Jamela AdamSun, Jul 6, 2025, 12:04 PM 4 min readMost retirement planning advice seems to follow a similar formula: start saving as early as you can, leave the workforce at 65, and spend the rest of your retirement days playing golf or vacationing in the Bahamas. But personal finance journalist and author Chris Farrell believes this formula is outdated and that we should rethink what retirement looks like.In a recent interview on “Your Retirement Planning Simplified,” Farrell, the author of “Purpose and a Paycheck: Finding Meaning, Money, and Happiness in the Second Half of Life,” shared several retirement planning rules that no longer make sense.Read Next: 4 Retirement Expenses Boomers Didn’t Plan for — but Should HaveCheck Out: 25 Places To Buy a Home If You Want It To Gain ValueHere are the outdated retirement beliefs he believes can be left behind.Also see 35 retirement planning mistakes you’re wasting money on.“If you mention retirement, it’s immediately assumed that means not working,” Farrell said. But for many people, retirement is actually more of a transition to a different type of work.More and more older adults are pursuing part-time work, consulting or even launching businesses, even though they’ve technically retired. Farrell mentioned in the interview that about a quarter of all new businesses in recent years have been started by people ages 55 to 64. Additionally, according to T. Rowe Price, 57% of retirees want to continue working in some way.Farrell himself (now 71) is still writing and working, which makes him the perfect example of how retirement can look different from how it used to.Explore More: I’m Retiring a Multimillionaire: Here’s What I Wish I Knew in My 30sAccording to Farrell, the idea that productivity and innovation peak in your 30s or 40s is not true, explaining that older adults can be creative too. He believes that with decades of experience, people who are nearing retirement age or have already retired can often bring fresh perspective to companies, especially in knowledge-based industries.Technology has also lowered the barriers to starting a business or working remotely. You don’t need to commute or maintain a 9-to-5 schedule to stay active and earn income. In other words, even if you experience mobility issues in your golden years, you can still make money online or without having to stick to a rigid work schedule.Of course, saving for retirement is important. But Farrell points out that many Americans simply haven’t had the opportunity or resources to build large nest eggs through no fault of their own. Life is expensive and can throw curveballs that completely derail your financial plans.Terms and Privacy PolicyPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore InfoS&P 5006,229.98 -49.37 (-0.79%)Dow 3044,406.36 -422.17 (-0.94%)Nasdaq20,412.52 -188.59 (-0.92%)Russell 20002,212.55 -36.49 (-1.62%)VIX17.84 +0.36 (+2.06%)Gold3,346.90 +4.00 (+0.12%)PortfolioSign in to access your portfolioSign inTop gainersENVX Enovix Corporation 13.03 +1.64 (+14.40%)WNS WNS (Holdings) Limited 74.70 +9.32 (+14.26%)RKLB Rocket Lab Corporation 38.88 +3.22 (+9.03%)BILI Bilibili Inc. 22.48 +1.60 (+7.66%)U Unity Software Inc. 27.86 +1.73 (+6.60%)Top losersBMNR Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc. 107.02 -27.98 (-20.72%)CORZ Core Scientific, Inc. 14.83 -3.17 (-17.61%)APGE Apogee Therapeutics, Inc. 39.24 -8.22 (-17.32%)SLAB Silicon Laboratories Inc. 139.75 -13.73 (-8.95%)ATS ATS Corporation 29.64 -2.86 (-8.79%)Most activeLCID Lucid Group, Inc. 2.1100 -0.0500 (-2.31%)NVDA NVIDIA Corporation 158.24 -1.10 (-0.69%)TSLA Tesla, Inc. 293.94 -21.41 (-6.79%)CORZ Core Scientific, Inc. 14.83 -3.17 (-17.61%)SOFI SoFi Technologies, Inc. 19.24 +0.67 (+3.61%)Earnings eventsTrending tickersTSLA Tesla, Inc. 293.94 -21.41 (-6.79%)WOLF Wolfspeed, Inc. 2.3400 +1.1600 (+98.93%)PLTR Palantir Technologies Inc. 139.12 +4.76 (+3.54%)RKLB Rocket Lab Corporation 38.88 +3.22 (+9.03%)CORZ Core Scientific, Inc. 14.83 -3.17 (-17.61%)Top economic eventsPowered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above.