When I say the word ‘retirement’ what image do you have in your mind?

An old man sitting on an easy chair and watching television? Maybe aged 80?

That is the problem. If we define retirement as ‘absence of cash flow from activities being done NOW’, we may rethink the image.

Today we are so fragile that we want to use words like ‘sabbatical’ .

Let’s say there is a girl who at 28 has had a kid and wants to take 3 years off to be with the kid.

What about a 34 year old boy/girl who wants to leave the accountant’s job to start a travel advisory?

Or the 32 year old boy who takes people on a Tiger safari across the country. He is an MBA in marketing who has given up a Rs. 25 L job in a multinational.

So suddenly we are redefining retirement as an absence of cash flow – temporarily or permanently – for a planned or unplanned period of time.

The above 3 were planned. What about a 53 year old banker who has left his job (politely put) and is now doing ‘day-trading’ so that his wife can tell everybody “My husband is doing something in the share market”. Actually he is retired. Involuntarily perhaps. Till he gets another job (which he is desperately trying) he is ‘retired’. Well you can call it by any name, but the Christian name is ‘retirement’.

So when a 23 year old picks up a book on retirement, he/she should realize that the word ‘retirement’ is relevant for her, her father, her mother and even her 71 year old grandfather who is still practicing as a doctor.

So in your head change the picture of a retired person. It is the 24 year old athlete, the 32 year old tennis player, the 38 year old footballer, the 35 year old cricketer, the 45 year old dentist who has a sore wrist, the 49 year old banker who is unable to get a 80L Rs. job,……