Once upon a time, you worked until you could go on the pension and then shuffled off into the sunset. These days, there’s no such thing as a typical retirement.
Whether it’s down to baby boomers reinventing retirement, older Australians being forced to work longer, or COVID disrupting the best laid plans, is a moot point. While our retirement income system is stuck in a 20th century straight-jacket, 21st century retirees are busting out all over.
Some have retirement thrust upon them via redundancy or illness. Others enjoy the freedom to ease into retirement gradually, swapping the daily grind for part-time work, starting a business, volunteering, a senior gap year or passion projects.
Not only are we living longer than previous generations, but our expectations of retirement living are also higher. There comes a time for many when the body may be saying “give me a break” but the head is saying “just a few dollars more”.
Whatever the reason, the number of people working well into their 60s and 70s has almost tripled over the past 20 years. According to Ai Group Economics and Research, 32% of 65–69 year olds were still working in 2019, up from 12% 20 years earlier, along with 15% of those aged 70–74 (5% in 1999) and 7% of 75–79 year olds.
While some people are continuing to work well into their 60s and 70s because they enjoy it, in other cases necessity is the mother of invention. With the age of eligibility for the Age Pension gradually increasing from 66 today to 67 by 2024, the trend is likely to continue. SuperGuide spoke to three people whose retirement didn’t go as planned.
The second career
National Seniors chief advocate, Ian Henschke, a former teacher and journalist, has experienced a typically atypical ‘retirement’.
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