LIVE

While Thinking About Retirement

I was 40 years old, working in US private industry, and making low wages when I began thinking about retirement. Someone suggested to me that a good way to begin dealing with retirement issues was to get a civil service job which had a pension. I began taking clerical civil service tests. Soon, I passed one and got an entry-level job. Throughout the next seventeen years, I have taken tests for higher positions and have been promoted to a secretarial job. Now, I am within five years of retirement and the issues of what life will be like without working are beginning to come closer and closer.

According to scientific theorist and writer, Simon Baron-Cohen (author of The Essential Difference: The Truth About the Male and Female Brain), men generally systemize their lives. Women, on the other hand, are great "empathizers" according to Baron-Cohen. I have problems with this theory as a blanket statement for all women.

However, it is true that women with children tend to put their families first. They begin saving for their children's college expenses long before they think of themselves or their futures.

Furthermore, women's employment patterns are different. Some women work part-time or withdraw temporarily from the paid labour market. On average, a woman retiring in 2005 can expect to live another 27 years! This is four years longer than a male retiring at the same age.

Sadly, a study by the US nonprofit Employment Benefit Research Institute in Washington, DC found that half of all workers have saved less than $25,000 toward retirement. Women will form a growing proportion of persons retiring from decades of activity in the paid labour market. Models of retirement-related activities based on men's retirement models are terribly inadequate for understanding women's work patterns related to retirement. A very small percentage of research has been focused on women.

Nearly 7 out of 10 American workers plan to stay on the job past retirement age. A growing number of these workers say their decisions will be driven by financial need. This taps into increasing concerns among many workers, particularly baby boomers, about the need to supplement their income once they leave their primary job.

With people in general living longer and often facing escalating health costs as they age, experts say that the first step in thinking about retirement is to start saving sooner rather than later. However, there is a caveat here: people must balance their short term spending with their long-term savings goals and estimating how much money they need to support the lifestyle they want in retirement.

The list of major areas of concern is quite daunting. A few of them are: diversity of transitions to retirement, health and retirement, income security in retirement, gendered retirement, family and retirement (including mobility of retirees), workplace redesign for an aging workforce, analysis and increased data to address the key knowledge gaps.

Contrary to popular myth, people who opt for early retirement do not live longer.

What is of great concern regarding the issue of retirement in general is that there is a wealth of information on how to plan for retirement but little on how to plan retirement itself.

In the coming weeks, I plan to deal with some of the issues mentioned here and others which will be identified during my search for answers to questions while thinking about retirement.

Born in Miami Beach, Florida, but raised in New York City, writer Sandra Pianin contributes regularly to webpundits.net. She has written a bi-weekly Hollywood focused column for matchflick.com. Her work has appeared on several other online websites including syndicatednews.net. Recently, she was a reviewer for the New York City 2005 High Definitiion Film Festival.

Sandra enjoys films, theater, and spending time with her 13 yr. old domestic short-haired cat, Henry.