{"id":2553,"date":"2023-04-13T10:33:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T14:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=2553"},"modified":"2023-04-13T10:33:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T14:33:03","slug":"whats-the-perfect-retirement-age-for-your-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2023\/04\/whats-the-perfect-retirement-age-for-your-health.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s The Perfect Retirement Age For Your Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"retirement\"
Pexels.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The conservative German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proposed a national retirement benefit to satisfy the leftist masses in 1881, setting the retirement age at 70. However, the average life expectancy at the time was about 40. Von Bismarck resigned right after the policy passed, but his legacy remained, and Germany\u2019s retirement benefit became a model for other nations. In 1916, Germany lowered their retirement benefit age to 65.<\/p>\n

When President Roosevelt launched the Social Security Act of 1935, 65 was chosen as the national retirement age, although less than 60 percent of American adults lived that long. In modern times, many more people live long enough to access a national retirement fund, often for years, if not decades. The average life expectancy in the United States is 76, even higher in many European countries.<\/p>\n

The U.S. national retirement age, or when you can start claiming Social Security benefits, has gradually increased to 67 for those born before 1960. In response, several countries are debating raising the retirement age in an attempt to offset the economic pressures of an aging population and the worry that national retirement benefits won\u2019t be able to keep up for much longer.<\/p>\n

From an economic standpoint, a later retirement age perhaps benefits everyone\u2019s bottom line. But putting finances aside, what are the mental and physical implications of raising the national retirement age?\u00a0One way to answer this question is to look at changes, not in life span but in healthspan, the number of years people are healthy and disability-free. Think of it as your work span.<\/p>\n

Gal Wettstein, a senior research economist at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, compared age and retirement potential for employment in a study about people\u2019s working life expectancy. He discovered that healthy Americans at age 50 could expect to have almost 23 more years free of disability, plus eight years of living with a disability. This data would suggest that, on average, people\u2019s maximum working life expectancy is 73.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that life expectancy is longer, and also, the ability to work has expanded,\u201d Dr. Wettstein said. \u201cPart of that is medical changes and part of that is the nature of work has changed.\u201d In 2020,\u00a0roughly 45 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the American labor force worked in a knowledge-based field, such as management, business and finance, education and health care. In 1935, these types of professions accounted for\u00a0just 6 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the workforce.<\/p>\n

Dr. Pinchas Cohen, dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California, agreed that from a health standpoint for people in these fields, a retirement age under 65 \u201cmakes no sense.\u201d He said, \u201cEven 65 is a 20th-century number.\u201d<\/p>\n

For people working in knowledge-based jobs, a retirement age in the 70s is reasonable from a cognitive perspective, too, said Lisa Renzi-Hammond, director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Georgia. \u201cOur cognitive faculties we\u2019re able to maintain, usually, pretty well into our 70s,\u201d she said. \u201cIf the retirement age is set based on the capabilities or competence of employees, there\u2019s absolutely no reason to have a retirement age in the 60s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0initial intent<\/a>\u00a0of Social Security, when established in 1935, was to sustain people once they could no longer physically work. But another way to think of federally funded retirement is that it should reward people with a few years of leisure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conservative German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proposed a national retirement benefit to satisfy the leftist masses in 1881, setting the retirement age at 70. However, the average life expectancy at the time was about 40. Von Bismarck resigned right after the policy passed, but his legacy remained, and Germany\u2019s retirement benefit became a model…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":2556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,69],"tags":[465,633],"class_list":["post-2553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-physical-health","category-study","tag-retirement","tag-retirement-age"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's The Perfect Retirement Age For Your Health?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A later retirement age may be better for everyone's bottom line, but what are the mental and physical consequences of raising the retirement age?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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