Ready to Retire? Don’t Rush It!

The Shell Oil Company, of all people, has found something interesting about retirement. Early retirement apparently carries a risk of increased mortality. So much for the theory that stress at work kills people!

The researchers compared survival in 3 groups: employees who retired at age 55, those who retired at 60, and those who retired at 65.

Those workers who retired at 55 had a significantly greater mortality rate compared with those who retired at 65 people; it was 37% higher, in fact. And the mortality was significantly higher (almost double) during the first 10 years after retirement at 55 than in those who worked until they were 65.

It also became clear that mortality was similar for those who retired at 60 and those who didn’t retire until 65; and mortality was the same in the first 5 years after retiring at 60 as in those who worked through to 65. So, early retirement (aged 55) was associated with higher mortality than working to 60 or 65.

Of course, some of us older workers knew this already. We’ve seen the pleasures of work-satisfaction outweigh some of the frustrations of getting a good T-time or wandering round the mall. But it’s good to have it confirmed in a trustworthy study.

Comments

[elliot]

Has it not occurred to the people at Shell that at least some of the retirees at 50 or 55 retired early because they were ill or feeling poorly?

[Robert Griffith]

Elliot:
Your question was raised in a letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal, which had published the analysis of the Shell data. See: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/331/7523/995#120775
You make a very good point. We'll see how the authors of the study respond.