Will Retirement Become Something of the Past

It is most America'ns goal to work for a productive company /organization then being able to retire enjoying the fruits of their many years of labor. Retirement used to be something to look forward to, but now it seems like many of us will not reach this post-employment goal. It appears to almost be hopeless. Unfortunately retirement may become something of the past.

Before I entered the workforce I can remember how people constantly boasted about how good it was to be retired. Some of them proudly put tags on their vehicles displaying this great accomplishment. This made me eager to work because it showed me that I would have something to look forward to once I left the workforce. Now my perspective on retirement changed when I entered the American workforce in 1996. I encountered many people that had already left the workforce. Although most of them had 401K and 403B plans to supplement their retirement benefits, yet some of them still struggled to maintain their ways of living. The nest egg that they thought they had was not enough. This was very disturbing! These people had been employed for all of these years only to be forced to re-enter the workforce. Some people did not want to do this but unfortunate circumstances caused them to do so.

Before seeing this first-hand I always looked at retirement as being a joyous time in someone's life. It meant frequent travel, constant relaxation, and economic independence. What happened to this once pinnacle of American workers? Unlike athletes in the past when the average person retired he/she remained that way. Now since we have so many people who have retired who are working again they are preventing people who have never been employed to enter the workforce.

Retirement will become something of the past. Factors such as unemployment and the economy both are contributing to retirement quickly heading toward the status of non-existence. As a result of the current state of retirement, many people are less loyal to companies. Some people will change jobs at least 3 or 4 times within a 5 year period.

Something else to take in consideration is the financial performance of companies these days, they are constantly gambling with employees' benefit funds. The current workforce has nothing to look forward to. Retirement will no longer be an option available to us. We all would like to have the flexibility to do some of the things we like when we leave the workforce. If not we will literally be forced to work ourselves to death.