The aim of this commentary is to present and briefly discuss an alternative to the traditional life-course retirement model. We explore the idea that paid retirement could be spread throughout workers’ adult lives to accommodate personal and family needs, wishes and circumstances, rather than being concentrated exclusively at the end of a person’s life. A legal framework could be introduced – without noticeable increases in public spending – that would contribute to overcoming the social exclusion many people experience on forced retirement from employment, as well as the gender inequalities that stem from reconciling the work-life balance.