In an excellent piece for thestreet.com headlined Working After Retirement Is the Newest Trend, Buster Coen writes that “a Merrill Lynch Retirement Study recently found that over seven in ten retirees say that they want to keep working after they retire. Indeed, with life expectancy increasing right along with the cost of living, it is becoming an ever untenable plan to draw out from the workforce completely at the expected retirement age. These days, people are likely to run out of either bucket list items or money before they die. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to dedicate the entirety of one’s retirement to leisure.” Other excerpts from Coen’s article (which also includes revealing interviews with retirees):
“Of course, retirement is increasingly becoming a luxury, meaning that not everybody gets the option to choose whether or not to work into old age. Indeed, the Employee Benefit Research Institute recently found that only 21% of workers said they are ‘very confident’ about having enough money for a comfortable retirement, while 19% said they are not at all confident about their ability to retire comfortably. And recently-released research from global advisory firm Willis Towers Watson reports that one in four workers now definitively say that they won’t be able to retire at 70.
“In the interest of working less hectic days, consulting work is often a popular choice for retirees, as is entrepreneurship. While starting a new business can be a risky venture for retirees, it is becoming increasingly popular among the older crowd. According to data from Babson College, 15% of entrepreneurs are between the ages of 55 and 74. In the interest of working less hectic days, consulting work is often a popular choice for retirees, as is entrepreneurship. While starting a new business can be a risky venture for retirees, it is becoming increasingly popular among the older crowd.”