On top of it all, is another stigma with continuing to work past normal retirement age. Unfortunately, people don’t assume that you love your work and have found a way to balance it with your personal life. Instead they assume you are either a workaholic, didn’t save enough, don’t like your spouse or prefer to avoid the grand kids for now. Nothing may be further from the truth, but once again, because our culture bases so much on traditional retirement age, negative assumptions pervade through society.
Reality is, it’s time for a major overhaul with traditional retirement age. If we want our clients to thrive and flourish in the later half of their lives and careers, we have to take steps to help them understand the value of work, prepare them to push back against social and cultural stigmas, and most importantly, help Corporate America move away from an age-based approach to retirement and productivity. Now who wants a tattoo?
Robert Laura is the president of Wealth & Wellness Group, the founder of RetirementProject.org and a pioneer in Certified Retirement Coach training. He can be reached at [email protected].