Retiring is just tiresome

By VAL LEVESON

Looking forward to retiring and putting your feet up at age 65? Forget it - it's probably not going to happen for those in their 30s and 40s working today. And, if you do retire, research suggests you are likely to run out of money, get depressed and die quicker than if you had carried on working.

The advice today appears to be: live life as you go and forget the idea of only being able to enjoy life after retirement.

There is no set age to retire from work, but Statistics New Zealand predicts that by 2051 a quarter of those living in New Zealand will be over 65. It's easy to see that it will not be possible for younger workers to provide for the old. There won't be enough money for a good enough super scheme - many older people will have to keep on working.

But perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Auckland stress counsellor John McEwan says the concept of retirement is an aberration of history.

"It's something that happened between about the 1950s and 1990s. Before that, people's roles changed as they got older - but they still contributed to society."

McEwan says the concept of retirement gives a false message: "People are told this is the time to put their feet up and wait for the grim reaper. This is the time people begin to believe that their lives are over."

However, if you consider our longer life expectancy, if we do retire at 65 we'll be retired for a very long time - stretching financial resources to the limit.

On average, Statistics NZ says, a 65-year-old man retiring today could expect to live until he is 80 and a woman until 85.

"Life expectancy is likely to continue to increase as infant mortality rates continue to drop and fewer people die at late-working and retirement ages," Statistics NZ says.

Retirement has been documented by psychologists and pollsters as too often being a time of encroaching depression.

Research from pensions giant Prudential reveals that in Britain large numbers of those closing in on retirement are far from happy about the prospect - a third of those aged 45 to 54 feel nervous or depressed about it. Many are concerned about financial ramifications.

McEwan says another aspect to the retirement debate is that too often younger people put off doing things in their lives because of saving for retirement.

Often people say, "We'll do that overseas trip when we retire", or "We'll really start to enjoy life when we retire".

But that retirement - when all life's dreams are supposed to be fulfilled - does not often happen. Sometimes illness, even death, intervenes. A lifetime of toiling for retirement can turn out to be simply a lifetime of toiling.

"I make the effort to enjoy my life, whatever age I am. I intend to keep on working as is needed. Sacrificing now for later often makes no sense," McEwan says.

Do people really have to retire? Aucklander Craig Warden, 64, has been in various businesses. He owned a service station but reached the stage when he didn't want to have to deal with employers or employees, so looked at something different. "If you told me a few years ago that I would end up driving a taxi I would not have believed you," he says. "But I truly love it."

His Corporate Cab franchise provides him with flexible work that gives him time for his family and grandchildren. "I didn't want to give up working, why should I?"

However, Warden was in a position where he had the money to buy into the franchise. And as a sociable person he thrives on the contact with people that his work gives him.

However, it's all very well to say people shouldn't retire - especially in a society which is perceived to be ageist. What do older people who have been made redundant do? Not everyone can afford to start their own business and the corporate world is notorious for not wanting to employ older people.

Kathy Cassidy, of Mature Employment Hutt, says that older men (50 plus) with middle-management backgrounds have the hardest time finding work later in life.

She feels that managers in their 30s and 40s often regard an older and more experienced person as a threat.

"Yet most older men wouldn't want the younger man's responsibilities but still have a lot to contribute," she says.

Also, many employers tell her that employing an older person can mean they work for only a few years before leaving to retire.

"They're not looking at the whole picture here," she says. "I tell employers that a young person is looking for a stepping stone and is likely to stay for fewer than five years anyway."

Cassidy says her organisation has more than 700 people on its books. A lot of these people don't just want a job - they need one. Some can't receive the unemployment benefit because their partners are working.


McEwan says that older women don't seem to have the same problems as older men in finding work.

"They are sought after as PAs and office administrators, that sort of work."

Research into retirement and depression done by psychologists Jungmeen E. Kim and Phyllis Moen, of United States' Cornell University, found: "For men, post-retirement employment appears to be beneficial for their psychological well-being.

"Those who are retired and re-employed report the highest morale and lowest depression.

"By contrast, men who are retired and not re-employed experience the lowest morale and most depression."

The researchers did not find the same statistical differences for women who were re-employed. Their study included 534 American married men and women between the ages of 50 and 74 who were either retired, newly retiring or soon-to-be retired.

McEwan says the worst type of retirement is that which results from redundancy.

"It's devastating," he says. "Rather than finishing on a high note and in a planned way, you are kicked out. Self-confidence is ripped away. There is no sense of achievement."

He suggests that if people see the writing on the wall at their workplace, that's when they need to go to a counsellor and get help with facing the future - not when it's too late and depression has stepped in.

As the title of Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners' book Don't Retire, Rewire indicates, retirement can be a time of new opportunities and new pursuits, a time when you have no dependants and can do what you really love to do. It does not, and should not, mean the end.