The winds of change are whipping across the face of retirement everywhere. Consider:
- In the United States, visions of gold watches and handshakes are fading as workers delay planned retirements and some doubt they will ever be able to afford to stop working.
- In France, waves of protest by millions of workers who took to the streets last fall could not stop the government from raising the retirement age from 60 to 62.
- In fast-aging Japan, the world's oldest country, men stay on the job until the age of 69.5 on average, well past the national retirement age of 64.
Driving such trends are both individual and global factors. The economic crisis of recent years has shattered nest eggs that people were counting on to finance their retirements. Besides the need for continuing income, many baby boomers plan to keep working past their parents' retirement age in order to stay useful and mentally active. "The usual belief is that people have delayed retirement for economic reasons," says Kent Smetters, a Wharton insurance and risk management professor. "But it's also true that because life expectancy is going up, people want to keep busy." There is a bonus for those who do: Tests show that people who stay on the job remain mentally sharper than those who retire.
To read the full, original article click on this link: An End to the 'Golden Years': Increasing Longevity Changes the Work-leisure Equation - Knowledge@Wharton
