From: David A. Kekich (kekich@transvio.com)
Date: Wed Aug 13 2003 - 09:14:04 MDT
Optimum Strategies for Creativity and Longevity
By Sing Lin, Ph.D.
Member of National Council of Chinese Institute of Engineers
USA/Greater New York Chapter and Member of the Board of
Director of National Taiwan University Alumni Association,
Greater New York
Subj: Longevity Vs. Retirement Age
The pension funds in many large corporations (e.g., Boeing,
Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, etc.) have
been "Over Funded" because many "late retirees" who
keep-on working into their old age and retire late after the
age of 65 tend to die within two years after their retirements.
In other words, many of these late retirees do not live long
enough to collect all their fair shares of pension money such
that they leave a lot of extra-unused money in the pension
funds resulting in the over-funded pension funds.
Dr. Ephrem provided the important results in the following
Table 1 and the associated chart from an actuarial study of life
span vs. age at retirement. The study was based on the number
of pension checks sent to retirees of Boeing Aerospace.
Table 1 Actuarial Study of life span vs. age at retirement.
Age at Retirement Average Age At Death
49.9 86
51.2 85.3
52.5 84.6
53.8 83.9
55.1 83.2
56.4 82.5
57.2 81.4
58.3 80
59.2 78.5
60.1 76.8
61 74.5
62.1 71.8
63.1 69.3
64.1 67.9
65.2 66.8
Table 1 and the chart indicate that for people retired at the
age of 50, their average life span is 86; whereas for people
retired at the age of 65, their average life span is only 66.8.
An important conclusion from this study is that for every
year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of life span
on average.
The Boeing experience is that employees retiring at age of 65
receive pension checks for only 18 months, on average, prior
to death. Similarly, the Lockheed experience is that employees
retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 17 months,
on average, prior to death.
Dr. David T. Chai indicated that the Bell Labs experience is
similar to those of Boeing and Lockheed based on the casual
observation from the Newsletters of Bell Lab retirees. A
retiree from Ford Motor told Dr. Paul Tien-Lin Ho that the
experience from Ford Motor is also similar to those in Boeing
and Lockheed.
The statistics shown in the Pre-Retirement Seminar in
Telcordia (Bellcore) indicates that the average age that
Telcordia (Bellcore) employees start retirement is 57.
Therefore, people who retire at the age of 65 or older are
minority as compared to the number of early retirees.
The hard-working late retirees probably put too much stress
on their aging body-and-mind such that they are so stressed
out to develop various serious health problems that forced
them to quit and retire. With such long-term stress-induced
serious health problems, they die within two years after they
quit and retire.
On the other hand, people who take early retirements at the
age of 55 tend to live long and well into their 80s and beyond.
These earlier retirees probably are either wealthier or more
able to plan and manage their various aspects of their life,
health and career well such that they can afford to retire early
and comfortably.
These early retirees are not really idling after their early
retirements to get old. They still continue doing some work. But
they do the work on the part-time basis at a more leisure pace
so that they do not get too stressed out. Furthermore, they have
the luxury to pick and chose the types of part-time work of real
interest to them so that they can enjoy and love doing that "fun"
work at a more leisure pace.
The late retirees are small in number, tend to die quickly after
retirement and disappear from the population of old people
beyond the age of 70. Late retirees, therefore, have very little
weight on the statistical average life expectancy of the population
of "old people" dominated by the early retirees.
Conclusion and Recommendations -
When you get older, you should plan your career path and
financial matters so that you can retire comfortably at the age
of 55 or earlier to enjoy your long, happy and leisure retirement
life into your golden age of 80s and beyond. In retirement, you
can still enjoy some fun work of great interest to you and of
great values to the society and the community, but at a part-time
leisure pace on your own term.
On the other hand, if you are not able to get out of the
pressure-cooker or the high-speed battleground at the age of
55 and "have" to keep on working very hard until the age of
65 or older before your retirement, then you probably will die
within 18 months of retirement. By working very hard in the
pressure cooker for 10 more years beyond the age of 55, you
give up at least 20 years of your life span on average.
Richard H. Stack, Jr.
OSBL SI&GF Business Manager
BSF China - CSPC Nanhai Petrochemicals Project
86 752 556 8519 (w) 86 752 555 1165 (h)
86 139 2737 0520 (Mobile)
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