The Real Reasons People Keep Working

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Here's what's coming up on this edition of The Retirement Huddle with Mark Howard and your host Ron Studds.

**Mark Howard** (0:07)
So, so much of this is falling on the shoulders of the investor, the shoulder of the worker to make sure that they have a retirement that's going to last.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:18)
It's time for The Retirement Huddle with your local financial coach Mark Howard.
If retirement is a game, you're in it to win it. The Huddle is where your financial battle plans are drawn, and Mark Howard is here to help with the X's and O's. So, let's kick it off and break the huddle. The Retirement Huddle starts now.

**Ron Stutz** (0:45)
Let's talk about why people keep working.
More and more people in their 60s and 70s these days are working longer into their retirement years. Studies show that a 33% increase in Americans 65 and older have been staying in the workforce. Let's talk through the reasons why some people just keep working. A lot of people, and you and I have talked about this many times in the past on past shows, you have a lot of social connections when you're in the workplace. You know, you hang around these people you work with all the time, but after you retire, that's probably not going to continue, right?

**Mark Howard** (1:26)
Right.
It's something that a lot of people, I believe, do not think forward about. We certainly make it a part of our planning to let you know that social interactions will typically change, and we've got to think about what you're going to do with your time. Some people get isolated in retirement. Some people get lonely in retirement. Golfing, book clubs, all of those things can help, but for some people, it's just not enough to make up for those daily interactions they got at work.
Even if you don't need the money, if you're working for social fulfillment, that can be a benefit to some people. I think that's one of the reasons that a lot of people stay engaged with work when they don't have to be going to work. But I think one of the best ways to get the best of both worlds is to work part-time, and that allows you to stay active, but it also gives you more flexibility, gives you some more freedom, and it's just another way to stay engaged and interacting with others. Of course, when you've got free time, a lot of people we're seeing, a lot of our retirees are wanting to volunteer with organizations they care about, and there's certainly plenty of organizations that need your help and your expertise, and certainly your financial contributions as well out there, that can really make you feel good and keep you engaged much like the workplace can do.

**Ron Stutz** (2:47)
I've thought a lot about the fact that some of these people get bored and lonely after they retire, not having those social connections anymore. It's easy to see how some people can get really lonely and get absolutely depressed, so that's one thing you need to guard against as well.
We always talk about money worries. People worry about money all the time. There are a lot of people out there who stay in the workplace because they don't think they are ever going to have enough money to retire. There are some people out there who could retire tomorrow if they wanted to, but they come in and see you and they find out that they've been working five years longer than they had to be, but they just don't have a really good plan. They don't have everything on paper. They don't have the strategies involved in their minds. And I know you can put a lot of people's minds at ease just by talking to them.

**Mark Howard** (3:47)
Well, we can. And there's a variety of different organizations out there that do these studies. And what they're finding right now is that nearly half of retirement age folks that are still working are doing so out of financial necessity.
They have financial stresses. Now, if the math dictates that you need to keep working, that's one thing. But isn't it a shame if you could actually retire, but you just kept working because you didn't have the plan that gave you the clarity, and you were just too worried to walk away from the paycheck because you didn't have that plan in place that showed you'd be okay?
Boy, that's an amazing gift that we give to our clients and even our prospects, because what we do is when you call, if we feel like we can really help you, then we like to take another step. Typically, that step just is a conversation with me here at the office. It's like having coffee with an old friend. You come in, we spend an hour, really dive into how we help people and typically ask you to bring some of your statements and so forth so we can do an analysis of your portfolio. It's a second opinion. It's really a second set of eyes on what you've got.