Here's an item I saw on the Inquirer. net. I'm reposting it here for your convenience but at the same time supplying the link.
Click here.
You may browse the article but please, do not fail to read my comment below. Cheers!
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Do you really want to retire early?
Posted under Millionaires, retirement
When I was in my early 20s, I longed to retire at 30. Now that I have reached that marvelous age (plus several years), I realize I need more time. Besides, I can’t imagine not doing what I’m doing now. I would probably be lost without my writing that constantly defines and affirms every day who I am and what are the little things I can do to leave my little mark in this world.
A retirement survey by HSBC called The Future of Retirement in fact showed that many Filipinos would like to work even after they retire.
Boy Javier, an advertising executive, on the other hand, decided to get off the train early. And he is having the time of his life, according to this MoneySense article in the personal finance section of INQUIRER.net.
When I “retired,” I stopped wearing a watch and abandoned most things attached to it. An hour or a day or a week is totally irrelevant. Now is important. Now is forever.
Now I am reading a book. Now I am playing with my three granddaughters, cooking pasta, diving in Anilao, putting for my fifth bogey in the front nine. Now I am free! When I set my watch aside, I did not “retire.” I went off the train and took the bike into the unknown.
It’s been eight years since I retired. That bike has taken me to dreamland – to islands in the Visayas and Mindanao, some so small they could not be found on ordinary maps; to a farm in Lipa where there is always fruit in season and a hammock and a beer for listening to music with; to cheap bookstores so I could renew ties with Sufi and Zen masters, pundits of Wall Street and corporate America and journeymen of the sports and spiritual varieties; to hospitals where I awaited the wondrous births of my three granddaughters, made vigil over my wife’s thyroid operation, and anguished over my mother’s long and fatal battle with a stroke; to the kitchen where I experimented with pasta, meat, and seafood; to Palawan…to Boracay…to Thailand. Have you ever been held by border police while crossing Juarez into Texas?
It all sounds so…I don’t know…ideal? Romantic? Is this what I want with my retirement too? Then should I do everything to retire by 40? 50?
I want to feel this way now. I don’t want to wait till I’m 40 or 50, or even formally retired from work. I don’t think the age and the formal status matters. Filipinos need to do the work that they love so that it doesn’t feel like work. (Easier said than done, I know). Yet if we do find that Holy Grail, then perhaps we all don’t have to formally cross that “retirement” line.
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My comment: Retirement is such a broad subject. Especially nowadays when the entire concept of a "traditional retirement" as characterized in the industrial age no longer exists. Hey, we've long crossed over into the age of information. There's a whole new meaning to retirement now (another blog entry on that soon).At any rate, here's what I have to say about the article. I admire the blog writer's intent to pose this question, "Do you really want to retire early?". However, in posing such, I feel that the writer is speaking primarily to male readers. I may even go to the extent of reading between the lines that he is not posing the question to his readers but is in fact subliminally POSING THE QUESTION TO HIMSELF.
Look at it this way, I have been married quite long enough to know that you should not even dare pose a question like this to a woman. After all, there are very, very few women who would like to be chained to a desk or be a cube-monkey. If women had their way, they would spend the entire day doing SSS ...shopping, salon, spa, shopping, sipping Starbucks, socializing with the ladies, shopping, etc. ....of course apart from the other social responsibility and spiritual pursuits.
Do you really want to retire early? In my mind I can hear the women say, "You're barking up the wrong tree".
Keep it coming Lyold! I enjoyed your review immensely.
ReplyDeleteYes, am enjoying it too. I retired from corporate life (left Citi end-March after almost 13 years) and meant to take time off for SSSS -- to take Stock, spend more time with Shane and work on Socially responsible and Spiritual pursuits. But somehow found myself immediately doing some consulting and now I'm going to start teaching -- busier than intended! Oh well! Maybe in a few years time!
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Lillibeth! Yes you may be busier than intended but the nice thing about it is that you move at your own pace. It's not any different here. I find myself quite busy too doing a lot of the stuff I used to do when I was still with the ad agency. However, there's a lot of flexibility in terms of moving around scheds, plus of course, the privilege of going to work in walking shorts ! Ahhh the wonders of consultancy! :-)
ReplyDeleteright on the dot Lloyd! seems like you've been exposed too long to agency life that you know how the "women in the field" feels. hehe!
ReplyDeleteit's not just the length of exposure, it's also the intensity of the exposure. if you recall, we were only 5 bonafide males in the agency of 56 :-)
ReplyDeletehahaha! touche!
ReplyDeletehi lloyd! i enjoyed reading your reviews on retirement. now i'm not even sure if i'm retired or am i. haha. great to see you here..
ReplyDeletei guess im doing it a bit backwards. i took this year off to "retire" (i love it, i want more of it!) and i turn 40 next year! : )
ReplyDeleteif people love what they do, there is nothing to retire from, which is what i see my self doing with my writing for children, till the day i die.
if people don't love what they do... well, that is the retirement story, and the retirement market. : )
that is true jeanette. actually, this site is meant to take out the mystery behind retirement. in actuality, there is no such thing anymore as a full retirement. rather, there is only redirection.
ReplyDelete