The new creed being embraced by post-Covid retirees

Here is a generation of retirees who regard Covid’s border closures as having ‘taken’ two of their remaining good years. And they’re doing something about it.

For others, turning 65 is a bit like the sound of a starter’s gun. And they’re off, on a road trip around Australia. Picture: istock

In their youth they were hippies, punks, dinks and yuppies. Later they morphed into seachangers and treechangers. They are now the new retirees – and they’re determined to reinvent how life might be lived in life’s later years.

This is the first generation of retirees to have witnessed their parents grow old – really old. The parents of previous generations generally died off long before they “got old”. A quick browse through any family photo album will show how outdoor labouring work (without sunscreen), repeated child-bearing for women and a diet of meat and three veg followed by jam roly-poly pudding took its toll on obesity, wellbeing and the ageing process. Toss in a packet of cigarettes per day and, well, the WWI generation were lucky to reach, let alone to have had any opportunity to bask in, the glory of the retirement years.

The post-Covid generation of retirees live in a vastly different world, with access to super and publicly funded healthcare; they can expect to live for another 20 years or more. And they’re full of ideas about how best to spend this time.

Some people of retirement age may choose to remain in the workforce, of course. Maybe because they have not saved sufficient funds to live the lifestyle they want. Or because they enjoy the routine, the workplace camaraderie, the sense of being involved in everyday society. They don’t want to be cooped up with a bunch of old people; they want to learn new skills, to understand the latest slang, to be up with the workplace news and gossip.

Others in this reimagined retirement cohort see their lives differently. They want to be more involved with their families, their children, their grandchildren. Here are retirees yet again being drawn to the ideal (and indeed to the fact) of being needed: picking up and dropping off grandchildren shuttling between pre-school, ballet, football, whatever.

For others, turning 65 is a bit like the sound of a starter’s gun. And they’re off, on a Kimberley cruise, on a Rhine River cruise, on a road trip around Australia with a winter carefully scheduled for Broome. It’s almost as if they’re trying to cram in as much activity, to consume as much life as possible before age and mobility issues close in and redefine their world.

Here is a generation of retirees who regard Covid’s border closures as having “taken” two of their remaining good years. Indeed, beyond the working life there exists a brutal binary world defined as the remaining good years, and whatever challenges the balance may hold.

There is a sense that after the sacrifice of the Covid years, after decades of working to pay off a mortgage and support a family, many of this era’s retirees have embraced a new creed: It’s my time now. This can involve downshifting or downsizing; it can involve remaining in the workforce, if that is your wish; it can mean immersing yourself in family, friends, travel, hobbies and spirituality (for some). It can involve calling time on an unhappy relationship.

This new kind of thinking seems to pivot around the positive human ideals of engagement, of freedom, of the pursuit of life’s meaning. Indeed, what a fulfilling time in life these later-life years can be.