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Should I retire?
Former Community Member
I was a graduate in HD in 1992 and a BEng in 1995. I also got an MBA in 2004. I have been working in the engineering industry since 1992 and with 26+ years of experience. Should I retire now or in 5 to 10 years? What do you think?
Perhaps we should debate what is actually meant by “Retirement”? This once seemed simple, if you were an employee of an organisation you were paid a wage or salary for your productive contribution until a prescribed age, when you were asked to step down and were paid a retirement pension instead.
Charles Handy for example was predicting “portfolio careers” thirty years ago and since that time greater flexibility has emerged. So to give a couple of examples; I meet people of in their thirties who have already taken a couple of sabbaticals (going travelling, gap years etc) are these “temporary retirements”? I met someone last week who aged 70 chairs several companies, writes books, gives talks and plays with a large train set. He made plain his desire to be “carried out in his coffin”.
If we assume that someone chooses to “retire” when they are still capable of being productive, then it is a lifestyle choice, like any other.
In the UK at least, Governments have set out a future strategy to provide citizens with a very basic level of income from the public purse at an age when many of an earlier generation were likely to have been in declining health or have died. There are incentives intended to ensure that individuals make sufficient provision to support themselves once they are no longer willing or able to support themselves through some form of work.
Perhaps we should debate what is actually meant by “Retirement”? This once seemed simple, if you were an employee of an organisation you were paid a wage or salary for your productive contribution until a prescribed age, when you were asked to step down and were paid a retirement pension instead.
Charles Handy for example was predicting “portfolio careers” thirty years ago and since that time greater flexibility has emerged. So to give a couple of examples; I meet people of in their thirties who have already taken a couple of sabbaticals (going travelling, gap years etc) are these “temporary retirements”? I met someone last week who aged 70 chairs several companies, writes books, gives talks and plays with a large train set. He made plain his desire to be “carried out in his coffin”.
If we assume that someone chooses to “retire” when they are still capable of being productive, then it is a lifestyle choice, like any other.
In the UK at least, Governments have set out a future strategy to provide citizens with a very basic level of income from the public purse at an age when many of an earlier generation were likely to have been in declining health or have died. There are incentives intended to ensure that individuals make sufficient provision to support themselves once they are no longer willing or able to support themselves through some form of work.
