To retire or not, that is the question

It seems that almost all of the articles on saving for retirement suggests that few, if any, have saved enough and that the best way to maximize retirement is to work until one is seventy, especially if you are a man and expect to die before your wife.  Apparently these articles must be written by young people who are afraid there will not be enough money left in the social security system for them to draw from so they hope us baby boomers will work until we are just about ready to die so we won't collect many benefits. 

No, I didn't save a fortune and I am still making house payments and I probably always will.  My retirement will not be spent traveling or camping or taking long vacation to visit the kids and grandkids.  No I spend my time working at the church, working in the yard and taking care of family members.  I don't have a great deal of extra money but I have saved enough to maintain my working man's lifestyle without having to work. 

I retired early.  Those that advocate people working until they are in their seventies just haven't been around many older people or haven't been paying attention.  Many seem to be decrepit by the time they hit sixty but even for those with few health problems, pain comes and doesn't seem to want to go away.  By the time one saves all he can save and has maximized everything, he is just to racked with pain to really enjoy life. 

Perhaps better advise would be to save all you can, retire early but wait as long as you can before drawing social security to maximize benefits there. 

There was a joke about the young business man that passed a man fishing under the bridge everyday.  One day he stopped to talk to the fisherman and learned that the fisherman never worked, lived in an old shack in the woods and did nothing but fish all day.  "You should get yourself a job, work hard and save your money" the young man advised. 

"And then what?"

"Then you can retire and enjoy life."

"Well, that's what I'm doing now" the older fellow replied. 

Sometimes I think that we live life backwards.  We should be born old and with our bodies racked with pain it is easier to sit and study and learn.  Once we have learned then our bodies don't hurt as bad and we can go into the work place with our strength and knowledge and as we get younger and wiser we are able to work harder and harder and with more enthusiasm.  Then when we have worked long enough, we can retire, being full of vim and vigor and play with younthful energy until time to leave this world.