Seniors decide retirement doesn't suit them, keep working
— -- When Frank Pascarelli was a senior at Hofstra University interviewing for a management job with Sears Roebuck, he was told he would receive such a substantial retirement package that he would never have to work a day over 55.
"I didn't know if I ever wanted to do that, but I took part in their training program anyway," Pascarelli says with a quick laugh.
Pascarelli has not stopped working, not because he can't afford to stop or because he saw investments go sour. He'll be 80 next month and is financially set, he says. He just enjoys working.
He tried retiring, leaving Sears after 38 years, but leaped back into the workforce in a second career, selling Cadillacs, his favorite car. "I played golf for about a month and a half and said, 'That's not for me,' " Pascarelli says. "If I leave the car business, I will never do nothing. I will not stay home and play Monopoly. I will keep going."
And probably keep succeeding. Pascarelli led sales at Linus Cadillac Buick GMC in Vero Beach, Fla., "for well over a decade, and still does better than the majority of the salespeople," says Vincent Perez, general manager. "His work is exemplary. I'm very proud to have him."
Experts say Baby Boomers are starting to copy Pascarelli's drive to work past conventional retirement age, a trend fueled by an uncertain economy, improved health in older life and an understanding that staying engaged leads to a better sense of well-being.
The percentage of people who work and people who want to work has increased markedly in both the 65-and-older and 75-and-older groups, says Sara Rix, senior adviser for the AARP Public Policy Institute. For 2011, the participation rate for 65 and older was 17.9% compared with 10.8% in 1985. For 75 and older, the rate jumped from 4.3% in 1990 to 7.5% in 2011.
"Those are whopping increases," Rix says. "I see these rates continuing to increase as we move into the future."
Hitting 65 and "getting the gold watch" is not on the must-do list anymore for many people, says Jacquelyn James, research director at the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College.
"Their emphasis isn't just to keep working but to do things that add life to years and not years to life,'' James says. "People who are very work-oriented and love their jobs don't want to give them up, especially if they're healthy."
An April Gallup survey had similar findings: 534 working people were asked whether, when they reached retirement age, "you think you will continue working and work full-time; continue working and work part-time; or stop working altogether?" Those who answered that they would continue to work were then asked, "Would you do it because you want to, or because you will have to?"
•18% said they would work full-time, and a third of those said it was because they wanted to, not because they would have to.
•63% said they would work part-time; almost two-thirds of those said they would do it because they wanted to.
•18% said they would retire and stop working altogether.
The average age of retirement is 64 for men and 62 for women, according to an analysis of Census data by the Center for Retirement Research. Census data also show the number of Americans living to age 90 and beyond has tripled in the past three decades to almost 2 million and is likely to quadruple by 2050.
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