A Few Random Musings About Work and Growing Older

Although the number of blog posts I create here might suggest otherwise, I have actually never had the best of work ethics.

That is not to say that I haven't worked hard, but I never had much interest in pursuing a so-called "career," and for the most part I only worked hard enough to accomplish specific goals at the time and then I would stop.

I find that as I am aging — I have now reached the tender age of 62 — my ability to pull off these intense periodic bursts of work is not holding up as well as it once did. The work, itself, hasn't really slowed down, but my ability to concentrate definitely has.

Maybe that's only natural. After all, as we age we aren't as flexible and strong as we once were.

On the other hand, I'm not exactly doing strenuous things on a regular basis so it's a little bit frustrating that I'm not able to keep up with the needed workload.

Truthfully, the deeper worry comes from the realization that it's unlikely I will ever be able to stop working. It seems unlikely that Social Security — the USA's version of a government pension scheme — is likely to ever pay me much (if anything), and since I've been self-employed for a really long time I don't have much of a private pension scheme to fall back on, either… so that pretty much leaves the option of just continuing to work until? Well, until I just can't anymore.

The whole idea of just becoming an old codger who sits around and reads books and does crossword puzzles is just not part of my reality, anymore.

The work of a sometime book editor, sometime eBay entrepreneur, sometime writer, and sometime artist doesn't exactly provide a steady or substantial stream of income.

There was a time when I was hopeful that my efforts and investments in the Cryptosphere would help carry me into the future, but that has really proved to be more of a dream than actual tangible reality.

Sure, I'm grateful for the few dollars I get in rewards here and there, and grateful for the fact that I am slowly rebuilding my Steem Power balance after last year's debacle of having to power down and sell virtually all my steem to pay our property taxes… but it has hardly been enough to make a huge difference in our lives.

But I'll definitely take what I can get!

And so, I cast a slightly apprehensive eye forward wondering what my future in 10 and potentially even 20 years from now might look like. I expect I will still be writing and editing, if I can. And hopefully there will still be a few people who collect old postage stamps!

Not trying to be morbid or depressing here, but sometimes we just have to look at the reality of our future, and not just put a cloud of "Hopium" around it!

Thanks for tolerating my random ramblings, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Have you reached an age where you think about your retirement? Do you have a pension scheme or savings? Or are you planning to continue working? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 2023.01.30 23:22 PST
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