Why Nobody Is Retiring Anymore

Sixty-one percent of Americans don't plan to fully retire anymore, according to Fidelity's 2026 retirement study. Instead, they're planning something called "phase retirement"—working in some capacity rather than stopping completely. Sho Dewan, host of Work Hotline, argues this isn't really about money, even though rising costs and inflation matter. The deeper shift is cultural: the old three-stage life—school, job, retirement—no longer fits how people actually want to live.

The collapse of the three-stage model

For most of modern history, retirement meant a clean break. You worked for 30 or 40 years, saved enough, and then one day you stopped completely. That model assumed people would be ready to turn off their professional lives overnight. But Dewan points out that people are living longer, staying healthier, and—crucially—have spent decades building real skills, relationships, and knowledge. "Why would you want to turn that off overnight?" he asks. "That doesn't make sense."

The real desire, he suggests, isn't to escape work. It's to escape bad work. "Maybe retirement isn't about escaping work. It's about escaping bad work and finally having the freedom to do work that you want to do." This reframes retirement as a transition rather than a termination—a chance to keep contributing on your own terms.