Un-Retired
The title of this post likely sounds a little odd consider what we largely do is retirement planning. We work closely with our clients to make sure the financial side of their retirement is in place before they make the final decision to retire. Ed and I regularly joke that while we work heavily in finance and our backgrounds are both in economics, we really do a lot of social work. We pride ourselves on earning our clients’ trust, to the point that I’ve had clients ask me what curtains they should buy for their living room. That trust is not something we take lightly and now more than ever we are finding that our clients are looking for our advice in a lot of nonfinancial areas. We used to just answer the question, “can I retire?” Now, we are being asked a lot more often, “SHOULD I retire?”
When we think of retirement age, most people automatically think 65. It’s been driven into our minds largely because of how social security works. For many years, the full retirement age was 65. In 1983, Congress passed a law that would begin to raise the full retirement age for social security from 65 to 67 starting with those born in 1938 or later. Even with that change, in my experience most people still say 65. But why? In 1935, when social security was created, the average life expectancy for males was 59 and for females was 63. You weren’t even expected to live long enough to be eligible for social security! Fast forward almost 90 years… and the average life expectancy is 79! We are living so much longer and our quality of life is often times better in our later years. It’s no wonder more of our clients are questioning whether or not they should retire.
The average fulltime job is 40 hours a week. There are 168 hours in a week. That means almost a fourth of your week is spent working and when you consider only waking hours, it’s closer to half. Now, at first that might sound a little depressing, but then consider how many hours you can ACTUALLY golf. I believe that is why we are starting to see people un-retire. All that being said, we have begun having a new conversation with our pre-retirees and it is centered around what retirement looks like for them. Here are a few simple ideas we build our conversation around with our clients.
- You don’t have to retire. We’ve found this to be an incredibly freeing statement for our clients; almost like they need permission to continue working. With quality workers in high demand, it’s unlikely your employer will push you out the door anytime soon.
- Consulting working. I have talked about this in the past, but consulting work is becoming more and more popular with retirees who have skills and experience in less known areas. Refineries, engineering firms and utilities are very popular for consulting work, just to name a few.
- Go part-time. Again, skilled workers are in high demand right now. It may not be difficult to convince your current employer to alter your position to be part-time. If not at your current work, consider seeking a part-time job elsewhere.
- Work from home. Maybe that’s not the right description for this one, but “side hustle” really isn’t either. There are a lot of jobs that you can do from your own home on your own schedule. Retirement is probably not the time that you’re looking to build your empire and I’m certainly not suggesting you join a pricey pyramid scheme, but is there a bookkeeping job or “gig” type work that you can do where you set your hours and work as little or as much as you want? They’re out there, you may just have to think outside the box.
- Volunteer your time. If retirement really is the right decision for you but you’re nervous about how you’ll spend your days, consider volunteering some of your time in your community. Schools, medical facilities and nonprofits are always looking for volunteers. Volunteering some of your time may be just what you need to give your days a little purpose and force you to put pants on.
It’s easy to dream about your retirement years, but I’d encourage you to spend more time thinking about your retirement DAYS. We’re finding more and more that retiring at age 65 isn’t for everyone. Our conversations have shifted from purely financial to social, helping our clients dream up how they’ll spend each day in retirement. It’s going to look a little different for everyone. If you’re not ready to retire at 65, don’t. If you already did retire and you’re finding you don’t have enough to fill your days, don’t be afraid to go back to “work” in some capacity. There are no wrong answers, it’s about what is best for you.
