Do your paralegal skills translate to other fields? Like estate law or corporate law? My boring corporate-ish job is not especially soul-sucking. It’s my job to check that insurance companies have enough reserves to pay the claims that are going to come in on policies they’ve written, so they can salt away more money if they haven’t reserved enough, or free up resources if they have extra. It’s not especially sexy, but it feels useful, and isn’t much affected by current politics.
Obligatory Simpsons clip:
I’m personally not confident I am capable of learning new material as rapidly and throughly as I did when younger, especially if it was rote memory stuff. Remembering the details of the newest guideline updates a bit tougher now. And there are definitely bits of information that are still in there but retrieving it at any specific second is not as reliable of a process as it once was.
Yes made up for by experience and all that come with it. I think procedural memory fades less (I’ll need to search about that!) … and not getting in the way of doing the job well.
But as the not wanting to retire enjoy my job OP, I’ll speak for myself and my wife (who also gets great value from her work), we are cognizant of the fact that the cognitive processes may decline more significantly at some point and want to be self aware of when it is time to stop before others have to tell us what is obvious to everyone else but us.
Not there yet. Hopefully never get there. But it doesn’t take that much wisdom to be conscious of the fact that it is something to pay attention to.
Found!
Episodic memory (recognition) for pictures was significantly lower in older relative to young adults and declined systematically across all retention intervals in both age groups. In contrast, procedural memory (repetition priming in picture naming) revealed no reliable age differences.
that - exactly - is one of my major (diffuse) worries about my future.
I (think) I am still pretty sharp, but I can already tell that I am not as sharp as I was age 20 or so (and experience and wisdome can compensate only for so much)… and my worry is that the decline gets progressively worse (it will, I don’t doubt it) … until I get dumb enough to NOT notice my own decline and become Trump or Biden.
I reckon there is no individual “right” point at this ever sliding slopey function-curve … but I’d rather pull the handbreak earlier than too late.
As an example, we had a rather old (90+) formerly extremely bright businessman here … and he held a speech at a funeral service of a peer of his (also old business-geezer) and overstepped (timewise) so grossly, they had to usher him out after 25+ minutes while he was still speaking (fondly of his mate) …
I’d rather not be THAT guy, when my own decay doesn’t allow me to perceive my own decay.
Your byline pretty apt to your concern btw. 
Me, too. But the work that i do is very wisdom-heavy. Most of my professional life my limits have been from wisdom and organization.
I’m more worried about losing concentration and organization than losing processing power, at least for work.
My job was pretty great. But I just wasn’t interested in it anymore. I’ve been in mapping forever, over half my life.
But I recognize that I want to stay sharp. My Wife and I play chess. We play a LOT of chess. 3 games last night, 5 games the night before. We start around 3 in the afternoon.
We also play cribbage (not as much as chess).
And also darts. Got a real nice set up for that.
Adding this here.
One for the stat:
According to a recent report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (1), a large share expect to continue working well past traditional retirement age (36% of employed workers expect to retire at 70 or older, or say they do not plan to retire).
36% plan to retire at 70 or later or never … more of us than I had thought.
But also for the list (of it may be time to retire when ….) which I read for the converse.
1. Work isn’t fulfilling. It is.
2. Tech fatigue. Not thrilled with the push to use ambient AI to scribe my note but no one forcing me to use it.
3. Promotions aren’t exciting. Promotions aren’t part of my world and grateful to be done with being part of “leadership.”
4. Sunday dread starts early. Does not
5. You’re always checking your retirement accounts. Okay. I do that. But not with concern.
6. Hobbies and volunteering dominate your daydreams. To no more or less than before? Probably should have more hobbies interest. Would waste less time here!
7. You notice a generational gap at work. We’ve always been a broad age group in our office.
8. You’re jealous of retired friends or partners. Not in the least. I more look at them with thoughts of there by the grace of god go I!
9. Your boss is unbearable. I have administrative folk but no one who is quite my boss. My contact with administrative folk is minimal day to day
10. Physical signs are unavoidable. Doing fine physically. Okay I do have regular arm bruises that just happen. They are unavoidable. But not a reason to stop working!
Of that list when 1 or 4 or 8 happen … or most of all if I sense I was not up to doing my job at least as well as our new hires … it is time. And I better have fun hobbies by then!
Ah yes - this has come around at my office and NO ONE not even most of the younger people want any part of it.
My answers would be pretty similar to yours with the exception of the physical assessment.
I have been struggling with some significant back pain and sciatica the last couple months but thus far I am able to manage.
I do better getting out and about rather than sitting at home alone.
If anything on this list accelerates my retirement plans it will probably be the physical ones.
But the physical issues would also shut down any volunteering opportunities as well.
For now I am stuck in the present moment.
I enjoy my work and my coworkers.
I hope your sciatica improves in any case, but yeah … unfortunately the pain is a given working or not. Maybe less once out and about and doing something you enjoy.
So what are the options?
Retire and stay home in pain, or pick up a hobby in pain, or work and have at worse the same pain with co-workers who appreciate you doing something you are good at?
Hope the future is instead, if not pain free at least pain reduced!
I worked through pregnancy until the day i gave birth. I was really awkward and uncomfortable towards the end. But i could sit at home and feel awkward and uncomfortable, it i could go to work, sit in better, more ergonomic chairs, and be distracted from my discomfort.
They let me put my feet up on the desk when my ankles were swelling. It was really a lot better than staying at home.
This is me retired. I’m at a club waiting to see the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the 151st concert of 2026. I’m seeing Shawn Jones tomorrow and that should close out the year. I’ll be at a party on 12/31 where we’re watching the Phish broadcast but that doesn’t count.
The cite suggests that the vast majority of those working past traditional retirement age perceive (rightly or wrongly) that they can’t afford to do otherwise.
All the emotional reasons to retire don’t matter until you have the practical choice to enact that decision.
For those who can financially take work or leave it, that’s where the emotional checklist comes in. And I’ll suggest each of those checklist items only signals “you gotta retire” years or decades after they started suggesting “you oughta retire”.
For me it’s all about opportunity cost. There are fulfilling aspects to colleagues and work. There are fulfilling aspects to retirement. They are different. After ~50 years of the one, I figured I wanted a large helping of the other for balance by the time I finished out my life.
YMMV of course. And someone who gets late in their career, and who doesn’t need to work for the dollars, and who doesn’t have many, or better yet any, of the emotional signals flashing red, well, that person is enormously fortunate to have a great situation. But even that highly favorable outcome does not mean that a next very different chapter might not be even better.
Thank you! I am working on the pain with some success.
I am OK for now.
Sounds like they took care of you at your workplace.
For some of us continuing to work is the answer.
For others it’s better to retire and stay home.
Work is a great distraction for me as it sometimes gets mentally intense.
My work commute is 7 minutes and I park right behind my office with a few steps into the building.
I have a big, comfortable office with a conference room outside my door where I can stand and put jigsaw puzzles together when I need to change positions or take a break.
Outside the conference room there are couches and even a massage pad where I can take even more relaxing breaks.
I have plentiful vacation, sick and personal time off.
It works for me to stay here at the moment.
I did a very early post, then edited it out but I think this has gone far enough to bring it up from the other side: What about those that should retire but don’t? As in, someone that is no longer functioning up to the level they used to and still should but refuses to retire. I had to do the work for someone that was into their 70s that should’ve retired but refused because he has nothing else to do (I talked to him a lot). So, I ended up doing his job and mine. Not sure how this fits into this thread, but I’ve seen people work beyond when they should’ve gracefully retired. This happens A LOT in higher ed.
Going to the source they cite, no.
Page 70 graphic. Only 33% of those working in retirement or past 65 (or planning to) say it is because they “can’t afford to retire” and there are roughly as many “healthy aging” reasons cited as “financial” ones. (Multiple reasons allowed.) That’s of the more than half who plan to work at least part time “in retirement.” (Page 69.)
It definitely fits and is mentioned by several of us as our biggest worry. I mentioned it as something my wife and I both recognize the possibility at some point. She has known of therapists who had tried to continue past the point. And my addition to the list was exactly that - if I can’t do as good of a job as our new hires it is time to go. Being self aware that such is possible, maybe even inevitable given enough time, is important. No desire to overstay my usefulness.
I have seen those that didn’t realize they were overstaying. It’s a tough thing when someone should retire but won’t.
Thanks for that clarification / correction. The Yahoo article itself munged all that together by sorta summing the financial concerns numbers. Which math isn’t legit in a multiple choices allowed survey.