What age is the correct age to retire?
Two weeks ago, I attended a medicate specialist appointment with a neurologist to discuss a CT scan of my brain and check everything was ok.
Despite his enormous IQ, his bedside manner certainly needed some improving. Lets just say my 4 year old son had better social skills than this medical genius! As I walked into his consulting suite, his opening remarks were a smart statement and question around why was I not retired if I was a financial planner? I looked at him a little surprised as I was there to speak to him about my health rather than discuss financial planning matters. However, I pushed aside my urge for normal pleasantries, as I could tell quickly that he was wanting to engage in some type of banter. So I replied…. …..If I was to retire at my current age, then I would look to sit on the couch for the next 49 years based on my current life expectancy…..that’s a lot of TV watching don’t you think?….I think I might get bored! Thankfully the neurologist didn’t have another smart comment to reply, but it certainly raised an interesting question when it is time to retire?
In a couple of weeks time I head off to the annual general meeting at Berkshire Hathaway to hear Warren Buffet speak and provide some valuable insights about the economy and the markets etc. The interesting thing about Warren Buffet’s board of directors is that of the 13 board members Warren is 83, Charlie is 90, David Gotesman is 87, Donald Keough is 87, Thomas Murphy is 88, Ronald Olson is 72, Walther Scott is 82, and the rest are aged between 50 and 60 years of age. Even if I look at the next generation of successful entrepreneurs like Eton Musk who is aged 43 and has a net worth of $8.2 billion, why does he not throw it all away and sit on a couch and watch TV for the next 44 years? The names I have listed above in the eyes of this medical specialist would each have sufficient resources to buy any island in the south pacific and live out their remaining years basking in the sun….so what really causes these people to work when financially they don’t need to?
The answer is simple – they enjoy their work! Buffet often remarks that he feels 20 years younger than what is stamped on his drivers license and he skips to work each day! In other words one could say that he truly enjoys his life’s purpose and has so much more to give! If you are not into the high powered executive life, you only need to travel 10 hours to Japan for another example.
The community called the Okinawans are a rare group of Japanese people with more people aged over 100 years than anywhere else in the world. The fascinating finding here is that most of the Okinawans work well into their 90’s doing traditional work like fishing and faring etc. Retirement can be defined (yes I actually looked it up) as to ‘remove’ or ‘withdraw’. As such, is it possible that one might just not want to remove or withdraw from what they do? What if one was enjoying the ride of life and work and didn’t want to get off? Similarly, what if we put this in the perspective of a musician that never wants to stop playing their music and the thought of never playing agin would bring them great sorrow. Are musicians meant to stop once they are at a certain point or certain age? No, its a part of them. Equally for those listed above, working is exactly the same as it is their passion.
So next time you are thinking about retirement, you may start to think differently now to the opinion of my neurologist as its only time to retire when you feel its time to withdraw from what you are doing. If you need help too in defining what the next phase of your life might look like, feel free to contact AJ Financial Planning. Oh….by the way, my results came back all clear – just a false alarm