Working after retirement? Isn't that an oxymoron? Yes and no. At the beginning of the book you learned that, for some, “retirement” is a new beginning — turning a former hobby into a profitable venture as one example. Increasingly, as people live longer and healthier lives and can use a reasonably plump retirement nest egg to accelerate an exit from one employer, the desire to fill the work void gets filled with — well, more work. Not every choice to work after retiring from one place of employment is rooted in seeking a way to dispel boredom. For many it will be an economic necessity.

Let's take a hypothetical example. Maria had been working for thirty-five years for a major corporation that is cutting jobs in her field office. She accepted the company-offered package of incentives to take early retirement at age fifty-five. Her package includes two years' salary, with continued contributions to her 401(k) for those two years, and 80 percent health insurance premium benefits for the rest of her life. At age fifty-seven she is too young to begin receiving social security benefits. Her retirement nest egg is good, but she would face a 10 percent federal penalty if she begins to take withdrawals from her rollover IRA because she has not reached age 59½. Maria has set aside some savings for a “rainy day” but she doesn't want to tap them for living expenses now. Maria needs a job. Depending on what kind of a job Maria gets, she may actually be able to roll over her 401(k), open a Roth IRA, and add to her social security, giving her a bigger payout later.

The bottom line for everyone is that there will need to be enough resources to live, and hopefully live well, in the last lap of life. Putting together all the income pieces to make it happen is a challenge. But the choices are many and you can tailor an approach best suited to your life.