Should We Keep Working to Give Our Son More Money, Even If We’re Ready to Retire Now?

A prospective retiree needs to consider the opportunity costs of hitting the retirement button sooner rather than later. Undoubtedly, if you’ve got more than enough to leave your career and you’ve grown tired (or are feeling burned out) of your job, it may no longer feel necessary to keep trading your time for money as you aim to wind down for retirement sometime soon.

For some folks, retirement is more about setting the stage for a comfortable life of leisure into one’s advanced years, even if it means leaving behind little to nothing for the next generation. For others, it’s more about maximizing the sum they’ll leave behind for loved ones and charitable causes, even if it means working “forever.” Of course, for most folks, the optimal retirement timeframe lies somewhere in the middle. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: you can have your cake and eat it as you enter retirement as you balance priorities.

How do you know if it’s the right time to retire? Is it enough to have a large enough nest egg?

In this piece, we’ll consider the case of a person who has more than enough savings and investments to retire tomorrow. However, they feel just a bit conflicted as they weigh the opportunity costs of hanging up the skates versus working into old age.

Indeed, it is harder to drop everything and retire when one’s in one’s making the most they ever have in their career. It almost seems wasteful to retire if one’s more ready, able, and willing to keep working. Either way, it can’t hurt to get extra cash that can be used to hit financial goals that go above and beyond having enough to survive in retirement. For those with the ambition to go above and beyond, rushing into retirement may not be the best move, especially if you’re content with how things are.

Although many retirees may endlessly delay (perhaps indefinitely) retirement because they’re shackled to a pair of shiny “golden handcuffs” (if the bonuses and salary are so high, it’d be unwise to quit, right?), the important thing is to consider what your ideal goal or “endgame” is — whether it’s to leave behind the largest cash pile to a child or to have a degree of financial freedom that allows you to do whatever, whenever, there are no right or wrong answers.

The good news is that someone weighing retiring now or later doesn’t need to make up their mind by a deadline. After all, there’s no expiry date on your nest egg! Personally, I think staying at work to support one’s child is a selfless and worthy pursuit. That said, one needs to ensure they’re also putting themselves first.

The bottom line

If retirement is important to you, you must communicate it to your children, given the sacrifice (years of your retirement) you’ll stand to make by working when you could easily be living a life of leisure. If you prioritize the financial well-being of loved ones and are willing to stick it out to keep adding to the nest egg, putting off retirement by another year (or even a decade) can be the move.

Though a financial advisor could chime in and give their time, I do think it’s more a matter of personal family dynamics. As such, I’d have a close conversation with loved ones about the path forward, whether it entails going 9-to-5 for a little while longer, a lot longer, or shifting gears to part-time labor. There are ample options to consider, and they should be considered together as a family.