Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Lots of my baby boomer relatives in their 50s tell me they have not saved up enough money to retire so they plan on working FULL TIME until the day they die.
Interesting statement but is this even possible? I wonder how many people who die after 70 years old actually had been working full time until a few weeks before they died. If they live to their 80s or 90s and lose their job is an employer going to hire them in a full time professional job if they are older than 70?
Do you know many older people who continue to work full time until they die?
I worked with a nurse, she was 78 when she left work. She ONLY left because she tripped and did damage to her hip and lower back. But unless the manager of the unit didn't drive it home with HR that she was not fit for duty, on an inpatient psych unit, she intended to come back and continue working. Personally, I am glad she is gone, she was an incredibly miserable woman. And this woman had plenty of money she didn't need to work.
I think she would not have retired unless something physical happened to her. Some people don't retire until something happens and they just have to face it. Or they die before.
It may be someone's intention (for many reasons - not just b/c they need the money) to work "forever" but in many professions, you won't be given that option. Plus, health issues tend to throw monkey wrenches into such plans.
Physicians, dentists, attorneys, CPAs, ministers, teachers, healthcare professionals and small business owners may have the option of working past 65, and if you look around, you will see many in that group do choose to work past typical retirement age. They often enjoy their careers and want to continue.
But most folks - especially in corporate jobs - are not going to have the luxury of working past retirement, often b/c they end up being the highest paid employees and they keep accruing benefits, both of which cost the company. Cheaper to replace most folks with younger workers.
So even if a person has good health and wants to keep working past 65, it doesn't mean he/she will be "allowed" that option. I have seen more people forced into early retirement (downsizing, job elimination, restructuring, mergers, etc) than I have seen work past age 68.
Many have looked at their finances over the past 4-5 years (housing bubble, impact of lost jobs, inflation) and wondered how they will ever be able to retire ... at least in the manner they had previously imagined. And quite honestly, most people getting close to retirement start to seriously wonder if they will have enough money to live well and 'finish the race' in some degree of comfort.
The "I'll just work until I die" line is only something people say. When it comes down to the practical reality or even the desire to keep on working beyond 60-65, the reality is found in what people "do", not in what they say. There is a whole lot more to living than working! Most folks (even those who claim otherwise), expect to retire at some point and hope it will be sooner, rather than later.
I think we're going to see many more people at least working P/T well over 70 just because people in my generation (Gen X) don't get pensions, and 401Ks are a joke. I personally have nothing for retirement. My 401K had to be used to get through the recession, and even after putting money into it for 10 years, it only had something like $60K. Luckily my husband has earned a pension, although his company no longer offers pensions to the younger workers.
My current plan is to work until 70. Maybe later, if I can. I have a great aunt who was a lab tech until she was in her lower 80s, doing it P/T. She's 98 or so now, and still doing well. I think she just liked her job and has always been healthy and sharp. My grandmother died last year at 99 and she did volunteer work up until about age 92.
And then I've read about people who live to be over 100, and many of them just kept on working for many years.
I'm a few weeks from 71 and own my own business; I have no plans to stop working.
My eldest aunt worked until she was eighty-six. When she was eighty-four her employer of over fifty years went out of business. She found another job with a private investigator who was in his seventies. Sadly, when he died two years later no one would hire her. She could have worked as a valued employee until her death at 97 if she could have found another position.
She loved dressing well for her work and enjoyed playing gin rummy on the train. She died sitting in a restaurant where she had lunch several times each week. She was having a Scotch and water and smoking a cigarette. When the waitress brought her club sandwich my aunt was dead. She was my favorite aunt.
I'm a few weeks from 71 and own my own business; I have no plans to stop working.
My eldest aunt worked until she was eighty-six. When she was eighty-four her employer of over fifty years went out of business. She found another job with a private investigator who was in his seventies. Sadly, when he died two years later no one would hire her. She could have worked as a valued employee until her death at 97 if she could have found another position.
She loved dressing well for her work and enjoyed playing gin rummy on the train. She died sitting in a restaurant where she had lunch several times each week. She was having a Scotch and water and smoking a cigarette. When the waitress brought her club sandwich my aunt was dead. She was my favorite aunt.
Just, because people say they aren't going to retire doesn't mean they don't have s plan to. If their employer gets any inkling they may get retired. Some will also want to accuse them on being on cruise control.
It may be someone's intention (for many reasons - not just b/c they need the money) to work "forever" but in many professions, you won't be given that option. Plus, health issues tend to throw monkey wrenches into such plans.
Physicians, dentists, attorneys, CPAs, ministers, teachers, healthcare professionals and small business owners may have the option of working past 65, and if you look around, you will see many in that group do choose to work past typical retirement age. They often enjoy their careers and want to continue.
But most folks - especially in corporate jobs - are not going to have the luxury of working past retirement, often b/c they end up being the highest paid employees and they keep accruing benefits, both of which cost the company. Cheaper to replace most folks with younger workers.
So even if a person has good health and wants to keep working past 65, it doesn't mean he/she will be "allowed" that option. I have seen more people forced into early retirement (downsizing, job elimination, restructuring, mergers, etc) than I have seen work past age 68.
I totally agree and this is so terrifying for a lot of older people that they just keep their heads in the sand.
My dad worked at a major pharmaceutical plant until he was laid off at 50. Not old or well enough off to retire, he ended up at a call center. With a BS in education, he's stuck working at a call center for $15/hr, and drives a hundred miles roundtrip to get that. Mom makes about $36k at a bank. The company has been finding reasons to fire a lot of employees and replace them with no benefit, W-2 contractors. His hope is to stay there long enough until they can draw SS (with a mortgage and a car payment, no idea how that's going to cover things), but the job security just isn't there. He lives in an area where there are no jobs, probably couldn't sell the house, so if he loses this job, he won't find another and it's really game over for them and they'll be on the streets unless her mother takes them in. Granted, there were a lot of other issues which lead to this, namely not leaving TN for the northern states where there is work, but the job market is incredibly transient.
OP: What it means is that they have no plans to voluntarily retire. Obviously they can involuntarily have to quit because of health issues, being laid off by employer, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
