The best career planning includes exit strategies – e.g., when to leave a job, when to shutter a business, when to pivot and do something else. Retirement is also an exit strategy. Even if you don't ever want to retire, you may not be able to continue working through no choice of your own. Your company may downsize. Your health may deteriorate. Your industry or role may transform in a way that makes your skills, experience and/or expertise less marketable.
Yet, a recent survey by resume platform Zety shows that, out of 1003 Gen X respondents, 19% don't expect to stop working and an additional 19% plan to keep working past traditional retirement age. Planning to never retire is a dangerous retirement plan. Here are four better retirement strategies:
If you don't want to stop working, the best way to ensure that there is work for you to do is to create those opportunities for yourself. Build a consulting business in the work you love to do, so you get clear on your value, learn how to sell and continually market and brand yourself. If you have a job, start a side gig so you can develop these skills while still drawing a salary. As a bonus, if you keep your job for as long as you intend and never actually need the consulting income, the extra cash can supercharge your retirement spending.
You don't have to consult in the field you're in now. In fact, building a business can help you change careers into a new role or industry, if you've been longing to do something else. Think of things that interest you, for which you have a background that gives you credibility and that people will pay for. Read success stories to give you some ideas – like this marketer turned real estate agent or higher education administrator turned founder of a seven-figure organizing business.
The Zety survey also revealed that 58% of Gen X respondents felt their current income didn't cover or barely covered their expenses. In that case, your job, whether or not you can keep it, is already not a viable solution. Focus on reducing expenses to earmark savings towards a proper retirement and to require less income to support your needs. A smaller income requirement means you can reach retirement sooner (and you might even be there now).
Spending less money doesn't mean investing less in your career. Customize your own leadership development with no- and low-cost options, such as tapping your alma mater and library for resources or forming accountability groups and book clubs for support. Your alma mater can even help start your business.
You can supercharge your savings by moving. Get paid at your local market rate while you move to a lower cost-of-living area, and this geo arbitrage can help you save for retirement, if not retire early. Forbes recently released its 2026 list of Best Places To Retire Abroad, and you can find similar international relocation recommendations from International Living, Live and Invest Overseas and other sources.
If living abroad isn't on the bucket list, moving within your current country can still yield significant savings. Moving to lower-cost city within the same state or cheaper neighborhood within the same city may even be enough to capture significant savings.
Building a co-living, co-working space for others in a precarious retirement situation could tie in all three suggestions above. Your business could be to buy the property and set it up for others to live and work. If you live in the same property, you could cut your expenses considerably by having others pay your living expenses. If you find the right set-up in a lower-cost geography, you can stack geo arbitrage benefits on top of your new business income and lower expenses.
Assuming you can continue working is a dangerous assumption in case you're wrong. If you're working in a job that doesn't pay enough anyway, you're avoiding a solution altogether. You don't have to quit your job or make big moves right away.
Research a cheaper destination you may like. Look through recent bills and credit card statements for expenses to cut. Brainstorm business ideas. Take small steps towards a proactive retirement strategy.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com