Donald Trump isn’t the only septuagenarian unwilling to ease into a traditional retirement.
Slideshow: 15 Great Jobs for Retirees
As they near the end of what’s traditionally been the working years, today’s Baby Boomers are entering into retirements that look a lot different than those of their parents. Thanks to increased longevity, retirement today is longer and more expensive than ever before, and it also very often includes some kind of work.
More than 70 percent of workers over the age of 50 say that their ideal retirement now includes working, according to a 2014 report from Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, and nearly half of current retirees say that they have worked or plan to work in retirement.
Eight in 10 of those surveyed say that they’re doing so because they want to, not because they have to, and they’re more likely to work part-time or volunteer. More than 60 percent of those who work in retirement do so because they want to work or stay mentally active, and 46 percent work in order to remain physically active.
While a working retirement may differ from the older dream of retirement, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Retirees who work report more satisfaction and less stress about finances than their peers who have quit the workforce entirely. The most successful among them are able to find jobs in retirement that not only meet their financial needs, but are also meaningful in other ways and offer scheduling flexibility.
