A friend wrote “I’ve heard of some examples in which people were unable to enjoy their late lives due to unexpected things.” Here’s my reply to him —

I’m curious what examples you have. There are examples of health conditions or grandchildren responsibilities, but..

1st) I want to address a realistic scenario — my kids get into financial trouble or career low-point including job loss. This kind of thing actually happened in my extended family, before the parents retired.

Q: In that situation, am I lucky or unlucky to be still working full time, as a /septuagenarian/?
A: Depending on the situation, I would say “Lucky to be employed”. One reason to feel unlucky is “OMG my dream of carefree retirement after age 75 is now destroyed. Now I have to work a few more years to help my son/daughter”. Well, in that situation, I do NOT think I would feel that way.

2nd) there is a risk that some government financial reform kicks in, which hurts the late-retirees like my father and me. I am confident that in well-managed systems like U.S. or Singapore, the super-old workers would be given sufficient advance notice/warning so I would have a viable option to reschedule and bring forward my retirement start date. This option would let me mitigate any penalty brought about by the impending reform.

2b) The flip side of this risk — economic or fiscal deterioration leading to inflation or currency devaluation. Black swan or white swan hitting my retirement nest egg. A very real risk to the early retiree. In conrast, the late retirees would worry much less about inflation. Nobody can have a watertight protection providing complete insulation from external shocks.

2c) beside external shocks, there are also missteps that could wipe out large portions of your retirement nest egg.

See career longevity= Bedrock@ %%fledgling ffree

Q: In that situation, am I lucky or unlucky to be still employed full time, as a septuagenarian?3rd) example is an unwanted request to help with grandchildren. My kids actually received help from four grandparents until all four quit due to health.

A: perhaps Unlucky .. “Now I have wasted my opportunity to enjoy peaceful retirement with my wife for the last 5 years. Now I have to help with my grandchildren until I’m too old. So I won’t get any opportunity whatsoever !”

I would balance 1) grandchildren care 2) work 3) leisure. Stressful balancing act? I hope not. My work and the grandchildren are not job duties _imposed_ on me. I think that in reality, grandparents do have the option to say No but I won’t say No for no reason. If my health or my job doesn’t permit, then I would say No. That’s what happened in my family.

4th) reason .. health is the most common “example in which people were unable to enjoy their late lives”. My wife does plan to retire in her 60s and pursue some unknown retirement things. For me, I thought long and hard.

What I enjoy doing in my late life, if I’m healthy, is mostly about work, light-duty but productive work with some job responsibilities, some deliverables, some real users. Stress is inevitable, but after my 60s I would want only light, positive stress. If the unwanted type of stress is too much then I would change job or retire.

Therefore, for me “unable to enjoy late life due to health” == “forced to retire when I still want to work”.

This is NOT a regretful outcome due to poor planning.

Therefore, the “example” of health is not a reason for me to retire earlier. (More like a reason to stay healthy enough to keep working.) Specifically,

• If my health declines in my 70’s during my late-career and I can’t go out and enjoy retirement, I am sure I won’t have major regrets. There’s very little desire in me to leave my work and enjoy a 6M long vacation. I know what I enjoy, but I am even more confident about what I do NOT enjoy, like sightseeing year and year!
• If my health declines during my 60’s, then my late-retirement plan needs adjustment. There’s no “regret” per se since I would end up retiring around standard retirement age.

In conclusion, in my prognosis there are very few examples that would sway me away from my long-standing plan of late retirement. I believe in my plan but I keep an open mind, ready to adjust my plan.

— rmSelf ^ xpSelf.. This letter I sent to a friend was all about the rmSelf making judgements for the xpSelf.  The rmSelf does care about the xpSelf [hedonimeter]

2ADL→$5k/M provid`Decades@ decent living has in-depth discussion of living with chronic conditions.