Now barely 27 years old, I feel I shouldn’t be talking about retirement. But a conversation yesterday about pensions found my boss and I in pessimistic moods at the thought of working till death and got me pondering a modern interpretation of work and retirement.
Consider: as workplace seniority becomes less valuable for employers and less likely for employees, the merits of working in one place from college till done are … what? As the pensions of generations X, Y, and so on hurtle towards a gauntlet of debt obligations, retirement as we know it seems less likely, and given our probable physical fitness (and my personal hope for mental fitness) in the years we will be considered elderly, we’re going to work when we’re older and probably be okay doing it.
This isn’t to say that retirement is impossible. In fact, I’m thinking I’d like to retire sometime in my 30s. And again in my 40s. And 50s – once a decade until death.
You can call it an unsubsidized sabbatical, because that’s what it is. I prefer to think of it as retirement in bursts: after saving and investing at a moderate to high rate for about eight or nine years, take 12~18 months off then re-enter the workplace. I would have to save more money to stay liquid during that time of unemployment (and hope for good health), but the tangible benefits of saving would be revealed to me sooner rather than later. Knowing I would be seeking new employment at least once every decade, I would be forced to maintain leading-edge expertise in my career(s). And, of course, I’d get to enjoy some rest and relaxation, to invest grand swaths time in pursuits other than, well, saving for retirement.
Among the caveats is that health care for the unemployed in the United States is a curious menu of undesirable choices (though continued residence in this country is not mandatory). There’s a possibility I’ll end up with a longer burst of retirement than I anticipate and run out of money before landing a new job. And though I’d like to raise a family, my savings rate would likely suffer under the fiscal weight of a household of more-than-one, the aforementioned curious menu would be untenable to my wife and children, and the discontinuity inherent to this approach would likely emotionally strain people around me (given they’re not also disposed to the idea). Institutionally, the structures built around the model of retirement at a later age – Medicare, Social Security, IRAs, the AARP, daytime television – reinforce the traditional model of working until the seemingly arbitrary age of 65 and thereby also burden younger working generations with the cost of elderly care.
Living as a 38-year-old with an ostensibly twentysomething physicality, I’ve clashed with this institutional structure, and though in 40 years (if it’s still around) I’ll be its benefactor, I desire more greatly to live independently of it and be less burdensome to youth to come. As a fan of retirement, however, this solution effectively uncouples long-term relaxation from aging. And by this retirement calculator (given an annual percentage rate of 7%), my first retirement at 35 is pretty manageable – even 32 is a possibility. So, to that end, among the things I acquired for myself on this birthday was an individual investment account – a few sound bets on blue-chips in a weak economy should make that 7% achievable.
I am also acquiring a new MacBook and hosting local friends for adobo on Saturday.
The day I turned 26 was conferred best day ever status by a confluence of events; the year since has been true to that rainy evening’s promise. Today can’t match it and few days in my life will compare, but I pause to recognize now the feeling of being loved and appreciated and the fact I have friends who write stuff like this. This will be the year I take up guitar and investing. In the meantime, Christina plans to lavish me with dinner at Restaurant Nora.

