THE BIG READ
Australians are working longer than previous generations, but the reasons reach far beyond the household budget. Retirement psychologist Professor Joanne Earl says the biggest challenge isn’t simply deciding when to stop work – it’s designing a life that’s worth stepping into.
At 82, Maureen still unlocks the doors of her Balmain pub every morning. At 93, Marta continues interpreting, drawing on a lifetime of languages and experience. Approaching 70, confectioner Dougal still heads to work because he can’t imagine giving up the craft he loves.
A generation ago, stories like these would have been remarkable, but today they’re becoming increasingly familiar.
It’s the fascinating premise behind SBS Insight’s Working Later in Life, airing tonight, which explores why more Australians are remaining in the workforce well beyond what was once considered retirement age. Some continue because they need the income while others have discovered work still provides purpose, routine and social connection.
Many sit somewhere in between.
The program raises a question millions of Australians are quietly asking themselves: if retirement no longer begins with a gold watch at 65, what does it actually look like?
Few people have spent longer exploring that question than retirement psychologist Professor Joanne Earl.
After more than two decades researching how Australians adjust to retirement, Earl believes we’re getting better at preparing financially for life after work. The bigger opportunity lies in preparing ourselves for everything else.
For decades, retirement followed a fairly predictable path. You worked full-time, reached your mid-60s and stepped away from the workforce, hopefully with enough superannuation and savings to enjoy the years ahead.
That model hasn’t disappeared, but it has become far less straightforward.
According to Earl, retirement is increasingly shaped by a combination of financial realities, improved health and changing expectations about what later life should look like.
“If we have a look at the HILDA data that comes out of Melbourne University, we’ve seen slight but steady increases, particularly for women,” she says.
“One of the main reasons is financial necessity. People are thinking about insurance, having a savings buffer, rent, health, utilities and anything to do with housing. But we’re also seeing better health and maybe changing societal expectations. People are reconsidering how they want to fund their retirement. Will it be through superannuation, the Age Pension, or continuing to work for longer?”
Those reasons differ enormously from person to person, some Australians simply cannot afford to retire while others enjoy their work and have little desire to leave.
Many are balancing both realities.
Watching the Insight participants (screening tonight), it would be easy to conclude that purpose is now the biggest reason older Australians stay in work.
Earl agrees purpose plays an important role, but she is careful not to overstate it.
“When you see the people interviewed on the program, you see lots of different examples of purpose and identity through work,” she says. “But we don’t actually have a proportion of people retiring because of purpose and identity versus financial reasons. Most of the major data sets focus on what pulls people out of work, such as ill health or having enough money.”
In fact, she says the evidence still points in another direction.
“The main reason people leave work, if we look at the ABS data, is because they feel they’ve got enough money. Not everyone is as enamoured with their work as the people we see on the SBS program. A lot of people are looking forward to exploring other options once work finishes.”
The distinction is important. Working longer doesn’t automatically mean someone loves their job, just as retiring earlier doesn’t necessarily signal someone has fallen out of love with work.
Every retirement story has its own mix of finances, health, relationships and personal priorities.
If there’s one message Earl hopes Australians take from years of retirement research, it’s this: don’t spend all your energy planning your finances while neglecting the life you’re saving for.
“I think we’ve still got about a third of people who don’t do any planning at all,” she says.
“One of the consistent findings in our research is that the conditions of exit and how you leave work really matter. The more say you have about the timing and how you leave, the better retirement adjustment tends to be.”
Her advice is surprisingly simple: “Grab the wheel and be clear with yourself about when you want to leave and how you want to leave. Even if you think you’re never going to retire, unfortunately ill health or changes in organisations sometimes make those decisions for you.”
Money, she says, deserves only part of the conversation.
“I think people focus too much on money and not enough on health. Health is so important, and so are the social aspects of life.”
Then she asks a question that every future retiree should probably ask themselves long before handing in their resignation.
“If you’ve suddenly got more than 60 hours available every week, what does that week actually look like? Purpose and identity can sound a bit nebulous. I think it’s often easier to think in terms of activities. How are you actually going to spend your time?”
That question may prove every bit as important as the size of your super balance.
One of the most memorable comments in the Insight episode comes from a participant who said they would know it was time to retire when they no longer enjoyed putting the key in the front door at work.
It’s an image that resonates.
For Earl, though, retirement deserves more than a decision made in the heat of a difficult week.
“I hope for most people it’s something that develops over time,” she says.
“People don’t want to confuse a bad day, getting stuck in traffic or a discussion with their boss as the catalyst for making what’s a very important decision.”
The reason is simple. For many older Australians, walking away from work can become a one-way door.
“I think it’s good to think of that one-off event as crystallising everything you’ve already been working towards,” she says. “But I’d give myself a week, two weeks or even three weeks of feeling like that before I decided to jump.”
That breathing space can make the difference between a carefully planned transition and a decision that’s difficult to reverse.
One of the strongest themes emerging from public discussion is the belief that working longer is automatically good for our brains and Earl believes the reality is far more nuanced.
“I think you raise a really good point because there’s a lot of dialogue at the moment about working for as long as you can because of the mental health benefits and the cognitive benefits,” she says.
“But it’s not true for all jobs.”
She points to insurance data that paints a sobering picture.
“If we have a look at the insurance data from TAL, psychological injuries at work are the highest category. There are more cases than cancer.
“So not all work is good. Burnout and ongoing stress at work are not a good recipe for cognition.”
Instead, she Earl believes the conversation should focus less on the number of birthdays someone has celebrated and more on the quality of the work they continue to perform.
“It’s got to be well-designed work,” she says. It’s got to be work that you find satisfying. It’s got to be work that’s not physically draining.
“If you’re doing a really demanding job and you’re on your feet all day, it doesn’t get any easier as you get older.”
It’s a reminder that Australia’s retirement conversation isn’t the same for everyone.
An accountant working three days a week from home faces very different challenges from a builder, nurse, warehouse worker or cleaner whose body has absorbed decades of physical strain.
As the conversation turned towards identity, Earl touched on something that will resonate with many readers who experienced redundancy, career upheaval or unexpected job loss during COVID.
Losing work can feel deeply personal, yet she cautions against assuming everyone’s identity is built around their occupation.
“I don’t think that’s the case for everybody,” she says.
“I recalls one doctor who summed up the emotional connection many professionals have with their careers, ‘If I’m not a doctor, who am I?’.”
It’s what psychologists refer to as work centrality — the extent to which someone’s career becomes central to their identity.
Surprisingly, Earl’s own research found people with high work centrality adjusted to retirement just as successfully as those whose identity was spread across family, friendships, hobbies and community life. The difference often starts much earlier than retirement itself.
“I was doing a project with a first-year medical student who told me they’d given up all their extracurricular activities when they started studying medicine,” she says.
“We’re not talking about people developing this work identity when they’re 60. For some people it’s been developing since the day they walked into university.”
That observation prompted an insight that extends well beyond retirement.
“It really is a story for younger people as much as older people,” Earl agrees. “I say to people, keep up your interests while you’re working and while you’re younger, because those interests can last a lifetime.”
It’s deceptively simple advice. The richer our lives become outside work, the less pressure retirement places on any single part of our identity.
Perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway from both Earl’s research and the stories that feature on Insight tonight.
Retirement has become less about reaching a particular birthday and more about preparing for a new stage of life. For some Australians, that next chapter will include paid work. Others will discover fulfilment through volunteering, caring for grandchildren, travel, learning, community groups or long-neglected hobbies.
There is no single blueprint any more.
Some will continue working because they enjoy it. Others will step into volunteering, travel, family, community groups or entirely new careers. For many, retirement won’t arrive with a clear finish line at all. Instead, it will unfold gradually, shaped by changing health, finances, opportunities and personal choice.
Whatever path people take, Earl believes one principle remains constant. Retirement deserves the same thoughtful planning as the career that came before it. Financial security matters, but so do friendships, good health, curiosity and having something meaningful to look forward to when Monday morning arrives.
Perhaps that’s why the stories featured in Insight feel so relatable.
They’re not really about people refusing to retire, but more about Australians finding their own way through a stage of life that no longer follows a single script.
Maybe that’s where Maureen has already found her answer. At 82, she still enjoys turning the key in the front door of her Balmain pub each morning.
Perhaps therein lies the real lesson… retirement is about finding something that still makes you want to turn the key tomorrow morning, and not about reaching a certain age.
Professor Joanne Earl appears in SBS Insight’s Working Later in Life, airing Tuesday, August 4 at 8.30pm or streaming on SBS On Demand. Insight airs on SBS at 8.30pm Tuesdays or streams on SBS On Demand.
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