A Life, Work, Retirement Rethink

It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and I’m deep in monk mode working on our new book. I thought I’d share something I’ve been pondering on for the last couple of weeks.

The Problem

The current retirement age based on when you can start receiving Social Security in the United States is 67 and CPP in Canada is 65. (note; you can take it earlier but you will receive less)

Current life expectancy is as follows;

In the United States

Males:  73.5 years / Females 79.3 years

In Canada

Males: 79.8 years / Females 83.9 years

(If you are a women or you happen to live in Canada you might be smiling at this point)

So what does it all mean in the great scheme of things?

A man on average in America will spend close to 40 years of his life working and then be free to spend the rest of his remaining years (6.5) doing whatever he wants to do provided he has the money and is healthy enough to do it.

But it gets worse.

Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row in 2021 and in Canada life expectancy dropped for three years in a row.

This is a race a country doesn’t want to win and I believe stress has a lot to do with it.

We are living in a traumatizing and uncertain world that is falling apart right before our eyes. Job security is a thing of the past and today no job/career is safe no matter how good you are at it – anything can happen to anyone at any moment.

Well-paid salaried jobs are disappearing because employers are focused exclusively on maximizing short term profits. This has led to the hiring of freelancers, gig workers or contract hires without having to pay benefits.

The high anxiety and stress caused by job insecurity and uncertain futures is resulting in many people suffering from mental health issues.

COVID-19 also exposed how vulnerable many people are. Vulnerability came in the form of too much personal debt, lack of personal savings, and far too many people both young and old living paycheck to paycheck. Many people were one crisis short of being unable to pay their bills and that crisis unfortunately materialized in the form of the pandemic.

It’s a big mistake to pretend that everything is ok when it isn’t.

Did you ever wonder why we are the most stressed out, obese, medicated, addicted, and in-debt generation ever?

Collectively, we are living so much better than most people in the world but instead of being grateful and happy we are frequently angry, stressed out, and feeling left behind.

We have in some ways become victims of our own success.

Because of our “success” we end up paying a hefty price in terms of poor relationships, health issues, burnout and depression. People have never experienced this level of stress before and they are struggling trying to find ways to cope and that is when self-destructive behaviors take hold.

Today people are physically inactive and are eating too much, watching too much television, on social media too much, buying stuff on credit that they really don’t need, often self-medicating with drugs or alcohol, or taking prescription medication to help cope with the never ending stress.

It’s hard to be happy, when you’re experiencing chronic stress from trying to cope with a lot of uncertainty. But if you thought that was bad…

We are seeing a significant increase in “deaths of despair” drug overdoses, suicides, and alcohol-related diseases caused by economic hardship, feelings of helplessness, and a loss of hope for the future.

And what is alarming is this is an uniquely American problem since it is not seen in other countries.

Something about life in America is not right and the truth is that the problems we are seeing/experiencing were decades in the making.

So what can we do to improve things?

We need to come up with a new life model that is better suited to life in the 21st century. Following this new model will help take the pressure off.

And that is what I’m working on at 4 o’clock in the morning. It’s the least I can do for our kids.