Fridays Off Are Off

Only temporarily.

In changing my schedule I knew there would be two periods when I would need to revert back.  The biggie would be tax season, running from January to mid-April,  The other was the month of August, when we have an outside audit that we work on.  So instead of being 10% retired, it's actually more like 6.3%.  But that's still something.

Our society is very uneven about retirement now.  Some people are retiring very early. My brother-in-law retired at 57, and my sister contemplates the same soon, certainly by 60.  I know others who are retiring at 62, in both the private and public sector.  That does not mean theses retirees do nothing.  But they are done with their primary job, and do not have a full-time employer to structure their lives.

I also know people in their late sixties and seventies who show no signs of slowing down or leaving their profession.  These are often entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals who have a passion for what they do.  Doctors, farmers, lawyers and CPAs  sometimes go on until their last breath.  Easier to do if you're your own boss, I guess.

Then there are others whose economic circumstances will not allow them to slow down.  Monetarily they cannot ease off.  They have to make it until full social security age and Medicare.  And in this day when fewer and fewer companies offer decent pension plans, sometimes even Social Security and Medicare is not enough and they have to keep going.  This is the saddest category, and unfortunately a growing one.  People who have to continue at jobs they don't like so they can keep their income and healthcare.

I am skirting the whole issue of when people should retire, or it's financial effects on society as a whole.  That is another topic for another day.  I'm just talking about an individual, human reality.

Which category am I in?  Obviously, I would love to be in the first category.  I would love to be wrapping up my accounting career right now, and moving on to other things that I would love to do - some that make money and some that don't.  I am definitely not in the second category - I don't want to be at ninety-plus and still firing off tax returns.  On the other hand, I would love to blog and act and write and work for charities for the rest of my life.

I guess I'm mostly in the third category.  This is due primarily to decisions I made that effect my timing in getting out.  I had a son later in life who will not be starting college until I am in my mid-sixties.  Due to other events, I have no retirement built up from before I was 40.  I'm too selfish to want our lifestyle to contract.  So I'm in it at least until 62 and possibly until I'm 66 plus.

So, at this point, I am grateful to be 6.3% retired.  And if I can have success at my activities outside of accounting, that percentage may slowly grow.  It's a small percentage, but it's something and it gives me hope.  I can look one way and see people who are getting fully out and I am envious of them.  On the other side, I see people who have no chance of putting their foot off the accelerator at all, and I feel lucky in comparison.

I really look forward to getting my Fridays back!