How do you measure a successful retirement?

 But how do you measure a successful life? Wealth, career progression, power? Should happiness be the only measure of the success of one’s life? What about the number of other people whose lives you improve?

What happens when we faced problems that often come along without warning and without any time to refer to the manual. We worked through them and in doing so we discovered there are no right answers.

What is a successful retirement? What do I have to do to achieve a successful retirement? How often do you wish someone who is retiring “a long, healthy, and happy retirement”? Are these three measures of a successful retirement? If so, why do we not have control over any of them?

How long a person lives is not normally in our control, our lifestyle, and our genetics play an important role in our longevity. A person can exercise regularly, eat healthily, and watch their weight but that does not guarantee a longer retirement. Doing all of these might contribute to a healthy retirement but again there is no guarantee. Does exercising, eating healthily, and controlling weight guarantee happiness? Only if you can achieve the goals you set yourself, if not you may end up unhappy.

What does happiness mean? Happiness depends upon the individual. Some people need constant social interaction. Others need their own space and isolation. Travelling and the excitement of new experiences may be essential for some but for others they need to have a routine within which they feel comfortable.

Money cannot buy happiness. It is a much too complicated commodity to be that simple. However, struggling through life with insufficient income is depressing. Many in debt suffer from poor mental health but others are happy.

The significant news is those who have retired with adequate retirement savings will be able to manage. However, one barrier to their happiness will be the difference between their income and the amount required to meet their retirement aspirations. These retirement aspirations could be what they want to do for themselves. Others will want to pass onto their children and grandchildren as much of their wealth as possible.

So, if you want to at least have a chance at having a happy retirement, then having enough money set side is an important part of the planning. If you are like me, you may not have taken retirement savings seriously until you reached age 50. Saving the money required starting at that age is awfully hard, but it can be done, but if you are younger than 50 and can save please start. Someone asked what’s the best time is to start saving for retirement and the answer is now.

 

Age discrimination at work

 Age discrimination is not just a Canadian issue, in Finland, this is an issue that has made the press. In an online article, the issue is addressed.

The government is betting on older workers to help it meet employment targets, but employers tend to avoid hiring over-55s.

Government’s aim of increasing employment among older workers will run into the reality that employers tend to overlook over-55-year-olds when they recruit new employees, according to the labour market experts.

Budget negotiations that began on Monday will seek to find ways to meet the government’s ambitious target of creating 60,000 new jobs during its term in office. One of the strategies under consideration involves getting older job seekers into work and a new report from the Ministry of Finance is proposing that senior workers could account for half of the 60,000-job target.

However, the age of 55 is often cited as the threshold for being considered past viable and several analyses have found that employers prefer not to take on jobseekers in this age group. According to Statistics Finland's May labour force survey, the number of unemployed jobseekers were highest in the 55 - 64-year-old age group (64,000) between 2010 and 2018.

Pirjo Juvonen-Posti, a lead specialist with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) and Katri Ojala, also head specialist with Akava, the union representing professional and managerial workers said that the perception that 55 is too old to work is the result of a decades-old practice of grandfathering senior workers out of the labour force.

"For many decades we have been taught that we can gently transition over-55-year-olds out of working life through unemployment pensions and early retirement schemes," FIOH’s Juvonen-Posti noted.

The specialists added that in the past, many employers were strapped for cash, so it was easy and convenient to offer seasoned employees a suitable path to retirement.

As the system became a sufficiently entrenched and long-standing part of working life, employee attitudes also began to change. The idea of a reasonably long professional career changed and many no longer aspired to one.

The result was that through an odd set of circumstances, 55-year-olds began to be seen as past their prime, even if some of them were in the best shape of their lives.

Attitudes need to change

Akava’s Ojala said that attitudes to older workers need to change.

"Unfortunately, there are certain attitudes in the labour market, for example, there is a misconception about how costly it is to hire people in this age group. This may in turn lead to age-based discrimination," Ojala said.

It is even debatable whether the term "aged worker" should be used, since this cohort is still of working age and very often constitutes experienced professionals.

Juvonen-Posti said that ageism is still evident in labour market practices, for example in the age structure of the company payrolls.

"And it also shows in the experiences of over-55-year-olds when they try to find work," she added.

While advancing age may bring certain health problems, this may be a signal to alter workers’ job descriptions, something employers are reluctant to do, the experts noted.

Both Ojala and Juvonen-Posti said that attitudes towards older workers need to change and that no one should encounter discrimination based on age or changes in their working abilities.

They also pointed out that while it is important for workers to maintain job-related skills, that is the shared responsibility of both employers and employees.

When given the choice

When given the choice, think about smiles rather than frowns, laughter rather than crying, health rather than sickness, gains rather than losses, and income rather than expenses, because, after all, your loved ones are anxious to know how tomorrow's going to turn out. 

Finances after 50

Figures from over 50s finance experts SunLife - released just ahead of Pensions Awareness Week (September 14-18) – suggests that more than 7 million over 50s have no private pension and more than 8 million don’t think they have enough money to fund their retirement.

 New figures suggest up to 4.7million women and 3.6 million men over 50 don’t think they have enough money to fund their retirement

In its Finances After 50 study, SunLife found that 28% of over 50s do not have a private or company pension. The number of people over 50 in the UK is now more than 25million, according to the ONS*, which indicates that around 7 million over 50s across the UK have no private pension savings.

 SunLife’s research shows that women over 50 are less likely to have a private pension than men of the same age – more than a third of women surveyed said they didn’t have a private pension (35%) – which across the UK is around 4.6million. Of the men surveyed, one in five said they didn’t (20%), which is equivalent to around 2.4million men across the UK.

The study also found that a third of over 50s - which equates to 8.3million - say they don’t think they have enough money to provide them with sufficient income for their retirement with women are more worried about not having enough money in later life than men.

 Just 13% of women over 50 say they are confident they will have enough money for a retirement income; 36% don’t think they will have enough, which across the UK is around 4.7million women. In contrast, 22% of men over 50 say they are confident they have enough and 30% (equivalent to around 3.6million) say they don’t.

  Many over 50s say they will look to other income sources other than pensions for retirement income; 27% say they are hoping their partner or spouses’ pension will fund their retirement, rising to 30% of women, 12% say they are going to continue to work to provide an income, while 11% are expecting an inheritance to cover it, which suggests 2.7 million people over 50 are relying on being left money to fund their retirement.

 The research shows that many of those nearing retirement have concerns that they are not ready.

There is a huge amount of wealth tied up in properties – particularly amongst older homeowners who have seen huge increases in the value of their properties over the years. SunLife’s research shows that on average, homeowners over 50 have seen their homes increase in value by £127,316 over the past 20 years.