Retirement planning expert Michael Kitces encourages clients to consider other career paths.

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For many Americans, retirement doesn’t mean the end of work.

But it can mean a chance to try something fulfilling, such as an encore career, without having to earn as much.

Journalist Robert Powell reports on the phenomenon in MarketWatch. He writes, “When you think about working in retirement, the key is to ask this: If you could do anything you wanted and you just have to earn a quarter of what you’re earning now (because of retirement savings, Social Security or other income), would it be a different job, would it be a different job description, would it be a different career, would it be a different field?”

For insight, Powell turns to retirement planning experts Michael Kitces, director of research at Pinnacle Advisory Group, and Elaine Floyd, director of retirement and financial life planning at Horsesmouth. The two recently participated in a MarketWatch roundtable discussion about working during the traditional retirement years. (See the video here.)

As we spend decades in a particular career or vocation, “our brains just start to lock us into that and think that’s the only path, those are the only opportunities available to us; and it’s either this or I’m retired and not working in any way, shape or form, as though it’s sort of a binary choice, and it’s really not,” says Kitces, who publishes The Kitces Report.

Kitces and Floyd, author of 135 Social Security Questions Answered: What Savvy Advisors Need to Know, recommend figuring out what kind of work you’d like to do and how your skills might serve that work.

Kitces suggests asking a current employer about a different role that may more closely represent what you’d like to do. Floyd advises people to consider turning what they want to do into a small business, even if it’s just you working from home part time. She says, “The possibilities are endless for self-employment.”

Click here to read the MarketWatch article, "Finding Your Dream Career in Retirement." To see a video of the roundtable discussion, go here.