September 30, 2026 • 12 mins
Is retirement bad for your health? Well it certainly can be if you don't take steps to prevent it. Listen in to learn more about the "retirement curse."
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Chuck, Jerry, Dave,
short stuff, tally ho.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, we're talking about retirement today and specifically what can
be referred to as the retirement curse, which is this
idea that, you know, maybe you're doing fine in life
and you're chugging along at your job and then you
retire and you encounter all sorts of problems, maybe mental
health problems, maybe physical health problems. And retirement can be
(00:35):
the trigger to that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things
where a lot of people are familiar with anecdotally, like
maybe they've seen somebody, you know, just their health declines
very quickly or it's just something changes for the worse
from retirement. Um, and it's actually quantifiable. Um, and apparently
five to six years after retirement, this is just the
average American. I suspect it's not quite as bad elsewhere.
(01:01):
And in fact, I couldn't find mention of the retirement
curse as we're presenting it anywhere else. It does seem
to be a semi American phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But there's this, uh, The average American shows a 6%
to 9% decline in mental health within the first five
to six years after retirement. A 5% to 6% increase
in illness condition, right?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
A 5% to 16% increase in difficulties with daily activities.
And when they control all the other variables, they're like,
it seems to be retirement. But of course, retirement itself
is not doing this to you. It's all the life
changes that come from retirement.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, exactly. It's that transition. How you deal with that
is really, really key and something that you really got
to think about going into it. I hope if you're
a person of retirement age, you've got a plan in place.
We're going to talk more about that. But it seems
like the worst cases are when people just retire and
all of a sudden they're like, wait a minute, I
(02:05):
have my days free all the time. I'm not going
to this place anymore. If you went to an office,
let's say. I'm not surrounded by people every day that
I normally might be. You know, going to work is
mental engagement. And, you know, even if you're not doing
like hard labor, just getting up and getting out of
bed and going to an office and moving about the
(02:27):
world represents some kind of physical activity. And especially if
when you retire, you just kind of hit the couch
or the recliner. That's that's a big difference.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah. Also, like those people that you're interacting with, even
if you work from home, just interacting with them on
calls or via email, like you don't have that all
of a sudden. If you start emailing those same people,
they're like, you retired. Go do your thing. I'm trying
to work here. Yeah. You know, they don't let you
in on calls any longer. And so if you don't
already have a pretty tight circle of friends outside of work,
(02:59):
which a lot of Americans do not.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Especially as you get older, it just gets harder and harder.
to make friends. And because you spend a lot of
your time at work, those people become your friends de facto.
If you don't have that network already in place, you
need to go figure out how to do it because
that is probably ultimately what's behind the decline more than anything.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, for sure. And like we said, we need you
need to have a plan in place for, you know,
we'll talk about exercise and social engagement and stuff like that,
or maybe just keep working or work part time or
volunteer and And maybe we'll take a break and talk
a little bit about those work statistics right after this.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I got this from the Bureau of Labor Statistics here
in the United States, kind of the picture over the
years of, of when people stop working. Uh, I think
in 1948, uh, the, the rate of people age 65
and older working was 27%. Um, 47% of men, 9%
of women, um, age 65 and older started trending down
in the latter half of the 20th century and hit
its lowest point in 1985. And only 10% of, uh,
people of the age of 65 were working. And since 1985,
(04:34):
that started to grow and started to trend upward, like
people working later and later. Right. Because sometimes economic necessity,
sometimes just preference. And then the last year I had available,
at least, was 2024, when it was about 19% of
people age 65 and over still working. And I think 38%
of those were doing so part-time.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You can also like the fact that it hit its
low point in 1985. That's just about the time the
unions got broken up and pensions went away and got
replaced by 401k.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So and that is one reason why a lot of
people stay in the workforce is financial necessity. When I
was looking for the retirement curse abroad outside of the
United States. One reference I found was in Australia, but
essentially what they were talking about was the retirement curse
of outliving your savings. And a lot of people are
scared to death by that idea. And there's a lot
(05:34):
of people in the United States who are like, I
have to keep working. I don't have a choice because
I'm going to keep living longer beyond my savings. So
that's a big one, especially because we don't have universal
single payer free health care here in the United States.
That gets more and more expensive the older you get.
And you happen to need it more and more the
older you get, too. So the insurance plan that mostly
(05:58):
you get that through your employer, you used to before Obamacare.
If you have a good insurance plan that you don't
pay that much for through your employer, that in and
of itself is reason enough to keep working for a
lot of Americans. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
End of life care is really, really, really expensive. Another reason.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's a real screw job.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It is. Yeah, you work your whole life and then
get hit with a tremendous bill that you can't afford
at the end of it.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's sad. So personal choice is another reason. People are
generally healthier and living longer these days compared to previous decades.
And so a lot of people just want to keep
working because it gives them a sense of purpose, something
to do.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
They want to keep joining those calls.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah. Well, and remote work is another reason why people
are working a little later because, hey, you're at home,
so no skin off your back.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yep. So there's actually a Harvard study that was like, okay,
what's behind all of this? Because yes, everybody, you know,
has some sort of anecdotal data, but there's got to
be some factor that really rises above everything else. And
Harvard's been studying this cohort of 724 men for over
75 years now. There's only 60 of them left and
(07:09):
they're all in their 90s. But every two years they
track their health. They ask them about their satisfaction in life.
And they found that when you separate the wheat from
the chaff, the cream from the milk, the peanut butter
from the chocolate, what stands is social connections. And we've
talked about this before, and it makes me really nervous
every time we do. But the more social connections you have,
(07:33):
the more connected you are with other people, the more
you interact with other people, the happier you are, the
longer life you have, the less disease burden you have
into old age.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
And just the better off you are in general. It
seems to be the underlying thing for health into old age.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, for sure. The fourth, this is an amazing study,
the Harvard Study of Adult Development. And the fourth director
is a guy named Robert Waldinger, who is a psychiatrist.
And he has an awesome TED Talk that I recommend
people watch. And it's a TED Talk. So it's not
more than what?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
18 minutes or something?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I don't remember what the, when the.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, there's a set length. I can't remember, but. It's
called What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest
Study on Happiness. And he reiterates what you said is that,
you know, those relationships are kind of the key to
remain socially connected and loneliness is toxic. So, you know,
you want to avoid that stuff, both physically and mentally.
(08:32):
And on the physical side, one kind of obvious things
that you should do is, I mean, if you're a
runner and you do cardio and you can keep doing that,
that's great. But strength training and stretching and stuff like that,
resistance exercises is a really big deal to start doing
or continue to do if you don't do it already
as you get older.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It's enormous. It helps keep your bones healthy. It helps
keep your muscles strong. It prevents things like sarcopenia where
you develop a stoop. Balance is a big one because
falls are a big problem as you get older. So
strength training, resistance training, that helps your balance as well.
And You also just want to move. One thing I'm
(09:12):
heartened by is there's so many people who I see
out taking walks in the middle of the day every day.
I think that's great. And that's a big part of staying,
I guess, healthy or just living life is getting outside
and moving around, even if it is just going for
a walk, you know, or chasing pigeons at the pond.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean, that's, you know, one of the mental aspects
is daily routine. And if that's chasing pigeons is your thing.
Like you need to you need to have a plan
in place and have a routine and not just be like, well,
what's the day going to throw my way? You know,
you also need to eat, you know, eat well, obviously,
nutrient dense foods and get get really good sleep. That's key.
(09:53):
But like getting out in the world is a big one. And,
you know, I think everyone has seen this maybe sadly
somewhere in their family. Like the worst thing you can
do is turning that television on during daylight hours.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
It gets worse though, Chuck. If you turn it on
and you turn it on to cable news, you're toast. Yeah.
Not only are you going to die, but your family
wants you dead now.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's a problem. It is.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
When you start sitting on the couch and watching TV
during the day, it's you know, it can be the
beginning of the end. So you need to be out
in the world. You need to try and learn some
new things like it's you can get so inspired by seeing,
you know, either on social media or whatever or news
stories when you see some of our senior friends out there.
(10:43):
like taking a dance class for the first time or,
or a new hobby or learning an instrument or a
new language or something like that, like that is just
food for your brain.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah. Like if your local community is like putting a
one penny tax or something, um, to, to build a
new senior center, that's money well spent.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Agreed. Um, and then of course you can volunteer, you
can mentor. There's a lot of stuff you can do. Um,
I think the point is to just keep doing stuff.
Like you said, resist the trap of just sitting on
the couch all day, you know?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, because the retirement curse is self-inflicted generally. So you
hopefully have a choice as to how you spend your
remaining years. And we say, because I'm 55, dude, that's
coming for me sooner than you. And I want to
be out in the world. I want to be one
of those old guys who, Out there on the golf
(11:37):
course in his 90s or taking a, I want to
learn to dance, finally, in my 80s.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's awesome. What kind of dance?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Modern? Jazz?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Breakdancing.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh, that'd be great. The breakdancing grandpa. There's your second
chapter right there.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
There you have it.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Well, yes, I think this short stuff proved that we
are becoming old men and look for short stuff in
the future on sitting. And I think Chuck's short.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Stuff is out.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Chuck, Jerry, Dave,
short stuff, tally ho.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, we're talking about retirement today and specifically what can
be referred to as the retirement curse, which is this
idea that, you know, maybe you're doing fine in life
and you're chugging along at your job and then you
retire and you encounter all sorts of problems, maybe mental
health problems, maybe physical health problems. And retirement can be
(00:35):
the trigger to that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things
where a lot of people are familiar with anecdotally, like
maybe they've seen somebody, you know, just their health declines
very quickly or it's just something changes for the worse
from retirement. Um, and it's actually quantifiable. Um, and apparently
five to six years after retirement, this is just the
average American. I suspect it's not quite as bad elsewhere.
(01:01):
And in fact, I couldn't find mention of the retirement
curse as we're presenting it anywhere else. It does seem
to be a semi American phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But there's this, uh, The average American shows a 6%
to 9% decline in mental health within the first five
to six years after retirement. A 5% to 6% increase
in illness condition, right?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
A 5% to 16% increase in difficulties with daily activities.
And when they control all the other variables, they're like,
it seems to be retirement. But of course, retirement itself
is not doing this to you. It's all the life
changes that come from retirement.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, exactly. It's that transition. How you deal with that
is really, really key and something that you really got
to think about going into it. I hope if you're
a person of retirement age, you've got a plan in place.
We're going to talk more about that. But it seems
like the worst cases are when people just retire and
all of a sudden they're like, wait a minute, I
(02:05):
have my days free all the time. I'm not going
to this place anymore. If you went to an office,
let's say. I'm not surrounded by people every day that
I normally might be. You know, going to work is
mental engagement. And, you know, even if you're not doing
like hard labor, just getting up and getting out of
bed and going to an office and moving about the
(02:27):
world represents some kind of physical activity. And especially if
when you retire, you just kind of hit the couch
or the recliner. That's that's a big difference.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah. Also, like those people that you're interacting with, even
if you work from home, just interacting with them on
calls or via email, like you don't have that all
of a sudden. If you start emailing those same people,
they're like, you retired. Go do your thing. I'm trying
to work here. Yeah. You know, they don't let you
in on calls any longer. And so if you don't
already have a pretty tight circle of friends outside of work,
(02:59):
which a lot of Americans do not.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Especially as you get older, it just gets harder and harder.
to make friends. And because you spend a lot of
your time at work, those people become your friends de facto.
If you don't have that network already in place, you
need to go figure out how to do it because
that is probably ultimately what's behind the decline more than anything.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, for sure. And like we said, we need you
need to have a plan in place for, you know,
we'll talk about exercise and social engagement and stuff like that,
or maybe just keep working or work part time or
volunteer and And maybe we'll take a break and talk
a little bit about those work statistics right after this.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I got this from the Bureau of Labor Statistics here
in the United States, kind of the picture over the
years of, of when people stop working. Uh, I think
in 1948, uh, the, the rate of people age 65
and older working was 27%. Um, 47% of men, 9%
of women, um, age 65 and older started trending down
in the latter half of the 20th century and hit
its lowest point in 1985. And only 10% of, uh,
people of the age of 65 were working. And since 1985,
(04:34):
that started to grow and started to trend upward, like
people working later and later. Right. Because sometimes economic necessity,
sometimes just preference. And then the last year I had available,
at least, was 2024, when it was about 19% of
people age 65 and over still working. And I think 38%
of those were doing so part-time.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You can also like the fact that it hit its
low point in 1985. That's just about the time the
unions got broken up and pensions went away and got
replaced by 401k.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So and that is one reason why a lot of
people stay in the workforce is financial necessity. When I
was looking for the retirement curse abroad outside of the
United States. One reference I found was in Australia, but
essentially what they were talking about was the retirement curse
of outliving your savings. And a lot of people are
scared to death by that idea. And there's a lot
(05:34):
of people in the United States who are like, I
have to keep working. I don't have a choice because
I'm going to keep living longer beyond my savings. So
that's a big one, especially because we don't have universal
single payer free health care here in the United States.
That gets more and more expensive the older you get.
And you happen to need it more and more the
older you get, too. So the insurance plan that mostly
(05:58):
you get that through your employer, you used to before Obamacare.
If you have a good insurance plan that you don't
pay that much for through your employer, that in and
of itself is reason enough to keep working for a
lot of Americans. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
End of life care is really, really, really expensive. Another reason.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's a real screw job.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It is. Yeah, you work your whole life and then
get hit with a tremendous bill that you can't afford
at the end of it.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's sad. So personal choice is another reason. People are
generally healthier and living longer these days compared to previous decades.
And so a lot of people just want to keep
working because it gives them a sense of purpose, something
to do.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
They want to keep joining those calls.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah. Well, and remote work is another reason why people
are working a little later because, hey, you're at home,
so no skin off your back.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yep. So there's actually a Harvard study that was like, okay,
what's behind all of this? Because yes, everybody, you know,
has some sort of anecdotal data, but there's got to
be some factor that really rises above everything else. And
Harvard's been studying this cohort of 724 men for over
75 years now. There's only 60 of them left and
(07:09):
they're all in their 90s. But every two years they
track their health. They ask them about their satisfaction in life.
And they found that when you separate the wheat from
the chaff, the cream from the milk, the peanut butter
from the chocolate, what stands is social connections. And we've
talked about this before, and it makes me really nervous
every time we do. But the more social connections you have,
(07:33):
the more connected you are with other people, the more
you interact with other people, the happier you are, the
longer life you have, the less disease burden you have
into old age.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
And just the better off you are in general. It
seems to be the underlying thing for health into old age.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, for sure. The fourth, this is an amazing study,
the Harvard Study of Adult Development. And the fourth director
is a guy named Robert Waldinger, who is a psychiatrist.
And he has an awesome TED Talk that I recommend
people watch. And it's a TED Talk. So it's not
more than what?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
18 minutes or something?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I don't remember what the, when the.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, there's a set length. I can't remember, but. It's
called What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest
Study on Happiness. And he reiterates what you said is that,
you know, those relationships are kind of the key to
remain socially connected and loneliness is toxic. So, you know,
you want to avoid that stuff, both physically and mentally.
(08:32):
And on the physical side, one kind of obvious things
that you should do is, I mean, if you're a
runner and you do cardio and you can keep doing that,
that's great. But strength training and stretching and stuff like that,
resistance exercises is a really big deal to start doing
or continue to do if you don't do it already
as you get older.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It's enormous. It helps keep your bones healthy. It helps
keep your muscles strong. It prevents things like sarcopenia where
you develop a stoop. Balance is a big one because
falls are a big problem as you get older. So
strength training, resistance training, that helps your balance as well.
And You also just want to move. One thing I'm
(09:12):
heartened by is there's so many people who I see
out taking walks in the middle of the day every day.
I think that's great. And that's a big part of staying,
I guess, healthy or just living life is getting outside
and moving around, even if it is just going for
a walk, you know, or chasing pigeons at the pond.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean, that's, you know, one of the mental aspects
is daily routine. And if that's chasing pigeons is your thing.
Like you need to you need to have a plan
in place and have a routine and not just be like, well,
what's the day going to throw my way? You know,
you also need to eat, you know, eat well, obviously,
nutrient dense foods and get get really good sleep. That's key.
(09:53):
But like getting out in the world is a big one. And,
you know, I think everyone has seen this maybe sadly
somewhere in their family. Like the worst thing you can
do is turning that television on during daylight hours.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
It gets worse though, Chuck. If you turn it on
and you turn it on to cable news, you're toast. Yeah.
Not only are you going to die, but your family
wants you dead now.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's a problem. It is.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
When you start sitting on the couch and watching TV
during the day, it's you know, it can be the
beginning of the end. So you need to be out
in the world. You need to try and learn some
new things like it's you can get so inspired by seeing,
you know, either on social media or whatever or news
stories when you see some of our senior friends out there.
(10:43):
like taking a dance class for the first time or,
or a new hobby or learning an instrument or a
new language or something like that, like that is just
food for your brain.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah. Like if your local community is like putting a
one penny tax or something, um, to, to build a
new senior center, that's money well spent.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Agreed. Um, and then of course you can volunteer, you
can mentor. There's a lot of stuff you can do. Um,
I think the point is to just keep doing stuff.
Like you said, resist the trap of just sitting on
the couch all day, you know?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, because the retirement curse is self-inflicted generally. So you
hopefully have a choice as to how you spend your
remaining years. And we say, because I'm 55, dude, that's
coming for me sooner than you. And I want to
be out in the world. I want to be one
of those old guys who, Out there on the golf
(11:37):
course in his 90s or taking a, I want to
learn to dance, finally, in my 80s.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's awesome. What kind of dance?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Modern? Jazz?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Breakdancing.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh, that'd be great. The breakdancing grandpa. There's your second
chapter right there.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
There you have it.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Well, yes, I think this short stuff proved that we
are becoming old men and look for short stuff in
the future on sitting. And I think Chuck's short.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Stuff is out.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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