re: Ben Shapiro thinks you should never retire

quote:

---

even the fact that an office job requires you to get yourself dressed and drive to work can extend health and independence quite a bit.

---

If we're talking about people who stop getting dressed and driving anywhere in retirement, yeah, that's a problem.

But again, goes back to how intentional the retirement is.

I retired at 53. The first thing I did was created a schedule that I stuck to.

For example, I don't need a gym; I have exercise equipment at home, but I started going to a gym every day so that no matter what else happened that day, I would go at least one place. And it is a municipal facility, free for any city residents, so it didn't even cost me anything.

I volunteered more to lead groups at church so that I always had something I needed to prepare for.

I stopped paying for yard service and started taking care of my own lawn, and I took over 100% of the household chores (my wife was still working). Saved money on that project.

I already had one serious hobby, but I began another so that I would always have something challenging to work on. That did cost some money. :). But it was offset by the money saved on the lawn.

These were all deliberate strategies.

Honestly I think the problem is two-fold. I think not being deliberate in retirement is definitely a problem, but I think it's compounded by people allowing their functionality to decline so far by the time they are able to retire that it feeds the behavior.

If you are already so physically limited that going to the gym or taking a daily mile walk is out of the question by the time you retire, it's unlikely that you will use the opportunity of retirement to reverse that trend. You're probably already struggling with just going to work and the grocery store, etc. by the time you do retire, so you lean into that and it gets worse.

Back to the original thread topic, I think Ben Shapiro is right about almost everything he says (and I think the idiots here are hilarious in their mouth breathing populist reactions to him). But this is one thing I not only think he's wrong about, but I think upon reflection (if the occasion to reflect on this arises), he'll reverse himself on, or at least clarify.

He's too big on family and community to really mean that no one should retire, and I think if pressed, he would realize that. Matriarchs and patriarchs with decades of wisdom given more opportunity to pass that wisdom down to younger generations by being able to spend more time with them is something I think he'd be absolutely for if he thought about it more. (Remember, they guy's barely 40, for crying out loud.)

What I think he meant by that passing comment is that he thinks it's silly that we think everyone should be entitled to retire at taxpayer expense.

I won't have any taxpayers helping me fund my retirement for over a decade still. I did it on my own.

I think he'd be happy with my retirement, frankly.