So, my friend tells me he knows someone who is in a bad work situation, but they cannot retire. Yes, I know what you might be thinking, what else is new? After all we know this is quite common: no savings, no planning, no choices, etc. Except for this interesting twist (to me). The person works for a (say) company / organization / government / municipality with a rarity these days --- a decent pension for which he qualifies. Yes, he could retire with a pension and he wants to retire! But he can't. Why do you ask? Well, it will take two months after retirement for his first pension check to arrive and that makes it impossible for him to retire. It appears he cannot cash flow two months, so he continues to work in a bad situation even though he does not want to.