Billionaire Carlos Slim said that boosting the retirement age to 70 would help to prop up the world’s struggling economies, according to Mexican press reports cited by Forbes. The Mexican telecom mogul argued that the current retirement age was put in place during a time when the typical employee worked a more physical job and people died at an earlier age.
Think about it. Chances are, your great-grandparent, perhaps even your grandparent, did not "retire." They might have done something different - for example, in an agrarian society, they might have shucked corn on the porch instead of standing out in the midday sun with a scythe at the age of 80, but they did something. They adapted with their age.
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| Had he lived, my Dad would have been a great Walmart greeter. But in his short retirement, before his death, he spent five days a week helping paraplegics at the Bronx VA Hospital - and he was happy. |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt started Social Security as an insurance program - people were expected to die and did, often before the age of 70. Social security was insurance that if they beat the odds . . . they would get some money. Over time, however, and life expectancy grew, more and more people came to think of it as their "retirement" from the government.
Not as if you can live on it, unless you head to another country as many retirees do. But it seems to me, what would you do then?
This is not to say you have to stay at the job you hate. What compromises would you be willing to make to do something you love? I suppose you could really, really love doing something like, say, golf. But how many games can you play to be fulfilled? Or - could you also teach golf to inner city kids? Could you volunteer to help veterans from the local VA Hospital get out on the links for 9 holes.
I read once that happiness does not depend on doing things that bring you pleasure - it depends on doing things that bring you gratification. I plan on being happy until I die.
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