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A TIDAL WAVE OF workers quit the corporate world in recent years, starting an earlier-than-planned retirement. I can relate—because I did the same thing.
One reason these people left: Their psychological needs and values weren’t being met at work. We all want a sense that we’re accomplishing something important. We want to feel valued and respected by the company we work for, and we want a sense of autonomy and control.
What we don’t want is to work for bad bosses in a toxic environment. We don’t want to be micromanaged, and we don’t want to do work that isn’t interesting and meaningful.
Still, knowing we need to leave is one thing—and actually leaving is another. Believe me, leaving a well-paying job late in your career is hard, and you need a pretty big “why” to make the move.
Even though older workers may know they’re wasting their lives in unenjoyable dead-end jobs, most default to staying. They compromise their health and well-being, and grind it out to the bitter end, dying a little bit each day.
But sometimes, a trigger event like COVID-19 will occur, and that’s how we got the so-called Great Resignation. The pandemic made people realize how precious life is and how short it can be, and they didn’t want to waste any more time doing work they didn’t enjoy. Still, we can only hope that, for these folks, their retirement plan was financially feasible—and they knew what they were retiring to.
My own trigger event wasn’t the pandemic, but rather learning about the concept of financial independence. I happily discovered, after running the numbers, that I had achieved FIRE (financial independence-retire early) status.
Being financially free changed everything for me. It gave me back control over my life, and it made the decision to leave my stressful banking job—which was compromising my health and happiness—a no-brainer. But unlike others who use their financial independence to retire to a comfortable life of leisure, I felt the need to use it to do something significant with my life.
My own initial failure at retirement ignited a passion in me to help others with the transition to a meaningful retirement. I wanted to help them avoid suffering the sort of retirement shock that I suffered.
This led to my first book, Victory Lap Retirement, which isn’t for everyone, because it’s a retirement book about not retiring. My editor is still scratching her head over that one. The book challenges the idea of the traditional full-stop retirement, and it rejects the notion of retirement as an end goal in and of itself.
The book was written for growth-oriented people who are looking to escape doing bad work in a bad environment, but don’t want to slow down and take it easy. Rather, they want to do something significant with their lives now that they have the freedom to do so—folks who want to make a difference by doing work they’re proud of.
If you want a good example of folks living like this, look no further than all the people who write for HumbleDollar and offer their wisdom in the comments section. They’re doing it not for money, but for the sense of contribution and significance derived from doing work that matters. Contributing to this site gives folks respect, relevancy, visibility and a sense of identity, all fundamental needs that—when satisfied—lead to a joyous life.
For some people, retirement success is not about sitting around and taking it easy for the rest of their life. It’s about finding significance and connectedness through what they can give. It’s about finding fulfillment through some purposeful activity—though what that means will differ for each of us.
Mike Drak is a 38-year veteran of the financial services industry. He’s the co-author of Longevity Lifestyle by Design, Retirement Heaven or Hell and Victory Lap Retirement. Mike works with his wife, an investment advisor, to help clients design a fulfilling retirement. For more on Mike, head to BoomingEncore.com. Check out his earlier articles.
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Julie if you liked this article you are going to love a new article I’m working on called “Rise of the Ronin.” I’m writing it for retirees like us.
Wow did this article speak to me. I felt the same way for a couple of years in my job before I finally got the nerve up to retire. I financially was able but I had to find the courage to do it. I thought I was valued more at my job then I was actually. What a difference in my life now of stress, happiness and freedom I have more of now. Wouldn’t change a thing and a lot of the credit comes from reading these articles of this post. Thank you!
My pleasure William and I agree Humble Dollar and it’s contributors are doing a lot of great work educating others about money matters.
Your comment about Humble Dollar mirrors the comment of William Bernstein in the second edition of The Four Pillars of Investing where he wrote in Chapter 15-
If you’re extremely careful, the internet does serve up some useful sites, prime among which is the discussion board and wiki pages at bogleheads.org, as well as Jonathan Clements’s superb humbledollar.com, both of whose well-informed content and civil environment are the result of expert moderation.
I found the revised Four Pillars to be a must read for me and the forward to the book was written by Jonathan in his classic and informative style.
Thanks Mike for writing here.
I heartily agree with Dr. Bernstein’s comment about HD: ….whose well-informed content and civil environment are the result of expert moderation.
On the semi-anonymous web, it’s way too common to see discussions quickly degenerate into rudeness and insult. Those sites unfailingly suffer from poor moderation.
While I think the general character of participants on HD makes this less likely, there’s no doubt in my mind that Jonathan’s firm hand ensures that things never get ugly and always remain civil.
Jerry it sounds like we might be lost twins. I feel exactly the same way as you.
Great article Mike! I totally agree, especially your last paragraph:
“For some people, retirement success is not about sitting around and taking it easy for the rest of their life. It’s about finding significance and connectedness through what they can give. It’s about finding fulfillment through some purposeful activity—though what that means will differ for each of us.”
I retired at age 66, 13 years ago. I have tried to give back to my church, community and fellow retirees every since. Many of us are not wired for a life of leisure, and are most content when we are doing meaningful work, whether or not it is for a paycheck.
Thank you for your kind words and comments Rick. Like you I am trying to create balance between work, play and family/friends but I’m not there yet.
What I find interesting is that I’m being pulled towards giving more. I’m starting to think that most of us are wired to give at this point in our lives.
The thought that this might be part of some masterplan from the man upstairs makes me smile and gives me hope for the future.
Mike, thanks for a well written and thoughtful article.Your thesis is well reasoned and consistent with what my wife and I have experienced in the first years of retirement. Finding
I stopped working full-time for my longtime employer in 2017. I transitioned into a part-time consulting role which I enjoyed. I wouldn’t (or couldn’t) call myself retired, even though I had started my pension. This went well for a few years and then Covid hit. The consulting opportunities slowed up, and I didn’t actively pursue them. Many of them involved travel across the country and I was nervous about that. One thing I learned is that if you take yourself off the playing field for a year or two you can quickly become forgotten or lose your relevancy/knowledge in your field.
One of my goals in transitioning to retirement was to work part-time, but maintain autonomy over my schedule. This can be hard to do. In my field, when a company needs you, they need you full-time or more for a certain period of time, then you were expected to get immediately off the payroll. This can work out to a nice average number of hours per year, but they came in sporadic spurts. For example, one satellite testing gig I supported required 12-hr shifts (8PM – 8AM) 7 days a week for 8 to 9 weeks. I split this up with a few former colleagues, so we’d work a couple of weeks and have a couple off. This was intense but you got into a rhythm and it worked out.
Covid also impacted my favorite volunteering activity with AARP TaxAide. It shut down in March of 2020; 2021 had some limited remote support. In 2022 we got back to some level of normalcy, and I was happy to be involved. I suspect I will continue to find opportunities to balance family, friends, work, volunteering, and leisure for the rest of retirement. I look forward to reading your book.