Speaking from experience, there is absolutely nothing wrong with working part-time during retirement at something you rather enjoy doing. In fact, if I didn’t have this little ‘ol blog and the companion investment newsletter Iacono Research (that, incidentally, is doing quite well so far this year), I think I’d get terribly bored from time to time. I mean, there’s only so much travel, yard work, home improvement, and outdoor sports activities that you can do before it begins to get old and virtually none of this can be done at 5 AM every morning.
Anyway, it seems that a growing number of Americans are resigned to working during retirement and this Gallup survey provides a pretty good summary of how much and why.
A combined 8 in 10 American workers think they will continue working full or part time after they reach retirement age. Proportionately more of these workers, 44% to 36%, say they will do so because they “want to” rather than because they “will have to.”
Overall, most workers expect to work part time after retirement age (63%), rather than to work full time (18%) or stop working altogether (18%). Those who expect to work full time are twice as likely to say they will do so out of need rather than as a choice. In contrast, those who expect to stop working overwhelmingly say it is because they want to. Workers who expect to work on a part-time basis are more likely to say they will want to work than will need to do so.
The key here, at least in my view, is to do something that you enjoy, rather than continue doing something that you don’t particularly like in a part of the country where you don’t particularly want to live. And if you enjoy greeting customers at a WalMart in a densely populated part of the country then, hey, more power to you.
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