Warren Buffett Still Works Despite Not Needing a Paycheck. New Research Suggests He’s Far From Alone

Most people still need a paycheck, but there are many ways to rethink our relationship to work and income.

EXPERT OPINION BY ALEXIS FRANZESE

Warren Buffett retired as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of last year. He still goes into the office five days a week. He certainly doesn’t need the paycheck. Well, at least not for the money.

A new study published in Administrative Science Quarterly helps explain why that isn’t as contradictory as it sounds.

Laura Sonday, an organizational behavior professor

Laura Sonday, an organizational behavior professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spent two years studying members of the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community. Through 141 hours of ethnographic observation and multiple interviews with 55 people, she studied what happens when people pursue a new ideal she calls “work optional,” a life in which work becomes a choice rather than a financial necessity. The answers weren’t uniform.

Some people radically restructured their careers. Others made smaller changes. Some kept working because they genuinely liked their work. One participant who found tremendous meaning in his career joked that FIRE should stand for “Financial Independence Retire Never.” Another, a physician who was already financially independent, gradually stripped away the parts of medicine he didn’t enjoy, kept the hospice work that brought him fulfillment, and made more space for creative pursuits.

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Financial freedom didn’t automatically make people want to stop working. For some, it allowed them to choose work differently.

Most of us aren’t Warren Buffett

Most of us aren’t Warren Buffett. And most of us aren’t financially independent (yet). That’s exactly why I think the most useful lesson from this research comes long before retirement.

Don’t wait until retirement for the payoff

I’ve always believed work can be one of the ways we express who we are. If I woke up tomorrow knowing I never needed another paycheck, I wouldn’t stop working. I’d teach the courses I most love. I’d still see therapy clients. I’d continue speaking. I’d chase more of my ideas. There’s a location I’ve already mentally selected for the reformer Pilates studio I’d love to open.

Source: www.inc.com