Retirement was first invented in 1881 by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who came up with the idea of offering government pensions to disabled workers.
This is when the retirement age of 65 was first selected.
The retirement age was set at 65 because when it was first introduced by Otto von Bismarck, hardly anyone lived that long.
Since then, many other countries around the world adopted the retirement system with 65 as a benchmark.
But in the meantime, what happened?
We live longer, and the system has become less able to sustain the population of retirees. This created a lot of debt for many governments around the world, thus, fewer and fewer people can actually live comfortably on their retirement income.
But we still have the ingrained idea that after 65 we should get a break and do nothing productive until we die.
So, everyone is anxiously working hard, sacrificing their lives and accepting careers they don't really like because they want to make sure everything will be fine before the fateful date.
Instead of building their lives, they are preparing for their "retirement".
I grew up in western Nigeria where people are obsessed with retirement. They have young, intelligent men and women who would give an arm and a leg to get a government job that would provide a good retirement - even if it means 40 years of doing something totally dull.
This is what drives most of their life choices.
I can tell you that I've seen it in every part of the world I've explored.
I find there is something pathetic in seeing people making all their life choices to get a safe retirement.
This prevents them from taking risks, trying on a new career, and being creative in the way they live their lives.
I don't believe in retirement, per se. My plan is to always stay productive, launch exciting projects, and make money along the way.
I believe in regular savings, business ownership, investing, and always developing skills that won't make me depend on that little money the government has left for me.
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Even if you plan to stay active, I think there are two actions to take right now towards retirement:
These two actions maximize the probability that you'll be provided for, and if you end up in excellent health and are able to work on projects to the degree you like, you'll be that much better for it.
It's sort of the Pascal's Wager of retirement.
Well thought out opinion you got there. I really appreciate your input. Lets keep in touch.
Roger that.
Such a real post @prettyrose. No matter where you live or come from you cannot rely on government. Otherwise one day you wake up when you got older and find out they cheated me.. upvoted and followed 😉
Thanks for taking time to go through. followed back
I'm in total agreement. I've been self-employed for years, so since I am passionate about what I m doing, I can't really see retiring, though I may scale back my activities somewhat over time. Though even that would be more to allow greater travel opportunities than to stop working.
But it's like conversations I have had with a close friend of mine; when she retired due to a disability, her family was concerned that she would be bored, and at a loss regarding what to do.
She and I both found that hilarious, because we are both interested in so many different things, that if at any time we found ourselves unable to do one of those things, we have ten more - and more -ready to fall back on.
Life's too short to spend it being bored and inactive. And keeping the mind active, and learning, is the most important thing to me.