Your statement of “Retired is something you are when you no longer need to work…….”, I define as financial independence. I experienced this at 38 years old and I remained very active until I returned to industry. Financial independence does not guarantee a stimulating retirement. I think I was unprepared for some of the pitfalls of retirement. I am preparing myself much more tis time as I close in on retirement again.

Funny how we owe a doctor’s fee when we are born. We are in debt from the moment of our first breath. We gather more debt and bad debt behaviors from our parents(generation boomers++) as we are raised until set onto the world of our own. Then it takes the instinctive will of wanting to escape work, wanting to do more with one’s life then be in a cubicle reading/writing the same thing over and over, or digging a grave and filling it back in so you don’t fall in it yourself for $/hr – death taxes – insurance plans because you don’t know how to plan well – unemployment taxes (incase you are fired, for speaking the truth, revealing your goals, or for more profits) .

This escape pushes you back to your childhood, were education is essential to learn how to survive! You begin reading and learning what they never taught you while growing up, The Truth about the solutions to Personal Finance. You begin to see the false lies of popular articles and sales pitches before you and society that have been ingrained for millenia to Billions before you. You begin to grow wiser and begin to extremely lower your expenses and save/invest for freedom. Save to get out of debt, save/build only a needed shelter, save/invest in a needed emergency fund, save/invest in some form of money tree whether your own hobby businesses or Financial investments, then gain back your life, your time to do what you were meant to do since the first breath. Live!

I would use the third option. I plan on going to a community college for a technical skill I’m interested in and finish up without any debt. I want to work hard and become financially independent by 30. I (enter the workforce at 26).

From rough estimates, I should be able to save up between 5 and 10 times my expenses in those 4 years. (A lot of variables.)

Then I want to work part time and follow any of my interests and do whatever I want for the rest of my life. Follow any passion I have. Learn a new skill. Work at a zoo 20 hours a week (and max out a Roth IRA if I can). Maybe I’ll make a cookbook. Whatever I feel like! Who knows what I’ll want to do in a few years. That’s what my retirement will look like. I know I can do it.

You’re right. But to a certain degree each type of retirement has existed throughout the past one hundred years. Even ERE. To be sure, the few factory workers who fled to the woods to eke out a living on the land and hippies joining communes didn’t look at themselves like you or use the word “retirement” but they held many of the beliefs and chain of logic if only by necessity. Even the label I use, “Gentleman of Leisure” is from Victorian times and describes men, not necessarily rich, who were still FI. Depending on their means they either loafed around gentlemen’s clubs or adventured in the Congo. Arthur Conan Doyle could have described Sherlock Holmes as such but the character would have considered the monicker either inappropriate, beneath his dignity, or both.

Perhaps a different word than “retirement” is needed.

I agree, the word “retirement” needs to change, it has become too confusing. But to give my view: it is about “freedom”, not only financially (to do what you like, even work..), but also in your mind (feel free to explore and learn and try new things). Looking at the categories above, I have already seen many variations around me, so i cannot use them in reality.