Retirement Age

According to online Wikipedia retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. The retirement age varies from country to country but it is generally between 55 and 70. In some countries this age is different for male and females. The difference of retirement age usually depends on the kind of job, physical conditions, or personal choice.

First, retirement age usually depends on the kind of job the person work in. Sometimes certain jobs, the most dangerous or fatiguing ones in particular, have an earlier retirement age. For example, military members of the US Armed Forces may elect to retire only after 20 years of active duty (Anon, 2008). Different from military members, other jobs like politicians, scientists, and lawyers still can have their job until their age reaching 70s. About the reason why a politician retires very lately, Sankar in his blog said that it is because experience comes of age (Sankar, 2006).

Second, retirement age is also influenced by physical conditions. An athlete, for example, usually retires at the age of 30 because his power and speed cannot support his activities anymore (Tinley, 2002). This situation also happens to actors and models. Most of them are not attractive anymore or lose their prestige when they are getting old. In engineering world, illness or accidents can end an engineer’s career.

The last reason is that some people prefer to retire early in order to fulfill their personal desire. Those people usually already have adequate pensions or personal savings. For example, a civil servant can prefer to retire when his age is already 55 because he thinks that he has good financial condition. After he has retired, he can do whatever he wants such as hobby, sports, or run a private enterprise (Anon, 2008).

According to the statements above, I can conclude that the difference of retirement age not only depends on physical conditions but also depends on the kind of job and personal choice.


References

Retirement. (2008, April). [Online article], Retrieved May, 29 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement

Sankar. Retirement Age for Politicians. April, 2006. Retrieved May, 29 2008 from http://vsankarv.wordpress.com/2006/04/04/retirement-age-for-politicians/

Tinley, Scott P. 2002. Athlete Retirement: A Qualitative Inquiry and Comparison. A Thesis of San Diego State University


Marsiana Anggieta-16207068-WR01