Retirement is a Design Flaw

The idea of retirement was originally designed for people working physically demanding jobs. At that time most workers were literally wearing their bodies out by their mid-sixties leaving a handful of years to enjoy some hard-earned rest before dying. In that world, stopping at retirement made biological sense. The body needed to stop.

We now live at a time when a significant and growing portion of the workforce spends their careers in cognitively-demanding, identity-forming, self-directed work. If you are in this group, stopping won’t simply have the effect of giving your body an opportunity to recover. What it will do is remove the signals your body was relying on. The system tells you, or some industries or specific companies force you, to retire, causing an abrupt stop. There is no time to slow down or a well-lit off-ramp.

That is a societal design failure. The message is repeated across decades of commercials, seminars and planning software. Retirement is a destination. If you save enough, invest wisely and are fortunate to live that long, you will receive your reward at the finish line.

What comes next has received far less attention.

When the finish line turns out to be a starting line for the next stage of your life you are left without a plan.