You may want (or need) to keep working past retirement age. Here’s how to help make that possible.
Discover invaluable steps to extend your working life and ensure continued employability. In an uncertain retirement era, safeguard your future and well-being with practical advice. Counteract potential obstacles such as deteriorating health and unexpected layoffs, enabling you to maintain a thriving career for years to come.
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Many people plan to work past normal retirement age, by choice or necessity. But most arent taking the steps that could increase the odds theyll be able to do so.
When asked what theyre doing to ensure they can continue working past 65, fewer than half of employees polled in the 2019 Transamerica Retirement Survey of Workers say theyre trying to stay healthy. Similar numbers cited performing well in their current positions (43%) or keeping their job skills up to date (40%). More than 1 in 4 say they arent doing anything to ensure they remain employed longer.
Workers of the world, wake up. Bad health, layoffs and age discrimination sideline many people who expected to work longer. Surveys show anywhere from 37% to 56% of retirees leave the job market earlier than planned. That can be catastrophic for your finances and your retirement.
The employment deck is stacked against you as you grow older. Few companies offer age-friendly policies that could keep people in the workplace longer, such as formal phased retirement programs. Even employers that have diversity and inclusion policies typically dont include age as one of the demographic characteristics theyre trying to promote, a previous Transamerica survey found. Meanwhile, study after study shows its much harder for older workers who lose their jobs to find new ones.
You can do everything right and still not be guaranteed a long working life. If you want the best shot at working past 65, it pays to be proactive.
“There are all these stereotypes about older workers, and you basically want to be the antithesis of them,” says Laurie McCann, senior attorney for AARP Foundation.
Stay engaged
Workers 55 and older are more likely to be enthusiastic about, and committed to, their work than younger generations, according to a 2015 AARP poll. Older workers need to put that engagement on display.
“You dont want to be viewed as the person whos coasting to retirement,” McCann says. “So you want to remain productive, to volunteer, to basically be assertive.”
Being assertive doesnt mean talking down to younger coworkers. Instead, McCann suggests volunteering for projects and age-diverse work teams with the attitude that you have something to contribute.
“You might say, ‘I think I could add a different perspective to that team; if theres an opportunity for me to work on it, then I would like to,” she says.
Keep learning
Were living in a world where nearly half of all jobs are vulnerable to automation and many occupations of the future havent been invented yet.
So it may not be enough to be good at what you do. Youll want to get good at what your company or industry needs next. Try asking your boss or human resources folks about what skills are currently hard for them to find. Stay up to date on your fields technology, consider adding credentials and “be greedy” about new experiences, says Barbara Mistick, co-author of “Stretch: How to Future-Proof Yourself for Tomorrows Workplace” and president of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Mistick says she attends at least one conference a year thats outside her field just to meet new people and learn new things. She also creates a plan every year for her career growth, and urges others to do the same.
“People kind of think someone is going to take care of it for them, but your professional development is your own responsibility,” she says.
Keep looking
Our social and professional circles can shrink as we age. If we want to stay engaged, we should keep diversifying our networks with people of various ages and in different industries, since our next jobs may be in entirely new fields, says Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of the nonprofit Transamerica Institute and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
“[Networking] can help you meet new people, build professional relationships, inspire new ways of thinking and identify career opportunities,” Collinson says.
Mistick says its also important for older workers to have some kind of social media presence. She recommends picking one or two avenues — LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, or Instagram — and focusing your efforts there.
“You dont have to do them all, but you cant do none, either,” she says.
Even if youre happy in your current job, you should pay attention to whos hiring, what skills are in demand and the trends affecting your field so youre not caught unprepared by change.
“People are so focused on the task that theyre doing that theyre not looking up or forward,” Mistick says. “You need to look around.”
This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.
Extend your working life
