See, I don't plan to ever "retire" in terms of not working. I would just like to be able to choose what I work on, regardless of whether someone wants to pay for it or not. There are a lot of projects I have in mind, particularly in the area of educational game design, that I can't spend time on because I'm at work all day. I'd also like to be getting more writing done.
However, if I manage to
pull off this doctorate scam complete my doctorate, perhaps I'll be able to spend more time on the stuff I feel is really important, rather than spending all day hacking at cross-browser CSS problems.