This week on the podcast Ben and I spoke about an article, Death of Retirement? Seniors Are Working at Historic Levels. This chart plainly tells the story.
Buuuut it looks a little different when you zoom out. Retirement is a luxury that didn’t really exist until only recently.
I’m sure people over 65 are working longer these days for financial reasons, but I’d also bet that a decent portion of these workers are motivated by other factors. People are living longer than they ever have, and maybe the idea of a 25 year or longer retirement doesn’t appeal to folks who enjoy going to work.
Somewhat related, I found this chart to be fascinating. I’m not exactly sure what the implications of this are, but it’s definitely worth thinking about.
After this topic, we segued to a question that was on my mind- what version of yourself gets the final say? In other words, does a regret you have at one moment in your life negate how you felt at previous moments in time?
I had never thought about this before I brought it up, so my thoughts on the topic were all over the place. Luckily, listeners sent a few pieces so I could learn more. The first one is Let No Man Count Himself Happy, which hit on exactly what I was talking about with Ben.
Let us assume that the relevant sense of happiness is not a subjective feeling but a judgment that a person makes about her life as a whole: is she happy with the way things have gone for her? When people wonder whether their life is meaningful – whether it counts as a good life – they are concerned with what the Greeks called happiness.
One of the questions raised by the adage is why the end stage of a life should be so highly privileged in making judgments about the goodness of a life
The other piece was How To Let Go of Your Regrets. This was a little different but also somewhat related. I particularly liked this bit.
Your minds are always constructing narratives to explain our feelings and experiences. These narratives are rarely accurate and often unhelpful, yet, we need them because they hold our sense of self in place.
Lastly, we discussed the FIRE movement. Ben made a good point, we have no beef with how people choose to live their life, what’s irksome however is when people act as if it’s easy. Saving 80% of your income and retiring at a young age is difficult at best, and realistically impossible for most people. The day after the podcast came out, the content gods blessed us with this.
"It's not that hard" pic.twitter.com/MRfOJvEJwc
— Michael Batnick (@michaelbatnick) January 30, 2020
Here is the video of Ben and I hitting on these three topics.
