@cameo43 Your passion shows through in your post. Those folks are lucky to have you.
I love my job also. I don’t work from home, but my office is just minutes away and I have nearly complete flexibility in my schedule. I have a wonderful boss who is well respected both by his clients and the community. My last one was absolutely horrific, so that’s not something I take for granted. I’m always learning new things, even after working there three years.
Money. Enough to feel that I can retire comfortably. I used to really enjoy my job, but the workload is constantly increasing & the politics are more than I can handle. While I still love working with our students, I am becoming too burned out to enjoy it the way I used to. I would retire if I could, but I need a few more years in the workforce. Plus, I am really not ready to retire; I am ready for a change. Not much of a market for gray haired almost-60-year olds, though. So I persist.
@cameo43, as the mother of a seriously mentally ill young man, thank you so much for the work you do. My son is lucky to have professionals around him who really care about him. I sleep better at night knowing he’s in good hands.
Too late. Retired! 
I really like the people I work with! I’m a scientist at a medical device startup. I also like the opportunity to think creatively every day and solve problems and invent things.
You are my twin! Some people love work, some get validation from work, I just work for money there are so many other things I would rather do than work. I need money to do some of them and don’t have enough to retire, so I still work lol.
Good job enjoy enjoy enjoy!
@cameo43 is my hero.
I am an educator (for adult ‘non-traditional’ college students). I help make people’s lives (and their families’) better every day. Access to education is a wonderful thing- and I’m glad to be a part of that.
I left my field of work. I didn’t like having to work for big companies, I didn’t like the commute. I am in a totally different field now, working partly out of the home. It’s terrifying: I keep asking myself if I’m good enough. (Steep learning curve.) But I’m proud that I had the courage to make the change. If it doesn’t work out, at least I know I tried.
I work to pay bills. For 20 years I was in purchasing then became a geriatric social worker. I start a new job (finally!) on Monday working with Medicaid recipients who require live-in care, a community-based job, adults 22+. I enjoy working with the mentally ill demographic and from what I gather my caseload will be mainly that with a sprinkling of developmentally delayed and TBI clients. So, I’m hoping this is soul food for me during the final stretch.
I like my job OK but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have to, but I need the money. Everybody needs money. That’s why they call it money.
I’m in the beer business. Beer keeps me going…
Health insurance and money, in that order
I’m a civil engineer and honestly I like how the years and years of work we put into even a single flood control structure pays off as we help the public - I have a great sense of job satisfaction, probably stemming from my desire to help people
Teaching (sped) is my second career. It keeps me going because middle schoolers are hilarious, keep me young, and I know I am making a difference in the long run. Counseling will be my third career if I’m lucky and can go back to school one more time.
I love teaching. If I could have any career in the world, it would be teaching the kids I teach in the school in which I work.
I love my work. After work as a business school professor and then as an investment banker and doing private equity in a family office, I co-founded a consulting firm that ties my academic research with my corporate experience. I get the most challenging problems clients have – they’ve often tried and failed – and I get to help them solve them. I have a small team – I don’t love managing employees – and we work to help clients do better systemically (i.e., not just solve the one problem but up their game overall). I can’t think of anything more interesting to do so I can’t imagine retiring. One of the things that people do when retired is travel. I do that in spades. This past month I hit a milestone. After I hit Platinum for Life on American Airlines about 10 years ago, I started accumulating miles on British Airways. Roughly 10 years later, I hit their top level (Gold, there are higher levels but for this purpose it is top) for LIfe. If you did the minimum to get Gold each year, it would take 23 years and for better and for worse, I flew enough in 10 years to get it. Mostly for work, but this calendar year, ShawWife and I have been to San Miguel de Allende, China (Beijing, Yangshou, Longsheng and Shanghai), the Canadian Rockies, as well as weekends in Martha’s Vineyard, outside of Toronto on a farm (for a lovely wedding), Boulder CO (just me), and probably a few other places I can’t remember. So, I don’t think we’d travel much more if retired (though we might stay longer).
ShawD is a painter and is really hitting her stride after many years of toiling in the vineyard (many shows at local galleries and in collections of local museums) but in the past three or four years, she’s showing at a high-end gallery in NY and a high-end gallery in London. She really loves making art and would never want to retire from it. So, we’ll keep going.
I’m actually co-founding another firm that ties my existing expertise with machine learning to provide advice at scale to a select group of folks. Have recruited a sensational set of advisors and will be working with some kids. I will not take an operation role but will be something of an active chairman. That should keep my alive and alert for a few years.
I now work as a contractor strictly to have extra money as our last child finishes college. I am bored as hell, and could definitely be making way more money but I get to work from home and take as much time off as I need. Since my spouse is part of the leadership team at his company , most of the launching the kids, moving them across country, etc falls to me.
As much as I complain it would be crazy to stop because I have it made. My boss is totally hands off and as long as I have a secure internet connection I can work from any location.
I have the good fortune of working in an organization that almost always adheres to its mission statement of helping vulnerable populations - this, along with flexibility and autonomy with my schedule and case load, keep me pretty happy at work. I also feel relatively well compensated and enjoy many of my colleagues.