For many people, retirement is something to look forward to, a time of life dedicated to rest, leisure, perhaps travel, and, of course, time with family. Many authors, celebrities, businesspersons, and commentators have opined on the subject of retirement over the years, and their words have become the basis for retirement advice and retirement toasts ever since.

The following retirement quotes are a mixture of inspirational thinking, humor, life philosophy, and hard-headed advice. From happy retirement quotes to critical analysis from financial experts, they speak to the many facets of retirement.

With the right philosophy and a willingness to stay young at heart, you can make the best of retirement. However, it’s a good idea to talk to a Certified Financial Planner® and make sure you can approach retirement with contentment and joy, not anxiety and uncertainty about money. If you know what your financial options are and have a plan, it will be that much easier to embrace the outlook and humor of the retirement sayings presented here.

Inspiring Retirement Quotes

There’s something truly inspiring about a well-deserved retirement. After all, you’ve spent your life working. Now you get to take time off. Here are a few inspirational retirement quotes to encourage you.

“Stay young at heart, kind in spirit, and enjoy retirement living.” – Danielle Duckery

“Retirement life is different because there is no set routine. You are able to let the day unfold as it should. Enjoy, be happy and live each day.” – Suzanne Steel

“As your life changes, it takes time to recalibrate, to find your values again. You might also find that retirement is the time when you stretch out and find your potential.” – Sid Miramontes

“Retire from work, but not from life.” – M.K. Soni

“Retire the word ‘retirement’ from your vocabulary. Look it up: it means to ‘withdraw’ or ‘retreat.’ Words can shape reality, and it’s time for this one to go. Doesn’t ‘renaissance’ or ‘graduation’ or ‘transition’ better describe your post-career life?” – Marika Stone

Retirement Quotes About Age and Aging

For most people, retirement comes relatively later in life. As we get older, we encounter both aging-related challenges and opportunities. Some of them are financial, including questions of how to save for retirementt and choosing the best pension payout option – questions a Certified Financial Planner® can help you answer.

Money can help us enjoy retirement, but we have to be open to enjoying it. While everyone’s path is different and unique, the following retirement sentiments capture ways of thinking about age and getting older that are good-natured, graceful, and even humorous. Perhaps that’s the key to remaining young at heart.

“Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, for you shall only live it once. Be comfortable with growing older.” — Louise Hay

“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.” — Mark Twain

“The idea is to die young, as late as possible.” — Ashley Montagu

“I believe that spontaneity helps keep us young. The opportunity to be spontaneous feels somewhat hedonistic and is comparable to the excitement of a young couple on the verge of elopement.” — A. Major

“You know you're old when you stoop to tie your shoes and wonder what else you do while you're down there.” — George Burns

“Now that I'm over sixty, I'm veering toward respectability.” — Shelley Winters

Retirement Quotes from Finance Experts

Planning for your financial future in retirement may seem daunting. There are important questions about Social Security and Medicare to answer. A Certified Financial Planner® can help you to answer these questions and see what your options are. It’s important to take a big picture view and think strategically, as the following retirement quotes illustrate.

“I believe that the biggest mistake that most people make when it comes to their retirement is they do not plan for it.” – Mark Singer

“To achieve what 1% of the world’s population has (Financial Freedom), you must be willing to do what only 1% dare to do… hard work and perseverance of highest order.” ― Manoj Arora

“Before you can become a millionaire, you must learn to think like one. You must learn how to motivate yourself to counter fear with courage. Making critical decisions about your career, business, investments and other resources conjures up fear, fear that is part of the process of becoming a financial success.” ― Thomas J. Stanley

“Financial responsibility is a mindset before it is an action. Therefore, if you can change a mindset, the actions follow almost naturally.” ― Brandon Turner

“No one has ever achieved financial fitness with a January resolution that’s abandoned by February.” ― Suze Orman

“If you don't take care of your money your money won't take care of you.” ― Mac Duke

“Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.” ― John L. Beckley

“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.” ― Robert Kiyosaki

Famous Retirement Quotes

Many famous authors, artists, actors, and other celebrities have opined on the subject of retirement. Here are some short retirement quotes from a cross-section of famous people.

“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” – Abe Lemons

“There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” – Bill Waterson, Calvin & Hobbes

“Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it to the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.” – Jonathan Clements

“Living each day as if it were your last doesn't mean your last day of retirement on a remote island. It means to live fully, authentically and spontaneously with nothing being held back.” – Jack Canfield

“Retirement's the most wonderful thing. I get to enjoy all the things I never stopped to notice on the way up. After an extraordinary life, it's time to enjoy my retirement.” – Patrick Macnee

“Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials – much to live on and much to live for.” – Author Unknown

“For many, retirement is a time for personal growth, which becomes the path to greater freedom.” – Robert Delamontague

Funny Retirement Quotes

Life is better with humor in it, and that doesn’t stop being true in retirement. For many people, the experience provides ample opportunities for fun and good humor – all the more so if they’ve planned for their retirement financially. Here are some funny retirement sayings to brighten your day.

“Retirement: That’s when you return from work one day and say, ‘Hi, honey, I’m home – forever.’” – Gene Perret

“Retirement is the world’s longest coffee break.” – Author Unknown

"When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally present him with a watch.” – R.C. Sheriff

“My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.” – Jerry Seinfeld

“Some of the best memories are made in flip flops.” — Kellie Elmore

“He who laughs last at the boss’s jokes probably isn’t far from retirement.” — Unknown

“Instead of saving for someone else's college education, I'm currently saving for a luxury retirement community replete with golf carts and handsome young male nurses who love butterscotch.” — Jen Kirkman

Bottom Line

Retirement can be your next big adventure in life, and/or an opportunity for rest, reflection, and time at home with the family. The happy retirement quotes we’ve seen here are fun, but adventure and leisure in retirement are much more attainable with planning. Whatever you want your retirement to be, you’ll have a better time getting there if you plan ahead financially.

That’s where financial planning comes in. Talking with a Certified Financial Planner® can help you to better understand your current financial situation. They may also be able to suggest options for your future. Planning ahead now will help you to understand what your options are in retirement.

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