How long will baby boomers keep working? For some, the answer is forever.
To grossly paraphrase Kim Kardashian, nobody stops working anymore. Just look at who’s in the running for the top job in the nation: a 77-year-old against an 81-year-old, both vying to keep working for another four years. Yet they’re in lockstep with a national trend — older Americans are working longer, into their 60s and even their 70s and beyond. Among Americans 65 and older, 19 percent were still working last year, which is almost a twofold increase from the late 1980s.
Last year, the average retirement age was 62, according to a Gallup survey, up from 59 in the early 2000s. Older people aren’t just delaying retirement, but working longer hours: On average, this group’s annual work hours are almost 30 percent higher than they were in 1987.
The question of why is hard to answer. People keep working because they want to and because they have to, and sometimes a mix of both. “You can think of it as both a reflection of empowered preferences to go work more and longer — versus curtailed savings that force you into the labor force. They’re both happening,” says economist Kathryn Edwards.
My parents were once low-end millionaires. Like with house, stock options, and such, they probably just punctured 1mill. They flat out have wasted MILLIONS of dollars in their lives, my father was successful and well compensated. They never really had a plan for retirement, never invested in their children. It was all them acquiring toys, going on trips, trading in their car for a new one the 30th (not joking, they have counted like 50 cars between them but only 2 - 3 at a time), getting a boat/camper/etc. It is ridiculous. They could have made our lives so much better and prepared for themselves.
Yeah, my father was the same, though not quite as wealthy. Completely selfish and did nothing for his children. A horrible man, actually.
Growing up for me was pretty much “Fuck you for being born now get a job when I was your age I pumped gas part time and paid for school so you can too”.