So. When I was young I kept changing jobs and taking time off to do one thing or the other. I’d work on a novel. I’d do some traveling. I did a lot of worthwhile things and I pretended I agreed with Cary Grant’s character in HOLIDAY, who wants to have experiences while he is young then work later, after he discovers what he is working for. (Pretended because I knew all along that what I wanted was simpler. I wanted to skip the day job thing entirely.)
I have friends and coworkers who chose less circuitous paths and a number of them have retired, or are considering it. So. I tried one of those on-line retirement calculators, and the results are in. For the next decade, I only need to save 87% of my pay and then I will have enough saved to live at 22% of my current income level. Of course if I could save 87% of my pay I probably wouldn’t need a retirement calculator.
Looking for a bright side – after living on 13% of my pay, my retirement income would really feel luxurious.
Overall, just one more indication that the kittens need to get jobs.
Required Writing 
I believe those of us in the post-Baby Boom generations will find that retirement was a failed experiment. The trick is finding something productive you can get paid to do until you die. I envision just keeling over my keyboard right after hitting the “save” button on the next Great American novel.
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I hope you are wrong about the retirement experiment but can see that you may be right. I am impressed if you can make money writing one of the Great American novels!
Your comment makes me realize that I have never considered how I might like to die, although I can easily make a list of ways I wouldn’t want to go…
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