The thing you may be missing is that to keep your finances even throughout life (paraphrasing a bit here), you must consider that at some point your health may stop you from being able to earn anything further. That's why you need to save for the long term, whether you call it retirement planning or anything else. Your "never retire" mantra will fail, if you ever hit that stage where you're still alive, but unable to maintain your income. That puts you in the unfortunate position of *hoping* to die soon after you can't earn anything anymore.