Is retiring at 65 a mistake? Rethinking the real goal of retirement

If you knew exactly how many healthy years you had left, would you still be living – and working – the way you are right now?

So many of us quietly build our entire lives around one number: 65. Work hard. Save. Retire at 65. Finally start living.

But when you look closely at how health and time really work, that default plan can backfire. You can end up spending your best years working for a future you’re too tired or too unwell to enjoy.

Let’s talk about a different way to think about retirement – one that puts your health, your time, and your definition of “enough” at the center, instead of a random age on the calendar.

Life expectancy vs. healthy life expectancy

We all have a rough idea of how long we might live. That’s your life expectancy – the total number of years you’re likely to be alive.

But there’s a second, much more important number: your healthy life expectancy.

That’s how many years you’re likely to live in reasonably good health – able to travel, walk easily, play with grandkids, enjoy hobbies, and do the things you’ve been dreaming about for “one day.”

The uncomfortable reality is this: your healthy years usually run out before your life does. You can be alive for many years without really being able to live the way you hoped.

That’s why simply asking, “How long will my money last?” isn’t enough. You also need to ask, “How many healthy years am I likely to have – and how do I want to use them?”

Why delaying retirement can quietly cost you your best years

On paper, pushing retirement back a few years can look smart: more time to save, fewer years to fund, a bigger cushion.

But viewed through the lens of healthy life expectancy, every year you delay retirement after, say, your early 60s might be costing you some of your most active, energetic years.

You might live into your late 80s or 90s. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be hiking, traveling, or chasing toddlers around at 85. You might get 5 great years of full health after retirement. You might get 20. You don’t know.

What you do know is this: your healthiest years are limited, and they’re front-loaded. Spending too many of them at a desk, waiting for a bigger number in your retirement account, is a real risk.

The three phases of retirement: go-go, slow-go, no-go

Retirement isn’t one long, flat stretch of life. It usually comes in three rough phases, and understanding them can completely change how you plan.

The go-go years

These are the golden years at the start of retirement. You’re relatively healthy, active, and energetic. This is when you:

• Travel more easily
• Take big trips you’ve dreamed about
• Visit family and grandkids often
• Try new hobbies, adventures, and experiences

These are the years your savings were meant to unlock. They’re also the shortest – and the most valuable.

The slow-go years

Next come the slow-go years. You’re still enjoying life, but your pace naturally slows down. You might:

• Travel less often or closer to home
• Prefer quiet routines and familiar places
• Spend more time on simple pleasures rather than big adventures

Life can still be very good in this phase – just gentler.

The no-go years

Eventually, most people reach the no-go years. At this point:

• Travel and big adventures are mostly behind you
• Your world shrinks to your home, your neighborhood, and your medical appointments
• Health and care needs take more of your time, energy, and money

Here’s the key: most people plan their money as if all three phases are the same. They’re not. The go-go years are short, precious, and they come first. If you retire too late, you risk entering retirement already in your slow-go phase – with your best, most active years spent at work.

So when you plan, don’t just ask, “Will I have enough money?” Also ask, “Will I still be in my go-go years when I finally get to use it?”

The moving finish line problem

There’s a sneaky trap that shows up for a lot of diligent savers: the finish line keeps moving.

You tell yourself:

• “Just two more years, then I’ll really feel secure.”
• “Once I get this next bonus, then I’ll be ready.”
• “I’ll retire when the market recovers.”

But there’s always another reason to wait. A new goal. A bit more “safety.” A scary headline. And while you’re pushing the date out, your healthy years are quietly ticking away in the background.

It’s not that being cautious is bad. It’s that there’s a cost to waiting that doesn’t show up in your spreadsheets: the cost of time, energy, and health you don’t get back.

Your most important retirement asset: your health

We spend a lot of time worrying about our investments, tax brackets, and interest rates. But the asset that matters most for retirement isn’t in your brokerage account – it’s your body.

What often steals people’s healthy years first isn’t always a dramatic diagnosis. It’s the slow, quiet loss of strength, balance, and mobility. Once you lose the ability to move comfortably, everything else gets harder.

That’s why one of the best “investments” you can make for retirement might not be financial at all. It might look like:

• A pair of dumbbells
• A regular strength-training routine
• Daily walks with some hills or stairs
• Stretching and mobility work

You don’t need to look like a bodybuilder. You just need to stay strong enough to live the life you’re paying for – getting in and out of cars, lifting luggage, walking through airports, climbing stairs, playing on the floor with kids, gardening without pain.

Guard your health as fiercely as you guard your savings. Everything else depends on it.

The simple money rule that quietly builds freedom

On the financial side, the core rule doesn’t change, no matter your income level:

Spend less than you earn, and invest the difference.

It sounds almost too simple, but this is where people quietly drift off track. I’ve seen high earners with almost nothing saved because every raise went straight into lifestyle upgrades. I’ve also seen ordinary families with modest incomes retire with real options because they consistently lived below their means and invested the gap.

Saving alone isn’t enough. Cash sitting in a bank account loses ground to inflation over time. You need your money to grow.

If you want a straightforward way to do that, I walk through a simple, low-drama approach in this article on the boring investing strategy that actually gets you to retirement.

The quiet wealth destroyers to avoid

Just as there are habits that build wealth, there are a few big decisions that can quietly wreck your retirement plans.

High-interest debt

Things like:

• Credit cards that never get paid in full
• Payday loans
• Store cards with “easy” installments
• Car loans on vehicles you really can’t afford

Every rand (or dollar) going to interest is a rand that could have been building your future instead.

Endless lifestyle upgrades

This one is sneakier. It looks like:

• The bigger house you don’t truly need
• The second property that comes with rates, levies, and constant maintenance
• Upgrading cars, gadgets, and vacations every time your income rises

Every time you inflate your lifestyle instead of increasing your savings rate, you trade long-term freedom for short-term appearances. Looking wealthy and being wealthy are not the same thing.

Keep your investing simple – and get the big decisions right

When it comes to investing, most people focus on the wrong levers. We think success is about:

• Picking the perfect stock
• Timing the market just right
• Jumping in and out at the “best” moments

But research over and over shows that the majority of your long-term returns come from something much less glamorous: how your money is allocated across different types of investments (like stocks, bonds, property, and cash), and whether your portfolio is low-cost and diversified.

That’s good news. It means you don’t need to be a genius stock picker. You need:

• A sensible, diversified, low-cost portfolio
• A plan that matches your time horizon and risk tolerance
• The discipline to stick with it when markets get scary

And they will get scary. Market drops of 20–30% happen. Everyone says they’ll stay calm – until it’s their life savings on the screen. Those are the moments that make or break retirement plans.

If you want help building that kind of simple, durable approach, you might like this guide on retiring rich with mutual funds without chasing crazy returns.

The question of “enough”

Underneath all of this is one big, emotional question: “Do I have enough?”

We often answer that by defaulting to “more.” A bigger number. A bigger portfolio. A bigger safety margin. But more isn’t always better if it costs you years of your go-go life.

There’s a story I love about a businessman and a fisherman in a small coastal town. The fisherman spends his mornings catching enough fish for his family, then goes home for a long lunch with his wife, plays with his kids, and spends evenings at the local bar playing music with his friends.

The businessman tells him he’s thinking too small: he should fish longer, buy a bigger boat, build a fleet, start a company, sell it for a fortune. Then, the businessman says, he could retire and finally… sleep in, fish a little in the morning, have long lunches with his wife, play with his children, and spend evenings with his friends.

The fisherman just smiles. He’s already living the life the businessman is chasing.

The point isn’t that you shouldn’t save or plan. It’s that “enough” isn’t always a bigger number. Sometimes, it’s realizing you already have many of the pieces of the life you want – and you don’t need to sacrifice all your best years to get a slightly shinier version.

How to rethink your own retirement plan

If this has you rethinking your timeline, here are a few questions to sit with:

• If I knew I had 10–15 healthy, active years left, how would I want to spend them?
• Am I sacrificing my go-go years for a level of financial “safety” I may not actually need?
• What would “enough” look like for me – not for my neighbors, coworkers, or social media feed?
• Am I taking care of my health with the same seriousness I bring to my finances?
• Could I phase into retirement (reduced hours, part-time, consulting) instead of waiting for an all-or-nothing moment at 65?

Retirement was never really about hitting a magic age. It’s about having enough time, money, and health to live a life that feels meaningful to you.

Yes, you need a solid financial plan. Yes, you need to avoid debt traps and invest wisely. But you also need to protect your health, notice what you already have, and be honest about how many of your best years you’re willing to trade for a slightly bigger nest egg.

Your healthy years are your real wealth. Treat them like the precious resource they are.