Americans over 65 want to work.
These people used to be outliers, but they are no longer. They are part of the “Don't Leave” movement to transform the workplace.
The movement to not retire, or to decide to return to work after decades of work, is gaining momentum across the United States. Many retirees are leaving their side hustle and returning to work, especially after being forced to retire earlier than expected during the pandemic. According to a recent report by T. Rowe and his Price, approximately 7% of retirees are looking for a post-retirement job, and 20% say they are already working part-time or full-time.
For his new book, Unretired: How Highly, Peabody Award-winning journalist and management consultant Mark Walton travels across the country to study unretired CEOs, Mayo Clinic doctors, lawyers, and neuroscientists. We met with experts, psychologists, financial experts, journalists, and more. Competent people live happily ever after. ”
Walton wanted answers as to why people keep showing up for work at a time when they could choose to get off the merry-go-round.
Walton told Yahoo Finance that the number of college-educated Americans over 60 who continue to work rather than retire has more than quadrupled over the past few decades. “And these numbers continue to rise as people readjust their careers.”
By 2023, approximately one in five Americans over the age of 65 will be employed, four times as many as in the mid-1980s. A recent Pew Research Center report puts that number at about 11 million workers.
read more: Planning for Retirement: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here's what Walton had to say about why retirees return to work: Edited excerpt:
What motivates people to continue working other than money?
Engagement and contribution are key. To make a distinction here, the people this book focuses on are people who are successful and have made it through life. The thought of ceasing work that is important to you and cutting off your ability to contribute is extremely painful. In other words, what motivates them is a fascination and love for their work and a desire to continue contributing.
Why this book now? Haven't successful people always collaborated as consultants or board members to lend their expertise?
I'm a journalist, and a few years ago I started noticing how this story was picking up steam. Overall, he knew that the number of workers over 65 was increasing, but certainly part of the motivation for many of them was the need to continue generating income. But what I wondered about was the people I was meeting and listening to who said it wasn't all about money for them. We found that the people driving this were college graduates and professional women. That has changed over the past 30 years.
Are they afraid of the pitfalls of retirement? You write that retirement may be a bad idea.
That's for sure. The first pitfall is the loss of personal identity. No one really pays much attention. But they invest their lives in things that are important to them, and their identity is tied to that work.
Pitfall #2 is the loss of daily structure and schedule. That's no small thing. There are stories in the book about brilliant people who, within a few months of leaving their jobs, no longer knew what day it was, what time it was, or what to do with themselves. We have a lot.
The third is the loss of friends and social networks.
Oh Mark, how long does it take for retired people to up their game and come out of retirement?
When I use the term “non-retirement,” I often mean someone failing to retire and then returning to work. I've written about people for whom such things have happened and those who choose never to retire. Many people who retired during the pandemic at around age 64 or 65 have already returned to work.
For those who have never retired, they spring from a lifelong commitment to work that they have enjoyed and continue on that path into their 80s and even 90s.
What work will they do next? Many people I interviewed have completely pivoted their careers to follow their passion.
I call such people rebels. These are people who discover what fascinates them, or perhaps have always been fascinated, and build structures to make it happen. And some are making a nice living in the process.
Sometimes it means radical reinvention. It could be a reworking of something they've done before. It's mostly just combining the talents and abilities they already had and using them in a different way. What they have done is transform themselves into entrepreneurial beings.
The other group is people who have found a way to continue doing the same type of work they have been doing since graduating from college or graduate school. In some cases, it's the same employer, like the Mayo Clinic doctor I'm writing about.
And the third category is creators. These are people in their 50s and 60s who discover creative skills and abilities they never knew they had. Often these people, for example, loved writing as a child, or loved art as a child, but in order to do something else – to become a doctor or a lawyer. These are the people who put that aside. But this desire is always present. And when they get a chance to practice it, or create an opportunity to practice it, they realize they're really good at it. Because they have a love for it, they can take the risks necessary to make it happen.
You spend time in your book discussing legendary professional business leaders. peter drucker• Can you briefly explain his role in the Deretirement Movement?
Drucker was far ahead of his time. He is a management consultant and wrote most of his 39 books after the age of 65. He foresaw in his late 90s that the need to manage the second half of his life would be inevitable. He worked with his senior executives.
They are different from manual workers. Knowledge professionals emerged among people who worked with their hands and muscles, and who had to return to work after a certain number of years when their bodies could no longer support them. In fact, he coined the term “knowledge worker” in his 1950s. This is about people who work with their brains rather than their bodies.
He said that if the brain is not damaged or develops disease, it will not be wasted. You have that spirit and the ability to continue to succeed and maybe even replace what you've been doing. And you have to do this. If you don't take charge of the second half of your life, you will lead an unsatisfactory life. That was his philosophy.
The goal of those who are not retired is to work at something they are interested in and love, right?
People who are really successful in any field at this age are successful because they really care. It means something to them. It gives them meaning and satisfaction. The old retirement paradigm requires you to give up your retirement savings and fill the hole with something else, but that's not really viable.
How did the people I met in my research discover skills they were unaware of?
experiment. They were, and still are, open to new things.
Thoughts of parting?
If you're one of the millions of people who feel like the traditional trajectory of life – go to school, go to work, then tune out – doesn't suit you. If so, you are not alone. Your interests and desire to continue working and expressing yourself are something you should pursue, rather than getting lost in a lifestyle that doesn't suit you. It is entirely possible to continue working, being successful, and continuing to express yourself well into your very old age. This is the future.
Kelly Hannon is a senior columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 of her books, including “The World's Best.''Taking Control Even Over 50: How to Succeed in the New World of Work.” and “You’re never too old to get rich.” Follow her on X @Kellyhannon.
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