The idea that we all must retire, presumably so we can spend more time idling at drive-thru pharmacies and watching big-screen TV, is a given for most Americans.<\/strong><\/p>\n They take as gospel that around their mid-60s, they\u2019ll shed that old job and the rest of their life will be spent hand-in-hand with their significant other, gazing at a sunset over a glorious beach.<\/p>\n After sundown, they\u2019ll be able to catch some tube while downing the meds they got earlier at the drive-thru.<\/p>\n Unfortunately the above scenario is all too common. In part because we have bought into a \u201csystem\u201d that is fundamentally flawed.<\/strong><\/p>\n These flaws are two fold:<\/p>\n Time is the true currency of retirement, that and our health (these are mutually exclusive)<\/p>\n There is a widespread perception that early retirement is associated with longer life expectancy and later retirement is associated with early death.<\/p>\n No consensus has been reached on the comparative survival or mortality of people who retire early or late.<\/p>\n Mini Retirement<\/a> has never been studied in this regard.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Over the weekend, I came across a fascinating study that suggests that retiring early can significantly increase your lifespan. This work was based on an analysis of longevity data from former Boeing Aerospace, and it concluded that \u201cfor every year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of lifespan on average.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are the relevant data:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n (Source: \u201cActuarial study of lifespan vs. retirement age\u201d by Ephrem Cheng)<\/p>\n As you can see, these data appear to indicate a continuous decrease in lifespan the longer one works.<\/p>\n Perhaps the scariest bit of data here is that those that work through the traditional retirement age of 65 only cash their retirement checks for an average of 17 months. <\/strong><\/p>\n 17 months! Is that how you imagined your retirement future?<\/p>\n Of course the real question is why someone that works longer might die sooner. With regards to this study you can not easily extrapolate from one workplace to another and correlation<\/a> between two variables does not automatically imply that one causes<\/a> the other. Nonetheless, it is fun to speculate.<\/p>\n Given that many jobs are filled with stress and frustration, it\u2019s not hard to imagine that there might be some health problems associated with working \u2013 e.g., heart disease, hypertension, (to name just a few).<\/p>\n On top of that, a busy work life leaves less time for exercise, eating right, and so forth, which only compounds the problem.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n After reading the above study I figured perfect, this just proves the point that work methodically sucks the life out of us. Or does it?<\/p>\n This seems counterintuitive to some degree but is it?<\/p>\n This study<\/a> from December 2007\u00a0 looked at\u00a0 employees of the petrochemical industry in the United States who retired at 55, 60, and 65 to assess whether there is any survival advantage of early retirement.<\/p>\n And what did they conclude?<\/p>\n Results Subjects who retired early at 55 and who were still alive at 65 had a significantly higher mortality than those who retired at 65 (hazard ratio 1.37, 95% confidence interval 1.09 to 1.73). Mortality was also significantly higher for subjects in the first 10 years after retirement at 55 compared with those who continued working (1.89, 1.58 to 2.27). After adjustment, mortality was similar between those who retired at 60 and those who retired at 65 (1.06, 0.92 to 1.22). Mortality did not differ for the first five years after retirement at 60 compared with continuing work at 60<\/p>\n What this study adds<\/strong><\/p>\n In another similar study<\/a> among 3,971 U.S. Rubber tire workers from two different companies they looked at survival age after early (age 62 to 64) and normal retirement (age 65).<\/p>\n And what did they conclude?<\/p>\n Comparisons of deaths (cases) within 5 years of retirement with survivors (controls) showed that pre-retirement health status was the only significant predictor of survival after early retirement.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Prior to the 4 Hour Workweek, I don\u2019t believe anybody ever thought about the concept of mini retirement.<\/p>\n You had two choices: Cash in all your chips early, or cash them in late and hope for the best.<\/p>\n But in reality neither of these are good options. They are both ultimatums on a linear path of life. One that is punctuated by the term retirement.<\/p>\n History, and above all technology, has allowed us to change the way we approach the concept of retirement.<\/p>\n The 4 Hour Workweek and the 4 Hour Body are indicators of our move towards a new, evolved way of approaching not just retirement but life in general.<\/p>\n One that combines increased productivity, increased interest in what we call work, a push for healthier living and a concept of life as a continuum.<\/p>\n By this definition there is no such thing as retirement \u201cper se\u201d.<\/p>\n But I am not na\u00efve. At the end of the day there will always be bills to pay and we need a way to put food on the table, cloths on our back and find some enjoyment along the way.<\/p>\n We can not all do what we love for money<\/a> (despite what Tim says) and I will argue with anybody who says otherwise.<\/p>\n In this sense retirement is often a destination. One where we can shed the \u201cgood enough job\u201d and do what exactly?<\/p>\n This is where purpose and health play a key role.<\/p>\n We can not let our working years stop us from enjoying our later years. We must always be proactive when it comes to our health. Certain jobs even if they pay well, and have a wonderful benefits, may not be in line with a \u201chealthy\u201d retirement.<\/p>\n In essence as we finally reach retirement age our 401 K coffers may be full but we may be too dead to know the difference. The take home point. Don\u2019t wait till you’re dead to know the difference.<\/p>\n There are a few assumptions I operate on. The first is that long life is not guaranteed. If we define risk as the potential for an irreversible negative outcome, there\u2019s more risk in postponing the things that you would most like to do for 30 or 40 years versus taking a perhaps sub-optimal, less-compounded return on investment because you allocate some of that to these mini-retirements.<\/p>\n Timothy Ferriss<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You do not have to quit your job to enjoy a mini retirement: <\/strong><\/p>\n Take home point: Often it costs a company more to lose rather than retain a good customer. The same principle often applies in the workplace.\u00a0 Do your job well, better than everyone else. If you call to cancel your service or scale back your time you may be surprised by the outcome.<\/p>\n Ask and you may receive: <\/strong><\/p>\n Take home point:<\/strong> Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for what you want. We make up excuses in our head to avoid the discomfort of a particular situation, probably from fear of disappointment or failure. But like being at the back of the line you really have nothing to lose and quite possibly a lot to gain by just asking for what you need.<\/p>\n Till Death do us part:<\/p>\n Take home point: It may be hard to leave a good paying job in a sluggish economy. But like a marriage there are times where things just don\u2019t work out as planned. In this case it may be better to lick your wounds and move on rather than just hope for the best. Do everything you can to make it work and if it doesn\u2019t there will always be other fish in the sea.<\/p>\n What do you think<\/p>\n Is working longer a grave health risk? Or do you think there\u2019s another explanation for these data? Are mini retirements a viable option for the average worker? At what age do you plan to retire? Please weigh in with your thoughts.<\/p>\n Related Posts: <\/strong><\/p>\n A vision of retirement The idea that we all must retire, presumably so we can spend more time idling at drive-thru pharmacies and watching big-screen TV, is a given for most Americans. They take as gospel that around their mid-60s, they\u2019ll shed that old job and the rest of their life will be spent hand-in-hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,3,66],"tags":[151,150,9,17,1123,152,153,148,149,43],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tiSR-mo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The truth about retirement<\/h3>\n
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What we already know about this topic<\/h3>\n
The case for early retirement<\/h3>\n
The case for delayed retirement<\/h3>\n
Can early retirement actually be a risk factor for early death?<\/h3>\n
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The case for mini retirement<\/h3>\n
Putting it all together<\/h3>\n
\u201cThe purpose of life is to do what makes you come alive. When you stop, you die.\u201d<\/h3>\n
Action steps<\/h3>\n
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