Retired doesn’t have to mean unemployed

Real quotes
Jimmy Carter calls his 1980 presidential defeat his involuntary retirement. When he went home to Plains, Georgia, he was 56. “I realized that according to the life expectancy tables, I had 25 years to go. What was I going to do with 25 more years? I was in a little town with 600 people and no job opportunities.”

Don’t retire, REWIRE!
When work usually meant hard physical labor, both men and women were worn out by the time they reached their 50s and 60s, so most didn’t make it to retirement. But in today’s digital age, more people use computers and phones and sit at desks in air-conditioned offices. Sophisticated machines do the heavy lifting. The idea of needing to rest at the end of your career because your body is physically worn out from long days of backbreaking work just isn’t true for most people the way it was in the past.

FREE VIDEO Working after retirement March 17: Retiring doesn't mean you have to stop working. NBC's Campbell Brown reports on Dick Kiefer, who went back to work at The Home Depot, one of many companies excited about hiring older workers. Today show

Along with the idea of retirement came the assumption that you “worked” until you “retired” from your full-time “occupation,” “career,” or “job.” But today, the distinctions between working and retiring are blurring. The mandatory retirement age has been all but eliminated, and Congress has repealed the Social Security “earnings test” for people 65 or older. Government data show that the percentage of people over 65 who are in the workforce has been rising since the mid-1990s, after decades of declines. In 2001, it was 12.8 percent, higher than any time since 1979. This increase translates into a million more people over 65 in the labor force in 2001 than in 1985. Two contradictory trends are going on here. On the one hand, there is an outmoded societal attitude that people of a “certain age” should retire and, on the other hand, the facts show that these same people are staying active longer and longer in the workforce. Obviously, someone’s hiring them!

Retirement is associated with other old-fashioned ideas about the people who retire. That retired people can’t be useful. That they need to rest. That they want to relax. And that they can’t learn new skills. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Stress
The transition to retirement is stressful. This stress is made worse by not having a plan. The old adage, if you fail to plan, then plan to fail is as true for retirement as for anything else. People who retire, leave stimulation behind, and don’t replace it create stress for themselves. Leaving full-time work is a time of change, ambiguity, and lack of structure. It’s easier to know where you’re going if you begin to develop a road map ahead of time. That way, you can avoid the feeling of being out of control, which only leads to more stress.

Management gurus Peter Drucker and Peter Senge are familiar with the difficulties people face when they retire. Drucker argues that many executives are simply “unprepared” for retirement. Other retirement experts agree. “We plan our careers, but we don’t plan our retirement,” says Dr. Phyllis Moen, director of the Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute at Cornell University, who has studied couples’ retirement transitions. Dr. Moen’s study substantiates a turbulent transition after quitting work. She found that for many couples, the first two years after leaving a job were a period of marital strife.

Excerpted from “Don't Retire, Rewire” by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. Copyright © 2005 by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. Published by Doubleday Books, a division of Alpha Books. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission from the publishers.

MORE FROM TODAY

Today Section Front

Meet Hunky Santa: Brawny guy, mall savior Obama family lights National Christmas Tree Extend the life of your vehicle in 10 easy steps Poe’s first book sells for record $662,500 ‘Sexting’ bullying cited in teen girl’s suicide Obamas reuse ornaments from Christmas past Are you having an affair ... with your baby? Al’s Book Club goes retro: ‘Nancy Drew,’ ‘Hardy Boys’ Baxter’s TV hubby supports her coming out 'Family Ties' mom: ‘I am a lesbian’ Today Section Front   Add Today headlines to your news reader: