@rbreich Thank you for all of your hard work.

While I used to have the same view of retirement as someone put out to pasture, I think it’s because I never had a different role model. My grandfather “retired” about a dozen times yet always continued to work, and my grandmother hardly ever worked so she was perhaps always (or never) retired - the term never fit her life. It wasn’t until my mother retired, and we had long talks about her life afterwards, that I changed my view. She was not put out to pasture because she was old and useless - far from it. She left at the height of her career, with her coworkers and company sad to see her go. She answered a few critical answers here and there, and they always wished she’d come back, but she was happy with her new life. She found new hobbies, rediscovered old ones, and used her wealth and time to help people (she loved volunteering at the election polls and going to marches). She was no longer chained to a desk, but had succeeded enough that she could live the life she wanted. Retirement was freedom.

Implications of the word aside, I hope that you get the opportunity to retire someday should you desire that. Everyone deserves to have time to relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor.