Traditionally, retiring entails leaving the workforce permanently. However, experts found that the very definition of retirement is also changing between generations.
About 41% of Gen Z and 44% of millennials — those who are currently between 27 and 42 years old — are significantly more likely to want to do some form of paid work during retirement.
…
This increasing preference for a lifelong income, could perhaps make the act of “retiring” obsolete.
Although younger workers don’t intend to stop working, there is still an effort to beef up their retirement savings.
It’s ok! Don’t ever retire! Just work until you die, preferably not at work, where we’d have to deal with the removal of your corpse.
Barely mentioned: wage stagnation and inflation.
I’m 40 and I’ve always “known” that there would be no retirement for “us”.
Consequentially, as the eternally wise Homer Simpson once stated; “my lifestyle is my retirement plan”.
I genuinely hope never to reach age 70 or over. I’ve known lots of old people in my life and the ONLY TWO who were somewhat happy were my maternal grandparents. And even they will soon have to deal with losing one another since they’re so old.
I don’t intend to go through all that. I’ll live what I can, as long as I can, and as soon as I can’t anymore, it’s exit left.
I doubt I’ll be the only one.
deleted by creator
And this is why I’ll “waste” money on gyms and travelling to interesting places to hike, fresh produce and over-hyped barely scientific superfoods … because I want more quality years.
There’s a genetic condition running through my family, and it’s a dice roll. I’ve had cousins die at 17-25 from this condition, most of my uncles passed at 50-60 from it, a few aunts passed in their 40s, a huge chunk of my cousins died in childbirth in their 30s because of complications associated with this condition.
And yet my grandmother, who passed this down to us made it to 94, and she was still going at full speed with all her wits until her last day. On my dad’s side, there are autoimmune issues, which reduces quality of life, the men die in their 60s and very early 70s, but all the women are still kicking at 85+ but their cost of living is astronomical because they’ve been disabled for the last 30+ years of their lives.
I’m one of the oldest in the family that was young enough to get a diagnosis and get some early intervention (the condition wasn’t fully known until the mid 90s)
I really don’t know what my medical future holds.
Maybe I’ll get an AAA and die at 35.
Maybe I’ll have a CVA in my 40s, and live another 30 years severely disabled. (I had a series of TIAs in my late teens before I was diagnosed and properly managed, so I know I’m a high stroke risk)
Maybe I’ll be running around in my 90s like my nan.
If I saved every single cent of my income from the day I got my first job until I turn 67 (current retirement age in my country) , I’d still only truly be able to afford one of those above scenarios… Why “hard save” when hard saving will achieve nothing long term, but soft saving can achieve a miriad of important short term goals, and possibly even give me a better chance of making a living long into life.
83 bro here. I’ve got a pension and a bit in my 401k. I still plan on going out with a bang on my own terms. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe 15y from now.
I stand with ye
What did Kanye do this time?
Preface: I’m not intending to come off as bragging, but providing some justification
I make plenty enough to retire by 45. Does that mean I’ll stop working by 45? No, that sounds ridiculously boring. I’d rather work part time or do contract work until I’m physically and mentally unable because otherwise I’ll become a vegetable. I enjoy my work and at the moment have no intentions of stopping at any point
No, that sounds ridiculously boring.
I feel bad for anyone who’s identity and self worth is so tied to their job that they’d feel this way.
If I woke up tomorrow and was told I could keep receiving my current income for the rest of my life, but I just wouldn’t have to actually put in the time and do the work?
I would never touch that work again.
There’s so many things I could do, activities to try, things to learn, and skills to develop that I could never imagine getting so damn bored with my life without work that I’d ever remotely consider getting back into the work force.
Work is what I do in order to afford the life I want. It’s not the life I want.
Have you considered that some people might actually enjoy their jobs?
I’m not saying you do but that’s fine, but you’re pretty much saying that working has to be boring and undesirable, which it absolutely doesn’t have to be.
I love my job, but doing whatever the fuck I want kind of beats it. I have many project ideas and also some skills I want to learn, would finally have time to go all in.
I’ve not worked for ten years, and I’ve never been happier. Not a moment of boredom and I get to throw myself into whatever hobby I want.
I feel real sad for people who can’t comprehend enjoying free time.
What do they do, stare at walls and watch paint dry?
I feel more in touch with myself and other people than ever before
I’ve not worked for ten years, and I’ve never been happier. Not a moment of boredom and I get to throw myself into whatever hobby I want.
So much this.
What I do for work is also my hobby outside of work! I enjoy work due to the new challenges that come and require solving. If I’m working on my own stuff I end up side-tracked and never actually finish things which gets demoralizing quickly. Work helps keep me on task so I can actually get to have the satisfaction of a job well done
So that’s the thing. People say that they’ll never retire and that it sounds boring, but the reality is much different. You just find other things to do. What you’ll find is that when you stop working for someone else, you start working for yourself… and if you’re a determined individual you’ll be busier than you’ve ever been in your life. Just something to consider.
I barely lasted six months or a year without a job last time it happened, and before that I was bored out of my mind for four years
Okay but like, why don’t you do something for yourself instead of working for someone else.
I’m convinced people with this attitude can’t think for themselves and must be directed by a superior or they’re useless.
Focus on yourself instead.
I do do things for myself. What I do for work is also my hobby, but I have zero self control. I would happily dive into my side projects for weeks on end just to have them crash and burn from burnout or from my getting side-tracked.
Last time I wasn’t working I lasted about six months before I had to get back to some sort of work simply because my own personal projects became extremely boring. Even things I have put years into at this point, I ended up getting bored quickly even though I hadn’t increased my workload
To be clear, I wouldn’t be working full-time, but I enjoy the unique challenges that work brings me. It gives me things to think about and solve that I wouldn’t have considered, and that helps keep the burnout at bay
I would happily dive into my side projects for weeks on end just to have them crash and burn from burnout or from my getting side-tracked. … I had to get back to some sort of work simply because my own personal projects became extremely boring
You’re really just reaffirming my position here. You can’t keep yourself interested without having someone else direct you.
No, I just need to be better about moderating myself. I still work on my side projects quite a lot, but having something else to do helps keep me motivated.
I’ve been out of a job and going to school through the VA for 4 years. I love it. I do projects to improve my home,I visit family without limits, and go to different states on a whim just to see them. If I want to go to see or do anything in the middle of the day I just leave. Working until your too old to do anything isn’t sounding great.
I still do quite a bit. I’m a remote worker so I travel relatively frequently, and my work is generous with vacation time. I don’t feel over-worked and simply just enjoy some of the challenge that work brings me. It helps that I genuinely enjoy my work because what I do for work is also my hobby that I already do outside of work, it just ensures I don’t stay fixated on a single project which helps prevent burnout.
There’s very few things I’ve found so far that are genuinely entertaining to participate in, and splitting up my time helps me in keeping those few things entertaining in perpituity instead of burning myself out
Firstly, I appreciate your candid response. It is great that you enjoy what you do not many people get that. Secondly, congratulations on the remote position. I am sure that helps a lot to prevent burn out.
A belief in the future is actually a foundational requirement of capitalism.
What we have here is neo-fudalism, where the points are made up and the people believe in nothing.
Maybe, just maybe, Gen-Z is not saving as much for the future because (1) they have less money to save due to inflation, and (2) they don’t foresee a viable future. These reasons can also explain the parenthood rate dropping lately.
I saw a report that someone my age will need $3m to retire at 65. The average total income from 22-65 for people my age is around $1.4m. So I guess we never get to retire.
I saw a report that someone my age will need $3m to retire at 65. The average total income from 22-65 for people my age is around $1.4m. So I guess we never get to retire.
Compound interest might get you to that goal, maybe, if you start saving now.
The “start saving now” part is the bit that fucks most people.
When over half of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, saving is not even a possibility.
It seems that a lot of things in the US are carefully designed to keep you in servitude to your current employer, which I find a little ironic coming from the land of the free.
Where I live, Australia, employers are required to put in approx 10 percent of an employee’s full time wages into a superannuation fund. This is linked via reportable wages to the tax office and companies will eventually find themselves under a lot of unpleasant attention from the Australian Tax Office if they don’t make regular payments for you.
This is basically “invisible” to workers, it’s essentially factored into the cost to have an employee by the business.The superannuation fund can be a “default preferred” one selected by the business, or an employee nominated one, and you can transfer/roll over your accumulated funds between any superannuation fund you like as you hop between jobs. You can draw from it in some specific dire circumstances, but usually you can only access it at retirement age.
For most Australians it ticks over in the background by itself. Most super funds easily beat inflation by a fair margin most of the time, and definitely in the long term. The tax office keeps track of balances for you and gives you an easy way to see what’s where and the option to roll any scattered amounts into your current main superannuation fund.
You can also contribute extra to your super fund and there are tax benefits if you do. The government actively encourages investment in super, because that way they don’t have to provide much in the way of old age pensions come 2050 or so when all workers will have some sort of decent retirement amount.
Is there any form of “mandatory” saving like that in the US? I know you guys have company pension plans of some sort, is there a government version?
That’s essentially what social security is (except you can’t access it until retirement), but it’s constantly being attacked with death by a thousand cuts, so most people under 50 don’t really expect to see much of a return.
It’s pretty much the opposite in Australia with our setup. Those starting work now will end up with the required 3-ish million at retirement if they work the standard average job here for most of their life.
But I think what you refer to as “social security” is the government “aged pension” here which is about $550 a week or so. That’s enough for a pensioner to live a very modest lifestyle here if their accommodation has been sorted previously.
It’s also suffering the same kind of squeeze you mention and is means-tested on a sliding scale so the more you can afford not to have it, the less you get of it.
Right now most boomers are on the aged pension to some degree because superannuation schemes here only really kicked in during the last 15-20 years of their working lives so they didn’t have much of a balance.
Probably in the next 30 years or so only the truly destitute will be able to get it and the rest of us will have to rely on what we’ve saved.
Do you get the pension if you don’t put into the system? I was self-employed for years, and didn’t pay into the social security system for those years because I really couldn’t afford to since my business was so modest and I was the only employee. So my SS payout will be minuscule, whereas my wife, who has worked for public libraries since leaving university, will get a small but useful if not survivable check every month. So basically if you don’t pay in, you don’t get to have a retirement pension from the government.
I’m lucky because I stand to inherit a sizable amount of money when my mother passes away that I can save for retirement, but most people aren’t that lucky and will have to live on scraps.
If inflation is as high as it currently is compared to the collected interest it does not matter how much compounding is done, the buying power of that savings will flatline. Add to this equation the need to eat and live now, the amount most put away is minimal and when something comes up even those meager savings are wiped out.
The math in most households is not working out. Debt is becoming peoples rainy day fund, people are unable to even pay their property taxes with the now insufficient government minimum pensions (and a lot of people don’t think these pensions will even be there when they are eligible). This leaves people selling things (reverse mortgage, downsizing, moving to lower COL areas, etc) taking on debt to live now and generally giving up.
If you put away $50 a week for 10 years you end up with (based on a generous average 2% rate) $28,554.34. This seems like a good amount but keep in mind that you put $26,000 into this. That $2554.24 does not beat the loss of buying power over 10 years. You need much closer or better returns vs inflation for this to work in your favour. I was once told that you would be better off buying some raw metal like lead, or copper as the return on simple materials at least keeps up with costs.
You’re absolutely right, but I’ll just point out that superannuation (pension) funds in Australia are hitting 8 percent annual returns over a 30 year timeframe. You need a broader investment base to do that, and that’s hard for individuals to do by themselves. How do you diversify your $50 a week investment to maximise return? You can’t.
Here, superannuation funds do all the heavy lifting for you, it’s mandatory for employers to put a nominal amount of each pay into one. There are no minimum investment amounts with them and fees are waived if the balance is below a few thousand, so even if it’s $10 a week you get something back eventually.
So it’s possible to have it work if your government sets things up right.
Oh I am not saying people should be the ones wholly responsible for their retirement portfolio, and congrats for having a competent government pension option. I would love to have access to something better then the market equivalent of roulette.
Hell in Canada the pension plan (that you can not get enough to live off at the moment) got a stunning 1.3% return this year. And unlike other plans you need to pay extra for 40 years to get additional funds at the end (no one I know of even thinks of doing this). And some parts of the county want to spin off there own pension plan (Alberta) even though most expect it to perform worse (due to a smaller investment base and using a bad private firm to run it).
savings interest rate was less than 0.1% for about the last 10 years so even thats not looking too solid
There is no magic number you need. $3m will get you some lifestyle. You could retire at 40 with only $300k if you want to live the lifestyle that means (move to very low cost of living area where you walk to groceries). And there is a good chance social security will continue to provide a minimal income once you reach whatever age.
Not enough income to live indoors, but income nonetheless
I know places in the us where it is enough. Towns with populations of 500 are generally cheap. Not much to do in them.
Let’s say optimistically that you die at 70. That’s 30 years living on 300k, so 30k per year on rent, food, utilities and medical. You could live indoors for that amount in some parts of America in 2023. But what about in 2053? Inflation could have a huge impact on your cost of living and if you’re already living close to the bread line it’s hard to find savings anywhere. You could put your money in stocks but likewise you’re at the mercy of the market. It might be fine but if the market tanks when you’re 65 you could be in big trouble.
$300k ÷ 30yr = $10k/yr
To put it in perspective, working minimum wage ($7.25/hr) full time would earn around $15,000 in a year.
You’re right. In a 1 bedroom in a rural city in a low cost of living state living as a freegan who never needs anything like medications you might be able to live off that.
I for one think that the situation with social security is that my parents and grandparents took one of the best things my country ever did, robbed it blind, and pissed all over it. Fuck. That. Shit.
And yeah I’m prepared to work the rest of my life until I get too old to work and then die homeless. That’s not what people should live like. We had something beautiful and let it fall into disrepair
I said you could. That you wouldn’t want to is my point.
Historically no young generation has saved a lot. It is when you get older you realize how much it matters.
People who grew up in the Great Depression did. Silent generation remembers that…
Also Millennials are (historically) huge savers from living through multiple downturns.
Main reason I never had kids was I was screwed over by just about everything financially. Student loans, housing/“financial crisis”, medical system, deck stacked against self-employment, predatory credit cards. Great job, USA. Then the same cunts who did that bemoan low birth rates and cry about immigrants.
There are TOO MANY procedures/fees/tax/unsafe ways to lose everything you have or be in a position where you will never be able to live without constantly being demanded to provide more work/cash/time.
Agreed, life wasn’t this shakey in the past. Depression era: certainly, but it was caused by the same BS we are dealing with now. For example, it’s amazing that medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy and thus degradation of quality of life in the US, and there’s little will among politicians or citizens to do much about it. You could save up enough money to retire, even have good insurance, and then be screwed because you or any member of your family had a severe illness or accident, and lose everything.
Even if you make it to 65, Medicare Hospice at the end of your life is designed to wipe you out. So no inheritance…
Right, The hope for Gen X/Z has been “just wait until until your boomer parents die! Then you can have a normal life!” and then it’s oh, sorry, guess you have $4 million in medical bills if they don’t just die instantly.
Despite all that, things are overall better than previous generations. There is and always has been bad news. Life has always been a constant string of disasters, yet when you pause for a moment to reflect you realize that despite the bad news, overall it wasn’t that bad.
In many countries, yes. People in India and China for instance are on average more likely to not be in severe poverty and subsistence vs 40 years ago, though western-style modernization has caused it’s own problems. However most people are less well off in the US than we were in the 50s-90s. Reagan economics seems to have been ‘wait, why are we letting the middle class exist? We could just keep all their money’. Seriously though i was completely fucked over by what I mentioned and it’s only based on luck that I’m not homeless.
Most people in the Us are better off than the 50’s-90’s. They may feel worse off, but that is not an objective measure.
Are you fucking high?
Unlikely. Getting high is more often associated with realizing that shit is fucked.
There are lots of objective measures.
is one for you.Sure. That is the position I was speaking from.
The argument of people being ‘better off’ now is that technology is better and more available. It is much cheaper to buy a big 4k flat panel tv now than a black and white tv with four channels and no remote back in the 50s. We have the Internet, smartphones, better health care, video games, music, streaming services, cheap air travel, food from all over the world, robot vacuum cleaners, air conditioning etc. etc.
What we don’t have so much of is cheap housing, good secure jobs, any reasonable degree of income equality etc.
deleted by creator
Right, so my question is whether quality of life or satisfaction has improved. I’d say it has not.
Go find old newspapers and read letters to the editor. The exact problems were different ,but the same ideas .
When people could afford a decent home on a single job paid minimum wage? Not so sure.
If you were white, sure. Less likely otherwise.
Which was a huge bullshit injustice which need correcting and hurt a lot of people.
But now we’re at the point where skin color doesn’t matter in this scenario. Only bank balances matter. And you probably don’t have a high enough one to afford a house no matter what color your skin is.
Okay, fair point that racial equity and access to opportunity has increased significantly in most of the country. Gender equality has come a long way as well, though it’s also a “ha ha you have to work now too and your family is still worse off than it was, good luck with paying for day care”
I don’t think this is necessarily negative. I’m a millennial in that 44% and I’m in no hurry to retire because my profession is my identity. I hope I live a long time, but I also hope that I can work until I die. What would I even do if I didn’t work? I tried taking a year off once but I lasted a month before I was bored and looking for job.
(I don’t mean to sound smug - I get that I’m lucky. But I’m also not that unusual.)
my profession is my identity
How very sad for you.
Eh, no one says “how sad” when a person’s Identity is creating art. I’m an engineer so I create practical things, but that doesn’t mean I have less passion for what I do.
Having passion for something and using it as the basis of your identity are two very different things. If a painter says that painting is their identity, yes, I would say that was sad too.
What would you say is a good basis for one’s identity?
Why should any one thing be your whole identity?
In a way i can see why you think you’re lucky as you will suffer less in these terrible times, but damn, there are so many things I want to do in life that I’ll run out of time before I run out of things.
I am also a millenial and have a decent non-shitty job, but I’d drop that in a second if I didn’t need it. It takes such a chunk of my life.
So much propaganda in this article.
Knowing you won’t be able to retire, and making plans accordingly, is acceptance of the situation.
It’s not a fucking preference.
I could see some people wanting low level jobs in their retirement because they don’t know what to do with their time otherwise.
But it should absolutely not be a requirement.
For sure.
A some people do just like to work.
But I think most people would prefer to do their own things, work on their own projects and hobbies, instead of someone else’s.
Acting like it’s a preference to work past retirement, instead of a the financial reality for most of us, is such a load of horseshit I was tempted to write a complaint to the editor that this wasn’t published as an opinion.
Definitely. When I was a teenager this retired guy Al worked at chick fil a with me, not because he needed to but he wanted to. He had a cushy position too. He would just go talk to customers and make sure they had refills and stuff. Great guy, taught me a lot about life.
deleted by creator
Was this in 2008?
“soft life” is a lifestyle that embraces comfort and low stress, prioritizing personal growth and mental wellness.
What a fucking garbage take.
This isn’t a lifestyle. This is how life used to be for most people.
News update! Young people enjoy freezing temperatures so much they get coats. More at 8.
So sick if seeing these articles framing “millennials/gen z killed xyz” as a preference or a want.
Remember when we killed the diamond wedding ring industry? We can’t pay our rent ffs.
That industry deserved death tbh, and so does the diamond mining industry in general
They used to advertise a diamond engagement ring as costing ‘three months’ salary’ since that was painful, but affordable.
Who can afford to sacrifice one month’s salary anymore?
This is it, right here. I’m a little older than the age range listed in the article and I literally became a nurse with the explicit expectation that I will have to work until I can’t stand up anymore. At least this pays well and gives me lots of options for working environments that might be a little more compatible with old age.
But the idea that I’ll ever be able to not work AND also afford healthcare? Impossible. Not going to happen. Might as well accept it.
Lol even the summary says what they really mean
3 in 4 of Gen Z would rather have a better quality of life than have extra money in their banks, a report by Intuit shows.
“3/4 of gen z know that the world is probably gonna be pretty fucked up when they reach retirement age, so they’re doing their best to live an ok life before that happens”
Literally all of the climate change stuff they said was going to happen 50 years from now is happening now. So yeah I’m going to be 70 years old fighting for scraps with a billion refugees in lower Canada. Why the fuck shouldn’t I make sure I have fun now? The odds of getting enough money to get out of that situation are vanishingly small so fuck it.
what the fuck is up with all these pansy-ass terms suits keep coming up with? “quiet quitting” and now “soft saving”?
fuck this marshmallow flavoured cyanide bullshit
Neither of those terms were developed by suits. They both were popularized in the Gen Z social sphere, namely TikTok, and then well after they went viral and had plenty of adherents, started being picked up in the normal media cycle of regurgitating whatever is happening on social media and seeing what sticks.
They’re both just a rejection of “old” cultural norms, in this case specifically a rejection of “hustle culture” and to a lesser extent the FIRE (i.e. early retirement) movement, both of which had their heyday on the internet many years ago.
And like…this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Gen Z is typically much more concerned about mental health (focus on now) than prior generations, has a very doom and gloom outlook for the future (focus on now), and is the first generation to be raised by people who didn’t tell them “just work hard and you’ll be fine eventually” (focus on now). Is it any surprise that they’re less forward looking? What do they have to look forward to? Call it cyanide if you want, but while I don’t necessarily agree with it, it certainly feels like a natural development to me.
It’s a way to turn people off of what they really mean.
“Quiet quitting” is just doing your job. Trying to make it seem like breaking your back to help someone profit is the minimum to do unless you want to be branded a quitter.
“Soft saving” is apparently the requirement of working til your dead because no one gets paid enough to…hard save…I guess.
No no, they don’t die, they “soft live”.
yes i definitely didn’t know that
now go find literally anyone else to explain the obvious to
Ask a question, albeit rhetorical. Get answer that seems to agree with your stance.
Be a dick about it.
You got many friends?
Also thanks for explaining them, I had no clue what soft saving meant.
it tracks that this place is home to the socially unaware and the illiterate
do you seriously just go through comments sections without reading the article? fuck, critical thinking is a lost art.
dodge
Read in the best announcer voice in your head: “D-d-d-d-douchebag!”
Killer Instinct announcer voice works best for stuttered utterances.
what the fuck is up with all these pansy-ass terms suits keep coming up with? “quiet quitting” and now “soft saving”?
It’s their attempt at managing the narrative in their favor.
As a millennial, I probably would also want to work a bit in retirement for fun, but not like the job I work now, something more chill or maybe freelance projects.
Obviously that’d require having lots of retirement savings so that working isn’t a requirement
Lots of people start their working careers with the mindset of continuing to do some form of work in retirement. As you get closer, that opinion often changes.
Fair, guess we’ll have to see :p
In the meantime, enjoy the ride!
“traditional pensions” is a misleading lie. The idea of ceasing to work after reaching a certain age, has been around since around the 18th century, quite new stuff considering how long homo sapiens is around.
And don’t get angry at me, I personally think it’s a great thing, I’m not an entrepeneur, I’m salaried and I’m hoping to retire eventually, but how the world economics is going, I’m not holding my breath.
Retirement plans worked great during the wars, lots of fine men never reclaiming their retirement money after years of paying for it because they’re all KIA. More money to share with fewer people.
Then, after the war, we got the baby boom, lots of fresh meat eager to work to support the retirement of the previous workforce, or what remains of that, after all the PTSD and diseases.
Now? Since you are reading this here on Lemmy, I’m supposing you’re tech savy, educated and curious. So you already know population is shrinking around the (first) world. Retirement plans as we know are not sustainable.
What I suggest, is talk to your bank, your consultant, your insurance. Figure out what kind of products they offer as “private retirement plans” and what’s their suggestion. Don’t expect the government to do something for you (especially in the US).
Do it yesterday, if not possible, then as soon as you can. The earlier you start planning your future, the better.
And if you change your mind, you could always withdraw that money and buy a house, which is something almost impossible until you escape the “living paycheck to paycheck” mentality.
“private retirement plans”
Were you speaking towards a SEP/IRA?
Don’t expect the government to do something for you (especially in the US).
When everything is said and done, I can’t see them ever ever letting Social Security fail, at all. That would truly be the spark of a revolution if so.
Older voters are the best voters, so at the end of the day they’ll make sure that stuff stays intact, one way or the other. Even if it means they have to build less battleships, etc.
Older voters are the best voters, so at the end of the day they’ll make sure that stuff stays intact, one way or the other.
you know? that’s actually a valid point.
Living paycheck to paycheck isn’t a mentality… But pushing personal responsibility for what is a societal issue certainly is.
I can agree with you. Thankfully I live in Europe where it’s good ethics for politicians thinking about societal issues, but in the “land of the free” that’s a luxury most people don’t expect. So help yourself.
So help yourself.
Trying to get the “Who watches the Watchers” crowd to reform themselves is always a problematic thing to do.
The real test of a true democracy.
are currently between 27 and 42 years old — are significantly more likely to want to do some form of paid work during retirement.
Want is not the right word there, and it completely changes the message. This is a fucking hit job, trying to convince people that company executives stealing pension plans, and a failed society that abandons its elderly, is something young people desire.
Want is not the right word there, and it completely changes the message.
Or perhaps it’s the right word, because it completely changes the message in precisely the way they intend.
It’s certainly the intended word. But it’s not “right” by any reasonable metric of correctness.
As a person over 40 years old, let me be clear: I never want to work.
As someone between 27 and 42, I love getting shit accomplished but I have never in my life wanted to work
I would have retired 20 years ago if I could. I will never understand people that say they don’t know what they’d do with themselves in retirement. What unimaginative and boring people they must be. I have a thousand interests I can’t fully pursue because of work obligations.
Let me be clear: I want to retire, and I want to do so under ten years from now.
This was my stepdad, always said that. I just would tell him “whatever you want.” And it wasn’t for a lack of hobbies, he has plenty. I just don’t understand the mindset of people that want to “work.” Like, I love making things and “working” on my own things, but never have I gone to work and happy to be there. To work for a manager that micromanages me, another manager who want me to falsify records, (that btw it won’t come back to him but to me,) a GM who would put undo pressure on you to stay longer then you were scheduled. Fuck that place. Nothing made me happier when my situation changed and didn’t need to pick up extra hours. Six hour mark rolled around and I was out. I’d take that time go to the gym, go on a bike ride, go rock climbing, go paddle boarding because I sure as hell enjoyed working on myself more then I ever did at any job. And to work so hard for so little, damn if America isn’t just on large pyramid scheme.
I’m one of those people. If not pointed in a specific direction by someone else I’ll just aimlessly do nothing but kill time for months on end. I have a couple interests, but nothing that could keep me occupied for an extra 40 hours a week.
This isn’t to say I love working, but I don’t hate it either. I’d rather have work than no work, even for the same amount of money.
Just do shit until you say “hey that was nifty” or run out of money. Whatever comes first.
In older vocabulary, “want” was actually the stronger form of “need”.
Perhaps we’re returning to tradition in more ways than one?
deleted by creator
Industrial society and it’s consequences have been a disaster for the human race
Yet it’s also the best thing that has ever happened to us lol
Wow what a boomer article. Most young people just don’t expect the current systems and institutions to last that long. Millenials have lived through several financial crises and economic downturns with no chance for improvement in sight. It just gets worse until the generation responsible for it dies out.
So I’d much rather live in the now making memories of adventures and good times with friends & family as long as i’m able to, than have a bit more money in the bank that won’t be worth shit when i’m old. Peace of mind is great and all but the future is an illusion you can never fully prepare for.
Wow what a boomer article.
No, that’s a capitalist “greed is good” article in disguise.
Some of us Boomers actually wonder WTF the ‘New Deal’ went, and lament it’s loss for our grand/children.
Seriously, stop buying into and dividing up one side that would stand together against that kind of thing.
It’s interesting that we have a generation of politicians who refuse to retire, meanwhile the generations behind them see the option to retire going away. Maybe there is a connection?
hmm. like … maybe they’re immortal?
For that they would need youthful energy… From children’s blood or something… Yeah that must be it 😂
There must be an advocation for a universal monthly social security payment (and expanded universal medicaid) from birth. Fund them in the short term by eliminating the taxable income cap for OASDI.
If we were in a functioning society that responded to actual issues… Gotta finish the civil war first tho.
Taxable income cap for what?
OASDI is the program name for social security. It stands for Old Age, Survivors Disability Insurance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)
