Retirement at age 65 is one of these arbitrary set points. While many arbitrarily assume that people are "old" at 65, there is no biological imperative that makes it true. Some people are emotionally (and even physically) old at age 35, while others are young at 75.
Consider the late actress Jessica Tandy and her husband, actor Hume Cronyn. In the film "Cocoon," they teamed up to play an aging couple who were given the gift of renewed youth. To prepare for their roles, the then-75ish pair had to be taught how to "act old" because they had too much spring in their walk and gleam in their eyes. In a wonderful ironic twist, this energetic couple had to learn how to look worn out and worn down in order to fit the traditional stereotype of the elderly as doddering and frail.
When you turn 65, you don't suddenly become a gray-haired monster. The reason 65 is the traditional retirement age has more to do with an economic formula based on company pension plans and Social Security regulations than the norms of human aging. What that means, however, is that you might get kicked out of the workforce before you're actually ready to go.
Worth magazine believes that the whole concept of retirement should be retired.
Why?
First of all, it isn't financially feasible for most people. The math just doesn't work. Nor does it make most people happy. To have years of idleness and leisure isn't everyone's idea of the ultimate good time. Some people prefer to remain active, contributing participants to society.
"Retirement isn't about doing what you want and it certainly isn't a Golden Age," according to the magazine. "Retirement is a weird social experiment ... its collapse will be a triumph for common sense."
Indeed, on the day after your 65th birthday, you may feel much the way you did the day before, except that you don't have a job anymore. Rather than slip into the role of an old person that society has declared you to be, take stock of how you personally feel and how you want the next phase of your work life to look.
"Most of us tend to think of retirement as the end of the story," says Lydia Bronte. "But people who retire, wake up the next morning, much as they've always done, and start another day of life. Retirement is another phase in life, not the end of it."
For increasing numbers of professionals, retirement isn't the end of life; it isn't even the end of work. Instead, it's the end of a specific job or career with a specific company. As one 50-year-old former IBMer says, "The key to retirement is to do it early and often."
