Posted on 06/06/2022 1:52:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The ‘retirement ideal’ has been changing for years. Older people are increasingly unretiring, changing the shape of this life stage.
Picture retirement in your head. It’s a laughing, grey-haired couple sipping piña coladas on a white sand beach; perhaps they’re getting some liquid courage for their sky dive later. Not a care in the world, their only responsibility is getting their grandchildren good gifts for their birthdays. It’s a beautiful fantasy – and for many retirees, present and future, it’s just that: a fantasy.
The concept of retirement as we know it is changing, and has been for a long time. The number of people working past retirement age has grown consistently since the 1990s. In the US, 32% of people aged 65 to 69 were in work in 2017, far more than the 22% who were working in 1994. In the UK, employment rates for people older than 65 doubled between 1993 and 2018.
Then came Covid-19. “Society was already poised for a real shift in how it’s thinking about retirement,” says Michelle Silver, associate professor of gerontology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. “But the pandemic has definitely exacerbated it.”
When the pandemic hit, labour trends went awry. First, there was an exodus of older professionals from the workforce; in the UK, at least an extra 250,000 50- to 64-year-olds left, while more than 3 million Americans retired early.
Now, however, as inflation spikes, the number of people coming out of retirement is growing. In the US, job site Indeed reports 'unretirement' levels are at 3.3%, much higher than the sub-3% average seen since 2017. In the UK, Indeed saw a spike in 55-to-64 year-olds ‘urgently seeking work’, while another survey found that two-thirds of people who retired during the pandemic expect to keep working in some form.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
My retirement plan includes learning to enjoy the taste of cat food and/or dying quickly.
Yes it is.
Retirement has always been a relatively fake promise from politicians, when they promised retirement at a time when most people didn’t live long enough to retire.
It’s only relatively recent have people been living long enough to enjoy golden years and we are finding it too expensive to maintain.
On the plus side, jobs have become relatively enjoyable enough that it’s not the worst burden in the world to work in your senior years.
I see people living in their cars.
Well, someone has to prop up their Government Universal Health Care System. Might as well be the old people who are getting denied hip replacements and chemo.
Defined Contribution Plans saved American Business, but killed the Retirement Dream.
Low bar. Improves odds of “success”.
I’m planning on retiring at the end of this year.
We’ll see what happens.
Same here, I guess I donate plasma to afford the good cat food.
You do realize that once you hit 65, you're also going to be in a Government Universal Health Care System called Medicare.
The Great Reset. You will work until you die and be happy.
Brandon’s destruction will take years to make up. When your 401k drops 50%, you need 100% of returns to get back to even.
I’m retired. I took all the necessary steps to make sure I’d have the means to do it. Now numbnutz stole the presidency and is screwing up the economy so royally I have no idea what this rest of his I’ll gotten presidency will bring.
I retired 2 years ago at 70. I’m bored out of my mind.
I like that way of looking at it. Fancy Feast on Sundays!
I’m sticking with the kibble. It’ll keep the teeth and gums clean.
People over 65 are having trouble turning down the money. I know several people who kept returning to work because they were bored (my father was one). My college GF couldn’t retire because she never put money into retirement. She used that money to put her kid through decades of school.
Propaganda to get people back into the workforce after so many have left in the last two years.
I’m doing fine working just part-time right now.
I’m trying to figure out what I’ll do when I retire. I’m in my 70’s and plan to go into retirement at the end of the year. But I don’t know what I’ll do with my time.
I think my wife has plans for me.
I retired 14 years ago at 51. I haven't been bored so far.
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