My recent column on "un-retiring" struck a major chord with readers — some 1,500 of you weighed in on the pros and cons of going back to work after having decided to pack it in after a lifetime of labor.
As I wrote, many retirees have stepped off the sidelines and headed back to work, especially after many were forced to retire earlier than expected during the pandemic. According to a new report from T. Rowe Price, around 7% of retirees are looking for work in retirement, while 20% say they’re already working part time or full time.
But if our reader reactions are any indication, those numbers might just be higher.
The following is an edited sampler of some of those 1,500 comments, along with their web monikers — and my take on them. Feel free to weigh in, of course, in the comments section at the end of this sequel.
Let’s get started.
S: “You need to be able to weather an early financial storm in your first few years of retirement. Start building cash reserves a few years before.”
Me: Yup. Having a comfortable 401(k), or other retirement plan coffer, matters — but so does having funds invested in easy-to-tap accounts if you’ll be using those savings for living expenses in the near future. My abridged advice: Divvy up your retirement savings into money you need now and a nest egg that can stay invested for a decade from now or longer. That means setting a certain sum in cash accounts so you can stay cool through market gyrations.
Jbsilver: “When I retired after 40 years on the job, I realized my life revolved around my job. My friends were my co-workers. And most of the activities I did outside work were with some of them. I was lost because I had no structure to form my days around. I went back to work even though it's seasonal and part-time. I travel in the off season. I love what I do. It keeps me MOVING and social and gives me something to look forward to. Not to mention a few extra bucks.”
Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s not all about the money when you’re working at this time of life. Sure it’s nice to have some cabbage — yup, that’s what we used to call money — coming in as a safety net and to stave off dipping into retirement accounts, or pushing back taking your Social Security benefit. But at the heart of it is the positive social and emotional benefits of working on a flexible schedule. I hear it all the time from retirees who slip into a kind of depression or hollowness when they lose their work identity. Plus: You can’t ignore the "use it or lose it" aspect of staying mentally sharp, which continuing to work can help with.
Marco Polo: “I retired early at 59, got a union pension, 401k savings-which I drew a monthly stipend from until started drawing Social Security at 62. I’m currently 66, have no debts [haven't had any for 20 yrs], got everything I want.....The secret of retiring is: NO DEBT…”
Thanks, Marco Polo. You get it. Debt is a dream killer when it comes to retirement. Ideally, you should start focusing on getting lean and mean a few years before you retire. You start by taking a hard look at your budget. I know, eye-roll, but do it. Pay down credit card debts and other large financial obligations. Consider moving to a location where the cost of living is lower. One caveat here: One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to Social Security is claiming too early at a much lower benefit. Pushing back tapping your benefits from your full retirement age, or FRA — which ranges in age from 66 to 67 — until age 70, you earn delayed retirement credits. Those come to roughly an 8%-per-year annual increase in your benefit for each year until you hit 70 when the credits stop accruing.
So what happens when you do — or try to — go back to work? Dave and Dr. George weighed in:
Dave: “I went back after a year being retired and I have these young team leaders giving me a hard time because of my age. I am 66…It seems to me like these young people in the workplace now are hateful and rude and they definitely do not like to work with older people. They always called me old man all the time and ask me every day when I was going to retire…I am sick of it.”
Dr. George: “Even retirees who have enough for a comfortable retirement may want to return to the workforce because they have exceptional skills and miss the action. The problem is that few businesses are willing to consider workers over age 65, which means an entire generation of skills is being wasted. Well-qualified seniors often send out resumes and receive no responses, simply because of their age, even if they are willing to work as contract employees without benefits (retirees already have them). Our business leaders need to become more flexible.”
Oh boy, that sounds familiar. A survey published by AARP revealed that nearly 4 in 5 older workers say they've seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace — the highest share since the organization began surveying on the topic in 2003. A friend of mine who works in a senior position for the federal government told me that a hard part for her working in her office is the clique-like behavior of younger colleagues. She’s 55. They freeze her out, even if it’s not intentional.
The good news is there are some signs that it’s starting to shift as demographic changes force employers to consider older workers, who often prove to be the happiest employees. Over 3 in 5 employers said they gave a “great deal” or “quite a bit of consideration” to job applicants age 50 and older when recruiting in 2022, according to a new Transamerica Institute workplace survey. And more than half of employers (53%) agree with the statement, “Many employees at my company expect to work past age 65 or do not plan to retire,” according to the report.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they are actually hiring them! The reality is that older workers are reinvesting in their skills, looking after their health, and pursuing career switches unlike previous generations, especially coming out of the pandemic. (Editor's note: For more pick up Kerry's recent book, "In Control at 50+".)
M&M: “I retired after 45 years and took it easy for about 16 months. I found a job in a completely new work career, which I always had an interest. It has been a huge learning experience. Supervisors are patient 98% of the time, but it's not age, it's my limited, but still learning, knowledge. My attitude is great and enjoying this!!”
Hey M&M, I love that you jumped to a new field and career. That's energizing and learning new things is simply a joy and is a big factor in what makes us love our work.
But I have to add here even though you just alluded to it: Don't sweat that small amount of time when your boss's patience wears thin. It’s not just employers who are ageist. We often set ourselves up for that moniker. One of the challenges for older workers is figuring out how to work effectively, and happily, for a boss who is younger. This generational swing dance is well underway in small and large businesses. My advice: Manage your attitude. Keep in mind that you were once that brash young boss on the rise, full of savvy ideas and new ways of doing things. So listen carefully to what the boss has to say and respect the position. While you’re fretting that your expertise isn’t valued, your supervisor, in fact, may be bristling that you’re acting like a parent or mentor, and not giving the proper credit for his or her education and experience.
Ibsolutions: “I unretired after a year because I am really good at what I do and my company did a lousy job of extracting my knowledge before I left. The younger person they replaced me with can't do 1/10 of what I did. So now I consult back to them at twice what they were paying me before.”
This is classic. One of the best ways and one that has been in many white-collar retirees' wheelhouses is the ability to step back into work as a consultant for a former employer. But it does require keeping your skills sharp—and keeping up-to-date on technology and your industry.
If you aren’t learning, you aren’t earning.
If your work will require a deeper digital skill dive, for instance, check out training available online from your local library, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, and YouTube. Microsoft provides on-demand training videos for its apps. Google provides workshops for its office apps suite, including Docs, Sheets, and Slides. GetSetUp.io offers live classes for adults on everything from Excel Basics to Zoom protocol. AARP Skills Builder for Work is a suite of free courses including Microsoft Office fundamentals and other options.
Tellthetruth: “Retirees keep falling behind. Latest CPI inflation report shows inflation is 3.7% and shelter inflation (e.g. rents) is even higher at 7.2%. The Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) for 2024 is 3.2%. I expect more retirees will be going back to work because social security isn't keeping up with inflation, especially rents.”
Tell it like it is,Tellthetruth. Inflation is still creating headwinds for retirees. And work, often part time, is increasingly part of the retirement picture. A recent column I wrote on the new cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2024 Social Security beneficiaries bears this out. The Social Security Administration, the federal government agency that oversees the benefits, announced a 3.2% COLA for 2024. That’s well above the 2.6% average over the past two decades, but it’s less than half the 8.7% increase retirees saw in 2023, which was the biggest in four decades.
The adjustment will provide some comfort to the more than 70 million retired senior citizens and disabled workers who have faced higher prices this year, but it may not be enough to alleviate ongoing budget concerns.
The following comment offers a solution.
LACityProf: “Everybody is telling their story here. So here's mine. I retired from teaching community college at 73. Then due mostly to inflation, I started to teach a class online from home at 75. It's a great gig and completely made up for the impact that inflation had on me. I'm lucky I can still do it. The reason I can is that when full time, I was an early adopter of online teaching and the tech knowledge required for that. I see other teachers struggling financially right now who don't have the skills to return to the workplace because they eschewed the tech advancements needed.”
Many readers were sympatico with LACityProf.
Michael: “I work full time at 79 years of age and I love it. I love having lunch with clients and prospective new customers. I love strategizing and creating new products and new marketing techniques. I even started a new company 3 years ago with the wife and two of my older children who are just awesome in building this future for themselves. A cruise, a week in Hawaii and I am totally bored. A round of Golf is nice with friends and my family but work - Wow! - I can tell you. That is a real High! I don't have time to grow old. I am having too much fun even with some added occasional stress. I really love the Life!”
Bravo. Doing what you enjoy is the essence of life. Many people who are living longer, healthier lives than previous generations are finding that, as my friend Marc Freedman, founder and co-CEO of CoGenerate and author of “How to Live Forever,” likes to say, “the fountain of youth is the fountain with youth.”
Finally, a contrarian point of view.
Super Rob: “You're never going to get very good at pickleball if you keep going back into the workforce. You must dedicate yourself to the craft.”
Thanks, Super Rob. Talk about a dink shot. And thanks to all the readers who weighed in.
Read more: How to find out your 2024 Social Security COLA increase
Kerry Hannon is a Senior Reporter and Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a workplace futurist, a career and retirement strategist, and the author of 14 books, including "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in The New World of Work" and "Never Too Old To Get Rich." Follow her on Twitter @kerryhannon.
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