donheff
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
This is an interesting question. My brother (he's 45) is a lawyer (he also has a Ph.D. in pharmacology) and he's making big bucks as a drug patent lawyer. He has said to me that he'll never be able to retire. I don't know if this is the case with MOST lawyers, but he feels pretty secure in his job and partly because of that, he and his wife spend pretty much everything they make (and they make a LOT). Personally I don't understand that. He also really enjoys the work he does, so he doesn't see stopping.
That sounds a bit like my brother. He has 7 kids and worked as a lobbyist, quitting a year ago at age 78 only because he was going blind and couldn't really do it anymore. Aside from the fact that he should have saved a bit more (working so long is the only thing that saved him from running out of $ in old age) I don't see him as dysfunctional at all. He loved what he did and made plenty of time for family and fun. Surprisingly he is also happy in LR (late retirement), primarily because he can read to his heart's content. I got him a Nook Color and regularly troubleshoot his problems with it over the phone. With the font set large and the backlit screen he can still read comfortably.Ohio, wow! You have described a very dysfunctional person.
There is no doubt in my mind that he would have continued to work until 85 or so if his sight hadn't failed. As I said, the only problem I could see are savings. If something had forced him to retire ten or fifteen years earlier he would have been in trouble. As things worked out, he is doing fine. Surprising to me (and him) he had the same positive reaction many of us ERers have to the bliss of waking up and thinking, "hey, I don't have to get up and go in to the office today, weeee."