Is the concept of working until we are 65 totally irrelevant?
Have you ever thought about where the concept of retiring at 65 actually comes from? Just like how the eight-hour workday was invented by American labor unions back in the 1800s and is arguably not really efficient or relevant to jobs in our modern day, it is accepted because we have simply become accustomed to it.
Could we be simply ‘accepting’ retiring at 65 the same way? First, let’s understand where this magical number of 65 actually comes from….
Retirement age comes from when we receive superannuation in NZ which is currently 65 (Social Security in the US). Social Security in the US was enacted back in 1935 as a way to ease out older workers so that jobs could be created for younger people in a depressed economy. Also note that life expectancy was actually 58 years back then (which made it much more manageable for the government given that majority of workers died before reaching the golden age of 65).
Let’s face it - the above has nothing to do with living your optimum life - it was simply done to create jobs and save the government money.
So what are we to do? Simply put we will need to create our own version of retirement rather than relying on the government to dictate how we are to live our lives.
Need some inspiration? The first obvious movement that has been getting a lot of recent press over the last decade has been FIRE (financial independence, retire early). There are quite a few different versions of FIRE now, however the original concept centers around having a super high investment/savings rate (50-90% compared to usual 10-15%) and retiring in your 30s,40s or 50s. Link to a handy table of savings rate compared to years to retire here. Maybe it’s just me but although having the choice of being able to retire in my 30s sounds fantabulous, I need to be real in admitting that I am a lover of the finer things in life! Although I do think I would be able to hustle hard for a year or so, keeping my expenses super low is not something I can see myself being able to do in the long run.
Another concept is the one of ‘mini-retirements’. Simply put it’s an intentional extended period that you take away from work. Not just your usual 4 weeks off a year but for example taking 1 year off every 7 years like Stefan Sagmeister (count me in!). Just to be clear with his ‘1 year off’ he wasn’t sitting in his PJs and watching Netflix (no judgement if that’s your thang). Instead, he did creative projects that he was passionate about but didn’t have time for during his working years and changed his surroundings - living in Bali, Tokyo, Mexico, Austria and New York during his mini-retirements.
There is no one size fits all and in no way am I telling you that you need to go the FIRE or mini-retirement route. Rather, I would love to see you actively dreaming and planning out what the ideal path would be for you.
Full transparency - I used to dream of not working and being a stay at home doggy mum (no judgement please!). Until I took a month off between jobs and realised that I was actually not a person that could not work. Frankly, hanging out in my PJs was the cat’s pajamas for a couple of weeks. But then I was bored. Like, realllllll bored. Also the super organised part of me really missed the routine of work. Hence when we paid off our mortgage, even though technically I could realise my original dream of being a stay at home doggy mum (I swear this is a legit thing mmmkay), my new dream was to do hella good work that I was passionate about, without having to stress about whether it would make enough money to pay the bills or not.
What will your retirement look like? The balls in your court ;)
Photo: Aleksandra Diz
