Tuesday, October 23, 2007

What do you work for? Money, Fame or a Happy Relaxed retirement??

A lunch time discussion yesterday got me thinking about what do I actually work for.. At lunch, my team lead told us about his friend's Mom who expired at 60. And he was like, I would be pretty disappointed with myself if I die at 60. His reasoning was simple. One works till about 60 years thinking that he/she will retire at 60, and then with all the money saved, he can just relax, buy a great car, and relax and do nothing on that private yacht just sitting down on a chair in the yacht on a sunny day relaxing. But let's say, you work hard and toil till 60 thinking of that day, that you would have enough money to just sit and relax, and guess what, you just die at 60. Then what's all this hard work worth?



You may say, I am doing this for my children. But the point is, you will be tuning the minds of your children, the same way your parents did to yours, as to how important it is to be in top 10 percent in the class, as to how it is important to be educated well enough to lead happy and secure life. And you know what, they will toil just like you do, and the vicious cycle always keeps continuing. No, I am not telling you Rich Dad-Poor Dad story to forget saving to your 401 (k) and paying your bills like the Poor dad and start investing like Rich Dad. Either ways, you are toiling towards something, which you are never gonna enjoy actually. You earn when you should be enjoying, and by the time you have enough money, you do not have age to enjoy your life. The long term benefits are indeed way too long to achieve.

So, does that mean that you should stop studying, or working and then start enjoying your life doing nothing. That is not what I am hinting at. You need to understand and plan, when you need to relax, may be take a year off in thirties and start fresh again, and again take a year off in your forties and relax probably. Yes, you might not get those lucrative pay hikes, and those well deserved promotions in your organization, but come to think of it, it is probably well worth it. If you can't give yourself 1 year out of ten years of your life, then who and what are you living for.. If at all, you live to see your golder seventies and glorious eighties, you will still not regret your taking off those years because you dared to enjoy you life when you had the zeal and the age to enjoy.. Think about it, it might be something that you could put in your achievements to cherish at a later age. May be this might not be the best solution, but it is one of the feasible solutions to balance your craving for a relaxed life and your hectic work schedules..

6 comments:

Seshu Karthick said...

Nice post... with an interesting point of view. But practically thinking, retirement life is the most boring phase of one's life.

Unless a person is devotional or religious, he will have no work and nothing to accomplish after retirement.

How about this...
If my work is my passion and if I love what I do, I may not want to retire at all (provided my health co-operates). A couple of vacations every year, weekend parties, and my beloved ones around me is all I actually want.

The secret lies in enjoying every day of life, and not wait for the retirement.

I like your idea of a 1 year break for every 10 yrs of work. That sounds refreshing... I actually know several executives doing that.

Saagar said...

Well, I agree with you Seshu, retirement life might be boring, but at that age, I guess that is all you could take :) Enjoying work and relaxing are 2 different things I guess, then work is one form of enjoyment and you would like other enjoyments at times too, but anyways I am glad that some people are actually doing this, and I hope I would be stable enough financially to do that :)

AnneK said...

Thats a nice post. We definitely don't want to wait until 60 to enjoy life. That would be sad. But I believe I am enjoying life right now. With all its ups and downs. Taking an extended break is something we both are really thinking of doing. Actually we have plans to work and live in a foreign country for a stretch of time. Not now, sometime in the future. Let us see where life takes us.

Saagar said...

Which foreign country would that be AK, I guess you guys would be better off doing that before you have kids because kids' education would become one of the factors later :)

Seshu Karthick said...

The pic is good. Where did u get it? Did you draw it urself?

Saagar said...

Modified version of a pic from some forwarded email Seshu.. The credit goes to the original painter :) Did you seriously think I could draw that one :)