10 Ways Retirement Has Completely Changed in 30 Years

Forget the gold watch and glide path to the couch. Retirement has been rewritten. In this episode, James walks through the 10 biggest shifts redefining life after work—and how to replace outdated rules with a plan that’s practical, human, and built for how people actually live today.

From the mindset shift away from Depression-era scarcity to using money as a tool for a richer life, this episode explores how to align spending with values so every dollar supports health, connection, and meaning.

Longevity changes everything. With many people now facing 25 to 30 years in retirement, healthspan and financial strategy both need an update. Learn how longer lives, inflation, and lower bond yields are forcing a smarter approach: reliable income for essentials, growth for purchasing power, and cash buffers to ride out volatility.

We break down the fall of pensions and the rise of 401(k)s and IRAs—plus sequence-of-returns risk, Social Security timing, and tax-efficient withdrawals that can extend your savings by a decade or more.

Retirement isn’t a cliff anymore; it’s a ramp. Hear how phased work, consulting, and passion projects keep identity and income alive. We’ll also share ways to plan for rising healthcare costs, use technology for travel and lifelong learning, and design daily habits that add both years and meaning.

What you’ll learn:

• Retirement mindset: how to shift from scarcity to purpose and use money as a tool for fulfillment.
• Portfolio strategy: balancing income, growth, and liquidity for longevity and inflation.
• Tax planning: how to manage withdrawals, Social Security, and RMDs for lifetime efficiency.
• Health and lifestyle design: funding healthcare, travel, and connection intentionally.
• Purpose and meaning: creating a next chapter that feels alive and aligned.

If you want to build a retirement that reflects your values, not old-school financial rules, this conversation gives you the clarity to live it well.

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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.

The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements

Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
When you think about retirement, do you think about
what your parents or even yourgrandparents experienced?
Well, the reality is retirementtoday looks nothing like it did
30 years ago.
And in today's video, I'm goingto share with you the 10 biggest
shifts that have happened overthe last 30 years so that as you
prepare your retirement, you canprepare for the specifics today,
not what things looked like 30years ago.
The first thing, though, that'sdifferent about retirement today

(00:21):
than it was 30 years ago is apsychological shift that's
happened in today's retirees.
So think back to 30 years ago.
The people who were retiring atthat time were people who were
raised during the GreatDepression era.
If you were raised during theGreat Depression era, there was
not a lot to go around.
So that created this sense ofscarcity.
That created this sense of Ineed to save everything I have.
I don't know where my next mealis going to come from.

(00:42):
I don't know where my nextdollar is going to come from.
And that was ingrained intoeverything that person started
doing.
Now, that served those peoplereally well.
That was required to survive andto live during that time.
But what it led to is those sameretirees not being able to fully
enjoy the fruits of their labor.
By the time they actuallyretired and they were no longer
living in scarcity, there wasstill that mindset of scarcity.

(01:05):
And it prevented them from fullybeing able to use, fully being
able to spend much of theresources that they had
accumulated.
Fast forward to today, what'sdifferent?
Today there's this opportunity,there's this mindset shift that
says, how do we actually use ourmoney as a tool to help us get
the most out of our retirement?
But you have to be carefulbecause your parents were the
ones who are retiring andthey're the ones that grew up in

(01:26):
the Great Depression era.
Much of that mindset probablywas transferred down to you in
many ways.
I see this all the time.
And I want to acknowledge thisthat mindset, there's something
that's very respectable aboutthat.
There's this frugality, there'sthis thrift, there's this thing
that we look up to, and in manyways, we say that's a wonderful
thing to be able to do, to beable to live within your means
and to be able to have that verydisciplined mindset towards your

(01:49):
money and all other aspects oflife.
But if that's no longer servingyou, if that's no longer the
thing that's allowing you toenjoy your wealth, then might be
time to rethink that and say,how can we shift our mindset and
come back to today and say, howdo we shift that so that we can
start to enjoy the fruits of ourlabor?
How can we spend?
How can we use what we've savedin order to get the most out of
life with our money?

(02:09):
The second thing that hasshifted in the last 30 years is
life expectancy.
If you go back 30 plus yearsago, life expectancy in the US
was about mid-70s, somewherearound age 75.
Today, that life expectancy iscloser to 79.
Now, that might not seem like abig shift, but if you're gonna
retire at 65, that difference inlife expectancies means your
retirement is going to be 40%longer on average.

(02:32):
Now, I know that this statisticis a little bit misleading
because there's a differencebetween life expectancy at birth
and life expectancy for those ofyou who have already reached age
60 or age 65, in which case it'sgonna be closer to your mid 80s,
is now your life expectancy.
But it's that general shift orthat relative difference of
people are living longer today.
And that's a trend that'scontinuing.
So, two things with that.
One, how do we prioritize ourhealth to make sure that we're

(02:54):
not just living longer, butliving healthy longer?
And number two, how do we planto say our portfolio, our income
sources in retirement need tolast a longer period of time?
More life, of course, is great,but what are we gonna do to be
able to support that in terms ofcreating the income we need to
create?
The third difference betweenretiring now and retiring 30
years ago is the impact ofpensions.

(03:15):
30 years ago, 40 to 45% of allworkers were covered by some
type of a pension.
If you worked for a largecorporation, that number was
closer to 65% of all workerswere covered by a pension.
Today, that number is closer to10 to 15%.
What that means is that in thepast, much of the burden of your
retirement needs was covered byyour employer.
They manage the pension, theymanage your ability to have that

(03:36):
income stream when you retired.
That is completely shifted.
Instead of defined benefitplans, you now have defined
contribution plans.
Those are your 401ks, those areyour 403Bs, those are the things
that you contribute to, and youare responsible for creating
that or growing that to a pointthat it can create income for
you throughout your retirement.
So there's good news and badnews with that.
The bad news is it's not beingdone for you.

(03:57):
The burden of your retirementneeds has been shifted to you.
The good news is if you planwell, if you use your 401k
correctly, if you use yoursavings correctly, you can
actually create a betterlifestyle with that than you
could have using a pension.
So more of a need to be in tunewith your retirement plan
because less of it's beingprovided for you, but also more
of an opportunity.
The fourth difference betweenretirement today and retirement

(04:19):
30 years ago is the attitudetowards aging.
In the 1990s, retirement waskind of seen as the beginning of
decline.
Aging was very much a decline.
Your health started to erode.
You did not have the best yearsof your life in front of you
when you retired.
Today, with advances in health,with an overall better awareness
of how the things that we eat,the things that we do with our
body, the advances there, peopleretire and still have plenty of

(04:42):
good, vibrant years in front ofthem, assuming they do the right
things to prioritize theirhealth.
So that's been a complete shift,even in mindset towards as you
retire, what can that look like?
Because that looks verydifferent if you start to view
that as the beginning of the endversus viewing that as the
beginning of a new chapter.
Something with tons of vibrance,tons of energy, tons of ability
to do the wonderful things youwant to do, because this mindset

(05:03):
is leading towards people takingcare of themselves differently
and enjoying their retirement indifferent ways.
The fifth change has to do withhealthcare costs.
30 plus years ago, lower costsand overall lower gaps in
coverage.
Today, healthcare costs could beone of the largest costs that
you have in your retirementyears.
So, what does that mean?
Well, directly what that meansis the need to plan for your

(05:24):
healthcare costs, the need toplan for that is becoming
increasingly more important.
The indirect impact of that iswhat I just said.
How do we prioritize our healthas much as possible?
How do we do the types of thingswith our lives that prevent, to
the greatest extent possible,our dependence upon this type of
healthcare?
Some say you'll never need it.
We'll all need it at some point.

(05:44):
But can we do things today thatlimit our dependence upon this
healthcare system that can bevery expensive?
And it's not necessarilyimproving our health as much as
being the band-aid fix to someof these things that currently
ail us.
How do we start to reprioritizethe way we take care of
ourselves going into retirementso we can enjoy retirement more
and have less of a potentialfinancial impact on our
retirement when a health eventcomes up?

(06:06):
The sixth thing that's changedis what retirement even means.
30 years ago, you worked till 62or 65 and you were done.
Today, it's very normal forpeople to still work to those
same ages, but it's not a blackand white transition.
Maybe you work part-time, maybeyou do some consulting, maybe
you pick up a side project thatbecomes a source of income.
It's not as binary.
You don't work for the samecorporation for 40 years like

(06:28):
you're used to and then justretire.
There's plenty of things thatyou do along the way.
It's more of a phased-inretirement.
There's more options for whatyou can do for work.
And in many cases, that allowsfor much greater flexibility as
to how you design yourretirement plan.
Not just for the financial side,but also for the identity side.
It can be very difficult to allof a sudden just be done
working.
So this ability to phase inretirement or start to do things

(06:50):
differently along the way cangreatly help that transition
into your retirement years.
The next difference is inflationand interest rates.
30 years ago, you were earning amuch higher rate on CDs and
bonds.
At the beginning of the 1990s,the interest rate on the 10-year
Treasury bill was about 8.2%.
Then throughout the 1990s, itaveraged somewhere in the mid to

(07:10):
high 6% range.
And all the while, inflationaveraged just under 3%.
1990 itself, it was higher, butthen throughout the rest of the
90s, inflation settled down,landed under 3% on average.
Now, fast forward to today, thecurrent yield on a 10-year
Treasury bond is about 4.3%.
So almost 4% less in terms ofthe yield that it's generating,

(07:30):
and inflation has been all overthe place the last two years.
So this creates variouschallenges.
You're not going to get the sameyield on your bond or your CD
rates that you used to get backin the 1990s.
What does that mean?
It means the way you constructyour portfolio to meet your
long-term retirement needs needsto look different today than it
did 30 years ago.
The next difference istechnology and lifestyle.
Technology has been one of thebiggest changes that has

(07:52):
impacted every single area ofour lives over the last 30
years.
If you retired 30 years ago,yes, there is technology, but
retirement maybe was TV, it wascommunity, it was hobbies.
You had a much more simple, allelse being equal, retirement at
that time.
Today, the options are endless.
You still have TV and hobbiesand community, but you also have

(08:12):
social media.
You also have instantaneousaccess to anything you can want
to know about anywhere in theworld, all at your hands.
Today you can go find varioustravel accounts on YouTube or
Instagram.
You can immediately Google whatthose places look like and then
ask ChatGPT to create anitinerary for you when you
ultimately go and visit thatplace.
Very different than what lifelooked like 30 years ago.
This can be both a blessing anda curse.

(08:34):
The opportunities today are farmore than they were 30 years
ago.
However, it's tempting to getlost into that.
It's very tempting to get lostin the social media side of
things, the media side ofthings, without actually
experiencing some whatretirement can offer.
The next difference is communityand connection.
30 plus years ago, much of yourcommunity was much more built
in.
This was work, this was church,this was community.

(08:56):
You lived in the same place forlonger, typically because you
worked in the same place forlonger.
Today's retirees are much moremobile.
You've probably hopped aroundmultiple different places for
your career.
You maybe even have familythat's all across the country
because they have gone tomultiple different places for
their career or for theirschooling.
So because of that mobility,which has opened up the world
around us to be able to do morethings, it's also lessened our

(09:20):
natural built-in community.
You don't have people living asclose on average as you did 30
years ago.
So because people move morefrequently, because people are
on the go more frequently,community is not just naturally
going to be the default thingthat happens to you.
You must be more intentionalabout it, especially because
social media gives theappearance, it gives the
short-term feeling of beingconnected.

(09:41):
Well, all the while you're notactually building the same types
of relationships you did 30 plusyears ago.
So you must be more intentionaltoday than you were 30 years ago
when you go about building yourcommunity, especially in your
retirement years.
And then the final change, andthis is a big one, is the view
towards purpose and meaning.
30 plus years ago, many peoplethought of retirement as the
finish line.

(10:02):
You had completed your life'spurpose, which is that sense of
duty to your corporation, whichis your ability to rise up
through the ranks, to getpromoted.
Your identity was very much tiedup in your career.
Same thing today in someregards, but now people view
retirement as how can I use thatto continue this purpose I have,
to continue this sense ofmeaning, not just with my job,
but using as a blank slate, ablank canvas to say, what do I

(10:25):
want to do?
What's going to give my life themost meaning, the most purpose,
the most joy, the most overallenjoyment?
And you get to create that.
So that mindset shift of it'snot the end when you retire.
In fact, in many ways, it's justa beginning.
That is a mindset shift that Ithink is one of the most
powerful and one of the mostbeneficial for those of you
looking to retire and not justhave a financially secure

(10:46):
retirement, but get the most outof retirement to be able to look
back on it one day and said thatwas one of the most meaningful
seasons it could have possiblybeen.
So retirement today isn'tnecessarily easier or harder
than it was 30 years ago, butit's certainly different.
And understanding these shiftswill help pull you out of
viewing retirement the same wayyour parents or your parents'
parents viewed retirement inviewing it in a way that's going

(11:07):
to support what you want to dowith the rest of your life.