Timing is almost everything.
Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like bananas, so said Groucho Marx. What does it mean? For working stiffs, it means that, inexorably, there comes a time to quit, not to rest, but simply to no longer ‘work’ for money.
It is a delicate mathematical question: Have you saved enough so as not to burden your loved ones? In economics, the matter is framed in terms of early nurture income-less years (when you get schooled), your working life, and glorious retirement. By choosing when to finish school, and when to quit working, supposedly you would maximize your lifetime happiness. Of course, it isn’t so simple. There are prodigies who produced early, like the Beatles or Wolfgang A. Mozart, and late bloomers like Frank Lloyd Wright, who did their best work in their 70s. The gods decided for them.
For us ordinary folk, when to hang up our Panamas and go sock-less is our big question. The experts have weighed in on this. The old rule that says you need a certain level of money income is mostly gone. That level is an ‘it depends’ thing, hence, uncertain. In its place is the related question: What do you do next?
It is a cruel thought experiment to set up an idyll of retirement as golf, travel, restaurants, and freedom from the daily commute. Golf is great as a release from the working day. Travel suggests wandering moments, enjoyed in your youth, and better with almost no money; traveling in a tour bus or cruise ship in your later years is more chore than delight. Restaurants are fine if you can find honest kitchens that don’t secretly lace the menu with MSG and sugar. Okay, the one great thing about retirement is freedom from traffic! (Dumaguete could lose its attractiveness for retirees if it doesn’t solve its traffic problems.)
You are what you eat. Or what you throw in the garbage. Or what you read and remember. Or what you find funny or entertaining. (Not who or what others think you are.) So take stock. Do your grocery and market lists. Throw out unused stuff. Get some unusual books, which will force you to do some thinking. Channel surfing is out, but one-minute clips from Netflix are in, even if they take hours and more beer than you imagined. Stare at your Facebook and Twitter feeds. What you get is an overall Rorschach test of who you are.”¨Most likely, you will see a complicated and mixed bag of people, ideas, and manias. There may be many happy elements from your workday. If so, it’s not yet the time. Otherwise, you’re ready to retire.
Don’t do it mindlessly.
There’s an intermediate case where you go through the motions of an actual retirement, but can’t imagine not having a regular paycheck. You tap your connections, and reincarnate as a ‘consultant’ doing what you used to do. This sounds like a form of purgatory, a trial hell. It means you probably led a somewhat-meaningless work lifestyle, and few will suffer your complaining or envy your financial savvy. You probably ought to just work till they carry you out the door. And you will be miserable the whole time.
Once you’ve taken stock, count your blessings the way a good coach decides his team’s fate at halftime. If the score is comfortably ahead, you can hang on to your gains. It may be a bit boring but pleasant. If you’re behind, you plot long shots and Hail Marys. If you’re dead even, you have to pull new plays. This is easier to do than imagine because if you lose early, you can take on bigger risks. Dying early while trying is always better than doing the boring same-old thing. Who knows? You might find something truly interesting.
Time that retirement point well, and be ready for another good life. To paraphrase one poet, ‘Living well is its own revenge.’* That’s because time flies like an arrow, and you’re not a fruit fly.
*George Herbert actually said ‘Living well is the best revenge.’ But for your foe, it also means he can only win if, like you, he decides to live well. Fat chance.
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Orlando Roncesvalles joins the MetroPost as a columnist. He is a Visiting Professor of Economics at Silliman University. Before coming to Dumaguete, he was in the International Monetary Fund staff in Washington.
