Most working folks can’t wait to retire. If you have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, you should enjoy yourself and not think about working.
But when 2008 came, people’s net worth suddenly took a tumble, and those who were near retirement age lost their dreams of a comfortable, perhaps early, retirement.
Some people keep working well past retirement age because they don’t know what else to do. They have no hobbies, no interests outside of their jobs or, they just plain love their work. Experts say retirement is more than just a financial state. It’s also a mental state.
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter recently lost a primary election after switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party. At 80, it’s tough for those of us observing that election to have sympathy for him. After all, we’d all love to be 80 and relatively healthy. How many of you, putting yourself at that age and that position, would think about working more? I guess it says a lot about the Washington culture of incumbency. Strom Thurmond served as a senator until he was 100.
Most of the rest of us, however, may still have jobs we love, but at some point KNOW when it’s time to go. We either feel it, or it gets felt for us. The best anyone can hope for is to either make it to a certain age, with certain benefits, or to be in a position to exit with a smile when someone else feels that it’s time for us to go.
ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO GO
Young workers often don’t think about this – at their peril. Many are being told it’s time to go well ahead of the age at which one should feel it. The worker has done nothing wrong. He’s a casualty of tighter company budgets. And some of the jobs being cut will never return. The younger worker sometimes finds that no one out there is hiring, no matter how skilled he is.
The worker is then devastated, and continually frustrated looking for work. It’s sometimes difficult to bear. He’s feeling he’ll NEVER be retired – at least mentally.
The retirement lessons of the great recession may be:
• If you have a job, do it for as long as your employer will have you – or, as long as you want to.
• Be prepared for the day your employer will no longer want you. It may be tomorrow, it may be years from now. But always EXPECT it.
• Have hobbies and things in your life you enjoy that can occupy your time in retirement – whenever that is. In other words, always be MENTALLY prepared to retire, whenever that day comes.
• Start building a residual income stream, either from investments, an avocation or a side business. You’ll be better prepared to smile when your employer’s door hits you in the butt.
Think of retirement as the end to working for someone else. Make retirement the time you either work for yourself, or enjoy yourself. Age may be just a number, and your number may come up unexpectedly. Be ready for the unexpected. Just ask Arlen Specter.
Peter
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