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Can retirement shorten your life?
As I write this editor’s note I’m sitting on a Southwest plane to Milwaukee. Actually I’m supposed to be on my way to Minneapolis, but that’s a long story that serves no value to repeat. This flight “up north” is to attend the memorial service for my mother-in-law and the fourth family memorial service in the last 2 months.
This past summer has left me with the realization that I’ve reached the time in life when there are more memorials to attend than weddings, christenings or bar mitzvahs. When did that happen? I don’t feel that old. Is 59 old? I guess when you compare it to the previous generation, at 59 I would have been planning my retirement that was just around the corner.
Instead of planning for my retirement, I’m planning for the expansion of my business. It’s in its fourth year and growing. I’m deep in the creative process of developing exciting new products and services for our clients. I’m planning the growth of my team so I can spend a little more time in the garden and visiting friends and family. However, retirement is not something I look forward to or even consider. For me, retirement would surely shorten my life.
So here’s something to contemplate…
Do people who decide to continue working after the age of 60 or 70 live longer healthier lives? Does the word retire send a subliminal message to our bodies that initiates the retiring of our organs? I wonder.
For all the people who have suffered devastating financial losses to their retirement accounts and investments and had to come out of retirement; will they now live longer? Will they take better care of themselves? Have they found a new energy and feeling of social engagement that had faded while they sat in retirement?
In the last four years BABM has written stories about many business owners who, by choice, skipped the “retirement party.” In 2008 we wrote about our oldest entrepreneur, Bill Adams Sr. of Electric Supply, who at the age of 90 looked forward to coming to work every day. Bill passed away in Dec of 2009 and was a wonderful example of a person who loved his business and never considered retiring.
Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men in the world, who could surely afford to retire, says it’s not for him.
Scientific studies have proven that the mind is extremely powerful and that what we consciously or unconsciously think about will come to pass. So maybe, instead of planning and anticipating retirement, a more prudent business and life decision would be to find your passion and convert it to your financial livelihood.
