No it really doesn’t.

I’m so sorry about your granddaughter.

My father just spend 6 months doing chemotherapy and radiation at age 63. He loved his job and planned on continuing to work until 67 or possibly later. His company has held his job for him and he may end up going back to work, but it sure is nice to have a fat retirement account that makes it his option.

I’d hate to think of being forced to look for work after having cancer when my employer decides not to hold my job for more than 12 weeks when I’m at retirement age!

That is a way to deduct your IRA contributions at the beginning, and still not pay taxes on the distributions after retirement. Just because Trent refuses to think about this doesn’t mean others shouldn’t.

And second Johanna on not making assumptions about your desire and/or ability to work as you age. Health conditions may make it impossible, and as someone who very much enjoyed her profession 30+ years ago when I started, I can tell you that not everyone stays as much in love with their work after that long.

Plus even if you do work into your 70′s, saving in a retirement plan will still be beneficial tax wise. Whether you’re working or not, at age 70 the tax benefits of 401k or IRAs are still going to help you.
So I wouldn’t forgo retirement accounts for an alternate investment vehicle simply cause you don’t want actual retirement.

In our case, my spouse wants to keep working as long as possible, but I’m content to formally retire at 65. But we’re both maxing out our retirement contributions, because having that extra money gives us a lot of flexibility in how and where we accomplish that – and protects us if life doesn’t work out the way we’ve planned.

I don’t really know what I’ll want my life to be like when I’m in my 60s. I like my job now, but I’ve only been doing it for five years. Maybe I’ll be just as happy with it 30 years from now as I am now, or maybe I’ll be burned out and ready to call it quits.

I also want to plan for the possibility that I’ll be involuntarily retired – laid off in my early 60s and unable to find another job, for example.

For both those reasons, I want to at least give myself the option of a traditional retirement. And since I’m fortunate enough to be able to save enough to (hopefully) make that happen without sacrificing anything that’s really important to me now, that’s what I’m doing.

Maybe I’m just overly conservative, but encouraging people to consider saving a little less because they are planning nontraditional retirements seems… unnecessary.

This isn’t to say we forget about planning for our retirement, but I just don’t believe that if something isn’t important enough for us to pursue today, that it’s going to be important enough once we retire. I don’t think people change all that much after they retire. They are who they are their entire lives, and what they value doesn’t magically change. The only difference is that once you retire, you have more time to do what you already enjoy. If that’s knitting, or watching TV, you’ll probably do more of that. If you valued volunteering or travel, you’ll probably do more of that.

So, I guess what I’m saying is this: find time now to do the things you dream of in retirement. There’s no reason to put them off until the end of your life because by then you’ll wish you had more time.