To me, I would go with the most “umbrella” usage, which is often meaning “retired from”. In military and public sector, and some private sector, “retirement” is a specific official designation with some sort of benefits and or money associated (either immediate or deferred), regardless of what one does after. The qualifications to achieve the “retirement” status may be based on vesting of service, and surprisingly short in duration (10 years!). I know of people who have built long careers on vesting with multiple public sector employers, so when they finally do stop working, they activate their retirement pay from all of the multiple sources.
But that’s them. For me, I am not working and living off of my 401k money. I call myself “retired”. If I were to pick up some sort of work, I would still call myself “retired”.
A friend of mine was indoctrinated by his father about how important it was to save for retirement, and he took it seriously. He never received a paycheck without depositing a percentage toward retirement. When he got married, he set up things so they could live off of his pay and deposit his wife’s pay toward retirement.
When he turned 50 his financial advisor suggested he retire. So, he gave up his job as school principal and retired. Once he had all that free time he took a job at a local brewery slinging beers a few evenings a week. Then he took another part time job at a store where he worked as a teen.
Now he is 55 and works more hours a week than he did before retirement, but it is all fun stuff.
My little brother retired at 55. With nothing better to do, he visited the zoo and really enjoyed it there. So he went again the following day. And the day after that. Each day he posted pictures on Facebook (photography is a hobby).
He got to know everyone at the zoo and has been offered employment as a docent.
A person who runs their own business has more options than a person who is working for someone else. If they don’t mind reduced profits, they can hire other people to do most or all of the work. That may not mean “retired” to you or to many other people, but I can see how some people would regard it that way, which is all that I was saying.
I also tend to give people the benefit of allowing themselves to describe their working situation in whatever terms make sense to them, because they’re not answerable to me. If someone working for me described themselves as retired I might be puzzled and ask questions; otherwise, not so much.
Sorry, I don’t think that is a useful definition.
If you own your own business (e.g. a small store) but work 60 hour weeks, surely you’re not ‘retired’?
I am retired. I have no formal duties and get my full pension. I do do things, but on a volunteer basis because I enjoy them. I publish research and, before Covid, ran a seminar. I act as “pro-dean” meaning I chair PhD final exams. But my pension would not change if I did none of those things.
A friend at a different university was forced, by union contract, to change to half teaching (and other things) at half pay when he turned 70 and also start to receive his full pension. He is semi-retired. He could, of course, fully retire at any time.
Useful to whom? I think this is one of those words (like “creative” or “independent”) that is generally defined about the person using it by the person using it. In other words, it means whatever each person thinks it means.
My wife is a free lance writer, and thanks to me making enough for both of us never had to do it, but hardly thought of herself as retired. She’s writing today, and not on spec, so is she retired?
There are plenty of rich CEOs who work 70 hours a week but who could stop working at any time. They have choices. Are they retired?
For the last five months of my work life I was working one day a week and getting full pay and benefits. Was I semi-retired? Not retired? I never tried to figure out what I was, I was just enjoying the hack.
No there aren’t really any words like that - you or I may disagree about who is independent or creative or to what extent a person is independent or creative but if I can define “creative” to mean whatever I want (including using it to describe my uncreative self) then the word really has no meaning at all. I just saw your last post - and if you mean that I can use it to mean anything I want it to in my own head, sure I can, but that probably won’t be useful in communicating with other people.
“I can see why you might think of yourself as retired” might not contradict anything anyone else has written, but I for one, cannot see how someone working full-time in their own business can think of themself as retired if they didn’t think of themself as retired when working full-time for someone else.
I don’t understand (and disagree with) the attempt to nail down this word into a hard and fast meaning. What is the intended result? If someone is introduced to you and says of themself that they are retired, and you later find out that they do not meet the definition you have for that word, are you going to be outraged because they lied to you? It is a word that has so many layers and nuances of meaning (like “creative”) that by itself it is never enough to describe anyone’s situation. It is a starting point in understanding, not the last word.
No, I’m not going to be outraged because they lied to me. I’m going to be puzzled , just like you said you would be if someone working for you described themself as retired. No one word is ever going to describe anyone’s situation completely - but nuance is one thing and " I’m going to retire at 59 from a job that doesn’t have a pension and immediately get another full-time job because I will be too young to collect social security and have no other way to support myself " is something else entirely.
Personally I’d just be very confused. Napier says they’re semi-retired, but they work 4 days a week at the same job. I just don’t see how that meets the definition of any retired in any way that doesn’t render the word totally meaningless.
Retired, to me, would mean mostly living off retirement income and intending to do that long-term. Like, if you saw someone referred to as a retired teacher, I would assume that they were no longer teaching, and then be surprised to see them going off three days a week to do agency/supply teaching work. Maybe they’d be teaching an evening class at a community centre or something, or doing some private tutoring, that sort of thing, but that’s it.
(Sorry for picking on you, Napier, I just don’t see how this word applies to you).
If someone says they’re retired and end the statement there, I assume they’re not working at all. If they say they’re retired from (company, profession, other qualifier) I assume they may have changed careers or are doing other work. The full story may be complicated—perhaps they pick up gig work or seasonal work. Maybe they’re in a gap, trying to figure out if they want to do something else. If they want to clarify it to me, they will.
To me, “Retired” means a person who, in the later part of their life, has stopped working at a full time job. Where they now get their money from isn’t relevant.
“Semi retired” just means they’ve gone from working full time to occasionally.
Retired means, “no longer saving money for retirement”.
Right now I work full time, and sock about $2000/week into retirement (401k + non-tax-deferred savings). I could get to a point where - boo yah! - I’ve saved enough. I will never have to save for retirement. And in fact I stop doing so.
I agree that some words are tricky to define exactly. However (as Doreen said), I’m not going to be outraged, merely puzzled.
I do disagree completely with your statement here:
If words have completely different meanings to each individual, how can you have meaningful conversations?
If someone says they are retired and they are actually working full-time, we are in Alice in Wonderland territory!
He didn’t say words in general, though. He’s just talking about the word “retired.” He’s arguing it’s a self-label, and self-labels don’t tend to have very hard-and-fast definitions.
Consider the word “fan,” as in being a fan of something. That’s a self-label. If I say I’m a fan of, say, Star Trek, then I am. No one else gets to say “you’re not really a fan,” even if they know more about the show than I do. @Roderick_Femm is claiming the same thing for the word “retired.” If someone says they are retired, then he considers them retired.
I’m not entirely sure I agree with him. But I do think it would be rude to ever tell someone that they aren’t retired when they say they are. However, I would expect that this person has at least in some way reduced the amount of work they do or stopped working in a particular field.