the.com/retirement
the long-awaited reward for surviving the thing that funded it.
means The point at which a person permanently leaves the workforce, typically in later life, to live off savings, pensions, or accumulated income.
from From the French 'retirer'—to draw back or withdraw—built from 're-' (back) and 'tirer' (to pull or draw). It entered English first as a military term, meaning a withdrawal or retreat from a position, before it softened over the centuries into the gentler retreat from labor we know today. So the word still carries its old battlefield logic: you've held the line long enough, and now you're permitted to fall back.
- new invention
- Mass retirement didn't exist before the late 1800s
- German origins
- Bismarck set pension age at 70, then 65
- life expectancy gap
- Early pension ages exceeded average lifespans entirely
- health risk
- Sudden retirement linked to cognitive decline in studies
- the irony
- Many retirees return to work within a year
social security — u.s. program providing monthly benefits to 67 million recipients as of 2024
mandatory retirement age japan — 65 years old for most workers, enforced since 1971
early retirement fire movement — financial independence retire early: people targeting age 40-50 through aggressive saving