Working in Retirement

Well my vacation is now over so it's back to work here. Sorry for the last few days off, but I was a bit busier than I planned.

So I found an interesting article on working in retirement that basically said that 58% of working Canadians plan to keep doing some paid work into their retirement years. In fact, the baby boomers are very keen on the idea with a huge 65% who want to keep working. So the obvious question is: what's changed?

I think some fears about having enough money are driving this trend, but a bigger motivation is looking for some meaning to their lives in retirement. People spend most of their lives working, so when that is gone there is a sudden void in their lives that they don't know how to fill without work. Is this wrong? In my mind, not really. Some work in retirement can be fun and useful beyond money concerns to provide social contact, mental stimulation and meaning to people's lives. The trick is to not let become too large a part of your retirement, otherwise your really haven't retired at all.