With redefined health infrastructure and increasing life expectancy, people over the age of 60 years would constitute 25 per cent of the population at 34.7 cr by 2050, more than double the current number that is 14.9 cr. This data from the United Nations Population Fund’s India Ageing Report 2023, should only push us to end the whispers around retirement, which has long been a taboo among the ageing population, and embrace the times to develop conscious retirement planning.
In many top firms globally, people believe that fifty-five to sixty years of age is hardly old enough to stop working yet, senior employees in that bracket are silently expected to leave. But what if they do not wish to due to underlying financial woes? On the contrary, at a time that is increasingly witnessing a growing fast-paced work life with minimum to no work-life balance, young people under the age of thirty are reporting “burnouts”. According to the McKinsey Health Institute’s 2023 survey, "India respondents reported the highest rates of burnout symptoms at 59%". This often leads to people wanting to ‘retire’ early from their work.
Another report from the World Economic Forum in 2023 found out that despite many of those nearing retirement, needing to work for longer to make ends meet, 44 per cent of people under 40 still say they would like to stop working by 60 at the latest.