For 45 years, my entire job has been helping people retire. Ten years as a Wall Street investment advisor. Thirty-five more writing about money here at Money Talks News. Get out of debt, save hard, invest smart, escape the grind. That’s the gospel I’ve preached since 1981.
So here’s a confession that might surprise you.
I’m about to turn 71. I’ve got more than enough to walk away. And I have zero intention of doing it.
This isn’t a money problem. I started collecting Social Security at 70 last year, right on schedule. Delayed credits stop cold at 70, so waiting any longer just leaves money on the table.
My wife, Sara, is a nurse practitioner who does fine on her own. I could quit tomorrow.
I know how lucky that makes me. Most people don’t get to pick the day they stop working. And most don’t work nearly as long as I have — workers 75 and up are on track to be barely 2% of the U.S. workforce.
And yet I keep showing up at my desk every morning.
For a while, continuing to work made me feel weirdly guilty. Like I was breaking my own rules, sitting on a freedom I’d spent decades telling everybody else to grab.
Then I made peace with it, and it came down to four letters. You’ve heard of FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early. It’s the movement I’ve been needling since it started. My version is FIRN: Financial Independence, Retire Never.
Here’s why I’m still working.
1. Sara isn’t ready to quit
My wife is 47 and squarely mid-career. My retiring while my wife heads out to work makes no sense at all, at least to me. When I travel, or do anything really, I prefer to have her with me.
What would I do, wave goodbye at the door every morning and rattle around the house alone until she gets home?
Retirement is better shared. When Sara’s ready to talk about hers, we’ll talk about mine. Until then, we’re a team, and we both show up.
2. It doesn’t feel like work
I write from home. I ride my bike whenever I want. I’ve been known to take an afternoon nap. Nobody’s standing over me with a stopwatch.
So ask yourself this. If your “job” has room for a midday bike ride and a nap, what exactly are you retiring from?
Retirement is supposed to be an escape from work you can’t stand. I don’t need to escape. I’m already right where I want to be.
3. Financial freedom is the point, not the exit
Here’s where I part ways with the FIRE crowd. They treat financial independence as a finish line. Hit the number, stop working, done.
I think that misses the whole point.
Financial freedom isn’t the right to stop working. It’s the ability to stop working for a paycheck you can’t afford to lose.
Once you’re free, work stops being a sentence and starts being a choice you make fresh every morning. And choosing it feels nothing like being chained to it.
That freedom to walk away any day I want? That’s the exact reason I don’t.
One thing before we keep going — the financial world is louder and dumber than ever. Hot takes everywhere. Almost none of it is worth your time. I’ve spent 35+ years cutting through the noise so you don’t have to. Sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter — 10 seconds, no spam, just the stuff that matters.
4. The longer I work, the better we travel
Here’s my least noble reason, and I’ll own it.
Sara and I have no kids, so there’s no legacy to build beyond taking care of each other. Every year I keep earning isn’t about stacking up more to leave behind.
It’s about spending it.
The money I make now has to cover fewer years, which means more of it is free to enjoy. When Sara and I fly somewhere, we turn left when we board instead of right. Business class over coach. Nice hotels over cheap ones.
I worked my whole life to afford that. Might as well use it.
5. I just like it
Strip everything else away and here’s the plain truth. I like this. I like the writing. I like the thinking. I like running a business.
I like sitting down to bang out a story like this one, knowing somebody out there might make a smarter money move because they read it.
I’ve got a simple test. If I won the lottery today, would I still be here tomorrow? For me, it’s an easy yes. I’d be right back at this keyboard.
My dad worked for the government and counted the minutes until he could get out. I’ve never felt that once. That’s the whole difference.
So when am I retiring?
Probably never, at least not in the way people mean the word. That’s FIRN. Financial Independence, Retire Never.
And that guilt I used to feel? Gone. Because I finally figured out what financial freedom was actually for.
It was never about not working. It’s about earning the right to stop doing work you have to do and start doing work you love to do.
I got there. Now I get to enjoy it.
If you can, join me.
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