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People who retire earlier die sooner; for each year earlier that one retires, life expectancy is shortened by two months (and the results are robust against dif

by nickff 11y ago

People who retire earlier die sooner; for each year earlier that one retires, life expectancy is shortened by two months (and the results are robust against different assumptions).[1] This would lead one to believe that working is good for your health. [1] http://freakonomics.com/2012/05/17/retirement-kills-a-new-marketplace-podcast/ http://freakonomics.com/2012/05/17/retirement-kills-a-new-ma...

criddell 11y ago
For me, quantity of life is secondary to quality of life.
OldSchoolJohnny 11y ago
Obligatory: causation, correlation mention - surely people who are sicker retire sooner?
- nickff 11y ago
  Obligatory: RTDA. Surely people who read citations before posting won't ask these questions?
  - criddell 11y ago
    You said: People who retire earlier die sooner It's actually true only for men.
    - nickff 11y ago
      Men are people too. I never said all people would suffer early deaths from retirement. For all I know, some people's lives may be prolonged.
- cgh 11y ago
  They accounted for that. It boils down to males adopting unhealthy life patterns in retirement (drinking, sitting around and so forth).
vectorjohn 11y ago
Two months per year? To me that's worth it. I want to live as long as possible, but that is strongly based on how much I enjoy life. If the things people enjoy happen to be a little unhealthy, it may be worth it.
phkahler 11y ago
But if you hate working, you want to retire as early as possible to have as much non-working time as possible.
nyan4 11y ago
>People who retire earlier die sooner some people. Do not generalize.
- tempestn 11y ago
  I think the "on average" was clearly implied.
  - criddell 11y ago
    Mathematically, it might be close to average but I don't think that's a great way of putting it either. If you click through to the study, it was actually only men that died earlier. The lifespan of women was unchanged.
nathan_f77 11y ago
Damn, this is not good news, but thanks for sharing that. I would hope that this is not relevant to people who just want to be financially independent at an early age, and never really "retire". Maybe a lot of people just don't know what to do with their time, so they turn to unhealthy activities like drinking and sitting on the couch all day watching TV.

by nickff 11y ago

criddell 11y ago

For me, quantity of life is secondary to quality of life.

OldSchoolJohnny 11y ago

Obligatory: causation, correlation mention - surely people who are sicker retire sooner?

nickff 11y ago
Obligatory: RTDA. Surely people who read citations before posting won't ask these questions?
- criddell 11y ago
  You said: People who retire earlier die sooner It's actually true only for men.
  - nickff 11y ago
    Men are people too. I never said all people would suffer early deaths from retirement. For all I know, some people's lives may be prolonged.
cgh 11y ago
They accounted for that. It boils down to males adopting unhealthy life patterns in retirement (drinking, sitting around and so forth).

vectorjohn 11y ago

Two months per year? To me that's worth it. I want to live as long as possible, but that is strongly based on how much I enjoy life. If the things people enjoy happen to be a little unhealthy, it may be worth it.

phkahler 11y ago

But if you hate working, you want to retire as early as possible to have as much non-working time as possible.

nyan4 11y ago

>People who retire earlier die sooner some people. Do not generalize.

tempestn 11y ago
I think the "on average" was clearly implied.
- criddell 11y ago
  Mathematically, it might be close to average but I don't think that's a great way of putting it either. If you click through to the study, it was actually only men that died earlier. The lifespan of women was unchanged.

nathan_f77 11y ago

Damn, this is not good news, but thanks for sharing that. I would hope that this is not relevant to people who just want to be financially independent at an early age, and never really "retire". Maybe a lot of people just don't know what to do with their time, so they turn to unhealthy activities like drinking and sitting on the couch all day watching TV.