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A New Vision of Retirement

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:49 am
by hocus2004
I picked up this link from Ogrecat at the Motley Fool board. It is a link to a Washington Post Outlook piece examining how and why the conventional view of "retirement" as a time of rest was marketed to middle-class America and how and why a new vision of retirement as a second active stage of life (with more freedom) is gaining ground today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 5Feb5.html

Juicy Quote #1: "An entire industry would grow around the dream of retirement as leisure -- as the "golden years," a phrase coined by Webb and his company."

Juicy Quote #2: "As men and women began to live extended, healthier lives, and as the period between the end of work and the end of life grew steadily longer, the question of the purpose of this period in life grew more and more urgent and wrenching....the word retirement comes from the old French retirer, meaning "to go off into seclusion."

Juicy Quote #3: "In 1950, half the men over 65 remained in the workforce. By 2000 the number was less than 18 percent. ....Soon the goal of retirement was replaced by a new dream: early retirement."

Juicy Quote #4: "The gift of longevity is behind the new shift in the way people think about retirement. In 1900 the average American lived to the not-so-ripe age of 47. Today that number is 77, and rising. And that's long enough for retirees to get bored. How much golf can you play? "

Juicy Quote #5: "This new generation of aging boomers seems poised to swap that old dream of the freedom from work for a new one built around the freedom to work -- in new ways, on new terms, to new ends."

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:51 pm
by unclemick
I still prefer the late Joseph Campbell's "follow your bliss."

Work is still a four letter word - heh, heh, heh.

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:10 pm
by hocus2004
Work is still a four letter word

It is.

But so is "love."

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:49 pm
by Bookm
This article presents anothers view on how to retire - DON'T.
Safire says that you should start preparing fairly early for what you will do in your next career. Pick an activity that interests you, something that you may know something about, something that can use your skills and grows out of what you have been doing in your life, an avocation that can become your vocation.

He figures that people should select a second career while they are in their late 30s or early 40s, spend the next 20 years or so learning about it from the outside, and move into it in full in their mid-60s.

Don't retire, just rejuvinate yourself with another job. :roll:

Between you, me and the fencepost, I'll still take retirement. I'll do my best to keep my mental faculties sharp on my own.

Bookm

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:23 am
by ElSupremo
Greetings Bookm :)
I'll do my best to keep my mental faculties sharp on my own.

How about a "Mental Faculties" board? :wink:

Re: A New Vision of Retirement

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:37 pm
by MacDuff
hocus2004 wrote: Juicy Quote #4: "The gift of longevity is behind the new shift in the way people think about retirement. In 1900 the average American lived to the not-so-ripe age of 47. Today that number is 77, and rising."

This sort of statement is very misleading. The low life expectancy in 1900 was almost solely a function of perinatal and infant mortality, with a second peak in early adulthood due to TB.

Also, although medicine and surgery have improved greatly, it is not at all clear that life expectancy, even life expectancy at age 60, is increasing very rapidly at this time.

mac

Re: A New Vision of Retirement

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:23 pm
by peteyperson
For me, when reading this I still come back to the dichotomy of either being financial self-sufficient or still needing to work to pay the bills. If one needs to work it just is not the same thing. One is forced to keep working by necessity. It is possible to transition into a field one has passion for, possibly retrain and try something completely new that wasn't possible when the requirement for higher levels of consistent income were palpable. This would provide a way to create that transition and so not necessarily need to "retire" as such. It is somewhat of a two-headed approach, not reaching full financial freedom, but finding increased personal freedom to explore other interests while still working.

For myself, I see a desire to live in other cities in other countries and really experience the different sights, sounds, smells and culture & history. I see the potential to volunteer to charitable causes like the Red Cross. In place of the desire to be able to afford to give charitably out of the yearly FIRE withdrawals requiring continuing to work in order to have enough extra to do so, one could give generously of your time, intellect and natural & trained abilities. This would fulfill a desire to be charitable whilst not constricting your freedom and choices.

Petey
hocus2004 wrote: I picked up this link from Ogrecat at the Motley Fool board. It is a link to a Washington Post Outlook piece examining how and why the conventional view of "retirement" as a time of rest was marketed to middle-class America and how and why a new vision of retirement as a second active stage of life (with more freedom) is gaining ground today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 5Feb5.html

Juicy Quote #1: "An entire industry would grow around the dream of retirement as leisure -- as the "golden years," a phrase coined by Webb and his company."

Juicy Quote #2: "As men and women began to live extended, healthier lives, and as the period between the end of work and the end of life grew steadily longer, the question of the purpose of this period in life grew more and more urgent and wrenching....the word retirement comes from the old French retirer, meaning "to go off into seclusion."

Juicy Quote #3: "In 1950, half the men over 65 remained in the workforce. By 2000 the number was less than 18 percent. ....Soon the goal of retirement was replaced by a new dream: early retirement."

Juicy Quote #4: "The gift of longevity is behind the new shift in the way people think about retirement. In 1900 the average American lived to the not-so-ripe age of 47. Today that number is 77, and rising. And that's long enough for retirees to get bored. How much golf can you play? "

Juicy Quote #5: "This new generation of aging boomers seems poised to swap that old dream of the freedom from work for a new one built around the freedom to work -- in new ways, on new terms, to new ends."