This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. An earlier version appeared on MSN Money here.
Traditional retirement looks like this: work until you're 65 or so, and then stop working until you die. More recently, views of retirement have begun to change, as more and more "retirees" are forced to work long after 65.
There is a major problem with the traditional approach to retirement, which I'll come to in a moment. But first, how would you answer the following question: How much of your life today is spent doing what you want to do when you want to do it?
If I were to answer that honestly, the answer would be about 20%. Yuck! And I don't hate my job. I wouldn't work where I do if I were independently wealthy, but I have a good job, work with good people, and earn a good wage. But I still work. I still get up five days a week, spend one hour getting ready for work, 50 minutes commuting to work, about nine hours at work, and then another 50 minutes returning home.
Under the traditional views of retirement, I will keep doing this same routine for the next 24 years, then I'll stop cold turkey and do who knows what until the end of my days.
I started The Dough Roller in part because I don't like the traditional way of looking at retirement. And what's worse -- here's the major problem I mentioned a moment ago -- I believe that looking at retirement as something that happens decades from now for many of us is one of the major reasons why so many people don't save for retirement. It's just too far away to worry about, many believe.
I want to change that way of thinking, so consider the following questions:
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