There's nothing like a poke in the eye to get your attention. The current economy is that sharp stick when it comes to thinking about giving up a paycheck to retire. Living on a fixed income when expenses aren't fixed and your sources of income start contracting can be unnerving in the best of times. Right now, it takes superhero emotional strength. Even if you have not yet stepped into retirement, this kind of economic climate can make you worry about your sanity if you still yearn to leave the daily grind behind eventually.

This is an area that needs more attention and more options--a lot more. As you stare at the rising cost of pretty much everything, take off the blinders and stop seeing the decision to retire as "Yes/No". There are a whole lot of possibilities between those two extremes that might meet your needs better. Explore them.

If you love your work and want to keep doing it on a smaller scale, there's probably a way. But even if what you've been doing to make money isn't yet full of meaning, you can choose to make enjoyable work part of your retirement lifestyle.

We want time to do the things we haven't been able to do while we were working, yes. We want time to travel or garden or take care of grandkids, sure. Time for golf or kayaking. Yes, we do want time. But the surprise many of us meet once we retire and start to do it is that it's not a full time replacement for what we were doing. Often, there's time for more. Perhaps that more is "work."

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof did a column about the potential of baby boomers to change the world for the better with their "encore career" choices. But we don't all have to take on full time jobs that require trips to Africa to make a difference with what we do. We need to find what we believe is important to get done and then decide how we want to be part of making it happen.

We also need to know how we prefer to work. Some of us need a year to play before we move on to the next work. (They have a label for that now. It's called a transitional sabbatical.) Some of us need two days a week to play from here on. Some of us will find the "authentic work" we get involved in so rewarding that play isn't even a relevant construct.

What's important to you? How can you make a difference at that? Sometimes, the only way to get it done is to do it as a job. Sometimes, it's so important that it becomes the thing you want to do most, paid position or not.

We need to do better thinking about this before we leave work. We need to make better choices about how much leisure time is enough, both while we are making plans and once we start to implement them. A life of total leisure gets very boring. And when the economy starts to shake, it's also gets very scary.

Add some work in the mix--at what you believe in and in a format that gives you the kind of flexibility you value--and you will weather the inevitable economic rollercoaster rides more easily.

And that's not just because you'll have money coming in. A big hunk of that reassurance will come from knowing that you are competent and doing something worthwhile.

Copyright (c) 2009 Mary Lloyd