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Working in your retirement years doesn’t have to be all bad
We set and reset financial-based goals throughout our lives – buy a car, buy a house, vacation in Europe, pay for our children’s college education, retire at an early age and more. And with those goals comes work, a lifetime of 9-to5 labor usually done to finance the aforementioned items. Working to pay for the things we need and the things we want are facets of the American experience. And when the finish line is in sight, when that once-elusive retirement is a year or even months away, we look back on 2,100 weeks of work, ready to put that phase of our lives behind us and move on to the next chapter.
Unless we can’t.
“I didn’t think I’d be working at 62, much less 72,” says Gloria Smith, a retired beautician in Tampa, Florida. “But when you work for shops that don’t offer retirement funds and then go through a divorce like I did, you end up with much less than you thought you’d have.”
Smith, now 78, says she tried to put away money for her retirement but always ended up tapping into those funds to pay bills or help out her children.
After she “retired,” Smith says she worked 20 hours a week in a beauty shop in a retirement community. “The hours were good and the customers were my friends – which can be good and bad, but even when it’s good, it’s still a lot of time on my feet, especially before the holidays,” she says. “But the money went toward groceries and gas and a little fun. Luckily, I have simple tastes.”
Today, Smith says she’s able to live off of her Social Security checks and an occasional “few bucks from my kids, who feel guilty I was working so long,” she says. “I don’t need it so I put it away and then spend it on my grandchildren when they come to visit.”
Smith’s situation is shared by many whose retirement allocations aren’t enough to pay the bills. According to Pew Research, 20 percent of people ages 65 and older are working or actively looking for work. More telling is that the participation rate is expected to increase fastest for the country’s oldest citizens. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics projections show that the number of older workers will continue to grow over the next several years. Adults ages 65 and older are projected to be 8.6 percent of the labor force – people working and looking for work – in 2032, up from 6.6 percent in 2022. The Department of Labor projects that 21 percent of older adults will be in the labor force in 2032, up from 19 percent in 2022. The labor participation rate is also on the rise for those ages 55 to 64.
“It’s reality for a lot of seniors,” says Carmen Biondi, 68, who works as a receptionist at a dentist’s office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “I work about 15 hours a week and it’s nice to get out of the house, but I’m doing it for the money. If they offered me 20 or 30 hours, I’d take them. I feel like I’m working overtime, but in years, not hours. Life’s overtime, I guess.”
Biondi says most of her friends have a part-time job or do something to make a little money on the side. “I know people who sell things on eBay, I know two men who drive for Uber and my brother-in-law, who is 77, still works five days a week at the restaurant he opened with my husband in 1968,” Biondi says. “He likes the work but he likes the money, too.”
Smith admits she was selective about the work she did. “I was lucky that my job remained the same,” says Smith, the beautician. “I don’t think I was cut out to be a greeter or a saleswoman. That’s not for me.”
Biondi agrees. “I wasn’t going to work with a bunch of 16-year-old kids at a fast-food restaurant,” says Biondi. “I had six kids. I love them but my days with teenagers are finished.”
Not everyone sees their potential coworkers the way Biondi does. Dorothy Kramer, 66, just stopped working as a cashier at a McDonald’s near her home in Fort Worth, Texas. The former dental assistant says it was a great experience. “It’s fast but it’s not too hard, if you can keep your head,” she says. “People come in and they know what they want. You don’t have to beg for an order, which makes the shift go by pretty fast.”
And the younger coworkers? “Great kids, most of them,” Kramer says. “I’m not going to lie to you – I’ve never worked with young people like that. And it was a diverse crowd, which was also new to me. But they were fun and they were good workers. I think it added a couple of years to my life, to be honest. We’d gossip and talk about the manager. I felt like one of the gang. They’d ask about my kids, what it was like when I was dating, things like that. I really enjoyed it.”
Kramer left the job after having hip surgery and wanted to “take it easy for a while.” She says she initially took the job to stay busy and make extra cash for Christmas presents and trips to see her grandchildren, who live in Memphis. “They think it’s the funniest thing that I worked at a McDonald’s,” she says. “They think it’s great.”