About two or three years before I retired, my wife and I were on vacation in Moab, Utah and we met an older couple at a coffee shop. We started talking to the couple, who was also on vacation.
Shortly into the conversation, the guy asked me what I did for a living and I told him what my job was. But then I added that I was looking forward to retiring in a few years.
“You know,” he said, “The average life expectancy for males after retirement is only eighteen months.”
This guy had to be in his mid-seventies. “Aren’t you retired?” I asked.
“Me?” he said. “No way. My wife and I are here on vacation, like the two of you, but I still work full-time back home as an insurance underwriter, so I know these things. Eighteen months,” he reiterated.
I retired at the end of 2016. That means that at the end of this June, just over two months from now, I will have been retired for eighteen months. And now I’m thinking back to what that guy said to me at that coffee shop in Moab.
So if I suddenly stop posting after June, you’ll know that I am an average male who survived for just eighteen months after I retired.
This, That, and the Other 
Can you get your wife to make a post so we can morn you?
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I’ll ask her. Or maybe I’ll write up my eulogy and schedule it to post on July 1st.
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Man, that’s a morbid thought. I was so looking forward to retiring as well!
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I’ve been reading your posts for the A to Z Challenge to see if, in my retirement years, should I survive beyond the end of June, there’s a country I might want to emigrate to for my remaining time on this planet. I’ve enjoyed your venue-based stories, Iain.
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Thank you, hope they’ve been of some use.
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Absolutely.
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Now I am going to go check out his blog! Thanks!
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I took an early retirement package in 2007, working everything out at getting my State Pension at 60 in 2016. Our wondrous government moved the goalposts and my pot had to extend until I was 66. The plus side is that if I hadn’t taken my bank pension when I did, I would have lost it as the banking side of the company was sold.
It’s an interesting statistic though. Hubby ‘retired’ the same year as I did, and will get his state pension in 2021, at the age of ……………………….. 66.
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May you RIP (retire in peace), I’m sure that stat is heavily influenced by all that work up to nearly their death. We’ve heard stories of guys who retire and die within a couple of weeks (sad).
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Only one solution to the fickle finger
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Of fate, get a job! ; )
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The men in my family have all survived that curse by retiring and then immediately getting a part time job. Sort of like a hobby, but with more accountability and a paycheck.
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Hmm. Maybe I’ll look for a part job job…before it’s too late for me!
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My part-time post-retirement job has been this blog site. It has kept my mind active and alive. 😀
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Mine, too!
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I worked as an insurance underwriter for many years. You can make the numbers say anything. I am sure the study that yielded 18 months life expectancy failed to account for reasons those men retired. Maybe they were already experiencing health issues … who knows ?!?!?. All that said, I will work until I fall asleep at my desk one day and never wake up. The BIG sleep.
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I agree with J-Dub but just to be sure, get a ‘job’ – even if it is dog walking.
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This post somehow made me sad.
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Sorry. If I’m still around in July, will that make you happier?
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Do you really need to ask that, Sensei?
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Garry retired in 2001. I retired in 2009. Statistics don’t necessarily mean “you.” Just have the people are more and half are less. Stop obsessing.
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I’m actually fit as a fiddle and I’m not too worried about kicking the bucket in two months. But I do remember that conversation with the guy. It was one of those conversations that sticks with you.
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That’s an interesting statistic. I’d look at it as a challenge – prove the gentleman in the coffee shop wrong! 🙂
Ann
https://harvestmoonbyhand.blogspot.com/2018/04/hobbies-that-begin-with-r-blogging-from.html
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