The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

A journalism friend of mine recently hit a milestone birthday - she’s 65 now and thinks she will officially retire from the daily grind of deadlines and late night writing sessions which have fueled much of her newspaper career.

She’s a community journalist at heart, a farmer’s wife who spends her down time gathering eggs from the chicken coop and maneuvering a grain cart in tandem with the big red combine, harvesting rows of corn and soybeans.

There are grandkids to spend time with, committee roles to fill, pies to bake for the church social and multiple hours worth of volunteer work. Sounds like the perfect time to retire.

Or is it?

The 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey found the median age of retired workers in the United States is 62. The study found “a considerable gap between workers’ expectations and retirees’ experiences” when it comes to retiring. According to survey results, 20% of workers report they plan to retire between ages 60 and 64. In reality, one-third - 35% - of workers retire between those ages.

First you retire, then you ... die?

Studies show that individuals who retired at 55 and lived to age 65 died 37% sooner than individuals who retired at 65. Data from the Social Security Administration backs up the survey findings.

One reason some people may push back retirement is because there simply isn’t enough gold in the bank to live out the golden years.

According to SmartAsset, to live on $80,000 per year in retirement, an individual needs approximately $1.8 million in the bank by age 65. But that doesn’t take into account any cost of living increases or how long one will live, how the stock market will play out or if inflation will spiral completely out of control.

Too many variables to determine if you will retire in luxury or face another day of punching a time clock.

Don’t take this column the wrong way. I’m not announcing my retirement or even planning my retirement. I have several projects in the works and I expect to see them through.

At that rate, I should live to 110. As long as my mind is strong and my memory never fades, why not?

I get it. Not everyone wants to spend their entire lives working nine to five, weekends off, with two weeks of vacation each year. Unless you’re independently wealthy or hit the lotto jackpot, the odds, though, seem to favor a longer work life.

I often joke that I’ll still be cranking out a weekly newspaper when I’m well into my 90s. Thirty years seems a long time away. I’ll write a lot of headlines in that time span, probably cover friends’ retirements from business, record births and weddings and funerals.

Thirty years should give me plenty of time to instill a love for the printed word in our grandkids who, hopefully, will take the reins and run this media company someday.

I’m betting on Rebekah. She already thinks she runs the office when she’s here.

The trouble with retirement: there are no days off. I’m not sure I’d know what to do with idle time, so, for now, I’ll keep doing what I enjoy each and every day.