There is a poll at the end of this post, so please take a moment to vote! With all the discussion around who is retired, early retired, or not retired at all, I thought I’d present you the candidates and let you decide! You can also check out PK’s post on Don’t Quit Your Day Job or Darwin’s Money for more insights.

So, are you considered retired if you live on $10K a year like a pauper and need to work to afford any luxuries, healthcare, or clothing? For me, being retired isn’t the same as being financially independent. If you’re retired, you mostly relax, maybe play some golf, and live off a pension. Being financially independent means you don’t have to work because your passive income covers your bills, but you can still choose to be active in things you enjoy. Many people don’t like working for a boss, and financial independence means freedom from that. You can work if and when you want. The common theme is often working freelance, on contract, or for yourself, without anyone telling you what to do. Since your bills are already covered, you can take risks on fun projects, and because you enjoy it so much, you might even end up making money from it.

Are You Retired if You Have a Blog?

Some people argue that running a blog means you’re not retired. My take is that if you blog as a hobby and it happens to bring in some income, you’re retired—good for you. However, if you spend 20 hours a week optimizing SEO and maximizing Adsense revenue to pay your bills, that’s work. It’s interesting how some bloggers say they’ve moved to self-employment when they blog full-time, while others claim they’re retired, even though both put in the same time and effort.

So, Who Do You Think Is Retired?

Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme: Retired at 33 with a monthly budget of $700, eats lentils daily, takes cold showers, used to live in a trailer to save on rent, and recently took a job to afford an apartment. He doesn’t blog much anymore.

Mr. Money Mustache: Lives on $25K a year from his investments but takes on construction jobs for fun. He says he’s retired because he doesn’t need those jobs to live.

Joe from Retire by 40: Seems to need extra income from his website and his wife’s salary to make his budget work. He can’t stop working online yet but enjoys what he does.

Sam from Financial Samurai: Manages multiple websites and aims to make $200K a year from them or go back to a regular job. Works 20 hours a week on his sites even though his net worth is the highest among our panel, and he wouldn’t need that income to retire. He prefers not to touch his savings and lives off his online income.

Me: I don’t usually call myself retired, just retired from the corporate world. I could live off my investments without working, but I need something to fill my days. So, I’m building a future guest house, developing a 90-acre piece of land, and running a blog. These are fun projects that also make money (or will in the future). I love diving around the lake and even think about ways to monetize my hobbies, like having others join me on dives to cover the costs. Making millions isn’t my goal, but offsetting my living expenses is. I travel a lot—two months in Morocco in 2010, six months in Mexico/US in 2011, six months in Europe in 2012—and even managed to cover some travel costs by writing travel articles for websites.

Grandpa and Grandma: At 85, they work over 20 hours a week as an accountant and event planner for various charities. They do it for free but put in the hours as if they were employed. The charities rely heavily on them, and despite getting tired, they feel a duty to keep helping, so they work even when they don’t want to. They live off Grandpa’s comfortable government pension since he was an army general.

Let’s vote! I’m new to the poll thing and not sure if the results will show immediately after you vote, so I’ll publish them in next week’s Friday recap.

PS: This isn’t meant to criticize how these people market themselves or view their lifestyles, just a fun way to gauge the general consensus.