ENG2623. Beyond FIRE - Planning Your Career and Finances for the Greatest Flexibility (PFP, EDGE)

Forget everything you've been told about retirement. The 40-year grind followed by 30 years on a golf course? That's a 20th-century invention, and it's quietly dying with the generation that perfected it.

This presentation challenges the narrative we've inherited and offers a more sustainable framework for the life you're actually living: one where student loans, fluctuating housing markets, climate uncertainty, and maybe no kids are more the reality. One where you value experiences in your 40s as much as security in your 70s. One where your body's prime years aren't sacrificed to an arbitrary finish line.

We'll explore the surprising history of how we got sold on the "work-then-stop" model (spoiler: it's newer than you think), why it's unsustainable for Millennials and Gen Z, and how extending your earning years across a longer lifespan can actually buy you more freedom, not less. The secret? Strategic financial and career planning that gives you permission to take a sabbatical at 45 instead of waiting until your knees give out.

Through personal narrative and practical frameworks, you'll discover how to design a career that breathes with space for mini-retirements, location flexibility, and the radical idea that working until 70 might be the best decision you ever make... if it means truly living during your 50s.