© 2016
By Hilde S. Wexler, CEO, GENASSISTTM, Inc., Colorist Artist, Futurist
People have asked why I have decided to keep my business going and therefore continue to work past the time that most people retire. I created my first women-owned business in 1980 HS Wexler & Associates, an insurance and consulting business and followed that up in 1983 with the creation of GENASSISTTM Incorporated a genetics and biotechnology company. Both are still in business today.
I like to tell the story of my mom who worked in downtown New York until age 85 and complained every day because she did not have a job to go to. My mother died at age 95, still missing the sense of purpose that working gave her.
As I observe my friends, who are my age, it has become very clear to me that those who continue to be engaged in a paid position, volunteer work, travel or artistic pursuits, seem to weather aging best. It appears that one needs a reason to get up in the morning and have something meaningful to do or to think about other than simply thinking about our daily aches and pains.
Not to sound cliché’ but “find something you love and throw yourself into it”. The actuarial calculator on the Social Security website:
https://www.socialsecurity.gov/oact/population/longevity.html
can be used by individuals to help stop worrying about running out of time and money.
The threat of losing one’s retirement funds from a private employer with “forced retirement” at a certain age might be real but if you build your fixed spending around your social security payment, you should be safe.
It is never a bad idea to try living on this amount before retirement to see if you need additional funds and decide where these funds will come from.
In any case, thinking of your job as your retirement choice, throwing yourself into something with your whole heart, will help you sail through the last and hopefully best part of your life.