Are early retirees selfish and unpatriotic?

That’s the contention of a provocative opinion piece that ran in newspapers recently.

With what I’m guessing is a bit of exaggeration, the author not only declares early retirement “profoundly selfish and unpatriotic” but defines early as “55, 62 or even 65.”

You can read his argument for yourself if you want to, but the gist of it is that by staying in the workforce, early retirees could make a greater contribution to (and be less of a drag on) the U.S. economy.

As you might imagine, responses to the piece have been spirited and not especially sympathetic. Several have observed that the author is a college professor, not normally thought of as a physically punishing occupation unless one is, say, Indiana Jones. Might he feel differently if he’d spent the last 40 years laying sewer pipe?

Working longer has a lot going for it, including numerous financial benefits.  But in my experience, most retirees continue to do something productive even after they’ve left full-time jobs. Often they volunteer, without pay, for worthy causes. And that’s about as selfless and patriotic as it gets.

What do you think? Please let us know, below. Or join the discussions at our retirement forum.

—Greg Daugherty

Greg writes the “Retirement Guy” column each month for the Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter.

Comments

[Cheryl Fontaine]

The term "unpatriotic" means absolutely nothing. The term has taken on a whole new negative meaning since Bush decided to paint anyone who disagrees with his Iraq invasion as "unpatriotic." How asinine. Most of the people I know couldn't care less if they are called unpatriotic. The term is condescending at the very least. Why would it be his business how I choose to display my love OR hate for country? It is my privilege to feel any way I choose about it and retiring certainly indicates nothing other than a desire to get out of the rat race, a race that is getting rattier as we speak. I do not believe America is better than any other country, nor more deserving, nor kinder, nor smarter, nor any other superlative. It is purely an accident to be born here - a lucky accident considering some of the places one could have been born, but very UNlucky considering other places.

Why don't we just all stop trying to put labels on each other? We are humans trying to make it through life. It matters not one whit where we happen to live, when we retire, what our favorite color is, or how we feel about the dirt under our feet.

[almost ready to retire]

Most blanket statements are provocative but wrong (I'm careful to say "most" - aware of the irony). Some workers are forced from their jobs by contract: my husband had to retire at 55 or forfeit partial repayment for his unused sick days; he also would have had to pay for full vs. only a percentage of his medical insurance if he had stayed on. This would have been too much of a strain during retirement years. Economically, it just wasn't feasible to keep working at that job, even though he loved it and misses it terribly.

Some people retire for health reasons. And Greg - good point about the physicality of a job. I'm a teacher and working with primary-age students is taking its toll. I'll be able to retire soon but some of my colleagues will have to go several more years, even though they are already feeling the strain acutely. We love kids - that's why we're in education. But beyond a certain age, seven-year-olds are just too much to handle all day!

My guess is that the writer of that statement just does not have a clue about the average Joe or Josephine's working life. Studs Terkel's "Working" would be a good read for him.

[Mike]

Some academics like to write pieces that are intentionally provocative because the controversy they create and the arguments required to support their ideas are boon to their careers and their egos. It doesn't even matter if their central ideas are fundamentally flawed.

[Ernie Zelinski]

The U.S. National Debt is not the result of any individual person who wants to retire early. The U.S. National Debt is the result of the government's ignorance and arrogance.

I semi-retired when I was 35 and had a net worth of minus $30,000. I am now 58 and still semi-retired and doing very well.

When it comes to retirement, I agree with Robert Benchley who said, "The thing to do is to make so much money that you don't have to work after the age of twenty-seven. In case this is impractical, stop working at the earliest moment, even if it is a quarter past eleven in the morning of the day when you find you have enough money."

Here are some more retirement quotes relating to early retirement:

Before deciding to take early retirement from your job, stay home a week and watch daytime television.
— Unknown wise person

We have no porch, no rocking chair — and no time. My biggest need is a calendar because there are so many things to do. Now I encourage people to retire — the younger the better.
— Maurice Musholt

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
— Walter Gagehot

When is the right age to retire? When you dread going to work.
— Mary Bright

Ernie Zelinski
Author of: "How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor"
(Over 85,000 copies Sold and Published in 7 Foreign Languages)
and "The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked"
(Over 225,000 copies Sold and Published in 17 Languages)
Featured at www.thejoyofnotworking.com

[Rob]

I don't think the comments so far have really discussed the original question that was raised.

I know some retirees who do have a desire to engage in activities, with and without pay, which help people besides themselves. But sadly, I also know of many retirees who only engage in activities which directly benefit themselves, or to a lesser degree, seem to retire not just from work, but from life in general.

The vast majority of old people that I've encountered are not the fonts of wisdom I would hope them to be, and seem far more interested in themselves than in helping others. It seems that the baby boomer generation is generally still quite in love with itself and as selfish as they ever were. They didn't reach a certain age and then all-of-a-sudden they ceased to be the "Me" generation.

I've never seen a person's personality change as a result of retirement. Whatever their interests, pursuits, cares, etc. were before retirement, so they are after retirement...

These comments do NOT pertain to the infirm but rather to healthy and able senior citizens.

[Claudia]

I've known a few college professors who stayed on the job a few DECADES after they should have retired! I've also known waitresses who destroyed their feet and could barely stand for ten minutes at a time after 15 years on the job. It's all relative.

[Tom Gabriele]

Touché.............Great response to that ivory tower geek who thinks retiring early is unpatriotic. Love the sewer occupation example.

Not only do I think it's NOT unpatriotic to retire early, I believe there are MYRIAD of things that hurt the economy more than early retirement. For example, CEOS’ increasing astronomical salaries as dividends dwindle and average workers’ salaries remain stagnant. How about more local, more common examples such as: ruthless used car salesman, loan officers who take advantage of clients by misrepresenting the truth during the negotiation process? Or if you take the OTHER side of that dilemma -- how about some of the nimrods who bought larger homes with ARMs thinking their salaries were miraculously going to balloon, along with their mortgages, every 6 or 12 months? I think the government (taxpayers) bailout of the mortgage industry and other banks like Bear Sterns is more unpatriotic than retiring early, and definitely hurst the economy more. Why bailout someone/some entity that made bad, although very legally binding, choices? Or go back to the early 80s when all the insider trading began with the infamous Ivan Boesky scandal? Enron...need I say more??? Is an early retiree more unpatriotic than a person who trades on insider information, which occurs on a daily basis? And should we chastise a person who has legally worked hard and EARNED the right to retire?

I think not. I have never heard of such a cockamamie premise in my life!