Retirement 'harmful To Health', Study Says

[Mike45]

I don't agree with this in the least. I certainly hope it's not true.

The study, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank, found that retirement results in a "drastic decline in health" in the medium and long term.

The IEA said the study suggests people should work for longer for health as well as economic reasons.

The government already plans to raise the state pension age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22550536

[Rob8891]

Cynical cr_p. Making folk work for their own good????

I retired recently..blood pressure falling.... weight reducing.... stress??? What stress.?

[PalMan]

I fully agree, finding a safe store of value for a few decades work that can subsidize almost as many decades of elderly leisure is obviously not sustainable, not for individuals nor governments.

Fortunately a proper conception of "work" has nothing to do with earning money, obviously the most rewarding activities are rarely well-compensated,

For both the above generalizations - except for a very lucky (or clever and enlightened and hard-working etc) few.

The challenge for coming generations is to figure out how to have a variety of healthy and fullfilling work in a flexible way throughout life.

But all this isn't too Thailand-related. . .

[Mike45]

I'd like to ask the Retired Expats in Thailand if they believe that retirement is harmful to their health? Or perhaps it's only true if your retired in the west. Maybe Thailand is different?

[Mike45]

I fully agree, finding a safe store of value for a few decades work that can subsidize almost as many decades of elderly leisure is obviously not sustainable, not for individuals nor governments.

Fortunately a proper conception of "work" has nothing to do with earning money, obviously the most rewarding activities are rarely well-compensated,

For both the above generalizations - except for a very lucky (or clever and enlightened and hard-working etc) few.

The challenge for coming generations is to figure out how to have a variety of healthy and fullfilling work in a flexible way throughout life.

But all this isn't too Thailand-related. . .

I don't know about your experience but I didn't "find" my my assets I worked and sacrificed for it. It's also not that difficult to "store". In fact it's quite the opposite to many people would like to "help" me store it.

I take the definition of work in the article to mean "stay where you are and keep working your same job"

The real point is do you believe that the act of retiring will make you sick and shorten your life? I don't.

I will admit that I fully expect my future retirement to lead to an eventual death but that's inevitable.

[Payboy]

[Riverman63]

Come on keep working. The rich are not going to get richer by themselves as they retire at 50 and head for the sun. Drones is what the want ;-)

[PalMan]

Mike45, on 17 May 2013 - 22:13, said:

PalMan, on 17 May 2013 - 21:59, said:

I fully agree, finding a safe store of value for a few decades work that can subsidize almost as many decades of elderly leisure is obviously not sustainable, not for individuals nor governments.

Fortunately a proper conception of "work" has nothing to do with earning money, obviously the most rewarding activities are rarely well-compensated,

For both the above generalizations - except for a very lucky (or clever and enlightened and hard-working etc) few.

The challenge for coming generations is to figure out how to have a variety of healthy and fullfilling work in a flexible way throughout life.

But all this isn't too Thailand-related. . .

I don't know about your experience but I didn't "find" my my assets I worked and sacrificed for it. It's also not that difficult to "store". In fact it's quite the opposite to many people would like to "help" me store it.

I take the definition of work in the article to mean "stay where you are and keep working your same job"

The real point is do you believe that the act of retiring will make you sick and shorten your life? I don't.

I will admit that I fully expect my future retirement to lead to an eventual death but that's inevitable.

-

I said it's difficult to find a *secure way to store wealth*, given the fact of inevitable inflation and that the world's leading currencies and financial instruments are no longer trustworthy.

The kind of work that prolongs your life and health is of course nothing to do with staying in a particular job or even career, which of course isn't even a long-term option for people anymore even if they want to.

I do believe from the epidemiological POV of the research, since many (most?) people in developed economies devote too high a proportion of their time and self-worth to their primary "work" activity (including raising children) that the end of that activity will lead to increased stress, depression and loneliness, all of which have been identified as major physical health hazards.

I think the whole concept of "the act of retiring" will turn out to be specific to recent decades and will be seen as a quaint anachronism in the not too distant future, it's just not any more sustainable than say basing our society's economic health on the expectation of unlimited future growth and fossil fuel consumption.

[tahaan]

I retired to Thailand in my forties and then returned to work after a 7 year lay off. I can honestly say that my health has improved as a result. I enjoy the mental stimulus that work brings but the biggest benefit is not having the time to drink as much.

[Soutpeel]

I'd like to ask the Retired Expats in Thailand if they believe that retirement is harmful to their health? Or perhaps it's only true if your retired in the west. Maybe Thailand is different?

based on the responses from of our more senior members on TV, one suspects its the mental health that drastically declines....

[GuestHouse]

I'd agree with the report.

I've see far too many guys get old and sick extremely quickly after taking early retirement.

Sure for some early retirement is a chance to live another life, but that's the trick 'live another life'.

Retirement planning is not just about stashing savings, its about having 'a plan' of what to do in retirement.

I guarantee, retirees who express feelings of better health in retirement are the same guys who are living lives so full they can't imagine they ever had time to go to work before they retired.

[Mike45]

I'd agree with the report.

I've see far too many guys get old and sick extremely quickly after taking early retirement.

Sure for some early retirement is a chance to live another life, but that's the trick 'live another life'.

Retirement planning is not just about stashing savings, its about having 'a plan' of what to do in retirement.

I guarantee, retirees who express feelings of better health in retirement are the same guys who are living lives so full they can't imagine they ever had time to go to work before they retired.

I've worked with guys over the years that have retired a multiple number of ways.

Some don't retire until they get sick because they are alcoholics and admit that the only thing that stops them from drinking is the need to go to work.

Some don't retire because they believe that they will live as long as their father only to have a stroke and live partially handicapped.

Some just die suddenly and don't make retirement.

Some retire early but do so because they are not feeling right only to get sicker in die.

At my company I work with several that just work for their pay check, at 65 ALSO get social security and at 70 ALSO collect their pension. We call them the trifecta employees.

I agree about the retirees that are so busy with life that they can not image how they ever had time to work are the happiest. My father is 80 and he is one

[isanbirder]

It's not retirement that's bad for you; it's not having enough to do.

[thaibeachlovers]

What a lot of BS. If I'd retired earlier, I'd be a lot healthier.

As for not enough to do- rubbish. I'm busier than I was when I worked, but now I enjoy what I do.

[krisb]

So keep working till you die at work is healthier? No way.

[mickjn]

I had to retire at 49,due to occuring brain tumor.IMO your health declines dramatically when you give up work.The physcial side keeps you fit and just going to work and having friends to talk to is great.I would say to anyone keep working as long as you can

[chiang mai]

Yup, the report has it right I'm afraid.

[PalMan]

So keep working till you die at work is healthier? No way.

Certainly is for people that enjoy their work and get decent physical activity from it. Would that we were all so lucky eh?

Musicians and other artists in particular - ever notice how long conductors live?

[robblok]

Cynical cr_p. Making folk work for their own good????

I retired recently..blood pressure falling.... weight reducing.... stress??? What stress.?

I think for most people who don't have interesting jobs retirement is great. Now my dad loved his job and he just told me he misses working. He said your missing out of a lot of things and loosing part of your life. But then again he had a great job that he loved and was valued a lot.

I can inmagine for lower jobs its quite different. I do know for myself that you need to keep working to keep the brain going.. if not you get lazy. That does not mean you will always have to go full speed but its good.

I had a co worker who quickly lost his sharp mind after retirement I seen it many times.. so there is some truth in it. This is of course not the case for factory workers and others that have jobs that does not tax their brains much.

The brain is a like a muscle.. use it or loose it.

[Robby nz]

Should be Bad Health is harmful to Retirement

Suppose it depends what you do or don't do and probably what you did.

If you have no active interests and sit around and put on weight then it could well be.

[Mike45]

http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/coe/gutub/English_Misc/Retire1.htm

Longevity Vs. Retirement Age

The pension funds in many large corporations (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, etc.) have been “Over Funded” because many “late retirees” who keep-on working into their old age and retire late after the age of 65 tend to die within two years after their retirements. In other words, many of these late retirees do not live long enough to collect all their fair shares of pension money such that they leave a lot of extra-unused money in the pension funds resulting in the over-funded pension funds.

Dr. Ephrem (Siao Chung) Cheng provided the important results in the following Table 1 and the associated chart from an actuarial study of life span vs. age at retirement. The study was based on the number of pension checks sent to retirees of Boeing Aerospace.

Table 1 – Actuarial Study of life span vs. age at retirement.

Age at Retirement-Average AgeAt Death

49.9-86

51.2-85.3

52.5-84.6

53.8-83.9

55.1-83.2

56.4-82.5

57.2-81.4

58.3-80

59.2-78.5

60.1-76.8

61-74.5

62.1-71.8

63.1-69.3

64.1-67.9

65.2-66.8

Table 1 and the chart indicate that for people retired at the age of 50, their average life span is 86; whereas for people retired at the age of 65, their average life span is only 66.8. An important conclusion from this study is that for every year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of life span on average.

The Boeing experience is that employees retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 18 months, on average, prior to death. Similarly, the Lockheed experience is that employees retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 17 months, on average, prior to death. Dr. David T. Chai indicated that the Bell Labs experience is similar to those of Boeing and Lockheed based on the casual observation from the Newsletters of Bell Lab retirees. A retiree from Ford Motor told Dr. Paul Tien-Lin Ho that the experience from Ford Motor is also similar to those in Boeing and Lockheed.

The statistics shown in the Pre-Retirement Seminar in Telcordia (Bellcore) indicates that the average age that Telcordia (Bellcore) employees start retirement is 57. Therefore, people who retire at the age of 65 or older are minority as compared to the number of early retirees.

The hard-working late retirees probably put too much stress on their aging body-and-mind such that they are so stressed out to develop various serious health problems that forced them to quit and retire. With such long-term stress-induced serious health problems, they die within two years after they quit and retire.

On the other hand, people who take early retirements at the age of 55 tend to live long and well into their 80s and beyond. These earlier retirees probably are either wealthier or more able to plan and manage their various aspects of their life, health and career well such that they can afford to retire early and comfortably.

These early retirees are not really idling after their early retirements to get old. They still continue doing some work. But they do the work on the part-time basis at a more leisure pace so that they do not get too stressed out. Furthermore, they have the luxury to pick and chose the types of part-time work of real interest to them so that they can enjoy and love doing that “fun” work at a more leisure pace.

The late retirees are small in number, tend to die quickly after retirement and disappear from the population of old people beyond the age of 70. Late retirees, therefore, have very little weight on the statistical average life expectancy of the population of “old people” dominated by the early retirees.

Several years ago, a Japanese friend of mine told me that most Japanese people retire at the age of 60 or earlier. This may be one of the factors contributing to the long average life span of Japanese people.

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

The pace of innovations and technology advances is getting faster and faster and is forcing everybody to compete fiercely at the Internet speed on the information super-highways. The highly productive and highly efficient workplace in USA is a pressure-cooker and a high-speed battleground for highly creative and dynamic young people to compete and to flourish.

However, when you get older, you should plan your career path and financial matter so that you can retire comfortably at the age of 55 or earlier to enjoy your long, happy and leisure retirement life into your golden age of 80s and beyond. In retirement, you can still enjoy some fun work of great interest to you and of great values to the society and the community, but at a part-time leisure pace on your own term.

On the other hand, if you are not able to get out of the pressure-cooker or the high-speed battleground at the age of 55 and “have” to keep on working very hard until the age of 65 or older before your retirement, then you probably will die within 18 months of retirement. By working very hard in the pressure cooker for 10 more years beyond the age of 55, you give up at least 20 years of your life span on average.

[bigbamboo]

There must be something in this.

Most people seem to die in retirement.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Sitting is the new smoking.

Inactivity is a killer. If your retired and doing martial arts or endurance cycling, kettle bells, swimming, golf or many things then probably a lot more healthy than working in an office etc... unless you retired from being a lifeguard or boxing instructor.

The devil is in the details.

[pattayadingo]

I find life more relaxing on the whole. There are different stresses involved here but my health certainly has not suffered.

I am more chilled out. I have a good woman to snuggle up to. Friends I can visit. I can go to bed when I want, have a beer when I want.

Who wants to work every day until they are about 65 / 70 and ready to drop and then have a couple of years to 'enjoy' their meagre pension before they pop their clogs.

[Tafia]

I retired at 55 (now 60) never felt better but then I dont sit around bars drinking myself to death.

Keeping your brain active is the way to go.

[pattayadingo]

I retired at 55 (now 60) never felt better but then I dont sit around bars drinking myself to death.

Keeping your brain active is the way to go.

That is a good point, about keeping the brain active.

Sitting in the bars for hours on end every day cannot be good for you.

Getting out and about, having other stimuli and a good sex life all have to help.

[pattayadingo]

I retired at 55 (now 60) never felt better but then I dont sit around bars drinking myself to death.

Keeping your brain active is the way to go.

That is a good point, about keeping the brain active.

Sitting in the bars for hours on end every day cannot be good for you.

Getting out and about, having other stimuli and a good sex life all have to help.

[robblok]

I find life more relaxing on the whole. There are different stresses involved here but my health certainly has not suffered.

I am more chilled out. I have a good woman to snuggle up to. Friends I can visit. I can go to bed when I want, have a beer when I want.

Who wants to work every day until they are about 65 / 70 and ready to drop and then have a couple of years to 'enjoy' their meagre pension before they pop their clogs.

It kinda depends if you had a job you hated or one that you loved with good co workers and such. I have had a job before that i could not wait getting home. If you have that kind of job of course you will want to retire early.

[Rsquared]

This is something that cannot be generalised the way it has been.....it is an individual issue.

The smart ones know what works for them and then go along that path whether it be continue to work or retire.

I had a great job, but then the fun went out of it, I was getting grumpy, working long and non-sequential hours and my health wasn't the best.

Now that I have been retired for 2 years, I am happier, healthier and always have something to do, physically, plus I play golf and as for mental stimulation....learning Thai covers that area.

Life is to be enjoyed.

Cheers.

[fletchsmile]

http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/coe/gutub/English_Misc/Retire1.htm

Longevity Vs. Retirement Age

The pension funds in many large corporations (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, etc.) have been “Over Funded” because many “late retirees” who keep-on working into their old age and retire late after the age of 65 tend to die within two years after their retirements. In other words, many of these late retirees do not live long enough to collect all their fair shares of pension money such that they leave a lot of extra-unused money in the pension funds resulting in the over-funded pension funds.

........

On the other hand, if you are not able to get out of the pressure-cooker or the high-speed battleground at the age of 55 and “have” to keep on working very hard until the age of 65 or older before your retirement, then you probably will die within 18 months of retirement. By working very hard in the pressure cooker for 10 more years beyond the age of 55, you give up at least 20 years of your life span on average.

This looked much more interesting than the BBC piece. The BBC one is just high level with very little useful thoughts, info or assumptions.

Some people thoroughly enjoy their job, so don't really see it as "working". That's probably an ideal if it also pays you enough to live the life you want now and in the future. I think that's a minority though.

For me, the key is/was achieving financial independence so that I can then choose what I want to do. Then "retirement" becomes a bit of an old fashioned concept, and somewhat irrelevant. If you have your financial independence you choose to work or not, you choose to do leisure activities or not, and throw in some physical exercise and healthy eating, and "work" at doing things you enjoy, then that's as good a recipe as any for maximising your life span.

Of course there are always the cards you're dealt genetically and healthwise as well as fatal diseases that can strike anyone in their prime.

In the UK, people are often stuck in a system where retirement is the "release" to get out of the system, but often comes "too late". The way it's set up many people are conditioned that the release comes at retirement at age 65+, with pension rules to enforce that. This is mainly in the interest of the government plus probably people who wouldn't otherwise think about it and wouldn't plan and don't know any better. For people who actively want to be accountable and take charge of their own lives, it's a disadvantage.

Simply put, in the UK you're also funding all the people who don't practice accountability for their own lives, as well as hangers on, which is why it takes so long to build financial independence. If the UK government allowed people the freedom to be accountable for only what they chose, and only their own lives, they'd have mega problems with what to do with the masses that don't. So many decent people are stuck until 65+ supporting the rest of society, including the wasters and hangers on, because they too vote. Goes round in a circle, which the people in government need to perpetuate. I mean imagine if the BBC came out with a survey saying retire early and live longer

That's one of the reasons I like Thailand: Choice. Much more flexibility here on many levels. You have a chance to attain financial independence earlier. Cheaper cost of living too. Then less restrictions on how you choose to spend your time.

Cheers

Fletch