It’s Not Just About The Money: Your brain on retirement is not nearly as sharp.
(Editor’s Note) Were you looking forward to retirement at age 55, 60 or 65? You planned for your “golden years,” only to find your retirement funds slashed by the recession and your social security benefits insufficient. You must keep working into your 60’s, maybe even your 70’s. There is a silver lining to continue working; a study, discussed in the Washington Post, is now proving that working is not only good for your physical health but is also good for your mental health. The study is looking at overall health, chronic diseases, ability to perform daily activities, happiness levels, and more. The “sweet spot” for retirement is estimated at the late 60’s:
“Retiring too early can hurt you,” said Esteban Calvo, a sociologist with the Columbia Aging Center and the Institute of Public Policy at Diego Portales University in Chile. He is currently conducting a longitudinal study looking at over 100,000 people in 21 countries to determine the physical and mental effects of retirement.
So far, the study, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” shows negative effects for those who retire earlier than the mean age – and the outcomes are worse the earlier you stop working. “At 50 it will be very, very bad for your health,” Calvo said. “At 60 it will be bad but not as bad as at age 50.” Read the complete article here.