Retirement?

Is retirement as we know it dead, as Insty links to? 

Personally I think that "retirement as we know it" never existed in the first place.  The idea that one day you could stop working, and then carry on your life as if you still had that same income stream hitting your bank account, has always struck me as foolish and not workable.  I mean, if you stop working, where's all that money come from?  Most pensions only paid out 50% of your previous income.  Social Security might give you 25% of what you were making, and I won't have Social Security when I retire, it'll be gone.  So tell me exactly where and how all these boomers were going to live out their dream of not working but spending money as if they had two incomes?  It couldn't happen, and it wasn't going to happen.  My father, who is one of the smartest investors I know of, could probably actually RETIRE-retire right now if he wanted to, but he's been investing on his own since the early Sixties and he doesn't rely on Social Security to pay his bills.  How many retirees can say the same?

My retirement is going to involve working somewhere, somehow, even if it's my own business.  I don't see myself able to quit working.  Ain't gonna happen. 

I think that "retirement as we know it" has always been a pipe dream.