Think again about Retirement

This week there are general strikes in France because the government wants to increase the retirement age from 60 years to 62 years. Just about the whole country is on strike over a mere two years!

What this indicates is not just how the population feels about two more years of work before retirement, but how much people in France look forward to a time of switching off and not having responsibilities.

How misguided they are!

Retirement which was conceived as a time of secure “winding down” and a reward for a long working life, has become, instead a time of worry and of concern. Savings are no longer safe in supposedly secure investment accounts, and health issues and their costs are major worries for many people considering retirement. Not only in France.

So retirees are increasingly looking to some form of continued work and additional income after retirement. The problem is that searching to find a “job” when retired is an uphill struggle. Many people cannot even find meaningful work while young and ambitious, let alone when they are no longer seen as energetic and able to contribute fully. Building a Portfolio of meaningful income streams well before retirement would seem to be a logical approach to managing these risks. Instead of pursuing a hard-to-find single job, looking for contract work or servicing clients with the skills you already have is more sensible. Take the leap of being self-employed, and building a client base is what many people will be doing in the future.

See “Even the Rich are Nervous about Retirement” on Newsweek here.

Retirees and the next generation of entrepreneurs

Retirement is not what it used to be...

There was a time when people retired at about 60-65 and then moved to the coast to play golf and see out the Golden Years with a good pension.

No more. With better medical care and more sensible nutrition people are living longer, and many prefer to stay active. Others are forced to stay active because their retirement funds are not supporting the lifestyle they thought they would have. A third group are those that choose to retire early, to cash in their chips and prepare for meaningful self-employment as the last phase of their working lives.

A Portfolio Life in the Third Age

More people are giving up the old fashioned idea of “Retirement”

We live longer, we generally stay healthier and many of us just hate the idea of enforced idleness into the sunset years. These days skipping retirement is not just a lifestyle choice, it is for many people the only option they have. They have to keep working to pay their way. But for the more fortunate ones life in the so-called retirement years has many new possibilities. Building a Portfolio Life ahead of time has many benefits.

In the UK now, and in most Western countries the mandatory retirement age is being moved up. This is not only to fund future pensions it is to ensure a healthier, more active population which continues to contribute.

Here is a link to an artcle from the Telegraph on the rising number of older working people