Rethinking the Script: A Story About Timing, Health, and the Possibility of Mini‑Retirements

There’s someone I used to work with back at a grocery store — not someone I stayed close to, but someone I always liked running into when I was back in Minnesota. We connected over enjoying much of the same music that wasn’t aligned with the “typical grocer,” REV105 & Cities97 — and now you know I’m at that age when my knees crack when I stand up. 🙂 Years ago, I asked him why he was still working when so many others were already retired or at least easing into it. His answer was simple, practical, and it stuck with me even in my late 30s, when retirement seemed like a million years away.

He told me he and his wife had run the numbers. He could retire and start collecting his pension, but the cost of health care before Medicare kicked in made the math fall apart. So he kept working. And mind you, this was 15 years ago — it’s not like those costs have come down since then. The plan was to hold on until 65, get onto Medicare, and then finally step into the retirement he’d earned. It was a logical decision. A responsible one. The kind of decision most of us were raised to believe was the “right” one.

I recently learned he passed away from cancer at 69. Which means he may have only had four years of retirement — and who knows how many of those years he was actually healthy enough to enjoy. All the things he probably wanted to do, see, explore… all the things he postponed because the math said “wait”… gone. That’s the part that makes me think differently now, and it’s a central pillar of GENeXpatLife: rethinking things. It’s not a cautionary tale. It’s just reality — and it forces you to reconsider everything you thought you understood about timing. ⏳

I keep coming back to that conversation. How unfortunate the plan was. He paid into the company 401(k). He was fiscally sharp. He wasn’t someone who went out and blew his paycheck on nonsense. It was a very practical approach. It made perfect sense on paper. And yet life didn’t honor the spreadsheet. It makes you wonder how many of us are quietly doing the same thing — deferring the parts of life we actually want to live because we’re waiting for the “right” age, the “right” number, the “right” moment. It makes you question whether the script we were handed still fits the world we’re living in.

So when I came across an article about “mini‑retirements,” it opened up a path I didn’t even know existed. Not because it’s a magic solution or a universal answer — it’s not. But because it offers a different way of thinking. A way to step out of the grind for a few weeks or months, not decades from now, but while you’re still healthy enough to enjoy it. A way to reclaim pieces of the life you want without waiting for a retirement that may or may not look the way you imagine. 🌱

Is a 'mini retirement' right for you? Here’s what you need to know.

This isn’t for the people who already know they’re set — not generational‑wealth set, but set enough that even a global economic collapse wouldn’t shake their confidence. This is for the people in that middle space — the ones who aren’t sure they have “enough” for a full retirement, but also don’t want to work until the day they die. The ones who feel the tension between financial responsibility and the reality that time, health, and energy are not guaranteed. The ones who want to live more intentionally but don’t want to blow up their entire life to do it.

Mini‑retirements aren’t about quitting. They’re not about running away. They’re not about pretending money doesn’t matter. They’re simply another path — a way to pause, reset, travel, reconnect, or just breathe. And honestly, it’s not even about travel. Maybe the mini‑retirement is what you need to finally start that great American novel you keep putting off 📚, or spend time with grandchildren while you can still do a full day at Disney World and keep up with them. It’s a way to test what life beyond work might look like without waiting until 65. A way to do the things you want to do while you’re still able to do them. Not the only way. Just a way.

I’ve found myself thinking about him since learning of his early passing — about how he did everything “right,” and how little time he actually got. None of us control the timeline. None of us know how long we’ll be healthy. None of us know how many years we’ll get to enjoy the life we’re saving for. But we do control how long we wait to start living parts of it. Maybe that’s the real point. Not to abandon the plan — but to stop postponing all of it to a future that isn’t promised. 💛

If this article piques your interest, you may also like the book Die With Zero, which expands on these ideas. I wrote a little more about that book here:

https://genexpatlife.com/top5-books-roadmap-burnout