Working Life

ADS by FUSION

Picture an average American who decides to stop working at the age of 65. Got it? Now guess how many years he’ll have to enjoy his post-retirement before he passes away.

I’ve asked this to a bunch of friends and coworkers over the last two weeks. I’ve heard answers like “15-20 years” or at the very least, 10 years. But none of those is even close.

The actual answer? 18 months.

18 months! A year and a half! In a 2002 study on Boeing retirees, researchers found that those who worked til the age of 65 faced significant health problems as a result of putting their bodies under work-related stress for that long (basically forcing them into retirement). Not surprisingly, these workers passed away shortly after due to their health complications. According to the numbers, for every year a person worked past the age of 55, he/she died two years earlier.

If it was this bad 6 years ago, how much worse is it today? People are working more hours than ever before. They’re also pushing retirement back a couple years because they want to pad their nest egg. The perception is that if we make the immediate sacrifice, we’ll be better off in the long run. The reality might turn out to be quite the opposite. Happy Monday :)

Update (25 Nov 2008): In responding to one of the comments, I’ve come across some other articles saying that the study is outdated and not completely valid.

Here’s the original link (which now has a message to reflect the disputes):
http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/InformationPage/WhyRetireYoung.html

Here’s another link with related studies/questions:
http://acpilot.blogspot.com/2006/11/does-retiring-later-mean-dying-sooner.html