Downshifting, Not Retiring

While many people have downshifted and others expect to, the Vanguard report found that folks often are leaving it up to fate rather than planning it as a stage in their worklife. Sixty-one percent of those who had downshifted said they hadn't done much planning for the move.

If you're still in career overdrive, maybe you should start thinking about the next step. It's important to keep in mind that retirement is not necessarily a work-no work dichotomy. As I wrote recently, many will find out that they will need more retirement income than they have and stay in the workforce longer than anticipated. But others will keep working for a variety of other reasons.

That's true for Joseph F. and Judith Ann Pauley, who fit into a category that Vanguard calls "never retire." These are folks who are either driven by a desire to be active (71 percent) or the type of work they do (69 percent), although many are also working to meet basic living expenses.

In the Pauleys' case, it's the love of their work that keeps them going at ages 75 and 70, said Joe Pauley. As an operations officer for a federal agency, he had encountered the work of a psychologist who analyzed the different ways people learn. Trying to use one style of teaching to reach people with different styles of learning left teachers and students frustrated, he said. Now he and his wife teach how to use different styles to help those with difficulty learning, he said.

At first, Pauley said, he used the concept in corporate and government training, but a conference with a teacher who taught his daughter, who had Down syndrome, convinced him that it could help reach children who were struggling with learning. Now he and his wife, a former teacher of chemistry and physics, work 60- to 70-hour weeks teaching at universities and leading workshops on "at risk" students.

He has a federal pension, and money is not an issue. They like the work and live to do it, he said. "Why would we want to stop? I am doing exactly what I want to do with the exact person I want to do it with, and I am having fun, and we are helping kids and teachers. What more satisfying way could I be spending this stage of my life?"

Do you have any issues related to retirement that you would like to see explored here? If so, I'd like to hear from you. Please e-mailhamiltonm@washpost.com.