Retirement? No way

Retirement just isn't an option right now; I want and need to work for reasons other than money. Like many other New Zealanders I have experienced multiple redundancies. My income has never been high although I worked full time from the time my children were young as I was a sole parent. With my meagre savings long used up, I still have a mortgage, ongoing home maintenance and the modest aspiration to cross the Tasman once a year to visit my family. Then there is my dream of one day undertaking the famous pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago across Northern Spain before my other knee, or either of my hips require replacement surgery! This would have to be under the public health system of course, for along with my job, the ability has gone to afford medical insurance just when I am mostly likely to need it. But redundancy has meant giving up more than just a salary. Gone are the social networks I so blithely took for granted, whether Friday night drinks at work, meeting with friends for a meal, the gym or the twice weekly dance classes.  

Retirement has been imposed upon me without my consent. Futile efforts to even get a part time job in the current market are sending me the message that I am surplus to society's requirements. More ever, this is propogated by the young women "consultants" who are generally the employment gatekeepers in the recruitment agencies. They are careful to say rejection for a position is never to do with age but when pressed they will admit that it is the employers who call the shots and this lets them off the hook.  We, the Baby Boomers, scrub up well, we're ready, willing and able and as long and as long as we remember to take our blood pressure medication and fish oil, we would be a great asset to any business. Furthermore we're not planning our OE just yet; maternity leave won't need to be factored into our employment conditions and we are not necessarily on the career path which might pose a threat to middle management. From contemporaries I've spoken with, we are working to live, no longer living to work; the cliched work-life balance. We don't shy from taking on responsibility and most novel of all, we turn up to work when required, on time!

As a fanatical reader of Jane Austen I no longer see my self as an amalgamation of the spirited Lizzie, cautious Eleanor or autocratic Emma, rather I am Miss Bates, subject alternatively to the flattering attentions and the hurtful whims of Emma Woodhouse's charity in order to survive in genteel yet desperate poverty. In my case substitute Work and Income for Jane Austen's obnoxious heroine minus the occasional flashes of charm the fair Emma was known to display. I have the etiquette, the bone china tea cups and a frayed lace cap, but just can't afford the tea.

Retirement lingers forlornly like fog in a shadowy no man's land of burnt tree stumps and poverty. Inability to gain employment has issued a loud wake up call that I am totally unprepared for it both financially and mentally. While I've managed to put aside a modest cache in Kiwisaver, the growth of my savings is dependent on my ability to continue working. Rather than spend all my time job hunting which otherwise could be seen as setting myself up for further rejection, I am currently undertaking intensive training on a volunteer programme to do something that will enrich my life in other ways. The situation remains though that in order to retire with any sort of dignity and quality life, I need to either marry well, the optimum outcome for any Jane Austen heroine, or find a job to generate income.