How to Retire

The new year had hardly begun when I found myself opposite the boss at lunch, confronting the inevitable fact of life that no happily employed person likes to face. “Dan, what are your thoughts on retirement?”

I’m 66 years old, but still flying high at work, nowhere near out of gas even after 32 years as a journalist in the Washington press corps. Sure, I’d previously set the end of 2019 as a likely retirement date. But 2020, a presidential year, is beckoning. Don’t the newspapers for which I work need the wisdom and experience I’ve accumulated over a lifetime?

My boss told me how much he valued my work. But the signals were clear: It was time for the curtain to come down on this phase of my career.

I’m hardly the first person to go through such a rude awakening. And I realize this is about as soft a landing as anyone gets in today’s job-slash world, particularly in media business. But I still left lunch feeling shaky and hurt and, most