I recently watched an inspiring Channel 4 documentary entitled Fabulous Fashionistas. The cutting-edge short film presented six women with an average age of 80, who are determined to look fabulous and redefine old age.
Sporting a short Mary Quant-style fringe, one of the six, Jean Woods, decided to reinvent herself after the death of her husband and at 70, went to work for retail store Gap.
Former ballet dancer Gillian Lynne, 87, who still does 40 minutes of stretching every day, thinks that to retire is dangerous.
What these women had in common was an indomitable spirit, a desire to keep going, look stylish and have fun.
Their stories were breathtakingly encouraging and moving to the point that I know now I will be like them when I get older.
Of course, there’s another reason why retirees continue working – they need to supplement their income once they reach pension age. Indeed it was recently reported that the record number of those over 65 who still work will rise further in the next decade.
George Cassola, 64, successfully and admirably juggles a variety of jobs including that of freelance consultant, company director and University lecturer. He has no plans to stop working for good.
“Continuing to work has helped me keep my self-esteem,” he says. “In periods when I am less busy, it is somewhat daunting to wake up and ask myself how I am going to spend the day.
“Of course, there are other activities I engage in, from gardening and maintenance to reading and crosswords. That is the hobby side of retirement, which is just as important. But I feel I have been more useful on those days when I have put in my few hours of professional work. In other respects working after retirement gives the same satisfaction that it does before – sharing experiences, teaching, learning, developing, producing.”
Cassola recounts how he started working when he was 16 years old.
This is primarily what drives me – the need to apply my faculties and carry on interacting professionally with the outside world
“At the time, I was at University and wanted to keep busy during my standing year. As it turned out, I ended up spending 21 years in the civil service, going up from clerk to acting head and mainly focusing on taxation and computing. I left the service in 1986 – some time later I graduated in accountancy and spent a further 20 years in audit and management posts.
“Since my retirement at 57 in 2006, I have been working part-time as a freelance consultant and company director, while retaining a long-time university visiting lectureship of a few hours a week.
“By calling myself a consultant, I mean I may take up any job in which I feel competent by virtue of my experience and expertise – provided I know I will enjoy doing it. Among the various assignments that come my way, my preference is for business translation, because it combines my professional knowledge with my love for language, and for course delivery, because it brings me in contact with young, and not so young, career-minded people,” he says.
There is also the financial aspect of working after retirement.
“There are some people who feel it is financially advantageous to keep on working after retirement,” Cassola says. “An employee going on pension nowadays gets around €12,000 maximum in pension. That means that anyone retiring with a salary of more than €18,000 will get less than the statutory two-thirds pension. Some may get as little as 20 or 25 per cent of their salary.
“In order to maintain their standard of living they may find it necessary to earn some supplementary income. But the first and major reason for working after retirement in most cases is to keep yourself active – to keep your mind busy, to have the satisfaction of sharing your experience with others, and, why not, to keep learning from younger people.
“This is primarily what drives me – the need to apply my faculties and carry on interacting professionally with the outside world. There are also many who take up voluntary work and take pleasure in the knowledge that they can still be of value to society.”
Cassola doesn’t see any downsides in continuing to work.
“Presumably if I worked fixed hours I might feel differently, but I cannot tell. The only problem with working freelance is that the volume of work is unpredictable – there are periods when I think I am forgotten and others when I am busier than I would care to be. But that has nothing to do with pre- or post-retirement.
“At present I have no plans to stop working for good. I suppose in future I might come to that point, but I don’t foresee it yet.
“Most people who are self-employed do not know the meaning of retirement – they just carry on. My advice for people in employment is to plan ahead how you will continue to use your abilities after retirement. You may find a job, or work on your own, or you may do voluntary work or dedicate yourself to your special interests. Or engage in a mix of all options. Just don’t wait for your last day of work to start planning.”