Visions of Aging and “Retirement”1

What is retirement? Across generations, workers are looking forward to an active phase in life that includes continued work and time for leisure activities including travel, spending more time with family and friends, pursuing hobbies, and volunteer work. Many envision a flexible transition into retirement that differs from prior generations when retirement was marked by an abrupt stop to work. Workers have positive visions of retirement, albeit with legitimate concerns related to financial security and declining health.

Many Plan on Both Long Lives and Long Retirements. Workers are planning to live to age 90 (median). Almost one in five Millennials (17 percent) are planning to live to age 100 or older, compared with Generation X (11 percent) and Baby Boomers (9 percent). An implication for increased longevity is potentially more time spent in retirement. The survey compared workers’ planned life expectancy with their expected retirement age and found that Millennial workers plan to spend 25 years in retirement (median), a finding that is somewhat higher than Generation X (22 years median) and Baby Boomers (20 years median).

How Old Is “Old”? It Depends on the Person. Workers consider a person to be “old” at age 70 (median), a finding that increases with workers’ age. Of those who provided a specific age, Millennials consider a person to be old at age 65 (median), Generation X consider a person old at age 70 (median) and Baby Boomers consider it to be at age 75 (median). More often, workers say that “old” depends on the person (51 percent), including 43 percent of Millennials, 52 percent of Generation X, and 61 percent of Baby Boomers.

At What Age Is a Person “Too Old” to Work? More than half of workers (59 percent) say it depends on the person. Across generations, Baby Boomers are most likely to say it depends on the person (70 percent), followed by Generation X (60 percent) and Millennials (51 percent). Among those who provided a specific age, workers say age 75 (median) is “too old” to work. Millennials consider a person to be “too old” to work at age 70 (median), while Baby Boomers and Generation X both say age 75 (median).

Seventy-Two Percent Are Looking Forward to Retirement, including 30 percent who are “very much” and 42 percent who are “somewhat” looking forward to it. Baby Boomers (81 percent) are more likely than Generation X (70 percent) and Millennials (68 percent) to be looking forward to retirement.

Most Cite Positive Word Associations With “Retirement.” Eighty-six percent of workers cite positive word associations with “retirement” compared with only 37 percent who cite negative words. “Freedom” (55 percent), “enjoyment” (53 percent), and “stress-free” (43 percent) are the most often-cited positive words, while “financial insecurity” (18 percent), “health decline” (18 percent), and “boredom” (11 percent) are the most often-cited negative words.

Three generations prepare for retirement

We are living longer and many of the Boomers have retired, but the next two generations are approaching retirement and they are thinking about it seriously. The following posts are from a report called What Is “Retirement”? Three Generations Prepare for Older Age explores the perspectives, attitudes, and preparations of American workers for longer lives and the meaning of “retirement.” 

The report is based on the 19th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey, one of the largest and longest-running surveys of its kind, this report examines three generations currently represented in the workforce: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials.

What does “retirement” mean to you? In selecting from a series of words associated with retirement, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials most often cite “freedom,” “enjoyment,” and “stress-free.” The three generations share much in common, yet their retirements will be different from previous generations. The retirement landscape is ever-evolving because of increases in longevity, the dynamic nature of the workforce and employment trends, the transformation of employer-sponsored retirement benefits, and potential reforms to Social Security benefits.

Seven in 10 workers (72 percent) are looking forward to retirement. Baby Boomers (81 percent) –the generation closest to retirement –are more likely than Generation X (70 percent) and Millennials (68 percent) to feel this way. Achieving success will not necessarily be easy. Seventy-six percent of workers believe that people in their generation will have a much harder time achieving financial security in retirement compared with their parent's generation, a sentiment that is shared by Millennials (79 percent) and Generation X (81 percent), but to a lesser extent by Baby Boomers (69 percent).

All three generations are already thinking in terms of longer lives. Thirteen percent of workers are planning to live to age 100 or older, a finding that is higher among Millennials (17 percent) than Generation X (11 percent) and Baby Boomers (9 percent). Many workers envision extending their working lives beyond age 65, but relatively few are adequately preparing themselves by focusing on their health, keeping their job skills up to date, and financial planning for a long retirement

65 Years old is still young!

I posted about this a few months ago, asking the question how do you define old? My answer was/is “Anyone who is 10 years older than me is old.”

The World Health Organization before it declared 2020-2030 the decade of Healthy Ageing looked at the ageing and asked How old is old? The question is a good one because populations around the world are ageing at a faster pace than in the past and this demographic transition will have an impact on almost all aspects of society. Already, there are more than 1 billion people aged 60 years or older, with most living in low- and middle-income countries. Many do not have access to even the basic resources necessary for a life of meaning and dignity. Many others confront multiple barriers that prevent their full participation in society.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the seriousness of existing gaps in policies, systems and services. A decade of concerted global action on Healthy Ageing is urgently needed to ensure that older people can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.

The answer to the question about how old is old may surprise you; the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that 65 years old is still considered young. Before, based on the Friendly Societies Act (1875) in Britain, old was defined by the age of 50. The UN has not yet adopted a standard criterion but lately 60 years old was referred to as the border age to the word ‘old’ (Except for those who were 60 who defined old differently.) However, the health organization had done new research recently, according to average health quality and life expectancy and defined a new criterion that divides human age as follows:

·        0 to 17 years old: underage

·        18 to 65 years old: youth or young people

·        66 to 79 years old: middle-aged

·        80 to 99 years old: elderly or senior

·        100+ years old: long-lived elderly

So, I have a few more years to go before I reach the ranks of those the World Health Organization considers elderly or senior. I will still, even when I am, by age, defined as elderly, still consider myself young and will still consider those who are 10 years older than me to be elderly. Notice I am not using the word old as it is an ageist word and discriminates against those who are elderly. By changing one word at a time, we can change attitudes, but it is still a slow process. So, we who are middle-aged need to be vigilant in our fight against ageism as we progress through the decade of Healthy Ageing.

Talk to you soon, or talk with you soon?

I was listening to the end of a podcast on a radio show and the announcer said, I will talk with you soon. I thought that was an odd turn of phrase. As I listened to a few more sign-offs on Podcasts and news opinion shows, I realized that many announcers ended with the same phrase.

The English language is strange, one word can make a world of difference. I will talk with you soon is, in my mind, has a different meaning than I will talk to you soon. The first phrase implies a two-way conversation. You talk and I respond to what you say, we have a discussion based on hearing each other. The second phrase, to me, means that you will talk, and I will listen. This phrase means we are going to have a one-way conversation. I will not have the opportunity to respond to what you say but I will have the opportunity to listen.

When I was teaching, I knew colleagues who would talk to their students about the subject and would only take questions if they saw that a student did not understand them. They did not like to engage in conversations with their students. I knew others who would ask questions and listen to the answers and engage in dialogue and conversation with students. The colleagues who talked to their students covered the material in the required time and felt a sense of accomplishment about making sure the students knew that they had covered all the material. The colleagues who engaged in discussion sometimes had to rush at the end to cover the material, but they believed that their students had learned the material. Neither was wrong, both approaches work in a learning situation, but it does not work for all interactions between people.

In the Podcast the host said their goodbyes by saying I look forward to talking with you soon, but they really meant, I look forward to talking to you soon, it strikes me that when we are engaged with another person, we should think about the question are we are talking with them or talking to them? The answer to the question, I think gives an idea of how we see our relationship or perhaps how we see the topic of discussion.