In the old days people retired because they were just worn out and couldn't work anymore. They were crochety and ornery and in pain and often ready to die.
But now, because of better diets, exercise, healthier attitudes and longer happier lives than before, people often at 62 or 65 or even 70 have 20 or more years left. For example, my wife's step father was flying me still around in his V tail Beechcraft Bonanza at 82 and 85 and sometimes scaring me pretty bad dropping 5000 feet really fast to demonstrate what an accomplished pilot he was after flying 35 years or more at that point just like someone might demonstrate what a good driver they were in a sports car. And even now he has all his marbles at 95 almost 96, both his wives have long passed away and even his girlfriend of 15 years has passed away and he has in home care so a young woman comes in and cooks for him and takes care of him now and drives him around. He still writes all his own Thank you notes and flies to visit his relatives throughout the western states at almost 96.
This would have been thought impossible by many or most people even 20 to 40 years ago. When I grew up most people had lost all or most of their teeth by age 40 to 50. This was just the way life was lived then. Most people weren't educated enough (unless they were actors) to have kept their teeth through root canals or implants for example. People in their 40s looked and acted like people do now that are 65 to 70 very often and had passed away by 50 to 55. This was the way life really was in the 1950s and early 1960s.
However, with much more evolved attitudes, more people going to college and learning how to research their own health, learning to help make their own diagnoses by using online sites, they can not only help choose better doctors (that don't recommend smoking cigarettes and smoke them themselves for example) but rather choose doctors and health repairs from thousands to millions of choices worldwide.
People now often go to other countries for elective surgery like Thailand or South Korea or other countries where medical costs are less (relatively speaking) than here by the time you convert money to another currency.
People are not just exhausted and worn out so much at 62 or 65 or even 70. For example, my cousin who is a lawyer still chooses to be a lawyer at 72 because he likes helping people and doing that. He doesn't even want to completely retire because he has wanted to be a lawyer since he was 12 years old. So, it's what he wants to be doing along with sailing his Catalina 25 I think it is in the ocean in his spare time.
For example, I like to snorkel and hike, and ski and ride my dualsport motorcycle and fly to new places I have never been before. I also like to fly and visit my kids too in Oregon and Washington. I like to drive to Mt. Shasta to visit friends to ski and hike and swim in pristine mountain lakes in the summers. I like to drive to Orange County to sail with my cousin who is a lawyer and to swim in his huge swimming pool as well. So, retirement in some ways is a beginning of a completely new life for many many people worldwide now and not just a place to go to die.
And I think that many people will live longer and longer because of medical advances and advances to diet, exercise and just because people find things to do to help others: their family, their friends, their relatives their acquaintances and the people they meet traveling the world.
So, the new retirement is not a bad thing at all, it can be the happiest you have ever been. But whatever it is you have to create it yourself. So, learn to be very creative when you are young so you can help and entertain yourself and others throughout your lives as they become longer and longer on into the future.
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