My Retirement Plan Or What I Plan To Do When I Retire

September 9, 2009 by Silicon Valley Blogger

What would you like to do when you grow up? That’s the standard question we all ask our kids at one point or another, when dreams are sweet and fertile and options are limitless. When I was a kid, I wanted to become a professional tennis player and a horse trainer, and at one point, I even wanted to be a nun or a priest (can’t tell you why but I remember this phase).

Anyway, now that I’ve reached the halfway point of my existence, the question I ask myself today is: what would I like to do when I retire? I pretty much know what I’d like to do…. I’m going to be completely unexciting and tell you that at this point, I only want to keep doing the same thing I’m doing now, because in a way, I feel like I’ve already “retired” — at least from the 9 to 5 workforce. You may or may not remember the following posts I had written some time ago, when all I aimed for was a flexible schedule.

So What’s Your Retirement Plan?

The term “retire” really is a misnomer of course. All it means is that you’ve entered a phase in your life where you’re doing what you want to do — on your own terms — whatever it is. I believe that retiring simply means having enough time in our hands to do whatever it is that we want to do, to know what it is that we’d like to do, and finally, to actually enjoy those activities that we now have time to pursue. In my mind, I would say that you’ve retired if there’s no other place you’d rather be, than where you are right now.

So what is your picture of retirement? I know lots of people who enjoy traveling, though I did find it interesting that the survey I featured in my post called “Time Is Money” showed that many senior citizens (and I suppose, retirees) don’t spend as much time on travel as younger people do. Do you think you’d fall in this boat? Have you considered thinking about the activities you’d like to pursue as a retiree?

I will say that I feel quite inspired by this one fellow I found on CNN: he’s a 93 year old stock broker who’s been trading and investing for over the last 74 years. To watch the video about this gent, click this link or the image below.

old stock broker

He wakes up at 7 AM, works till 4 PM and pretty much defines his days around the financial markets. After trading, he even manages to have the energy to visit his trainer for some weight training sessions. Plus, I’m impressed by just how computer savvy he is: he keeps one computer screen on the markets, one on clients and one for all other miscellaneous computer activities. He’s the man! Now you may say that he’s decided to never retire, but I’ll argue that he’s been in retirement for a while now!

I’d love to be just like this guy if I’m ever fortunate enough to get to such a ripe old age. :)

That’s my inspiring financial story for today. So what other cool financial stories are out there? Let’s see what the PF community has to say this week:

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