60 Minutes Australia: Work till you drop (2017)

this question I've been asking myself quite a lot lately what am I doing here sure I like the job always have but I can't believe I'm nudging 70 shouldn't I have handed in my pencil and typewriter when I hit 65 shouldn't I be enjoying my twilight years fishing and being irritated by my beautiful grandchildren I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but if like me you've been dreaming of retirement and it's time to wake up because it seems retirement is a word we can no longer afford to speak actually that already that was great charlie well done thanks man actually you might find it a little depressing because there are three and a half million of us in Australia you and me over the age of 60 with no prospect or very little prospect of ever retiring really it seems that the dreams we might ever have had of putting up their feet might be just that dreams what do you think is the future of retirement what do you three listen I don't I don't think there'll be a concept of retirement retirement is is a word from another age way back in the 1990's I wasn't even thinking about the time when the nation is treasurer Peter Costello told us it wasn't an option today that advice hasn't changed Peter Costello is now my boss at channel 9 and I'm well a bit older look I'm a retiring age you're the chairman when can I go when should I go you are a kid going until you drop work till you drop yes it's all coming back to me that famous or infamous Costello ISM work till you drop it it was it wasn't my best vote-getting line no but it was it was true I think there are people that thought at 65 67 70 they might have enough to retire on but they won't and it's been a very testing investment climate and I'd say to retirees now but it take a big interest in this because investment returns are going to be real chat really challenged in the years ahead you like my brother music retirement is a concept has been retired replaced by the less pleasant works till you drop as Ingrid pictures discovery 72 year old person trainer is sprightly and charming and again rather have a seat up which is incredibly upbeat about her working loss in life when you're going to stir the aging what's it you love your job I do I do and you know what is really really am that gives me a real kick is when you have the ability to help somebody but I don't consider this work so chicken and the egg argument I mean are you so terrific because you're still working or are you still working because you're so terrific by to modestly answer I think it's a combination I'm just one of those people I'm out there I'm energy and that's the only way I can function if Ingrid is fit as a fiddle and vivacious I could talk to her all day but she had work to do she also has a love job by the lake maybe sitting her grandchildren three-year-old twins sienna and Joshua oh I can get all the way to this up and here's another reason there's no such things retirement around 900,000 Australian kids are being cared for by their grandpa and another one so even if you do manage to retire the unpaid work carries on looking on the bright side it means Ingrid is probably Melvin's fittest grandma working in both paid and unpaid work until well until she drops we used to have five taxpayers for every person in retirement yes soon it's going to be - and we just can't carry that more people in retirement on pensions less people in the workforce paying tax the equation doesn't add up it can't be done Peter Costello provides a social and economic argument for a later much later for never retirement when the the age pension was introduced in Australia we set the retirement age at 65 and life expectancy was 55 that is we expected everyone to die on average before they got the picture right now of course at 65 you want to go on the pension your life expectancy is another 22 years it's a very different world a different world indeed mr. treasurer today the most common age for a living Australian is 66 from next year they'll have to be that age 66 to qualify for the age pension but an even bigger worry for oldies already facing high housing costs and very low interest rates in their life savings is a lack of superannuation the average super balance of an Aussie reaching retirement age is hovering at around 155 thousand dollars so many Australians like Ingrid have no choice but to follow Costello's keep working advice slower on the way down and no you love it but let's face it you need the money absolutely I think we get into that stage because to live now on a pension and renting it's impossible it's virtually impossible I don't know I'll be horrified I'd have to live like that but in the industrial heartland of Melbourne I find pop Lord the exception to the rule thirty years older than me he wants to keep working until he drops into there like that is an extraordinary man I'll take that an electrical engineer of great genius and at ninety five years of age he's still inventing and still on the tools whatever in scrap of ironically his company designs equipment gadgets and contraptions that make it easier for older employees to stay in their physically demanding jobs for longer sixty years ago would you have ever thought you'd still be working here in your 90s oh I've never given this all I don't think so no I felt that I go on forever it's the sort of thing that you get enjoyment out of it a certain amount of creativity about it will you as they say work till you drop well I don't mind if that's how it works out and people say oh what do you do with yourself in your spare time I said I don't have any spare time I'm I'm busy busy busy slide it across and there you go the wheelchair can go straight up onto the train and so is Bob's grandson Stuart is also in the family business we are putting that and who even now knows he'll never retire III don't really see people stopping work like it used to be so now I'm looking forward to retiring it's more of a difference now where people are now going you know I will be working to 80 plus 95 is probably an extreme case but I think the 80s is probably going to be the normal form in the near future or now Stuart is not alone most younger Australians now accept they'll be working into their 70s and Beyond so does that mean the millions of gray nomads kids every arrogant now happily mooching around the back blocks of the country or an endangered species oh no today I caught up with a defiantly happy retired couple just outside Tamworth to see if Costello's words ring true out here and then if we both retired neither one of us have got the stress anymore and why not having stress I think gonna live longer and we're enjoying every minute of it and what more can you want you know life's too short Scoville Roy Payne once had a high-powered job there's an international machinery salesman if he didn't quite move mountains he supplied the gear did but he cautions that retirement is hard work not only did he have to overcome the lack of income but he suffered from relevance deprivation ended up having a anxiety attack the net now lasted for two three weeks we we did I didn't know what it was I couldn't sleep couldn't get my head down on a pillow no and I'd become that nervous it just was frightening yeah you tell me that story I feel like laughing about the kind of stress and pressure and anxiety you've had your whole life here it sounds it sounds funny but but but at the end of the day people do suffer with it and it's an adjustment that yet so yet but for Roy his wife Nyree after 49 years of blurring work as a bank teller and a toll collector of long commutes and endless balance sheets she was more than happy to give it all away what's life like now it's fabulous we're on the road probably a good six months of the year somewhere we go south when do we go north and there's no pressure no pressure at all what did you think about Peter Costello when he was treasurer of his advice was work till you drop no way you're in CG for politicians to say yeah yeah we have to forfeit a lot of things we don't eat our restaurants anymore we don't buy posh bottles of wine or beer we look for always look for something that's on discount so I can see you guys are doing it really doing it sucker but we're doing it in style while out Tamworth way I starting to see an old friend the ever-popular 72 year old John Williamson ah thank you having good time cameras do the voice of Australian country music and of enduring performance you know I'd be thinking about retiring but you keep turning up how can I give it away when I see all those fantastic faces his voice and his humour as always a dryers and our back creaky my Tonto and so long as it's fun why wouldn't he remain working for as long as the song is still inking it's sending people away happy said I'm feeling proud of Australia proud of themselves it's a great job it's my hobby and I'm still making a living out of it so I think the big key thing to retiring is you've gotta have something to get you out of bed in the morning and if you haven't got that you're buggered [Music] but John Williamson provided the soundtrack for a long life from the road there's a lot of require ease here 95 year old Bob Lords inventions are the animation I don't know if bubbles quite realized but I think what he's developed here is a handy reporter mobility device on which I shall power myself into a Peter Costello future from which there shall be no retirement what do you think is the future of retirement what are you realizing I don't I don't think there'll be a concept of retirement retirement is is a word from another age you know the Rolling Stones are still singing rocking their niner in their 70s you know and as long as they're 8 year old singers 80 year old rock and rollers to be turning out to listen to them still room for you it is

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 255,425

Rating: 4.4162164 out of 5

Keywords: Retirement, Australian retirement, Peter Costello, 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia

Id: xy7aqmFTM0g

Length: 12min 37sec (757 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/LifeisDankiThink]

As a millennial my only focus now and for a while has been investing all my money and trying to get a higher income to retire early as the thought of working till I drop scares the absolute shit out of me.

[u/astroman9995]

Found this video searching on YouTube and honestly hits hard and shows how important understanding the importance of money and compound interest is while young. I think many of the people in the video seem happy but deep down are not in any way happy.

[u/lotsofdonuts]

I imagine I'll be doing some sort of paid work when I'm in my retirement but it won't be the job I do now. As much as lazing about sounds nice, I'd want to keep active and still use my brain.

[u/[deleted]]

This isn't sustainable. We're glorified slaves.
There's a reason why mental health issues are so prevalent, and are increasing.
It's not good for us, and our individual lives as people are blatantly disregarded so the government can suck the passion, life and money out of us.
It's a waste of a life to live this way and as far as we know we may never get another chance. I'm only 28 and the future isn't looking bright.