We live in a “Just in time” society of instant gratification due to the overwhelming number of daily decisions we make, and the availability of technological communication. In fact, our lives have become so dependent on being organized by technological templates, that if a widely accepted one is not available, we tend to ignore that detail until it becomes a pain point worthy of our attention. It’s Time to Retire “Retirement”
Retirement planning and preparation tends to focus solely on the financial aspects, while the real pain points of planning—surrounding the mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of retirement—tend to be ignored. The reason is due to a lack of a technological template that can address all the pain point aspects and bring a holistic approach to retirement lifestyle planning.
These pain point aspects of our lives surround the second five decades of life, including:
- My Reflective Fifties
- My Second Career Sixties
- My Bucket List Seventies
- My Aches and Pains Eighties
- My Last Hurrah Nineties
As a society, great attention and money is paid to connecting us to an aspect of the workforce that will financially support us until our early to mid-sixties, when convention says it’s time to retire. Along the way, we are to save and invest enough money in a private entity to supplement our government-sponsored and taxpayer-supported Social Security pension plan, which is now in danger of defaulting.
A pivot to update the programming of our Social Security trust fund is called for; however, the only pivot seems to point towards eliminating the fund and having the individual take complete ownership and responsibility to fund their retirement years.
It’s Time to Retire “Retirement”
Few people really understand the full impact this could have on what they consider their “golden” years. In fact, our society paints a picture of our retirement lifestyle being some sort of spring break for seniors. For many, nothing could be further from the truth. But for the well-planned or affluent, this could be attained.
Our retirement lifestyle is dependent on our ability to understand and make choices on how we will live when we decide it’s time to retire. The 65+ years will no longer depend on our ability to accumulate wealth, but instead how we assimilate healthy activities into our daily routine. Current statistics show us failing in this area, as our post-fifties profile reveals a society filled with obese couch dwellers consuming hours of television each day. We need to get off the couch and get moving—but first, we need to get away from the spring break for seniors mentality, be honest with ourselves, and promote the benefits of a healthy senior ifestyle, both physically and cognitively.
We must get away from the misnomer that with age comes cognitive decline—thus the individual is no longer a useful member of the workforce and it’s time to retire—stepping aside so youth can advance and cognitively execute the necessary aspects of the job.
Our society is so awash with ageism that it is an accepted practice to lay off older workers over younger. It is accepted to rid a company of the experience and wisdom of a 60+ worker in favor of retaining a lesser experienced co-worker because they are more fiscally attractive. Over time, their less costly status will pay for their upskilling and through this process the company’s short-term bottom line gets enhanced.
Think about throwing away 40 years of experience in favor of a less costly worker who is less qualified!
It’s time to transition how we think about workforce planning. It’s time to protect our mature workforce from extinction. It’s time to protect a company’s 40-year investment and pivot our succession plans to come up with new and cost-effective ways to take advantage of these experienced and wisdom-filled workers.
It’s time to retire “retirement.” Upskill them instead!
- Make them team mentors, not bosses.
- Make them temporary replacements when others go out on leave.
- Take advantage of their institutional knowledge and make them specialists rather than generalists.
- Compensate them in line with what they do, not who they are, or what they had previously done.
Work gives many of us purpose, identity and in many cases, the money we need to live on while delaying our dependency on Social Security and our nest egg.
Yes, if we come up with new ways to program the mature workers and keep them employed doing meaningful things for them and for the profitability of the company, we can help reform Social Security in a big way.
Attention CEOs, CFOs and CHROs, along with your boards of directors: it’s time to start thinking differently. It’s time to protect and repurpose many of the assets in your organization. It’s time to lead our politicians to a real cost-effective solution for the Social Security crisis that they cannot seem to handle.
It’s time for a change. You can help lead that change with your input or let a bunch of politicians keep the discussion at a juvenile level. The choice is yours.
About Bob Foley
Bob Foley is your Retirement Lifestyle Coach and you can reach him by email at bob@retirementlifestylecoach.com or simply by scheduling time on his calendar.
