Only the Wealthy Never Retire
Like most of us you’ve probably pondered the question more than once: when am I going to be able to retire? Maybe you just can’t wait and ‘now’ isn’t early enough. Or perhaps you like the thought of continuing to work well into your retirement years?
Whatever your own personal thoughts, plan or options might be, times certainly have changed as far as the very wealthy are concerned, according to a recent CNBC article: “Why the rich never retire.”
It used to be a popular notion that everyone’s goal was to retire young and rich. But no more, says a survey put out by the Spectrum Group, a wealth research firm.
Stats from the survey show that America’s highest earners, those making $750K or more, in fact have no plan to retire until they’re at least 70 years old. You may find this hard to believe but these figures are backed by earlier studies. Like one from Barclay’s Wealth in 2010, that found “globally, 60% of those with a net worth of $15 million or more plan to stay involved with work, no matter what their age.”
How can this be? Why would someone with all the money in world want to keep on working? For one, it seems that many of the super affluent are entrepreneurs and independent business owners. As solopreneurs their businesses depend on their presence, so many must continue to work until they have a succession plan, or a buyer in place, or business will shut down.
But that’s not the main reason that those who can best afford to retire are the ones now working the longest.
The principal reason, according to George Walper, president of Spectrum, is that most entrepreneurs love their work and can’t see themselves not doing it. It’s as simple as that. In fact billionaires like Carlos Slim, 73, argue that in today’s industrial economy, where the call is for knowledge, experience and information (as opposed to physical labor), your 60s are often your prime working years. Yes, 60 is indeed the new 30! With that outlook, Slim points out. it would be foolish to stop working young.it would be foolish to stop working young.
A second interesting finding from the Spectrum survey is that the majority of lower income brackets surveyed, do plan to retire at 65. Clearly, in more traditional jobs, where often “a job is just a job,” employees indeed cannot wait to leave.
But those affluent soarers love their work and even if they do ‘retire’ per say, many continue to serve on boards, advise their companies or work the phones. Even if it’s just for a few days a week or from different locations (Bora Bora anyone?) To them, that’s retirement.
