I completely agree that how a family chooses to spend its money is its own decision, and that reasonable families can make different decisions.
I will make one note of caution, however. If a few extra years of work means that you will be able to retire with a preferred level of comfort, but there will be enough to meet a minimum standard for retirement without those extra years, then I agree with the points made above about a family’s values.
If you need to work a few extra years in order to meet your minimum level of comfort in retirement, then I would think about a few things:
- How is the health of the working adults in the family?
- How secure are the jobs of the working adults in the family?
- How easily could the working adults find a job with a similar income if there was a job loss? What kind of impact would occur if there was a significant drop in one or both incomes?
- What financial hardships might happen within the next few years (say, grandparents needing financial support or a working adult needing to work fewer hours to help with grandparents’ failing health) and how would that affect the retirement plans?
The answers to those questions (which you do not need to share here, but are just for your family to think about) could sway me, if your family’s financial situation is in bucket #2, as there are no loans for retirement.