Time to Retire “Retirement”?

In financial marketing circles you don't hear much about personal investing. It's "retirement investing." Personal financial planning? It's mostly "retirement planning."

Out in the real world, that's a problem. Many, perhaps most working people aren't actually retiring. Some can't afford to retire; others prefer not to. The vast majority of "retirees" working part time say it's by choice, not necessity.

The meaning of "retirement" gets even murkier as young people aspire to retire early. Movements such as FIRE urge them to spend almost nothing, save and invest almost everything.

Alas, spending almost nothing is not a meaningful life plan. Suze Orman interrupted her own retirement to assert that somebody retiring at 40 would need $5 million to live on. Maybe $10 million. She later recanted, after learning that the  potential "retirees" realized they would have to keep working for a living. They simply wanted to stop "working for The Man" and start doing something they enjoyed or found fulfilling.

"Retirement," whatever it means, is not a useful financial goal. The goal should be financial independence. Canadian writer  Jonathan Chevreau calls it findependence.

[W]hen you’re financially independent, you work because you want to, not because you have to. “Findependence is necessary for retirement,” he says. “You can be findependent and not retired, but you can’t be retired without being findependent.”

The FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) should become simply the FI movement. Calculators could help Millennials check their FI progress like they check their FICA scores.

Former Marines should love this approach. "Semper FI, guys. Semper FI."