Retiring (Again and Again) in America

Henry Blum has retired four times. After running an optometry business in the Bronx, N.Y., for decades, he stopped working in 2000 when he turned 70, thinking that was what he was supposed to do at his age. His wife threw a surprise party, but amid toasts from friends and family, he already was anxious he’d made a mistake.

Within weeks, regret and boredom set in as Blum found himself pacing around his apartment all day. He called the new owner of his former practice and was welcomed back because customers had been asking to see him. He repeated the pattern twice more, each time reducing his work schedule. He retired for the last time in 2015, at the age of 85—because chronic pulmonary disease made working difficult. “I know there are people I treated who can see because of me, and I’d still be working if I could,” he says.