There's aging and then there's old age
When seventy was considered old, when people routinely died within a few years of retirement, most didn't make long-term plans after their working warranty was up. People's post-retirement expectations were low because they didn't feel a need to think very far into the future.
As people routinely live longer, we're breaking new ground, not just medically, but also socially. Retirement ages have become highly variable, with some pushing to retire at fifty-five, often beginning a second career or their own business shortly thereafter, and others applauding the Ontario government's recent overturning of a mandatory retirement age as a violation of human rights. Financial institutions that advertise planning for early retirement are obviously directing their campaigns toward a high-income demographic, with photos of youthful-looking seniors facing the salty breeze on their yachts. Those supportive of the elimination of mandatory retirement are more likely to be in lower income brackets or those with limited familial or social contexts; without their jobs, they would encounter financial stress and/or extreme isolation. And then there are those whose callings fall outside the normal nine-to-five model: academics, revolutionaries, clergy and artists, from actors to writers and everything in between. We'll probably keep working until we drop, perhaps out of financial necessity, but also because our vocations and our lives are inextricably interwoven.
As the baby boom generation reaches retirement age, understandably their focus is on the early years of retirement. This is an opportunity to live it up, travel, garden, catch up on reading, finish projects, spend time with family, have fun in the sun, whatever. Do it! And do it for as long as you can manage to physically and financially (keeping in mind that the costs of long-term healthcare and end-of-life care can add up very quickly). But recognize that that's only part of the picture. With changes in longevity and healthcare, what was once considered an appropriate age for retirement now falls into an extension of middle life. We fully expect to live fruitfully for many years past retirement and to live those years largely unencumbered by ill health.
With changing demographics revealing a growing number of the "very old" (generally defined as over eighty years), we need to start thinking about the time beyond retirement not in terms of five to ten years, but in terms of twenty to thirty years. That's what we have to plan for financially. And that's what we have to plan for in terms of lifestyle, without knowing exactly how much time or under what health constraints. It's tricky planning something when there are important variables for which we lack adequate information. I'd rather hedge my bets; plan for the worst and hope for the best.
© Catherine Jenkins 2008