Believe it or not, most of us will still choose to work after we have passed the financial goal of having sufficient savings needed for early retirement.
Even for those who are seeking financial independence, the end goal should be to have the option to retire from conventional work or have the ability to stop working their 9 to 5 jobs. To stop trading their time for money out of the necessity of earning a livelihood, unless they choose to.
Many will still continue working after reaching the stage of optional retirement, instead choosing jobs that are more fulfilling that feed off our personal interest, and set at our own pace.
On the other hand, maybe some may still want to work due to the fear of letting go of routine work and being afraid of change, or fear of insufficiency of monetary funds, having the mindset that money saved will still not be enough. However, they are the minority. Of course, as pointed out by a reader, there may be some exceptions to this rule.
The fact is, most of us continue working for the simple reason that working gives us purpose.
Work is defined as an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.
Working towards a goal, or working for a purpose in itself is a very motivating endeavor.
We are driven to ‘work’ to fulfill a need to achieve a purpose or result, an end goal to strive towards.
In many ways, work gives meaning and fulfillment, a personal direction, maybe even happiness to some as it provides a sense of accomplishment.
Some love to create and invent, this can include content creation, crafting, designing, even cooking new recipes. Some choose to serve and help others, to address a need in society, to bridge a gap. Others may choose to spend their efforts raising their children and making the home functional and an ideal environment for growth.
In my opinion, all these are still defined as work.
Nobody really wants to just laze around at home 24/7. Sooner or later, boredom will eventually show its ugly head. After a week or two, you would be pacing around looking for ‘work’. Especially the younger you are, you may be more driven to do more work as you still have the mental capacity, health, and energy to achieve high productivity and ‘work’.
Then what would you do?
The best scenario then is to find work that you love doing.
Then you wouldn’t even want to retire from it, wouldn’t you?