The Marketing Mirage of Retirement
When you think of retirement, do you assume you have to have enough money to support a luxury lifestyle?
Maybe you think of non-stop luxury travel–smiling couples on cruises, sipping wine in Tuscany, or riding matching e-bikes along the coast.
“For decades, society has pitched us a version of retirement that looks suspiciously like a never-ending luxury holiday. Golf memberships, world cruises, boutique wine clubs, matching e-bikes, and a second home in Portugal (with a pool, of course).”
Dan Haylett, The Retirement Fix, June 29th 2025
But is this image of a luxury retirement even realistic for you?
What if you don’t have the money to live a fantasy retirement?
The good news is you don’t have to be rich to have a fulfilling, enjoyable, and meaningful retirement. Do you want to know how?
The Hidden Traps of Chasing Luxury
1. The Trap of “Never Enough”
You keep delaying retirement until you have “enough.”
If a luxury retirement is the goal, you may never have enough.
I had friends—a successful attorney and his anesthesiologist wife—who kept postponing retirement because market dips convinced them they never had “enough.”
We have friends now who keep delaying her retirement. To prepare, they’ve purchased expensive e-bikes, a camper van, and so on. But up to this point, they haven’t been able to pull the trigger because there still is not “enough.” They’ve bought the symbols of a luxury retirement, but haven’t retired.
And that’s the danger—when “enough” is defined by someone else’s luxury image, you may never feel ready.
2. The Trap of Waiting Too Long
Of course, waiting for “enough” leads to another problem: you risk waiting too long.
When my wife and I considered retiring in 2015, we met with our financial advisor to get his opinion.
He advised us to retire earlier rather than later, as he had seen many clients delay and then die either before or immediately after their retirement.
They never got to enjoy their retirement.
They waited too long to enjoy the very life they’d been working toward.
3. The Trap of Disappointment
And if you don’t delay, but you step into retirement chasing that glossy luxury image, there’s a third trap: disappointment.
You expected endless cruises, villas, and golf memberships—but your assets can’t stretch to support it.
The result? A sense of being cheated, as if retirement hasn’t delivered what was promised.
Three Questions to Test Your Expectations
Evaluate whether an unending luxury vacation is a realistic expectation or goal.
1. Do you live that way now?
If not, why do you expect that when you retire?
“How much is enough? Some people can live on less and are satisfied…”
Roberta Taylor & Dorian Mintzer, The Couple’s Retirement Puzzle
The reality is you can retire on less than you probably imagine, unless your imagination is entirely unrealistic.
2. Are you willing to trade time for wealth?
After retirement, time is more important than money.
As people age, they often experience more health issues and restrictions. While the lifespan has expanded significantly, the health span has not kept up.
“The main argument for retiring in your mid-60s or earlier is that there’s plenty of time and you arguably have more energy to launch into a whole new direction if that’s what you want to do”
Celia Dodd, Not Fade Away: How to Thrive in Retirement
You likely have limited healthy time to do a lot of the things you’d like to do in retirement.
So the earlier you can start, the better.
3. What defines retirement success for you?
Luxury is one definition—but not the only one.
Maybe success means freedom, creativity, community, or time with family.
Unless you take the time to answer this question for yourself, you may default to chasing someone else’s dream instead of living your own.
Ways you can start planning for a retirement that you define:
• Start thinking about what you’ll be retiring to instead of just what you’re retiring from.
• Talk to your financial advisor to help you create a retirement budget and see where you are financially. Can you afford to retire now?
• Make a curious list. Write down all the things you are curious about or would like to find out more about. These could be things you did as a child, things you didn’t have time for during your working life, or things you have an interest in now. What makes you passionate and excited?
• Spend several sessions with a retirement coach to help you become aware of the kinds of issues you’re likely to face when transitioning to retirement, and to set up a game plan for your retirement..
Create Your Own Retirement Vision
The promise of a luxury retirement can trap you in three ways: always chasing “enough,” waiting too long to enjoy life, or feeling disappointed when reality doesn’t match the fantasy. But those traps aren’t inevitable.
You can avoid them by asking three honest questions: Do I live this way now? Am I willing to keep trading time for wealth? What really defines success for me?
Retirement doesn’t have to look like the brochures, and it doesn’t have to be a five-star fantasy to be deeply fulfilling.
The real freedom comes when you stop chasing someone else’s version of success and start shaping your own.
Define what matters most to you, and build a retirement you don’t need a glossy ad to believe in.
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, images, and text improvements.
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