Surprising to many people, work can actually be very good for people. Unfortunately, it still carries this stigma that work is bad and that as soon as you can stop doing it, the better off you will be. I crack up every time I hear about the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement because it assumes life without work is better. So, I say, go ahead and retire early, you’ll likely find yourself alone and without much to do, particularly with all of your peers who are still working. Most early retirees don’t stay retired for very long, they just find new roles, including jobs that create a more engaging and fulfilling life because they have the financial means to not get stuck someplace they don’t like.
We have to stop vilifying work and instead move toward helping people find work that is fulfilling and meaningful. You’ve heard all of the clichés like, “Once you find a job you love, you’ll never work again,” but few people, including advisors put this into practice. It’s always about hurry up and save more and get out of the workplace. Fact is, work provides purpose (even if a client doesn’t necessarily like every aspect of their job), routine, goals, social interaction and physical labor, which may just be walking in from the parking lot every day.
Turning to Corporate America, age-based complaints and lawsuits are on the rise. When the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 was enacted the number of complaints filed typically ranged from 1,000 to 5,000 annually. Compare that with 2008, when a record 24,582 age discrimination complaints were filed, in large part due to the Great Recession, when many workers felt they were laid off because of their age.
In 2017, there were 18,376 age discrimination complaints submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). However, it is still believed that most incidents are not reported. Additionally, one AARP study found that 6 out of 10 older workers have seen or experienced age discrimination on the job and 90 percent of respondents say it is common.
What I find interesting is that people filing lawsuits against major corporations are not 65, 70 or 75. They are 55, 56, and 58-year-olds. And we can’t forget the story of the Dutchman Emile Ratelband, 69, who petitioned a judge to change his birthyear from 1949 to 1969 citing age discrimination and doctor reports that he checked-out 20 years younger.
While changing your birthyear by 20 years may seem extreme, from a pure number’s perspective, Mr. Ratelband is not far off as to when a person should be relabeled as old or eligible for Social Security. By my own calculations, Social security retirement age for early benefits should be 80 and full benefits at age 85. This comes from simply adding 30 percent or 18 years to the original age and life expectancy established by Social Security Act in 1935.
The other problem with traditional retirement age is how people perceive others in retirement as well as those who work past traditional retirement ages. Once again, since people have been brainwashed to think work is bad and leisure is good, many of them assume life in retirement is the best thing ever and so they can’t wait to get there.
However, not everyone in retirement finds that to be the case. The problem is, you can’t really tell anyone that retirement isn’t going well because they will think you’re crazy. Think about it from an non-retired person’s perspective, “You’re telling me that you have enough money to never work again and you finally have all the time and none of the work distractions to dictate what you do, and you’re not happy about it?
People wrongly assume that having enough money to stop working and enough time to do what you want, will somehow make them happy and that it will be easy to replace work friendships, routine, physical exercise and purpose to name a few.
This causes some people to suffer in silence as they struggle with their new roles and identity in retirement. (It’s referred to as disenfranchised grief and is a very normal part of the transition process.) This is why it’s so important for people to develop a written plan for the non-financial aspects of retirement and why the financial services industry needs to offer these types of services instead of just financial products and advice.