Name: Why People Can’t Figure Out When It’s Time to Retire
Uploaded: 2023-11-13T21:48:00Z
Duration: 6 min 17 s
Description: Even as people work later in life, many find it difficult to pinpoint the right time to retire. WSJ columnist Rachel Feintzeig joins host J.R. Whalen to discuss how people envision leaving the workforce often clouds their decision-making. Illustration: Carl Godfrey For The Wall Street Journal

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Even as people work later in life, many find it difficult to pinpoint the right time to retire. WSJ columnist Rachel Feintzeig joins host J.R. Whalen to discuss how people envision leaving the workforce often clouds their decision-making. Illustration: Carl Godfrey For The Wall Street Journal

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Why People Can’t Figure Out When It’s Time to Retire

J.R.: Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, November 14th. I'm J.R. Whalen for the Wall Street Journal. We spend decades working and putting money away for retirement, and yet when people approach the so-called traditional retirement age, deciding if it's time to leave the workforce can bring them to a full stop. Wall Street Journal, Work and Life Columnist, Rachel Feintzeig joins me. So Rachel, a lot of us have been accused of being workaholics. How much does that play into this question about when to retire?

Rachel: For a lot of people, work becomes your identity. I mean, it forms the backbone of our days. Just this sheer number of hours that we work, there's a real rhythm to that we can get addicted to and feel kind of lost when it's gone. Even more deeply than that, there's a sense that what we do is who we are. We go to a party and the first thing people ask is, what do you do? And like, what do you say when you're retired? One professor who studies retirement told me that when you're retired, everything becomes about the word was. You know, you're kind of living in the past tense. And I think for a lot of people that's really scary when they're staring it down.

J.R.: And people are working later in life than ever, right?

Rachel: Yes. And some of that is financial. I mean, people have to work longer because they're not able to financially retire. But there's also a sense that some people don't want to retire. We're also living longer. The idea used to be that it was maybe five years between a physically taxing job and your death and you would have this like brief respite in retirement and now people can be staring down decades. And you know what I heard from a lot of experts too was this idea that financially and psychologically we can't afford necessarily to just have 30 years of leisure. I mean, it might seem like really appealing to those of us like me that are in the thick of it with work and kids, it sounds like a dream, but there's actually a lot of research out there that shows that if you have too much free time on your hands, it can actually make you just as unhappy as when you don't have enough time.

J.R.: Now, in terms of people's ages, how has this trend of working later in life shifted

Rachel: Since 1991, the retirement age has gone from an average of 57 up to 62. And I mean, certainly we're seeing people even in their eighties that are continuing to work. There's also a sense that like who we are in midlife and old age has changed, right? Even just things like Botox and our obsession with physical fitness and eating. You know, 60 today might look a lot different than our parents 60.

J.R.: So when somebody declares retirement, the Grim Reaper is not necessarily around the corner.

Rachel: I don't think so. The definition of retirement is shifting. A lot of people are working in retirement. It's a bit more of a fuzzy state than it once was. But I think there's still that idea that retirement is signaling the end of your life, that you're kind of has been. America really values work, a lot of our values, and again, this idea of our identity, it's all wrapped up in work. There is this idea that when you retire, that's all over.

J.R.: And in our working years, when we're dealing with what seems like endless chaotic days on the job, long periods of quiet with nothing to do, might seem attractive, but what does that actually look like for people in retirement?

Rachel: Yes, I talk to people who were like, in actuality what people want is just a rest, a vacation, you know? And the first few months, I think it feels really good. The first few months feel like you're on a long vacation and the data shows people's happiness goes up and then it starts to drop. Because again, there's this research that shows that there's this kind of sweet spot. I believe it's around five hours a day for free time where that makes people really happy. But also when we have too much free time on our hands, we feel lost. Humans need meaning and purpose and to feel like we're accomplishing something. And it doesn't have to be with paid work, but it has to be with something where you feel like you're making an impact. And if you don't have that and you don't have a rhythm and you don't have a routine, it can make people really miserable.

So perhaps should people ask themselves if they want their job to be their legacy or maybe something else?

Rachel: Yes. I talked to someone who retired a few years ago who had a couple good tests around this. One was to think about when you're in an elevator and you have just a few floors to introduce yourself to someone, what do you want that conversation to be? Do you want it to be, I work in sales for X big company? Or do you want it to be more around, I'm a father and I'm a husband and I volunteer with this organization. And that's not to say that you can't do that while you're still working and make that shift. Thinking about your legacy and like, what would my obituary say? Even for many of the most accomplished executives, their careers are only a sentence or two in their obituary.

J.R.: So let's talk about how people can get ahead of that. Some retirees and retirement experts you spoke with talked about a loss of identity in retirement. How do people address that?

Rachel: The point is to start early. And so think a lot about your various identities. Try out different activities to see which might be meaningful and bring you purpose before you actually make the shift into retirement. It's all about experimentation. I talked to people who like couldn't wait to spend their whole life golfing when they were retired, and then found that when golf wasn't a distraction from their work, when it was the only thing they had to do, it became a lot less fun. So you might be surprised by what you actually find fulfillment in. You might find that like being a salesperson or a physician is such a cherished identity that you're not ready to let it go yet. And you wanna keep revisiting that every few months until you kind of find that you're ready. If you're not getting there, but you are feeling like you might need to push yourself in that direction, another good thing to do is take a look at your life as a whole. One professor suggested that people make a sort of life map where they draw circles or squares with different parts of your life, spirituality, work, your health, your exercise, and kind of ask yourself, Are any of these things in conflict? And it's a way to gently nudge yourself toward the reality of what you might be giving up by continuing to devote so much of yourself to work.

J.R.: That's Wall Street Journal columnist, Rachel Feintzeig. And that's it for your money briefing. Today's show is produced by Ariana Aspuru, with supervising producer Melany Roy. I'm J.R. Whalen for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

WSJ's Your Money Briefing podcast is your personal-finance and career checklist. Finance reporters and experts break down complicated money questions every weekday to help you make better decisions about managing your money. 