The dream of retiring in your early 60s as my parents did two decades ago is the stuff of dreams for many Australians in the ‘latter’ years of their working life.
As the retirement age rises with each generation, working well into our 70s, 80s and 90s is becoming a reality.
91-year-old Rex Egerton-Warburton, still enjoys an active farming career in Kojonup, WA.
He recalls his uncle buying a sheep for six pence a head. Today the same kind of sheep would bring in about $220 a head.
For Rex farming is more than a job, it’s a way of life and he says he has no intention of hanging up his boots anytime soon.
Wouldn’t it be great if, like Rex, we find ourselves working, out of choice well beyond that retirement age, feeling valued in society, not reliant on the state pension and most of all enjoying what we do?
As we discussed here last week, nearly half of all homeowners aged 55 to 65 are still paying off a mortgage, up from just 14 per cent 30 years ago.
“Penetration rates on retirement villages are sitting around five per cent, but the rental market for seniors is three times bigger. It’s 15 per cent, why don’t we talk about that?” retirement author Richard Andrews told Urban Developer’s summit on ageing last week.
Every week at agedcare101, we receive calls – often from women – looking for affordable rental accommodation and currently there is little available.
We are starting to see this shift with more retirement villages offering rentals and assisted living options as a transition between villages and residential care – but the Government needs to support more alternatives, such as build-to-rent and co-living arrangements.
Only then will we be able to address the very real concern that older Australians have about exactly where they will live in their later years.
