We’re hoping that this month’s conference call will be a thought-provoking look at what work and retirement will mean in an era of longer, healthier lives.
The concept of retirement as we know it evolved in the middle of the 20th century, when most people worked in manual labor and couldn’t expect to keep up with the physical demands of their jobs in old age. The retirement age was set at 65, a birthday that less than 60 percent of adults reached in the 1940s. For those who did reach 65, they could expect to live for another dozen years or so.
Today, few people work in manual labor and 65 is no longer considered old age. And someone who reaches 65 can expect to live another 20 years or more – with many of those years being healthy and productive. This raises several questions.
Among them: Do you want to retire at 65 or some other age? Can you afford to live off of your savings for two decades or more? And if you can still be a productive member of society, do you want to continue in your current line of work or pursue what some are calling an “encore career”?
We’ll explore these issues, and more, during our conference call at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29. Part of our discussion will be based on the book, “The Big Shift” by Marc Freedman. In the book, Freedman argues that 50-somethings and younger adults should be thinking about the “encore stage” of their lives, when they aren’t ready to retire – and can’t afford to – but still want to contribute to society in meaningful ways that tap their experience and accumulated wisdom. For more information on the book, check out this review from USA Today.
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