In all my discussions with people about retirement, it’s clear that professional people had an easier time for a variety of reasons. By profession, let’s say it means “a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification.” (www.lexico.com) Obviously, professionals has fewer financial worries, so there was that, but quite apart from that certain various professions had various reasons they prospered in retirement. Let’s look at them.Teachers
Teachers know how to retire. Most had been getting summers off for most of their career, so know how to ‘do nothing’ and often had experience doing it with their partner (since teacher couples are common), so they had the travel and leisure thing down.
Lawyers
Many of the lawyers I know seem to have a great level of control over their professional lives even if they are in a practice. They can leave a practice if they desire, without a great deal of angst from what I can tell. So these are people who have perhaps said yes or no to cases and work load their whole lives. They don’t really retire. They just cut back to a level of activity that feels good to them. They are able to turn the flow of cases on and off, and do. My sister is a consultant for family owned foundations and she did the same thing when she kinda sorta retired some years ago. She raised her fees a bit and said no a bit until she had the load she wanted. These are some of the most successful retirements because they have two of the most cherished factors: control and productivity.
Ministers
My data set is skewed here since I know so many retired ministers. I did have formal sit downs with several. It’s complicated for these folks since they usually do not have the luxury of metering exactly how much they want to work for a congregation. Denominations have rules about when and how ministers leave churches, especially in retirement.
Physicians
Somewhat like lawyers, physicians are used to metering their patient load so have an easier time getting the right work dosage to meet their needs. There is a bit more to the load, though, since people’s health is often a very serious issue for them.
Engineers
Engineering was included in the traditional list of professions and I think can be broadened in the modern world to include all kinds of people who plan and implement the way the world operates. These very practical people are often the most interested in making sure they are still productive in their retirement, since that’s how there measures in many ventures. These folks prosper with structure and clear responsibilities and organizations that can tune into that labor pool do well.
Civil Servants
I need to talk to more police and fire fighter types about how they retire, because all I know is what I read in the papers about their retirement benefits.
