Posts » Life is not a sprint
Recently I had a nice conversation with my brother about retiring. Since we are in our 40s, there’s still a long way ahead, but we clearly share the same outlook on retiring: we won’t.
My brother’s journey in IT has seen him doing lots of different things already, so he’ll find a way to get used to changes ahead. Mine is more straightforward but I’m no stranger to changes either. I’m sure we’ll find our ways there.
I’m not saying working till very old age is for everyone, but there are clearly downsides to giving up work completely. I have seen it so many times. People end up retiring only to look for work half a year later. Or their health deteriorate quickly because of sudden life change, loss of human contact, purpose of life, etc.
The other side of equation is our retirment systems which simply won’t be able to deal with aging society. It’s simply unsustainable (humans are good at being unsustainable, aren’t we?). Eventually it’s all gonna blow up because you can’t finance today’s retirment payments from the future ones.
So the way forward is not count on it at all.
Life is not a sprint towards retirment age and then a blessful ‘nothing’.
The system is not designed for it in the long term.
The only responsible way I see is to stay productive as long as possible, which also means staying healthy, intelectually sound, and open for changes.