To ask WHY you work

Mainly because I enjoy it, money as a secondary reason. I don't plan to retire.

I always thought I would retire at the earliest opportunity, but when I reached retirement age/state pension I realised I was unlikely to join a gym or engage my brain enough (more likely to spend all day reading) and I would like to stave off dementia, so I worked on but very part-time. I am a self employed locum so could pick and choose. I probably work for about 3 months a year in all but it is getting harder now as some of my jobs are very busy and require speed of thought and long hours to get through workload and now in my early 70s, I am slower, not least because I have to double check my tasks as I am more likely to miss something than before. The commute is also much more tiring (though in crowded trains, tubes, I am almost always offered a seat), so I think next year will be my last working one.

Self - respect, freedom, money and it keeps the CV full.

This. And I actually really enjoy my job and feel it has a purpose. It’s a way to leave my mark on the world and I’ll be able to look back and say that I did something good.

I will still retire early, not massively early, but in my early sixties, as I am used to living more frugally.
I have enough pension to bridge the gap before state pension, then can manage on that with a bit of savings. I will have enough once our mortgage is paid.
Your two examples are extreme.
There are more than two ways to do it.
Some people will work harder, longer, spend, and not save much, then retire at state pension age, maybe with just a few years to enjoy before ill health hits.
Yes, in a highly paid job you could work hard and retire very early, but I'm talking about average people.
As someone else said, at work we are replaceable but not at home.
I value my time outside of work snd enjoy my job, it's a balance.

Purely for the money.

In your story the guy was earning his money doing his hobby, that he would still be doing for enjoyment if he become a millionaire.

If I become a millionaire, I wouldn't retire to sit on my laptop all day most days. The freedom would be amazing if could quit work yet still have the money.

Although I would love to do property developing if I had the funds. Guess that is kind of work, but it would be for my own benefit, my own interest and on my own terms

I’m exactly the same and often talk about retiring (I’m 18 years off retirement age), but I suspect that actually work does me good. Less of it would be great though, enough of a lottery win to work 3 days a week would be amazing.

That's what I took it to mean too - in other words it's a load of patronising, unrealistic, tone-deaf crap. I presume this fisherman already had a property he owned outright so didn't have to worry about where he would live in old age, didn't have dependant children, and either secretly had enough cash stashed away to see him through if he wasn't able to fish any more, or was happy to starve instead.

It's basically 'If you can live a wonderful fulfilling life without working, then why are you working?'. Not many people are going to say 'My God! I never thought of that!'.

Exactly. The idea of being self-sufficient - working only to directly produce (grow, catch, hunt) the food you need is attractive as a vague proposition, but in this country at least, even if you owned your house outright, had no electricity, drew all your water from a well, foraged fuel for heating, wove your own clothes, you'd still have to pay council tax. And to be honest, if you were 100% self-sufficient in other ways, it would be harder work than most full time jobs.

How does the fisherman fund his fish bait, fishing rod, boat, food, accommodation without working?

nobody can just ‘relax on a boat’ without money.

It's was a strange way of wording it as it's usually worded that way in disagreement.

I work firstly for the money. But also to give my life some structure and keep my brain active. I’m not sure what I’d do without working- I don’t do well with purposeless time off!

I'm currently off work due to accessibility issues (not caused by my employer, but the idiotic owners of the building we are in). For many people it sounds great: You get paid to sit at home and do nothing/watch TV/play games/browse the internet.
The reality is that it's been boring beyond belief. After the first few days where I just chilled out and caught up on sleep. I needed something to do.
Work gets me out of the house and meeting people. Admittedly, a fair number of those people are stress-inducing, but the alternative is crawling up the walls due to boredom. Yes, I could go places, but days out cost either money or petrol and my job doesn't pay huge amounts of money.

She isn’t saying that, she is saying the complete opposite.

If I didn’t get paid, I would leave my job immediately!

It’s the money.

I want to say “to make a difference” and I would have said that 10 years ago.
However, if I said it now, it would be a lie. I would retire tomorrow, if I could. I work for the money. I still care about giving back to society, but I do that on a voluntary basis (less stressful and fewer hours than my job!).

I think it is important to make money, but also to rest and take time out of the week to breathe. I would rather work 2 part time jobs than a full time job.

I have to work for money, but I have no interest in continually chasing material things and working up the ladder (technically already at the top anyway, being as I'm SE).

I'm a bit like the fisherman in the original story. Work to live.

I worked ridiculously hard until I had DD2 when I was 42. I returned to work after DD1 - I was 41. It was really hard. Their DDad was a SAHP for DD1 but I felt like I missed out on so much. I was always torn between DD1 & work commitments. After the arrival of DD2, now exDH said I would need to hire a nanny if I wanted to return to work. Just another thing to add to my mental and financial load … so I took my full maternity leave. Then I decided to take a career break until DDs started school - I simultaneously studied something I’d been interested in for years. Then I decided to home educate because I couldn’t find a school that felt right - both DDs have high functioning ASD. I never intended to stop working and I am just at the point where I could return to work … but I’m 58. And I don’t think I can be arsed.

I retired at 60, but I really enjoyed my work .It was fulfilling and worthwhile. Of course I worked for the money. Like everyone else we had a mortgage to pay and food and heating to pay. However I got an enormous a.ount of satisfaction from my work. I retired at 60 because I could. I've never regretted it and I feel I earned it because I always put in 100%. I 'm like the fisherman. Only im a passenger on the sea watching the world go by these days.

I went into work for money. I stay in Work because I enjoy problem solving and contributing towards something collectively. I also enjoy the social element of it, and whilst I haven’t always had the best teams, I have met life long friends through the work that I do.

I think ultimately we will always find something to do - and right now it comes in the form of work.

I retired at 42. Lots of people said I would get bored, but I haven't. My youngest is still in primary school and theres not actually that much time around drop offs and pick ups, but I do have a lovely routine now which some days include the gym, dog walks, seeing friends and family and shopping. Im so much more available for all of my children and all the house jobs are done so when they come in im present.

I would carry on doing the same job I do now even if I won so much money I never had to work again. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do, it’s really creative and I love it. It’s hugely rewarding. I probably wouldn’t work quite so hard though, and I’d take more days off!

Then it comes down to a choice -

• do enough to live and have time to enjoy your surroundings, but do this for a long time
• Bust a gut to make as much money as possible, but retire very early so you have a long period of not having to work at all.

They probably equate to the same work/life balance proportion over a typical lifespan. There is a risk it won't for no. 2 if they die prematurely, but no.1 is more likely to have no retirement period at all before death.

And, of course, to pay taxes to keep our welfare, education, health services going.