A good start to any retirement plan or retirement assistance is to first have a clear understanding of what retirement means. In recent months it has become a very hot topic (no pun intended for France and Greece!) as people have started to realize that their expectations are becoming history.

“A late-night parliamentary session turned into a shouting match as France’s lower house neared a vote on a bill to raise the retirement age to 62.” “The government seemed almost certain to make France the latest European country to require workers to stay longer at work because of a deficit-ridden pension system.”

This is just the beginning. Does anyone think that 62 will be the end point? Or that the pensions will remain in the previous amounts? Or that this is exclusive to France or Europe?

So what does retirement mean to you?

Years ago the concept was easily understood. It was the day you stopped going to “the office.” The day you reached the mandatory age and stopped having to earn money. Now she was entitled to an adequate defined benefit pension and to live the lifestyle she had chosen…and even her surviving spouse would be financially secure.

Retirement was by tacit agreement between the employer and the workers. No one challenged the status quo and any retirement help was simple.

This could be described as a “traditional” retirement.

However, times have changed. Unconsidered political promises were made. People were changing jobs more frequently and drawing their pensions early. The returns projected by financial institutions were not achieved. All these problems are aggravated by the government’s lack of foresight and planning.

Although some astute financial institutions realized that defined benefit pensions were in many cases not going to be sustainable and convinced pension fund members to convert to a defined contribution basis, “so they can manage their own funds.

“Traditional” retirement now seems to be reserved for government employees.

For the vast majority of others, retirement becomes the involuntary termination of employment at arbitrary and mandatory retirement age. “Forced” or “fortification” retirement. If you’re in this state, you probably need a lot of retirement help.

A side note… Isn’t discrimination based on age unconstitutional?

To survive, or maintain a reasonable standard of living, many of these “forty” will now have to find some other source of income or live degraded lifestyles. They will be what used to be confusingly called semi-retired. A state that evokes in my mind a state of semi-pregnancy… are you or are you not?

So, to clarify the concept of retirement, it’s probably more correct to view it as a “stage” or an achievement. It is a point, in one’s life, when you believe you have enough “money” to live your chosen lifestyle until the end of your days.

From then on the work acquires another meaning. It’s not to make money but by choice for some other reason… self-actualization, power, challenge, or fun. Although the introduction of the word “work” into the discussion creates its own confusion… which we’ll ignore for now.

With this definition of retirement, obviously, one can achieve retirement at any age.

However, it is not always a very easy calculation and also introduces the interesting point that you could be retired today and not be retired a year from now. Either because of not having enough money. For example, the stock market crashes or your business is not doing as well as expected (reduced inputs) or you decide to live a much more expensive lifestyle (increased production). Life expectancy can also change the decision.

The retirement help needed by this group can include fully integrated financial and lifestyle models.

There is another group, which is a subset of the “achieved” retirement, which has been referred to as “never.” They are the people who reach their retirement status but have no intention of ever stopping working. There is increasing interest in this group that is characterized by people like Warren Buffet or Sam Walton.

Therefore, retirement assistance will depend on how you define retirement. The best retirement advice is to do regular retirement planning. Set your own goals and make your own decisions.