Retire the word Retirement
AARP disassociated its name from retirement some time ago by dropping American Association of Retired Persons in favor of only AARP. Whether this is because they’re looking for a larger membership base or if it’s because they decided to redefine retirement itself is up to debate. The authors of this book view the name change as AARP being ready to retire retirement.
Retire the word retirement is the first thing on their list of how to retire the concept of retirement. Retirement is not going away quietly, though. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted social security, most people did not retire because they could not afford to. The concept of retirement did not exist then as it does today.
Their second item on the list is “realize that retirement is a relatively new concept.” Not only did people not retire because of money issues, but because elders were valued for their knowledge and skills.
Retirement Definitions & Antonyms
The book is filled with exercises to help the reader rethink what retirement is, evaluate assets, skills and abilities, take action on things, and a host of others. I have barely begun. The first set of exercises in the introduction invite me to really think about and write about the word retire.
Here is a pretty boring definition of retirement in Wikipedia
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire and keep some sort of retirement job, out of choice rather than necessity. This usually happens upon reaching a determined age, when physical conditions don’t allow the person to work any more (by illness or accident), or even for personal choice (usually in the presence of an adequate pension or personal savings). The retirement with a pension is considered a right of the worker in many societies, and hard ideological, social, cultural and political battles have been fought over whether this is a right or not. In many western countries this right is mentioned in national constitutions.
The rest of the short article covers retirement from a fairly traditional explanation of what retirement is.
Work is the obvious antonym to retirement. The American Heritage Dictionary tiresomely defines work as
1. Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.
2.
1. A job; employment: looking for work.
2. A trade, profession, or other means of livelihood.
3. Something that one is doing, making, or performing, especially as an occupation or undertaking; a duty or task: begin the day’s work.
4. An amount of such activity either done or required: a week’s work.
5. The part of a day devoted to an occupation or undertaking: met her after work.
6. One’s place of employment: Should I call you at home or at work?
What I Discovered While Doing This Exercise
I found coming up with an antonym for retirement not all that challenging. It’s clear to me that the opposite of retirement is working. However, on further examination, retirement doesn’t only apply to people leaving jobs after working all their lives to some retirement pasture.
For example, what about retiring an object? Like my old sneakers. They’re worthless to me, they’ve lost their cushioning. They no longer gather stares at the gym. They’re worn out. Their shoe strings are frayed. Need I go on?
For sure, this example doesn’t help me feel positive about retirement as a concept. In fact, while my organization calls what I’m going to do in a year when I leave this job retirement, I call it something else. I am making plans to leave this job when it’s financially prudent in order to pursue new vocational adventures. Wow!
I personally feel that the term retirement is not going to, so to speak, retire anytime soon. Social security is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Many corporations and government agencies provide retirement benefits that people are free to take advantage of when they meet requirements.
Retirement really no longer entirely means leaving work for good and sitting in front of the TV or playing golf for the rest of our lives. It’s really more of a transition. The transition could be from one productive stage of life to another, allowing new choices and opportunities. It could also be a time for a break.
I’m fairly certain that most people take early retirements to leave jobs they’re dissatisfied with. I think we should all leave jobs we’re dissatisfied with as soon as we can. We all have so many more choices than we’re currently aware of. We get stuck inside our own tunnel vision thoughts of who we are and what we’re capable of doing. Or even what we’re comfortable doing. Some people stay in jobs they hate for years because they’re afraid of moving out of their comfort zones.
But I digress. I recommend this book to help us really rethink and redefine the entire concept of retirement. I know I’m going to enjoy doing the exercises as I read through it and will most likely share most of what I write here in future posts.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Evan // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Retirement presumes a job. But jobs that are stable and unchanging no longer exist.
It is maybe better to think of activities we can make money with and the rest. This helps us stop seeing work as a ‘good’ or a ’should’.
After all there’s lots of worthwhile work that goes unpaid or is very underpaid (parenting being the most obvious).
Some people speak of NeWork - and divide our activities into different kinds of work: all worthwhile but only some of which people will give us money for.
Wishing you luck in your next phase of life (pro-tirement).
2 Cheryl // Apr 5, 2008 at 10:10 am
Even, thank you for your interesting comments, you give me food for thought for future posts.
I actually have a stable job, which makes taking an early retirement a little scary, but mostly very exciting. I am pretty dissatisfied with my stable job (at a currently unstable institution).
I am going to google NeWork!
3 Debt Free or Bust - Sherri // Apr 5, 2008 at 10:47 am
The book you’re reading sounds like a good one. I also suggest “No More Mondays” by Dan Miller. Life is too short to keep a job you hate, so quit and find one you love! To me, if you are looking forward to retirement, you’re in the wrong career.
On another track, in physics, work is defined as force x distance. In the strictly scientific sense of the word, you can use energy and not do work. But that’s another story…
Great article!
Sherri
4 Cheryl // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thanks, Sherri, I’ll check Dan Miller’s book out and most likely add it to my growing collection.
In my case, I don’t necessarily think I’m in the wrong career, just the wrong organization.
I’m pretty sure I work with some of those people who use energy and don’t do work!
5 Tara // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:40 am
I totally agree. Jobs suck. Get rid of them and save your own money, it won’t take as long.
6 Karen (Karooch from Scraps of Mind) // Apr 5, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Hear, hear, Cheryl.
I am in the process of ‘leaving work when it is financially prudent in order to pursue other interests’ myself and I object to it being called retirement. I will still be ‘working’, just on other things that interest me and with a different goal in mind. For me it is a point where I can make a lifestyle change that is not dependent solely on the most money I can earn.
7 Cheryl // Apr 5, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Yes, thank you Karen, you get it!!!
8 Raymond Chua // Apr 6, 2008 at 5:38 am
Thank you for sharing your knowledge about retirement.
I’m looking for a semi-retirement life by the age of 30.
9 Tom Volkar / Delightful Work // Apr 8, 2008 at 7:48 am
I’ve always liked this statement. Retirement is an income not an age. Following that thought, perhaps retirement is when your work is more a “want to” than a “need to” activity.
10 JoLynn Braley // Apr 10, 2008 at 10:48 am
To me retirement used to mean quitting work when you’re around 60, but now I think of it as doing what you really love, because doing what you love doesn’t feel like work. Therefore, there is no age for retirement, you can do it when you’re 25.
11 Cheryl // Apr 10, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Yes, JoLynn, you are so right. In fact that is pretty much what Tim Ferriss writes about in The 4-Hour Workweek
.
12 Carol Ann Wiley // Apr 23, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Wow! How I love to see this kind of dialogue about retirement. No, we shall not retire retirement; just the perceptions of it.
As someone who grew up during the 50’s, I can remember that “retirement” meant working for the same company for all your working life and retiring with a gold watch, warm wishes and no idea of what to do after.
Oh my, how things have changed. Not very many people work for one company all their working life any more. The work environment is so much different now. I truly believe that people have come to realize that they do have more control of their destiny. Perhaps the “Do what you love and the money will follow” isn’t always successful; but then neither is the just have a JOB (Just Over Broke).
The Technology Age has played a major role in this. One can work from anywhere and still not move. One can work from home and be their own boss. One can follow their dreams more easily today than yesterday.
I feel strongly about this issue as we are entering this boomer and GenX discussion about what retirement really is. It may have changed and is still changing; but retirement is still good. Retirement is an adventure; and you get to make it what you want and need it to be. Change is good!
Thanks for having such a thoughtful blog and meaningful posts. Great job. You will have a great “retirement”!
13 Cheryl // Apr 25, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Carol Ann, thank you for your comments. I’m so glad you came to visit, I hope you keep coming back!
Technology really is making an enormous difference in how we work. I currently work from home (I haven’t retired yet, but getting closer by the day). It’s been good because I’ve needed to be much more self motivated. This will carry into my retirement when I plan to work for myself.
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