If a person wants to live longer, he has to retire sooner than later and that’s the reality. According to a study published in journal Health Economics in 2014, long life is associated with early retirement.
The study was published in Netherland and take into account the civil servants who desired to retire as early as 55. According to the wealth advisor of Piershale Financial Group, Ben Barzideh, the secret behind living longer is not only dependent on retiring early but the process is a bit completed.
Other things which contribute to the life a civil a servant include the situation in which he/she is retiring and the health of the servant. However, there is a conflict between early retirement and life expectancy in research. According to some researches, those who retire early tend to live longer and some research showed the different results.
The study which took place in the Netherlands in 2017 showed that those who retired early have 2.5% fewer chances of passing away in next 5 years. However, the inclusion of female workers was too little to make any assumption on the female workers about early retirement.
Before this research, another research was conducted by The Health Consequences of Retirement in 2014, and according to that research, people who retire early get leisure time for the physical activities like exercise and also helps them cut down on smoking, which eventually helps in living longer. The study made its research on the data of 6,276 servants provided by the National Institute on Aging.
Other than reducing smoking, early retirement also helps the health to improve by reducing stress. According to senior research scholar at Clark University in Worcester, Jeffrey Arnett, if a person is working in a demanding profession, retirement comes as a relief for that person. However, many other studies do not paint the same picture of early retirement. In 2016, a study was published in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, and according to that research, people who worked year more than their retirement age reduced 11% chance of passing away.
Same as the research of 20147, this study also used the data of 3,000 servants aged between 50 and 62. Another study of 2016 published in Journal of Health Economics stated that after retirement people increased their chances of getting obesity by 12%.
Is Early Retirement Bad?
Joe McLean who is working as a managing partner in Capital LLC in San Ramon knows well that people have different experience retiring early. Joe’s mother retired at the age of 58 and now she is 78 and is fully enjoying her life and physically active as well. On the other hand, early retirement of Joe’s father has a totally different picture. McLean’s father retired from the workforce at 61 and passed away at 66.
According to McLean, the mother looked for different interests after retirement and that’s why she is still active at 78, while McLean’s father did not plan anything after retirement. No research has been made which can quantify the effect of personal attitude on life expectancy after retirement.
But there are some researchers who dug deep into this topic as the study published by Oliver Robinson, senior lecturer at University of Greenwich, in 2011 suggested the opinions of different retirees after work change status. According to the research, those who took the retirement as a challenge survived more than those who took it as a restriction.
The circumstances under which a person retires matter a lot as Arnett said that it depends hugely on whether it was your decision or not. Those who were forced to retire were less likely to live longer. And those who retired early because of any disease or illness never survived too far.
Finding Purpose In Retirement:
McLean said that instead of thinking the length of lifespan after retirement, people should focus on to spent quality time. McLean further said that people set their goals for the whole life and when they reach retirement, they stop setting goals and that’s what makes them more prone to death. He further said that never look at the retirement of other people to set your own retirement.