Do You Agree With David Letterman's Opinion on Retirement?

David Letterman with a bushy beard wears blue sunglasses and an orange lanyard.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 31 December 2024

Late Show icon David Letterman has been off the air of his famed show for almost a decade, but that doesn't mean he considers himself retired.

"Retirement is a myth," he told GQ. "Retirement is nonsense. You won't retire. The human mechanism will not allow you to retire."

Pressed by interviewer Zach Baron, Letterman explained: "As long as you are healthy, you still want to produce. And you will find ways to, once I stopped doing the show, it took me a couple of years to figure out that, oh, this is a completely different rhythm. And without the rhythm that you're accustomed to, largely unsatisfying. So you got to find something that's important to you."

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Letterman spent over two decades talking to Americans every night on Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, from 1993 to 2015. He left the show at age 68. Before Late Show, he hosted Late Night with David Letterman on NBC from 1982 to 1993.

In his final episode of Late Show in 2015, Letterman quipped: "People said to me, 'Dave, when did you know it was time to retire?' And there were signs, there’s always signs along the way. And I think one of those signs was Todd, the cue card kid, came up to me and said, 'For the love of God, Dave, I can’t write the words any bigger.'"

In the recent interview with GQ, though, Letterman expressed the frustrations, disappointments and exhaustion he often felt hosting the nightly show, including the pressure he placed on himself. He said he was "drinking heavily" at certain points and sometimes felt like conducting interviews was "a fist fight."

Now, in the Hollywood version of a second act, Letterman said he feels much more at ease and happier with what he's doing. That second act includes the Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman and the Letterman TV FAST Channel on Samsung TV Plus that launched in December with clips from and commentary on the Late Show.

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Is retirement a 'myth?'

As Letterman told GQ, he doesn't believe in retirement in part because he still feels productive. The talk show host is far from alone in that feeling.

As Fortune recently reported, some people in the baby boomer generation are choosing to not retire, not because they don't have the savings for it, but because they simply "like going to work." The phenomenon of being retired and bored is certainly not rare, especially after spending decades working on a career and finding social networks and standing through work. There is also a fear of identity loss in retirement, after so much of your life is spent in an industry or role.

There are ways to move on in retirement even with those feelings, though. That's why many people choose to take on jobs while retired or go to college while retired - it simply gives people with active minds and bodies something to do that's productive. Like Letterman, some might choose to do a sort of phased retirement, whereby you don't immediately dive into full retirement, but keep on with some of your work.

Is it possible to be fully retired and fulfilled? Surely, people have done it, despite finding a strange gap between busy and bored. If not through work, people find fulfillment in retirement in hobbies, personal interests, friendships and time with family.

But while you may have thought about investing for retirement financially, you need to actively invest in those hobbies and interests so they're there for you when you need them. Because, as Letterman found, being "so single focused" on a job can be more tiring than fun, and life's too short to let that take over.

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Alexandra Svokos is the digital managing editor of Kiplinger. She holds an MBA from NYU Stern in finance and management and a BA in economics and creative writing from Columbia University. Alexandra has over a decade of experience in journalism and previously served as the senior editor of digital for ABC News, where she directed daily news coverage across topics through major events of the early 2020s for the network's website, including stock market trends, the remote and return-to-work revolutions, and the national economy. Before that, she pioneered politics and election coverage for Elite Daily and went on to serve as the senior news editor for that group.

Alexandra was recognized with an "Up & Comer" award at the 2018 Folio: Top Women in Media awards, and she was asked twice by the Nieman Journalism Lab to contribute to their annual journalism predictions feature. She has also been asked to speak on panels and give presentations on the future of media and on business and media, including by the Center for Communication and Twipe.