Quick note: This past week I’ve been up in Sequim, Washington visiting family and enjoying the great outdoors.  Today we meet up with some friends and drive south toward California where we’re going to be hiking and camping along a rugged section of coastline called The Lost Coast.  Cell reception will be spotty, but I’ll try to post some pics and videos to our Facebook page and (newly created) Instagram page.  Tune in if you want to see some beautiful scenery or are just interested to see if I get eaten by a bear.  Now on to today’s post.

The traditional definition of retirement contains 4 key elements:

• Age (65+)
• Work status (not working)
• Money (you need millions)
• Idealized pursuits (take those millions and buy a vineyard)

Not surprisingly, I’m not a huge fan of that definition.  Among other problems, it puts you on the deferred life plan.  You push your dreams off until “Someday” rather than living life to the full now.  Not only that, but it doesn’t give you much time.  If you retire at 65 and stay healthy and active until 75 (a stretch for many) then you’ve got 10 years to do everything you’ve been putting off for the last 40.  Ten years is not enough.

Seneca did a good job pointing out these shortcomings over 2,000 years ago:

You will hear many men saying: “After my fiftieth year I shall retire into leisure, my sixtieth year shall release me from public duties.”  Are you not ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnant of life?  How late it is to begin to live just when we must cease to live!

A better definition

My definition takes a different approach and attempts to deal with the problems I mentioned earlier.  It has evolved over the years and will likely continue to do so as I live, learn, test and refine.  Here’s my 10 word definition of retirement:

 A system for living that optimizes for freedom and fulfillment.

Let’s unpack that for a minute:

It’s a system…  I mean two things by this.  First, it’s a system in the sense that it’s a set of connected parts forming a complex whole. Retirement has a ton of moving parts that need to work together to produce the results that you want.  Those parts include things like money, relationships, pursuits, Social Security, Medicare, health, housing and insurance to name a few.  Those parts work together in a complex system.   If the parts work, the system works.  If one or more parts isn’t functioning properly, the system breaks down.

Second, retirement is a system in the sense that it involves a set of principles or procedures for doing something.  Your retirement should involve actions that you do on a regular basis with a reasonable expectation that doing them will get you closer to the life you want.  Read this for more.

For living…  There are no qualifiers here.  It’s not a system for living once you hit 65 or have a certain amount of money in the bank. It’s a system for living now. Today.  Retirement is not a life stage that you automatically arrive at after a certain number of birthdays.  It’s an iterative process that starts today and evolves as you proactively work to gain more control of your time and then use that time in very intentional ways.  Read thisfor more.

That optimizes…  Your system should be optimized to produce the results you want.  Otherwise it’s a bad system.  It should move you efficiently and effectively toward the life you want.  Fortunately, optimization is a natural byproduct of the iterative process described earlier. Rather than waiting until “retirement age” to figure out what you really want out of life (and wasting some of your best remaining years in the process), you’re testing and refining now.

For freedom…  You can have all the plans in the world, but if you don’t have the time and money to get your dreams off the drawing board, then what’s the point?  So yes, money is an important ingredient to a successful retirement to the extent that you use it to buy your freedom.  Just remember that your goal isn’t to have more money for money’s sake. Your goal is to have a better life.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said it well: “The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.”

And Fulfillment…  Retirement is more than a math problem.  Yes, you need money (as we just discussed), but don’t forget about meaning.  Money will help you sleep at night but meaning will get you out of bed in the morning.  You need both to have a fulfilling life doing the things you want with the people you love.  So decide what you really want out of life and then get very intentional about making that vision a reality.

How about you?  I’d love to hear how you define retirement.  Feel free to share in the comments.  Have a great weekend!

Be Intentional,

Joe