Why we can’t retire

We recently witnessed some ancient senators who had trouble functioning at their jobs. But the cry “Why don’t they just retire already?” doesn’t only apply to politics. There was a time when someone of my age was supposed to start stocking up on fishing equipment and working on my golf game. Now, I’m lucky if I can retire at 70.

You can thank efforts to whittle back on Social Security and being told, “You don’t need a pension. Just get a 401(k) and play the stock market!” Never mind that I’ve been through five economic crises during my working life. Then why not sell your house, move to Leisure World, and live off the equity? Nice try, but we’re also providing a home for our adult son and his daughter because rent is ridiculously high. And even retirement communities have expensive houses and fees. And don’t even talk about reverse mortgages. When a celebrity tells you in an ad, “I wouldn’t promote such a product if I didn’t think it’s honest,” it probably isn’t.

But more than the financial aspects, we can’t retire because not working would make us feel devalued.

Throughout our lives, we derived value from our work. We started young, mowing lawns and babysitting and taking pride in the money we earned ourselves. Our goal in school was to get a good job. Our parents warned us, “If you don’t get good grades, you’ll wind up being a garbage collector!” (Never…