I've always lived my life a bit outside of conventional norms, in the sense that so far, I've somehow managed to elude the common trappings of a traditional life path. I do not think I have what you would call a career, though I have been working and earning ever since I was 19.
In some ways, I feel I've amassed considerable working experience, as I changed jobs, working for employers as well as freelancing for years now. And yet, when I think of myself in terms of "work", I always feel I've been very lucky. Like I've managed to sort of hide myself here in this nook where I'm not required to do a job I hate.
I always worked what I loved, and all my future-oriented questions have revolved around earning from what I enjoy doing, aka writing. Not everyone is as lucky. There's some men at my window pruning the trees. I doubt it's their passion. At the same time, I'm aware not everyone is as courageous, for it does take quite a sizable leap of faith to choose to pursue one's passion over stability or more traditional career paths. Finally, not everyone knows what their passion is. We'll typically skirt around the subject, saying not everyone can afford to, as if pursuing your passion were some elitist pastime.
It's not. It takes a good deal of introspection and trying things out to even determine what your passion is, and I've met many a man in his 40s or 50s who still knew of no notable passion to speak of. Secondly, it involves a lot of sacrifice and general oddness which does not really jive with my idea of a luxury. Anyway, enough ranting.
Vinyl records are (at least here) an expensive hobby, which is why my collection is quite small. Yet it's one of the many pleasures we use to justify slaving away at soulless jobs, instead of pursuing our passions and fulfilling our dreams. I love my pick-up, though I would never excuse slaving at a 9-to-5 so I can shop expensive records and enjoy over-priced lattes on my 2 days of semi-freedom.
Point was, I find myself in a bit of an unusual position when it comes to work. As such, this week's question proposed by @ericvancewalton for his wonderful #MemoirMonday project has me in two minds,
In your opinion, when is the right time to retire?
Yet, how can you retire from something that's not work in the first place? I hope to never retire from writing, because I don't know what I would do with myself. I enjoy it too much, and if anything, hope to branch out into more related areas in the years to come.
Again, I find myself in a different boat from the people around me who are either bemoaning their long hours or desperately seeking sneaky ways to get out of work. I'm not interested in either.
My idea of an ideal career is, rather than counting the hours, that you go into something you enjoy doing, where work doesn't feel like work, except in a very limited way. While I very much enjoy and look forward to completing writing projects, be they articles, stories, or novels, I only do so in terms of the next project. The thought of stopping writing never crosses my mind.
So in a sense, my answer to Eric's question is never. You should never retire because in my book, you should never wish to retire. You only have the one life, and if you have been fortunate enough to identify a real passion, then you should pursue it.
Obviously, not everyone can afford to. Some people can't deprive themselves or their families of material necessities long enough to have a proper go. I get that. You do what you gotta do. But never lose sight of the end goal, which should be returning to said passion.
I've met a worrying number of young people (so 17-25 year olds) who didn't have anyone depending on them financially and who even had supportive families, who had abandoned their passions and talents they might've once nurtured in the name of "realism".
Because it's unrealistic to expect to ever make a living writing or playing guitar or painting.
TO me, that's incredibly sad.
On the other hand, if you're not in a field you enjoy, if your job is a purely put-food-on-the-table job, I'd say as early as you possibly can.
I have great respect for people pursuing early retirement. People looking for legal shortcuts or whatever to get out of a job they hate early. Why shouldn't they? It's a sick system that encourages you to work until you're just about decrepit. Until your best years are behind you (at least physically), all in the name of what? Golden retirement? Traveling the world at 70? How many people do you know who do that?
For most people, retirement seems to be devoted to trips to the supermarket, caring for plants and other mundane and seemingly unfulfilling tasks that you don't need to work 40+ years to enjoy, anyway.
I see a lot of people (of all ages) working in the hope of some elusive better tomorrow. What tomorrow? And what does better mean, exactly? I mean, if you know yourself to have the resolve to say okay, I'll work like a slave for 10 years, then retire and live a life that actually provides some semblance of satisfaction, then by all means.
Most people don't. Most people will still be in the same dead-end job ten years on, either working to pay off a lifestyle they don't need, or saving for their autumn years that they're not even guaranteed to live to, in the first place.
Perhaps I'm naive. Perhaps it's the age and my outlook will change. I hope it does. A static life seems like a nightmare. But right now, it seems to me that if you're paying with your time, sacrificing years of a finite existence for something elusive and not strictly necessary, than the asking price is way too high.
(and thanks to Eric for this wonderful initiative. I'm loving these posts, and you should check them out if you haven't already done so.)