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Health Tips Author: Jody Gastfriend, VP of Senior Care at Care.com Last Updated: Sep 7, 2017 - 10:06:33 PM



5 Reasons To Continue Working After Retirement

By Jody Gastfriend, VP of Senior Care at Care.com
Jun 17, 2016 - 11:39:04 AM



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(HealthNewsDigest.com) - I recently bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in years and asked how she was doing.  "Great!" she replied. "I'm retired."

"How's that going?" I asked. She rattled off a list of courses she was taking from Renaissance Art to photography. She had time for Yoga, travel and spending lots of time with her grandchild.

"I am totally jealous." I said. "I'm looking forward to retirement one day too."

"Not so fast." replied my friend. "I really miss working."

In fact, she was considering getting back into the workforce to pursue something new.

That got me thinking. What motivates people, like my friend, to continue working after retirement?

Financial

Predicting how your golden years will unfold is about as certain as the 2016 election. Anything's possible. Some people will spend their savings traveling around the French Riviera, while others will encounter challenging health issues that require costly care.  A study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated that someone retiring at sixty-five may need about one hundred thousand dollars to cover medical premiums and healthcare expenses alone.  And that doesn't include long term care costs. So from a purely financial perspective, continuing to work might be a good idea. Even if continuing to collect a paycheck seems optional, the longer you are able to hold out on collecting Social Security or tapping into your 401k, the more you will accumulate to draw upon down the road.


Health

How many times have you woken up on a Monday morning, pictured the daunting work week ahead, and thought, ‘I'm so tired of this-I wish I could just retire!'  You may be surprised to learn that working into old age can actually be good for your mental and physical health! A University of Michigan study found that participants who stopped working completely experienced increases in depression and cognitive decline, as well as an uptick in certain health conditions such as arthritis and hypertension-compared to those who continued to work. Although the study does not reveal the specific factors responsible for these results, the three described below may have been at play.


Purpose

Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning "a reason for being." In his TED Talk, National Geographic researcher Dan Buettner, claims that a sense of purpose leads to a longer and healthier life. For many, working provides this purpose and can be a source of learning and growth as we age. The impact we make through work can decrease the feeling of being sidelined that often comes with retirement.  An engineer friend of mine tutored underprivileged kids in math after he retired. "I was not only helping the students," he said, "I was helping myself too."

Social Interaction

With aging comes the loss of friends and family as well as changes in lifestyle that often result in too little human interaction. According to Abraham Maslow's famous Hierarchy of Needs, we require more than just air and water to survive-we crave closeness with others. A study conducted at the Rush University Medical Center found the rate of cognitive decline among those with frequent social activity to be significantly less than those with low social activity. For many, working after retirement provides the social environment we need to thrive. So if this is where most of your interactions take place, consider how your social network might change if you leave the workplace.


Excitement

Retirement can be a great opportunity to try new things-including a whole new career.  In fact, on Care.com, we even have insight into flexible, part-time jobs for seniors.  Maybe you no longer like the job (or field) you have worked in for the past 20 years or maybe you'd love to turn your hobby into a business.  After turning sixty, my friend finally had the time to pursue her long dormant passion of painting. One year later, she had an art show and sold her first watercolor.  Being open to new opportunities and areas for growth is what gives our life meaning as we age. Our work lives should reflect who we are and what we care about. We should feel excited and invigorated about whatever work we choose to pursue while still taking time to stop and smell the roses along the way.

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