The thought of leaving a rambling footprint trail on a glistening white tropical beach while sipping an ice cold Pina Colada is very distracting at 3 pm on Friday, with only 2 hours left to get that final report completed.

This is great motivation for planning a winter holiday in the tropics, forgetting the hassles of the workplace, doing whatever you can get away with, for two or three weeks.

The necessity to return to work makes you wish all this didn't have to end. What if it didn't have to end? What if you could stroll along an endless beach, mischievous waltzing waves gently licking your toes, being one with the golden sunset?

"When I retire..."

Hello! Alarm ringing. Back to reality.

There’s a world of difference between a holiday and retirement. Holidays are a short diversion, only 4 weeks out of a 52 week calendar year. They are intended to recharge with enough energy to see out the working year, as well as provide cool stories and photos to brag about to workmates and friends. They are financed by the income earned throughout the year. The more you earn the better holiday you can afford.

Here’s the kicker. Retirement happens when you stop working. You go from 4 weeks of leisure financed by 48 weeks of work to 52 weeks of leisure financed by other means than work. If there’s enough money available from savings, superannuation and/or the pension to fund years of full on holidaying, you’ve done very well.

Imagine,you are able to return to your special tropical paradise, for an unlimited stay. The villa is luxurious; the sea is just as enticing and the hospitality again exemplary. Your boss isn’t going to pester you, your kids know better and your old workmates and friends are just that - old, as in former. Boardies on, flip-flops off, sunscreen lathered and a wide-brimmed straw hat that blends rustically with the palm trees on your oversize Hawaiian shirt. Off you go, down by the seaside.

But this time it feels different. The sense of adventure, rebellion, and release is not as intense. Your photography doesn’t have the same energy without the previously associated bragging rights, even the food and drinks lack sparkle now they are eminently available.

As you wander aimlessly along the shore you start thinking. Not about tonight’s magnificent meal and entertainment, not about your endless holiday, not about how good it s to be free. You think about your old workmates and how you will miss the banter amid the humdrum of the workplace. You think about your old friends who have retired and are enjoying their own freedom, somewhere.

A thin purple cloud drifts lazily past the golden sun setting in the west above a silver shimmering ocean and for the first time you think about that image. You startle yourself when you realize that’s the same sun available for your viewing pleasure every evening wherever you are.

The lure of the tropics doesn’t seem so compelling and unlike previous excursions, your thoughts turn to life back home. “What are my old friends up to? Where are they? Are they happy? I could catch up with my old boss and workmates. I should clean up my workshop and have a crack at that deck I promised to build ages ago. I could build a vegetable garden, visit the grandies and take in heaps of footy matches. Dust off the golf clubs and retackle my old faithful fishing rod.

Thank you gorgeous sunset, you’ve inspired me with so many possibilities, I just don’t know where to start…!”

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