Retirement

Then there's this.  So, why did I retire?  I was in a meeting the other day with a well-known prominent attorney who is about eight years older than I am and certainly in a much better financial position than I.  He has not retired and does not apparently have plans to retire anytime soon.

Unlike this prominent attorney and many others, there was nothing unique about the services I offered (and in truth the same probably can be said of him).  If I was not doing anything that others couldn't do at least as well and probably better, then the only reason I was working was to earn money.  Once I had earned sufficient to fund a comfortable retirement, the only reason to keep working, unless I really enjoyed what I was doing, was to earn more money.  But, as Hugh Nibley pointed out in one of his essays, when you have enough what is more?  Too much.

I didn't particularly enjoy the practice of law and the thought of doing something I didn't particularly enjoy simply for the purpose of adding to a surplus did not appeal to me.

I confess to feeling a bit guilty when I read articles like this.  I try to remind myself that working for money is not the only valuable or important work that can be done.  Besides, how could I travel for seven weeks as I am going to do this year if I were still working?