“Retirement” is so yesterday.
How about PCL instead? PCL = Post Career Lifestyle. It may turn out to be the way to go for a number of reasons.
- First of all, “retirement” may be impossible to imagine if you are embarking on a first job or are early in a career. I mean… age 59½?? That age is nearly irrelevant and definitely forever in the future!
- On the other hand, “Post-Career Lifestyle” feels way more attainable and easier to imagine. Think: someday… when I can have a lifestyle that is more balanced – on MY terms – somewhere between work and relaxing.
- OR imagine (and it may be current reality for you) being in the thick of raising children, the costs associated with having children, working, getting promoted and even moving multiple times. Thinking about retirement may still be irrelevant, unattainable, and too distant.
- On the other hand, post-career lifestyle means saving enough over time to create a financial cushion and then later figure out a balance between work and life.
- OR it may be that you love what you do so much that you truly do not want to retire ever (there are people out there who strongly feel this way). Or you have a primary job AND a “side gig” that you enjoy more than your primary work. In this case, retirement is not the goal.
- Perhaps the goal is to transition to the “side gig” full-time someday. This is another form of post-career lifestyle.
- OR, if you are a consultant or independent contractor perhaps the plan is not exactly to retire full-stop but rather to slow down gradually until you finally “hang up the cleats” and stop working. Or in the case of a business owner, to sell a business someday and then stay on the payroll during a multi-year transition to an eventual exit.
- In this case, the reality is not so much retirement but rather… the Post Career Lifestyle. This becomes light work combined with hobbies, travel, relaxing, reading… fill in the blank.
The idea of Post-Career Lifestyle came up quite accidentally over a series of conversations with a friend who is truly enjoying – and excelling at – what we nicknamed “PCL.” There is a clear distinction between retirement and Post-Career Lifestyle. With PCL, life continues – with less work and more enjoyment. Lots of people want no part of calling themselves retired – they are too busy for that; lots of people simply do not want to retire; and lots more people are not ready to call retirement the end-goal. PCL is a great deal more palatable – and definitely cool.
Finally, if retirement is the end-goal then realize that saving over multiple decades – aggressive savings – is the #1 rule of the game. In the future, with likely rising tax rates and a host of other reasons full retirement as we know it may become far more difficult to attain, no matter how much one earns today.