Why Millionaires Don't Retire

Stephen King is seventy-seven years old and reportedly worth some 500 million dollars, and still, he writes. Paul McCartney is eighty-two years old and said to be worth an eye-watering $1.2 billion. yet still he performs. Bill Gates is sixty-eight years old and worth an astounding $132 billion, and yet he still makes time to write code. So what is it with these guys that they will not retire? Is what they have still not enough? And if that is the case, then exactly how much is enough?

Paul McCartney once asked Willy Nelson (net worth a paltry $25 million) if had he ever considered retirement. Willy's answer was simple and right to the point; "Retire from what Paul?" Exactly. Retirement is for people who work for a living, and what all of these guys do is not what I would call work. What they do is a passion, something they love doing so much that no matter how much they are worth, they will continue doing it until the day they die. They do what they do not for the money but for the love of it. Is that all there is to it? Not quite.

Barry Gibb, is seventy-seven years old, one of the most successful songwriters ever and worth a cool 140 million dollars. When Barry was contemplating retirement after the death of his brothers Maurice and Robin, leaving Barry as the last man standing, the hairy-chested, falsetto-voiced, genius singer-songwriter contemplated retirement. Paul McCartney told him "No Barry, you have to keep going man, what else are you going to do with your life?"

Way back in the seventies John Lennon went into retirement before making an all too short-lived comeback, brought to a premature end by a jackass who I shall not even give name to. The point is that Lennon had briefly found another purpose in life, his young son Sean. However, by 1980, Lennon had re-found his previous sense of purpose. So, getting back on track, by continuing to do what they love doing, gives multi-millionaires a sense of purpose, something worthwhile living for.

Other reasons why highly successful wealthy people keep going is because they get a buzz from being successful and in many cases, they remember all too well a time when they barely scraped by.

Finally, I do believe that the vast majority of multi-millionaires like to make significant philanthropic contributions to worthy causes. Having made more than enough money to live a good life for many centuries to come, the more they make the more they can give away to the less fortunate in life.

As for me, I still get up every day ever eager to sit at my desk and write for the sheer love of it. I certainly don't do it for the money, which is just as well since there is very little money in it. I also do it because I cannot think of anything I would rather do to pass away the hours of the day. And writing not only keeps my brain active, but it also gives me a buzz, a nice little rush of dopamine. Above all, it gives me a very deeply felt sense of purpose in life. When you think about it, money aside, I have an awful lot in common with life's millionaires, more than I ever previously dared to think. I can live a life every bit as wonderful as the richest man on the planet.

Generally speaking, we human beings do things for which we know there will be some sort of payoff or two. No payoff, no do. It is that simple. And the only payoff I don't have is the economic one. However, I do have one compensating factor in my favour and that is an abundance of love, and that my friends is priceless. As for retirement, from what?