And it shouldn’t be, says Mitch Anthony. It should be a healthy, happy balance between vacation and vocation.

Originally posted at The Street.com by

The whole premise of retirement — the leisure myth — is a bit bothersome.

So said Mitch Anthony, the founder and president of Advisor Insights and The Financial Life Planning Institute, who was one of 16 experts who spoke recently at TheStreet’s Retirement, Taxes, and Income Strategies symposium in New York.

“What I found is that we live in a binging society,” said Anthony, who is also the author of The New Retirementality. “We go from all work, no play to all play, no work — and call it balance. It’s not balance, it’s shifting your binge, and it’s not healthy.”

According to Anthony, there are the diminishing laws of return on leisure, and this is a big concern. (Read A Theory of Education and Health.)

In fact, he said, “a life of total ease is two steps removed from a life of total disease.” And the progression is this. First, people become bored. Then they become pessimistic.

Given that, Anthony encourages people who are on the cusp of retirement or who are retired and binging on leisure, to find the balance between vacation and vocation.

Golf, for instance, is fun when it’s vocation while you’re working, but it’s less so when it’s your job in retirement. “‘Leisure is a beautiful garment for a day, but a horrible choice for permanent attire,'” said Anthony, quoting Shakespeare. “People have to find that balance.”