Refirement Not Retirement

Retired is being twice tired, I've thought. First tired of working, then tired of not. ~Richard Armour

When we start planning for their own retirement very few of us want to stop working.  We are often talking about having a good third of our lives still to live, that is about thirty years. I still get very surprised that workplaces may consider you too old to continue to work from the time you receive the pension or Super. 

According to research carried out by the New Zealand Equal Employment Opportunities Trust, some employers believe that older people:

– don’t have the same amount of energy as younger applicants

– are often regarded as being less technically savvy and less able to adapt to new technology

– are not interested in training and development

In reality many people have kept up with technology and they’re very interested in learning new things. A lot are prepared to retrain and pick up new skills.

Another misconception is that younger people need the work more than older ones, who are better off financially. While this may be true in some cases, many people over 50 need an income just as much as younger ones. Many older workers have been bitten by investing their savings in finance companies that have failed. Or they may not have been in a position to accumulate a lot of savings. 

But people also want to continue to work into their 60’s and 70’s for reasons other than money. What keeps people productive and vital rather than dependent is having a passion that will have them jumping out of bed every morning. 

Planners and policy makers as well as employers can all contribute more to ensure people aged over 65 continue to be productive and not rely on others in their so-called ‘retiring’ years.

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples. ~George Burns

Read more from Ron Tustin here