More people who'll never retire... and for good reasons, too.

[Nords]

I don't know what to think of this article. After looking at it and shaking my head a half-dozen times, I'll just give up and post it as an unusually outstanding example of the genre of deadline journalism. It seems so serious and well-intentioned but it's just so... badly executed. It's such a parody of itself that I keep waiting for the Saturday Night Live comedians to pop up.

It doesn't solve any problems, create reader sympathy, or even appeal to a popular demographic-- let alone enhance the media's credibility. However it includes the standard journalistic formula's ingredients of sound bites, book plugs, human-interest quotes, links to checklists, and other catchy filler to support the website's advertising. Hopefully the author already cashed their check and is happily looking forward to working the rest of their life, too.

Older workers delay retirement by necessity and choice - Sep. 28, 2010

The sound bite: "nevertirees". As in "What do I DO all day?!? Why, get with it, dudes, I'm a nevertiree!!"

The book: "The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security" by Mark Miller.

"The economy has now made working longer a real imperative," Miller said. [...] Boomers began viewing the retirement years differently well before the recession took hold. "Many were committed to staying engaged. ... The whole idea of working longer, even for a handful of years, can be tremendously beneficial to your mental well being."

Human interest:
Money's list of everyday people who never need to retire includes:
- a rabbi who's been performing stand-up comedy for nearly 25 years,
- a lawyer who specializes in the "Employee Retirement Income Security Act" while loving what she does, and
- a woman who's helping her spouse get his business off the ground.

That's the case for Chuck McCabe, 65, who opened several tax preparation firms in Virginia nine years ago.
"I expected I would retire at a normal age but the business took a lot longer to get to a point where it would be marketable. Now I really can't retire until the business is valuable enough for me to sell it." McCabe, who has cashed in his 401(k) to make payroll, estimates that it will be least five years until he can consider retiring.

[Here's an entrepreneurial hint, Chuck: Giving interviews to Money journalists about how crappy the business is doing will probably not drive a flock of eager customers through your doors, let alone enhance its enterprise value.]

Oh, the links? Well, there seems to be a bit of an editorial disconnect between the author's thesis and the website's automatically-generated links. While you're looking up local comedy clubs or drafting your business plan you can review helpful reference material with titles like:
7 secrets to a richer retirement and
25 Best Places to Retire.

As is typical for this type of article, the best writing is in the reader's comments...

 

[Onward]

The whole idea of working longer, even for a handful of years, can be tremendously beneficial to your mental well being."

Pardon me while I vomit.

 

[ziggy29]

The cognitive dissonance resulting from a culture telling us the virtues of working until we drop dead and an economy that can't keep 17% of the people who need jobs adequately employed is rather staggering.

 

[W2R]

I don't care how many times I hear it or read it. I would never appreciate or desire having to work involuntarily for my entire life. I deserve more, I was the poster child for delayed gratification (which is a gamble in itself), and I am finally 100% retired. I intend to enjoy it to the max - - guilt free.

There are so many articles saying that baby boomers should work until the day they die, or that they will need to do so. Eventually people will probably start believing it because they have heard it so much, and "everybody knows it's true". Not me, though.

 

[Khan]

Pardon me while I vomit.

Hey, that's what I was going to say!

 

[scrabbler1]

Hey, that's what I was going to say!

Same here, but I am about to have lunch so I better not!

 

[traineeinvestor]

I take two simple messages from articles like this:

1. if your retirement plan is vulnerable to adverse economic conditions, you had better plan on retiring early to give yourself a margin of safety; and

2. choose a job you really enjoy - you could be doing it longer than you think.

 

[kumquat]

I know two kinds of people who will never retire:

Those who love their jobs and it is their identity. My GF and an uncle fit this. GF was a farmer who retired at 80. A year later he he started farming again. He brought a n'ere-do-well GS with him. Died 5 years later. Uncle was a lawyer who retired in upper 90's and lasted 6 month. His DW had been dead for 50 years, had 2 GS's practising with him and work was his life.

Those who have no choice, see post 1 in http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/live-for-today-52346.html

I'd rather be the first type.

 

[jebmke]

- Gone are the days of golf and gardening into the golden years.

I'll have to think about this a bit while I trim the bushes in front on my way to play nine holes tomorrow.

 

[okapi]

W2R I agree,the brainwashing is beginning.Work to you die,yeah right.Many congressmen,senators etc. work into their 70s,80s,even 90s.Makes me wonder how difficult these positions really are.Like the late George Carlin pointed out,They will take your pension.SS will be next right when your ready to collect it.Save and trust no one.

 

[Midpack]

Those who love their jobs and it is their identity.

Agreed but add one more type. It's definitely a minority, but there are some well adjusted people who love their jobs and continue to work, and it is NOT their identity. A minority that is not often represented here (surprise)...

 

[Emeritus]

I think you have to be very careful when you define "work". If we limit "work" to doing what a boss tells you to do and you have no choice, we get very different answers from including "doing an activity you enjoy that some people are talented and lucky enough to get paid for"

Most of the lawyers I know working into their later years are not doing the trench work. They are doing the fun work, the light work and the rain making. They have earned it, no problem. I suppose its like playing the senior tour in golf. I love my teaching and research, but I don't write grant proposals, supervise grad students or force myself to publish only in the rated places.

 

[Purron]

Perhaps we should encourage this kind of thinking. More people working longer will help keep Social Security safe for retirees.

 

[ronocnikral]

Perhaps we should encourage this kind of thinking. More people working longer will help keep Social Security safe for retirees.

you can count me out on this. thanks.

 

[Emeritus]

Perhaps we should encourage this kind of thinking. More people working longer will help keep Social Security safe for retirees.

not really, social security is actually actuarially fair

The people who bankroll social security are dual high income couples, defined as two people each making the SS limit. They get about 60 cents on the dollar.