“Gainfully unemployed, very proud of it, too.” Charles Baxter

Today I want to explore the decision to retire or not to retire. That sounds a little Shakespearian, but if you were born in the 60s, that’s the question that we’re currently grappling with, and instead of whining about it, let’s make an informed decision.

As Larry and I wind up our first year of retirement, we’ve noticed many people have a lot of trepidation about the process. I’m probably going to muddy the water, but it’s my intention to add a little chlorine and clear things up. 

So here goes…

We have discovered that most people have a good deal of anxiety about being bored after they retire, which is compounded by financial worries, both real and imagined, along with healthcare concerns. 

And then there’s the new debacle on retirement which suggests that senior citizens are becoming a burden on society due to low birth rates, which can not sustain or replace the current workforce. 

Let’s toss these perceptions in the air and see where they land. 

I found it interesting that permanently leaving the workforce, lounging around in yoga pants all day, and learning to meditate with a phone app is a rather new phenomenon in terms of human history. Traditionally, not to be indelicate, but people used to work until they died.

It wasn’t until the 19th century when healthcare improved (meaning they stopped using leeches to alleviate nausea) and general living conditions were more supportive of life (think fresh water and modern sewage systems), that we ended up with greater longevity. Instead of the average person dying around 40 years of age, they were living long enough to experience being grandparents but also had to deal with the physical and mental decline that comes with age.

So basically, I would be dead by now and would have missed the pleasure of riding a tandem bike until my ass feels like leather, my legs like noodles, and my back aches as if I had been flung to the ground by Taiho. But I digress. 

One of the earliest examples of retirement as a social phenomenon occurred in Germany in 1881. Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of Germany at the time, introduced a social insurance program that provided pensions to elderly workers who were no longer able to work.

There was a slight problem with this particular model, but I believe it may have been intentional. He set the retirement age at 70. Do you know what the average life expectancy was at the time? He was shy by about 30 years. Bahaha! 

Regardless of the hypocrisy of such a policy, the United States adopted the model when President Roosevelt established the Social Security Act of 1935. Sixty-five was chosen as the national retirement age, despite the fact that less than 60 percent of American adults lived that long.

In the United States, retirement as a social concept gained popularity in the early 20th century. Companies such as General Electric and American Telephone and Telegraph began offering pensions to their employees as a way of retaining workers and promoting loyalty. 

Suddenly there was a safety net for eligible individuals, and over time, retirement became a heralded American experience, along with Hawaiian shirts and cruises to Alaska.

As the cultural narrative around aging and life stages continues to evolve, you might be surprised by the complex choices that go into deciding if retirement is for you. 

Larry and I have been asked repeatedly if we’re rueing the day we gave up our paychecks and wished we could return to the workforce.

People want to know what the hell we’re going to do after the kitchen was updated, we painted the house and planted a garden.

The thing is, we never talked about retirement until we suddenly found ourselves retired. What I mean by this is we never discussed when we would retire or how we would spend the time we created by leaving the workforce. 

We loved our jobs, the kids were surviving outside the nest, and we had plenty of time to pursue our own interests. Why would we ever retire? 

Good question. 

When you’re middle-aged, sandwiched between raising children and taking care of aging parents, your income is your lifeline. Days, months, and years pass by so quickly, one almost indistinguishable from the next. 

Then one day, I found myself standing in line at Lunardi’s Market, and the clerk gave me the senior citizen discount without asking my age. Rude. It’s true. The point being we are aging, whether we think so or not, and suddenly I’m compelled to primp before I go to the market just to see if they’ll ask. 

They don’t. Let’s move on. 

When COVID hit, everything changed not only for me but for society collectively. Teaching via Zoom was a disaster. I couldn’t develop normal relationships with my students. I couldn’t keep them engaged in lessons, and sadly I watched them collectively shut down. 

But this wasn’t the same for all industries. Larry’s company learned that they could accomplish a lot via Zoom and save not only the time but the expense of flying their people all over the country for an hour meeting. 

This did free up some of Larry’s time which he has always divided between his corporate job and dealing with issues that come with owning rentals. Most of the time, he was running around with his hair on fire. 

By the time I decided to throw in the towel and pursue my dream of writing a novel, Larry was ready to go rogue too. So we did the most important thing you can do before deciding to retire. We interrogated our financial advisor for months, then hesitantly decided we might survive with what we had squirreled away for the last forty years and not die of starvation.

It’s just nuts. Right?

And kudos to our financial advisor who aggressively moved Larry from the mentality that we have to save every penny we ever make to trusting that we can start spending some of that hard-earned savings. It’s a difficult shift for people of our generation who were raised with parents who had memories of the Great Depression. We, ourselves, lived through one of the worst economic recessions of the 21st century, and it taught us all to be diligent about rainy days (how ironic, as it hasn’t stopped raining in California for months).

I mean, we continue to save two percent at Lunardi’s every Tuesday.

In fact, Larry almost had a heart attack when our financial advisor said (I believe he was trying to assuage Larry’s fears), “Larry, you can’t spend it all in the time you have left.” Much to Larry’s chagrin, I went out and had that statement tattooed along the length of my arm. 

It’s my new mantra, “You can’t spend it all.” 

Larry might still be reeling from that statement, but he’s warming to the idea.

Turns out that Larry and I really didn’t have much to discuss. I like to write, Larry likes to ride, the grandkids live across the street, we have a healthy social life, and now we’re both slipping into overalls and farming the back nine between travels. We rarely have a spare minute to relax. I’m not kidding. 

The truth is we enjoy the freedom retirement allows us, not being told what to do or getting stuck with a presentation at 5:00 pm on Friday night that must be done within the hour.

I did a little digging for you and found out the average life expectancy in the United States is 78.7, but if you live in California, it’s 81.7! Damn. So Larry and I can reasonably expect to live a couple more decades.

And, as we now know, we can’t spend it all. 

Several countries — most notoriously France, where the retirement age is 62 and life expectancy is 82 — are debating raising the retirement age to try to offset the economic pressures of an aging population and the concern that national retirement benefits won’t be able to keep up for much longer.

As you’ve probably heard, it’s not going over very well with the general population.

From an economic standpoint, a later retirement age perhaps benefits the bottom line. But putting finances aside, what are the mental and physical implications of raising the national retirement age? 

Let’s explore Working-life expectancy. This is the number of years people are healthy enough to work. Experts found that Americans who are healthy at age 50 can expect to have roughly 23 more years free of disability, plus about eight years living with a disability. That would suggest people’s maximum working life expectancy, on average, is age 73.

But if you retire at the end of your healthy years, all you’ll end up doing is keeping your goldfish alive while you deal with eight years of healthcare issues before they put you in a swanky urn. I don’t think that’s why my parents went to all the trouble to give birth to me, raise me, and educate me.

I think we are designed from our first breath to our last to be curious about the world, to be in awe of its wonders, and to make the most of our fleeting time here on Earth. I realize “make the most of our fleeting time” is an ambiguous statement at best.

By harassing a few close friends, I found out that some people actually like the idea of working until they can’t because they love their job, they don’t have a hobby or cause that they are passionate about, and maybe their job is a big part of their social life. There are also real healthcare and financial concerns that play into this decision.

Oddly, we found out not everyone is interested in riding tandem or traveling the world.

For people working in knowledge-based jobs, retiring in your 70s is reasonable from a cognitive perspective, but what about a lifestyle perspective? 

We took the position that if retirement turned out to be the worst decision we ever made, we could always go back to work. I heard Lunardi’s is hiring. We’re still smitten with the lifestyle, but we know people who cringe at the idea. 

Our prefrontal cortex, which allows for executive functioning, attention, and memory, loses volume starting at age 45, but other areas can compensate. It’s well known that the one thing that develops with age is our grit, which involves courage, resolve, and strength of character. 

There are also types of intelligence that increase with age, calm down, it’s true. Not only does our crystallized intelligence increase (accumulated knowledge that can be applied to new situations), but our social cognition (behaving appropriately in interpersonal interactions) also improves. 

So I’m no longer letting Larry off the hook for negative interpersonal interactions because that is something he has more control over if would like to admit!

Clearly, some cognitive processes are maintained and strengthened by staying in the workforce. And some people decline mentally and physically when they stop working. Experts speculate that the losses of job-related physical activity and social interactions that come with leaving work are largely to blame for post-retirement declines.

Retirement equity is another issue because averages don’t tell the full story. Some people stay sharp and can work into their 80s, but physically demanding jobs take a toll on our health. For this type of work, retirement can actually improve health outcomes,

The good news is the centenarians are on the rise. You can find them congregating in what we now refer to as Blue Zones, which are increasing all over the world. I thought you might be interested in what they all have in common. 

Consider this your trigger warning, if you salivate over a juicy steak, enjoy a glass of wine in the evening, and spend hours each day sitting on your ass, skip the next paragraph. 

Centenarians eat like rabbits (mostly fruits and vegetables), drink alcohol moderately, are physically active, and have a passion that feeds their need to be of purpose in the world. They know how to relieve stress and nurture an active social life. They have unusually strong family bonds and social circles that support a healthy lifestyle. 

They sound a little monkish to me, but clearly, if your goal is to appear on the Today Show with Al Roker, you now know what to do.

I realize the initial intent of Social Security, when it was established in 1935, was simply to sustain people once they could no longer physically work. But should a federally funded retirement program be expected to reward people with a few years of leisure while they are still healthy?

I think retirement is like a blank page, it’s a chance to write a new story and redesign your life any way you want.

Obviously, this is a complex issue, and it won’t be the same for everyone. 

Many would say yes. Some are adamantly opposed. What about you?

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You have a lot to do, you might need to retire!