Old age doesn’t have to mean retirement

There’s a natural progression to career life. You begin training for a specific career at a tertiary institution of some kind; this leads to an entry level position; you obtain some kind of financial security; eventually, after working hard and saving, you retire to enjoy the spoils obtained from your life. But this is an ideal, rather than reality and views everyone too equally. Retirement might mean that some of us need to do some rethinking – both in how we’re retiring and what retiring actually means.

There are many reasons to consider retirement. The obvious reason is that as we age, we become less capable of doing the things we’re used to: everything from walking to doing our jobs is inhibited due to physical deterioration. This means at some point, we simply won’t be able to perform the jobs we are being paid to do.

Yet, as we’re slowly realising, the economy is such that many old people can’t afford to not have an income. Of course, an income doesn’t have to mean having a proper nine-to-five job. You could earn it from part-time work, from various kinds of engagements with the financial market such as mirror trading, from home tutoring or internet schooling. Today, especially in the digital age, there is significantly less physical work stress. After all, there are people who make entire incomes without ever leaving their homes.

This means there are more ways for older people to continue earning money, even if they reach whatever the country’s retirement age is.

There are many folks who are past retirement that continue to be paid to do the things they love. The most obvious path of this consists of writers and other creative, who can work at their own pace and produce work that is still in demand. Whether famous authors or well-renowned actors, there are many people still operating strong despite being “passed” retirement age.

However, fame need not be the only reason you can continue. We all know there exist old professors, or people who obtain emeritus status. As Vocabulary notes:

“The honorary adjective is most often used with professor, but it applies to other professions whose retirees continue to hold their title, like ministers. The word emeritus usually goes after the job title, but it can also come before, like emeritus editor.”

Aside from famous writers and actors, emeritus professors, it is also possible to obtain non-stressful work that pays. Searches will reveal many jobs for those who are in a state of retirement. It’s a matter of knowing about these jobs and knowing your rights as a retired person.