So I attend courses with a very intelligent gentlemen, D'Jaba from the east coast of Africa, whose village saved for four years to send him to American seminary. He's a very smart man. Very articulate speaker! Very. He's also a retired attorney in Gabon, his home in East Africa. He's probably 66 to 70 years old.

Each week, he and I study together and he asks me "one" question related to our America culture, which he's now been exposed to for 2+ years. I help explain us Americans to him as best I can.
This week's question from my brother D'Jaba was a stumper.
He asked me, "Mark, why do Americans place such great emphasis on "retiring" as if it's a destination in life? Is it?"

He says his people don't view life in phases as we Americans do, but rather as a continuous journey from birth to death. There are no "ports of call," like infant, adolescent, teen, young adulthood, adulthood, elderly, retired, etc.

I told him I think it's a goal more than a port of call and Americans love a good plan. We cheer a good plan. We urge a good plan.
D'Jaba is always squinting at me as I try to answer.
I don't have a good answer.
I tried but then D'Jaba asked me "Why do people want to get there (retired)?"
Heck if I know I told him.

Any helpful thoughts are appreciated!

Blessings,
Mark

Americans love freedom, at that point in life when your time isn't for sale anymore, when you reach that day of your time being your own, that's real freedom.

Can't help you, D'Jaba and I have the same question.

Ecclesiastes 5:18
I have seen what is best for people here on earth. They should est and drink and enjoy their work, because the life God has given them here on earrh is short.

I hope to work until I die.

You spend your life following the paths your told to follow for others to make a living and they give you a piece of the pie for a large chunk of your life in return, the harder or smarter you work the more you often will get for that chunk. During that time you give up the paths you really wanted to follow on your own be it family or leisure time.

You work/save until you start to get paid back for that plan at some point, be it retirement or less work more free time of your choosing to do whatever you want to do. The difference is is living day to day VS working towards a goal of self sufficient living or as close to that as you can get to that.

I’d ask your guy if he had the income coming in would he still be working everyday for someone else now?

I'm with waggle but I've always thought of my time and labor as my own and not belonging to others.

The idea of retirement is the idea of being free to spend the rest of your days as you choose and hopefully don't have to worry about money.

Sadly, the desire of the freedom of not having to worry about money is about the only freedom that nearly all Americans can agree on.

I can only answer for me. For me personally, work isn't life, it's just thing that interrupts my life that I have to do four days a week. It gets in the way.of more important things, namely time with my family. My work life and my home life are completely separate, when I walk out the door after clocking out I don't give the place a second thought until I walk in the next day. My kids just barely know what I do at work. They know I work on police cars, but that's about it. We don't talk about my day at work at home. Work is just to fund the things that actually matter in life. It's not a "calling" for me in the usual sense, it's just this thing I can do really well, and it pays the bills. I suppose I enjoy it, I certainly don't hate it. But I wouldn't do it for free, that's for sure.
When I'm retired, I'll have more time for the things in life that actually matter. Maybe back when children worked with their parents all day, like back before the industrial revolution, things were different. Work was life back then. And maybe that's still how it is in rural Africa. But here and now in our modern times, work just gets in the way of real life, and retirement means time for things that actually matter.

Here we go
In NEWT'S world look at this question is

Most people are stuck in a job they dont like.Cant wait to get out of it and live a life they want.But they have to have everything that the money will let them buy.Got'a keep up with the Jone's.
By the time they can retire, THE MAN has taken their best years. What dreams they had in their youth and middle age are gone.They are warn out.
Now as a old man. Most people has lost their get up and go.To busy worring about all the money they put away.

I have lived on the edge all my life. A big house,new truck and money in the bank never was my goal.
I earned enough to get by. Trapping,commercail fishing and boat building.Being my own man.Doing what NEWT wants to do.I am now old (70) cant get done what I youst to do in a day.
BUT this old body got wore out by ME.Not by some other persons wants out of me.

Salvation has been given to me.I'm at peice .My live is in GOD'S hands not mine. He will aways pervid what I need.

Yes. My desire is to redeem the years the locusts have eaten.

Definition is absolutely specific to each individual. Retirement for me is most certainly a destination, a true sense of freedom. If you have a set schedule and are expected to report to someone for work, you are in fact a servant. Long gone will be the days when I have to answer to any man and play his game of politics just to get that paycheck to provide a living for my family. I used to be proud to say that I've busted my back diligently maintaining a job since I was 13 years old. My jr and sr years of high school I left school at 3:00 every day and was clocked in at a factory by 3:30 until midnight five days a week and even worked overtime on most Saturdays. Now, we say here at work that we are the dumbest people in this country because we continue to come here during covid, during multiple government shutdowns when we weren't even getting paid. The smart ones are those getting the welfare/unemployment checks out there fishing and hunting every day they feel like it. I don't view work the same as I used to...…..

It’s just a label for folks who have reached a point where they don’t have to do anything they don’t want to.

Am I retired or am I a 58 year old who does what he wants to do when he wants to do it?

So u have the time to trap all day every day!

You can thank Pensions for the creation of that mindset.

I think it boils down to folks working at jobs that they do not enjoy. I make my living as an artist and trapper. If I were to retire I would do artwork and trap as my hobbies! I’m getting close to an age where I will take my SS but I will not retire until breath leaves my body.

Think of it as the sabbath. Instead of working 6 days and resting on the seventh; you work 60years and take 10 off.

In reality, though, it is a government conspiracy. It was a bribe for older workers to step down to make room for younger ones. A brand new concept from the mid 20th Century.

I like Newt's answer. Fit's me to a tee! I work, not for the money.....but for the oppertunity to make someone's life easier or better. The money collected is secondary. Been like this my whole life, and it has allowed me to go trapping every year, as I wanted. When I worked for someone, they were never the "man", they are a customer or client, who I care about. There is a difference there, and it's hard to describe! My problem, at 74, is I have too many hobbies, and most have turned into a job!

I'm in the freedom category.

So much to see and do that a person can't while holding a job.

This will be interesting thread to follow. My answer for myself is similar to Newts. But the question was why do Americans subscribe to this. Could it be the ppl who control this world have created this glittery illusion(retirement/freedom) to keep the masses nose to the grindstone(slaves) for a set amount of time(30 yrs)making them richer while the workers miss life's journey ? Pensions were mentioned ...yup give the controllers some of your pay for 30 years that buys your glittery promise/freedom/retirement. I have very little saved for retirement, who knows if I'll live till then. I have enjoyed the journey my way. If it's over tomorrow it was a good run, if I live another 20 yrs I'll keep enjoying it.

Spent the last several weeks turkey hunting I have been on call for the last 35 years no way I could do that before. Like said I gave my employers 100% but it always came down to this you can work 60 hours a week no problem but try to work 39 hours and your filling out paperwork looking for approvals then.

If you die today you will be replaced shortly down the road, way to many people live for the almighty dollar they are so stuck but won’t admit it, afraid to be on their own in the world.

KY Coyote Hunter nailed it.
Its all about achieving independence and the ability to engage in pursuits not tied to paying bills.
It is a time when we can do things we were never able to do when we were neccessarily working towards that financial independence,that independence being the ability to do whatever you choose,whenever you choose without sacrificing your standard of living by doing so .
It frees people from being slaves to having to earn money(It definitely does not preclude you from making money)
It does not surprise me that someone from Gabon cannot grasp the concept.