{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Retirement Ready","description":"On this week's Keepin It Real, Cam Marston and his buddies are beginning to discuss retirement. Cam's learning, though, that maybe working so hard to get to retirement may not be worth all the effort.  ----- The subject of retirement has come with my crowd lately. A few years ago, we maybe whispered about retirement, but now it\u2019s a full-on conversation \u2013 when are you going to retire, we\u2019re asking each other. How will you know it\u2019s time? The answer from nearly everyone is \u201cas soon as possible\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m ready right now.\u201d Last week I had breakfast with a lady in healthcare who leads education for medical doctors for a very progressive organization out west. We talked shop for a bit. She had lots of ambitions plans for her organization. She sounded like someone fully engaged and stimulated by their work. My guess is she\u2019s about my age and I asked if she ever thought about retirement. In a rush she said \u201cOh goodness yes. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d \u201cWhen do you want to retire?\u201d I asked. \u201cAs soon as I can,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it sounds like you enjoy your work.\u201d I was confused. \u201cI do,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I\u2019m ready to not have to do it anymore.\u201d She enjoyed it but doesn\u2019t want to have to do it. Similarly, I\u2019ve heard more references to burnout recently than I\u2019ve ever heard. A friend in Mississippi said his wife could tell he was burned so badly that she needed him to either take a year off or buy a new boat. Now that\u2019s a supportive spouse! He was lucky to have her and he knew it. I\u2019m hearing burnout references in my calls and with other friends and colleagues, too. Seems like Covid ramped up burnout \u2013 before then I seldom heard it. Since then, I hear it more, especially recently. Social Scientist and author Arthur Brooks defined burnout as a \u201cvortex of exhaustion, cynicism, and self-criticism.\u201d Wow. But, yep! They all feed each other. The things that used to make you happy about your work now make you unhappy. And, for what it\u2019s worth, I read a study that Gen X\u2019ers were experiencing burnout at higher rates than not only any generation today, but any generation every surveyed. I guess that\u2019s something to brag about \u2013 my generation has broken the unhappiness bell curve. Burned out and aching for retirement. No employer wants that guy on their team. Then I read that over forty percent of retirees have an unsatisfactory retirement. Retirement\u2019s not all it\u2019s cracked up to be, they say. Without work, they have no friends and no purpose. The \u201cretirement red zone\u201d is an expression financial professionals use to refer to the five years before and after retirement when you\u2019re supposed to get your financial world in order. Turns out this red zone also refers to getting your non-financial retirement world in order, too \u2013 making friends outside of work, developing curiosity to drive your hobbies, especially hobbies that include meeting new people. Learning to structure your day when no one else is telling you how to do it. And then, of course, healthy activity. No retirement is enjoyable if you let your health go. It all makes me wonder, as I feverishly work towards my own retirement, if the emotional and psychological price I\u2019m paying to get there will be worth it? I\u2019m Cam Marston, just trying to keep it real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"