The New Age Of Non Retirement

The days of the traditional concept of retirement are disappearing faster than a snowflake on a hot grill. The paradigms and beliefs of the past will not work in the future and the future is already here. The old method of working most of your life then suddenly cutting it all off at 65 is over. More and more people are redefining what it means to retire. Rather than move passively into retirement many middle-aged people are shunning this view and starting their own business.

The question is why? What’s changed? Well first of all people are living longer. When the retirement age of 65 was set back in the distant past, it was an age that most people would never reach. Most working people exhausted their lives in coalmines, factories or other enterprises were luck to reach 50. If they made it to 65, it was a real achievement. The government who set the retirement age knew few would reach it.

Today things have changed drastically. The average 65-year-old today is active and fit and can look forward to years of healthy life. The government knows this, which is why they are making noises about increasing the retirement age to 70. The problem is for people who have been laid off in middle age the likelihood of finding another decent paying job is remote. They’re too young to retire and too old to be attractive to businesses who still labour under the illusion that youth is always best.

The second problem is lack of money. Many people have seen their pensions seriously eroded and in many cases disappear totally. Corrupt bankers and stealth government tax grabs has destroyed their retirement pot. They need to keep working to provide themselves with an income. The state pension is a joke for people who have worked and contributed all their lives. It’s starvation level. It wouldn’t cover the average MP’s Sunday visit to their local B & Q.

The market place, where there are too few jobs and too many people chasing them offers little for someone in middle age that has been laid off. The only option available to them is self-employment. Many are turning to this route. In America according to official statistics, nearly half of all business start-ups are by middle-age people. The UK is following the same trend.

Another reason why people are shunning the traditional retirement model is to stay engaged. There’s only so many cups of tea you can drink in coastal cafes before it gets boring. Only so many visits to shopping centres. If you’ve been a daytime TV watcher all your life who’s lived off the rest of us, there’s no problem. You’re already brain dead anyway. For the majority however such a mundane existence of constant inactivity, of pointless journeys is an existence of hell. After a lifetime of active participation in economic life to be suddenly unplugged can be a disaster. Plunging many into depression.

The new middle age are redefining what it means to reach middle age. Fitter than ever, keen to remain engaged and determined not to be passively pushed aside they are the new entrepreneurs. Our economic landscape is about to be transformed over the coming years. The new middle-aged are arriving. They’re not coming on the back of a creaking cart being pulled by a tired old donkey. They’re charging over the hill on sweating stallions, swords raised high ready to destroy the old ways of enforced retirement.