
Why not reduce retirement age to 40 but require people to work much harder? - amichail
Not to encourage age discrimination but the brain does decline with age...
======
pg
This option is already open to those who want it.

~~~
noodle
indeed. you're totally allowed to retire whenever you want, and, on the flip
side of that coin, you can continue to work long after your standard
"retirement" age.

work hard, save enough, and live off the interest. there's no timetable on
that any more than what you put on it.

~~~
amichail
So why is it that most people retire much later than that?

~~~
noodle
so you really can't think of _any_ good reasons why people wouldn't want to
work 80+ hour weeks to retire at 40?

~~~
amichail
Is it the case that most people know just how much their brain will decline
will age? If they did, I think most would consider early retirement appealing.

~~~
noodle
and what exactly will you do once you retire early?

find someone to marry? although the statistics are shifting, odds are a lot
more slim at 40+ than if you had the time to look around earlier.

play some sports? have some sex? hike the grand canyon? unlikely, as your body
also deteriorates with age. if only you had the time to do some of that
earlier.

have kids? sperm count and quality drops drastically across your 30's.

spend time with your friends? what friends? working the 80+ hour weeks means
you probably didn't have much of a social life, and therefore don't keep many
friends. it might be a good time to try to look for some, but most people in
their 40's are now very busy with their own lives -- kids and bigger job
titles means less free time.

i could go on, but i feel you get my point. time is money, and older people
would (and do attempt to) pay huge sums to regain their youth.

------
numair
Two things:

1\. You're in an industry which is obsessed, quite irrationally, with youth.
Steve Jobs might have been a young entrepreneur, but he didn't create the
iPhone at 29. Rupert Murdoch might be ancient, but he's still a player (in all
respects, apparently!). Older people are a lot more interesting and competent
than for which our industry, and our youth-obsessed culture, give them credit.

I would also like to note that people who get too much too quickly tend to
burn out, lack social context, and suffer from other ailments which lead to
general weirdness. Pop stars aren't the only ones who face these issues. Work
is important, but you can't buy back your youth -- so _enjoy it_. It is the
single most valuable asset you have.

2\. My good friend Inflation would like to have a word with you about your
retirement fund.

------
lionhearted
People overlook how much you need to make to retire early. Let's say a guy
makes $50,000 year, and saves $20,000 of that. Every year he retired, he'd:

 _Have his savings go -$30,000 at the same quality of life_ NOT have his
savings increase +$20,000

This seems obvious, but most people miss something when thinking about
retiring early: It's an extra year you have to pay for out of savings, and
you're not earning in that year.

------
crpatino
Have you people stopped to think about _expertise_? It takes 10 years of
meaningful practice to get very good at any profession. If you factor the
reality that you have to put up with your share of unedifying grunt work, it
takes more like 15 to 20. Retiring from your profession just when you are
barely making it sounds like a plan. :P

This things take time and you cannot speed them much further. You cannot make
9 women to produce 1 baby in 1 month!

Sounds like you have drink the pg's cool-aid. You turn 30 and your brain dries
off. Hope you enjoy cleaning the toilet, old man!

------
jodrellblank
What if you work much harder and don't live to be 40? Do you get to try again
under your scheme?

------
Allocator2008
If somebody works minimum wage, they can't save up enough by then. It is just
basic math. Sure, some people can get rich off of stock options and so on, but
that is not a universal principle. So yes, some people can retire by age 40
but it is an exception, not the rule. Really, to save social security we
recently increased the retirement age from 65 to 67 and it will like increase
again within the Gen X/Y working life time. I am 28 and do not expect 67 to
still be the retirement age all those years down the road.

------
ahoyhere
Yeaaaaahhh, why don't people work, like, triple the hours a week, and retire
and 40, and spend all day rollin reefers and sunnin by the beach man! Old
people aren't so smart as us, you know, plus, beach.

Also, like, if you and I look at like, the same color, and we both say
"orange," how do we know that, like, it's not a totally different color
EXPERIENCE we both have, but, like, we all learned in kindergarten to say
"that's orange," even if like, maybe it looks totally purple to you!

We know we agree on, like, the labels, and stuff, but... oh man... you can
never know what goes on in, like, another person's HEAD man!

Deep.

