Smart career moves: End of retirement as we know it?

We grew up with a standard dream. Study hard, join a good employer, work for 30 years, stop at 60, and live the last few years on pension and interest. That dream belonged solely to the 20th century, where an employer carried your risk, your lifespan was shorter, and a career was a single-lane road. Today your lifespan has stretched, job roles have transformed, career risk has moved to your table and your employer values agility over loyalty. The finish line did not change, but the road did. The real question is no more, ‘Can I retire?’, but ‘How should I work so that money is not my boss when I am older?’

Invention of retirement
The German statesman, Bismarck, executed the first ever government-mandated retirement at 70 years, with pension, in 1889. It was a political move to reduce unemployment and unrest among youth in Germany by creating job vacancies through forced turnover. As physically demanding factory jobs increased in the 20th century, retiring older people became a practical necessity. As retirement provided financial security to the elderly and created job openings for the young, it worked well politically and socially. Soon it became a cultural norm and, finally, an aspiration associated with leisure and freedom from work.

The inverted pyramid
By the 21st century, the world turned around with dropping fertility rates and increasing lifespans. It is now possible for a working age couple to have only one baby, but four living parents in their 60s and eight living grandparents in their 80s or 90s, if every generation had chosen to have only one child. How can that couple earn enough to sustain and pay taxes for pensions and healthcare for the inverted pyramid? So countries started relooking at retirement ages. Fixed pensions gave way to contribution schemes, where the markets determine future outcomes. People are living longer and un-retiring themselves either for identity and meaning, or for money and survival. Many from the FIRE community (Financial Independence Retire Early) still return to purposeful work. Worldwide, the signals are clear. Your career is the primary shock absorber and your cash flow will follow your career design.

Careers over corpus
While most private-sector employees and those in agriculture don’t have guaranteed pensions, the government too is downsizing its pension exposure. So you are probably not hedged for the price inflation in services and healthcare over your lifetime. Hence, how you design your work will matter more than arguing about 9% versus 10% returns from your savings. A sensible career plan with cash flowing from jobs, part-time roles, retainers or gigs will give you stability in income so that your investments don’t carry the entire burden. While your corpus still matters, it is your career that will smoothen the ride.

What to do in your 20s, 30s?
Build a stack, instead of chasing a title. Pick one durable skill like analysis, sales or writing; a domain like finance, HR or supply chain; and a market skill like AI, data, regulatory or storytelling. Invest in them to be in the top 10 percentile, or better. Now, build a history of your achievements with public commendations, work playbooks and project teardown documents. Make sure you do not interrupt your PF, NPS and insurance. Experiment with at least two new skills you could monetise independently and create career optionality that compounds better than SIPs.

Pivot in your 40s
Your 40s are the best time for a job redesign. Is there an ESOP package available with approaching high probability exit events? Can you switch to contract, instead of a job, and work with three clients instead of one employer? Can you repackage your expertise into marketable offers beyond a job, like a one-day workshop, a three-month sprint or a monthly retainer for advising a startup. Try to retain a benefit package like group insurance plans. Know that a stable base role with two retainers is better than one high-paying, but high-politics, role that does not create future options.

Transition for 50s to early 60s
Build your bridge to the non-employment phase of your career. Convert your current role into a phased transition with outcome targets and one named successor, who will be groomed and trained by you while you convert into a non-executive advisory. Meanwhile, work on using your extensive expertise to create paid offers or services. Can you sign on least two new clients or renewals every year?

Beyond age bias
Age bias exists and, yet, proof of work beats every bias. So counter the market bias by creating recent and specific proof in the public domain. Showcase three case studies from the past 24 months on LinkedIn or on your webpage. Show the problem, intervention and outcome, and talk about the tools you used, whether AI prompts, dashboards, or automations. Add testimonials as social proof and give a link to a checklist showing your methodology and work ethic. You have created a trail of trust with hiring managers and clients before the meeting begins.

Deals to smooth income
Think of selling outcomes and not your time. Offer retainers for ongoing advisory, short-term intense projects for immediate fixes, and day-long workshops to enable the client’s team. Build in the kill fees and renewal triggers into your contract for stability.

Diversify so that no single employer or client controls your calendar or your anxiety. When your new career engine runs steadily, your SIPs won’t stop and your cash withdrawals won’t deflate your growth assets. The career column in your balance sheet protects you after 60 by keeping demand and price on your side.

THE RETIREMENT REALITY CHECK
1. ABILITY TO ‘UNSPEND’
Make a list of your top 10 expenses. Imagine if your salary or the stock market drops by 20%, which of these expenses can you stop? If your answer is ‘almost nothing’, you are in trouble. A flexible lifestyle, where you can cut spending easily, gives you more freedom than a huge corpus.

2. A ‘FLOOR’ TO SLEEP
Add all the non-salaried, guaranteed incomes, including pension, interest and annuities. If this amount covers your groceries, utilities, rent and insurance, then you have built a shock-proof solid floor that buys you peaceful sleep. Everything else can be linked to salary or profits.

3. HEALTH BUFFERS WEALTH
Your health cover is the total of your health insurance plus your separate medical buffer fund. Then, if a worst-case medical emergency will force you to sell shares at a loss, you have a gap yet to be covered. Know that medical inflation is historically greater than any portfolio return.

4. CASH IN HAND
An emergency situation does not care about your lock-in or exit fees or tax implications. How will you access emergency funds within 48 hours, 30 days and six months? Creating defined liquid pools stops you from selling stocks in a panic when life throws a googly.

5. OPTIONS FOR YOUR FUTURES
Work optionality is your goal. Can you earn Rs.25,000-75,000 a month without taking up a job? Teaching, consulting, advising, part-time roles, and even selling tiffin, counts. If you can switch on this income stream within 60 days, you have work optionality.

THE WRITER IS FOUNDER OF SALARYNEXT.COM, A JOB LOSS ASSURANCE FIRM, AND AUTHOR OF GET HIRED IN 30 DAYS.


(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com)