"Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for."
Viktor E. Frankl
At my stage of life, it's only a matter of time before the R word crops up in polite conversation. People used to ask, “What do you do for a living?” Now it’s “When do you plan to retire?”
For me, the answer is “never”. Sure, I don’t plan to work 9 to 5 in my 90s. But the idea of never working again? That’s not appealing at all.
I used to think I was the odd one out in this regard, but I now know I’m not. In fact, there are far more of us than most people realise, and the reason is simple: what keeps us ticking as people in our 60s, 70s and beyond is surprisingly similar to what motivates us in our 30s and 40s.
Why Work Still Matters
Behavioural finance expert Dr Daniel Crosby made this point in his talk at last week’s Adviser 3.0 event. Dr Crosby is a proponent of the PERMA framework developed by the American psychologist Martin Seligman to explain the five things that help us to “flourish” — positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Work, says Dr Crosby, can contribute to all five.
Of course, when you no longer need to work, it frees up time to do all sorts of other things that can also contribute to our general sense of wellbeing, particularly time with our loved ones. But we often take for granted the non-financial benefits that work provides, and, when those benefits disappear, they can leave a big gap in people’s lives. As Dr Crosby writes in his new book, The Soul of Wealth, “Is it any wonder then that retirees are far more depressed than both the population broadly and same-aged non-retirees in particular?” (1)
Someone else who sees the value in doing some form of work in later life is the financial planner and podcaster Pete Matthew. He too has just written a book, The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide, and, as Pete explained in a recent episode of The Investing Show, one of the book’s key messages is that, for many people, stopping work altogether is a thoroughly bad idea. (2, 3)
“It’s impossible to fully separate the idea of retirement from stopping work, but really, they’re not necessarily linked,” he writes. “For me, I have no plans to stop work, ever. Oh, it’ll change form and frequency for sure, but doing nothing? That’s unimaginable to me.”
What’s more, Pete Matthew argues, that continuing to work, whether that’s full- or part-time, paid or voluntary, is good for our health. “There’s no doubt,” he writes, “that a lifetime of work followed by doing absolutely nothing is a sure way to an early grave… The routine of work and its physical demands can be good for us, helping us to retain mental and bodily resilience for longer.”
The Science Behind Staying Active
That working in later life is good for us is not just a theory: it’s an evidence-based fact. Several studies have shown how older adults who continue working report better physical health and a lower incidence of chronic conditions compared to those who retire fully. Working beyond retirement age has also been associated with a reduced risk of mortality.
A new paper in the June 2025 edition of Labour Economics by researchers from The Institute for Fiscal Studies, The University of Manchester and University College London evaluates the causal effect of continued employment on the health and cognition of older women in England. (4) Staying in paid work, the study found, increases performance in cognitive tests, especially verbal fluency and delayed memory recall. Older women in non-sedentary roles walked faster and had better physical mobility than those who didn’t work.
The authors also found no evidence that the increase in the UK state pension age has had a detrimental impact on mental health. And the benefits of working in later life were most pronounced among women who are single.
The Reality of Financial Necessity
So, carrying on working helps us to flourish as human beings, and it benefits our physical and mental health. But we should also remember that, for many people, working beyond traditional retirement age is a financial necessity.
Recent research from recruitment consultancy Robert Walters UK shows that 70% of UK professionals expect they will need to delay retirement for financial reasons. (5) And among those who have already returned to work after retiring, 46% said financial pressures were the main reason.
According to research by Legal & General, around 2.8 million retired individuals in the UK are now back in employment. (6) 37% of returner workers said they found they needed a higher income as a result of rising living costs.
It’s Time to Rethink Retirement
For me, all of this serves to remind us that the very word “retirement” may have outlived its usefulness. The traditional "retire-at-65-and-stop-working" model no longer reflects modern longevity, aspirations or economic realities.
As more people shift to part-time roles, portfolio careers, volunteering or new ventures in later life, terms like “rewirement,” “second act”, or “post-career life” may better capture this evolving life stage.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that the decision to carry on working is right for everyone. If you are financially prepared and emotionally ready to stop working altogether, complete retirement can offer a deeply fulfilling lifestyle. The most important thing is making an informed, confident decision as to what you’re retiring to — and that’s where financial planning can play a crucial part.
Financial planning isn’t just about ensuring you have the means to finish full-time employment and to enjoy the lifestyle you aspire to for the rest of your life. It’s also about making sure your life has meaning, whether that entails work, rest, adventure or all of the above.
Victor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, was right: there’s no point in having one without the other.
This article is produced by us for Financial Advisers who may choose to share it with their clients. Timeline Planning and Timeline Portfolios do not offer direct-to-consumer products.
Robin Powell is a freelance journalist and author, and Editor of The Evidence-Based Investor.
References:
- https://harriman.house/books/the-soul-of-wealth/
- https://harriman.house/books/the-meaningful-money-retirement-guide/
- https://youtu.be/DfPCVwF6oF4?si=1yf9jUM5dFBDJfJH
- http://le/pii/S0927537125000545
- https://thefutureofwork.pro/unretirement-on-the-rise-as-uk-professionals-delay-retirement/
- https://group.legalandgeneral.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/nearly-3-million-ex-retirees-return-to-work
