’s miraculous about that is...

Want to see what massive change looks like? Check out the table below, which depicts how economic power has evolved in the U.S. from an industrial to a high-tech economy. No surprise, right? What is a surprise is how little we are prepared for that change. How does learning keep up? More accurately, where do people repurpose themselves to keep up with the changing times? “Life-long learning” may be a trendy phrase, but they’re hollow words without a home.

In most circles, it’s almost impossible to talk about getting older without the conversation turning to retirement, and questions of “when, where, and how.” Of course, no one stops to ask why. The “why” is built into what we’ve been taught our final act should look like—the promised pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Retire is what you do when you reach a certain age—stop working, slow down, and take it easy. And if you can’t afford this dream, it’s easy to feel like you’ve been cheated, or you’re a failure.