Some Wisconsin seniors are working well past retirement age. They have lessons for millennials who fear the same fate.

It's impossible to avoid seeing people who've given retirement the brush off.

The top contenders in the 2020 Presidential race are in their 70s.

Five members of the U.S. Supreme Court are 65 or older. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, is an icon of longevity.  

The reality, however, is that most Americans want to give up the grind by their early 60s.

Another overriding reality: it will be harder and harder to retire before age 70, especially for those in the millennial generation who started careers in the wake of the recession, a period of stagnant wage growth. 

Add to that record student loan debt, astronomical rents and escalating out-of-pocket costs for health insurance. For them, retirement saving and even retirement itself might not be on the radar.

Right now, baby boomers staying on the job after 65 might be doing so by choice. They like what they do and find identity in their jobs. Or perhaps they don't like to golf. 

They stand as role models for millennials. 

“I’m not going to stay home and dust. You can only volunteer so much,” said Appleton Realtor Sharron Huss, 77, who continues to hustle selling condos to her downsizing peers.

Money is also a huge concern for nearly everyone. 

“It's difficult to give up working. You worry that your income is going to dry up and you’re going to be stranded. Things are difficult in our country and worldwide. There are no guarantees," said Bill Miller, 74, a yoga instructor in Wausau.

"My wife and I could get by if I did not continue to work for income, but we would live much more frugally," he said. "It’s not a black and white situation. It all depends on how we want to live out our final years.”

Listen to those in younger generations, however, and the conversation takes a very dark “I will die at my desk” turn.

“Never retiring” for them could be a cold, hard, economic necessity.

The hashtag #MillennialRetirementPlans was attached to a lot of morbid posts on Twitter recently.

“Die on the job at 84 years old with $700,000 in student loan debt and no assets,” tweeted a man from Ohio. 

“Retiring implies that jobs are actually available,” wrote a woman from New York. “I’m a millennial, and in this gig economy there’s no such thing as staying at a job for 20+ years and retiring. For some there’s even no hope of ‘dying on the job.’ What job?”

As a rough gauge, Fidelity Investments recommends saving the equivalent of your annual salary by age 30, and ten times your final salary to retire by age 67.

“Many of today’s workers will have inadequate income when they reach retirement, but the prospects for millennials seem more challenging than for the generations ahead of them,” summarized a 2018 retirement study published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

It defined millennials as those born 1981 to 1999. As a group, they entered the job market post-recession.  

“Having entered the labor market in tough times, millennials have lower wages and fewer fringe benefits than Gen-Xers and late baby boomers did as young adults,” it reported.

Lessons to learn

Seniors who remain in the workforce give millennials and Gen X a glimpse into what their futures could look like.

Many of those working later in life have had multiple professions. They say they enjoy their jobs. They don't tend to be curmudgeons.  

Bill Miller, the 74-year-old yoga teacher, says spirituality determines a lot of his life decisions now. 

He's a Vietnam vet who became a police officer and then a teacher. He does volunteer work repairing donated bicycles that are given to people getting out of prison. 

He discovered yoga late in life, and enjoyed it so much he became a yoga instructor five years ago. He teaches five classes a week at 5 Koshas Yoga & Wellness in Wausau. One more class and he'd be considered full time.

“I continue to work firstly because I enjoy what I do and secondly because I receive a supplementary income that provides a means for me to pay for more learning, teacher training and meditation retreats," he said.

He just got back from a two-week yoga training session in Austin, Texas for his 500-hour yoga teacher certification. He was the oldest of 35 in the class.

There were some jokes about his age — he's used to that — but overall, he says, others see him as a person with "relevance" and treat him as an equal. 

"If I had chosen to retire, sit at home and complain about aches and pains and how 'the world is going to hell,' I am pretty sure that I would be treated as someone irrelevant. It would become a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said.

"When young people first hear of me, I suspect that they expect to find an old man with limited physical abilities. When the meet me, they usually find someone who does not fit their idea of what aging is all about."

Likewise, Realtor Sharron Huss stayed in the workforce because she loves what she does and knows she's good at it. With age comes wisdom and life experiences that are valuable assets in the workplace.

"I know a lot of people, and they trust me," she said. 

"We have a number of agents who are well past the normal age of retirement. Their clients love them," said Megan Jacquet, managing broker for the three Fox Cities offices of Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group where Huss works. "It's one of the few industries where there are no age limits."

Jacquet said she has five agents over age 70 out of a total of 123.

"They're willing to share experiences with younger agents because they've seen every up and down in the housing market," she said. "That's not taught in a real estate class." 

Huss was born two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and credits her upbringing for her work ethic. 

"I grew up on a large dairy farm in the Town of Maine in Outagamie County. No one took a day off because the cows didn't take a day off," she said. 

After working in retail and politics, Huss became a Realtor.

Her health is good and the income allows her to afford nicer things in life and indulge in her expensive hobby, travelling. 

Huss has a friend — who she doesn't name — who lives on a $1,500-a-month Social Security check and pays $1,000 a month for rent.

“Who wants to just get by?” she asks. 

'I just kept going'

Several seniors interviewed for this story worked into their late 80s and early 90s. They just kept going and going like Energizer bunnies.  

They appear to have several universal traits: a positive attitude and an appreciation for — not fear of — their far younger coworkers. 

Mary Ann Swick, 87, of Appleton did the unimaginable.

She worked for 70 years for one company, Grant Thornton, as a bookkeeper. She retired July 30.

None of Swick’s friends worked as long as she did.

When she told them she was still on the job into her 80s, “they looked at me like I had horns.”

Her oldest co-workers were in their 50s and 60s.

“The people I worked with were really great through all the years," she said. "They just accepted me. As everything evolved, they taught me how to use the computer so I could keep up with technology." 

For her, working was a combination of enjoying her job and feeling the need to have an income “to make sure I’m going to be comfortable.”

It might pale in comparison to the economic insecurity that rattles younger workers, but the anxiety was still real. 

Her work philosophy might be one that others can adopt: she stayed focused on the work, not on a retirement goal line. 

“I just kept going,” she said. “I never thought about it much.”

Gene Jessup, who turned 98 on Oct. 16, worked until age 91. He only stopped because getting around became too hard.

He's still sharp as a tack. When he retired, he took up the piano.    

Through his working years in the Fox Cities, he owned and operated 10 different businesses, from selling monogrammed linens and writing nutrition books to selling real estate and hitting the circuit as a motivational speaker.

“I have an extreme curiosity about everything,” he said. “There was too much to do and too many interesting things to research and participate in. I like trying new and different things.” 

He watched more than a few friends retire and then die within six months, which he admits could be a coincidence.

For him, working was a fountain of youth. 

“What kept him going was his positive attitude and coffee,” said Jessup’s son Robert. “He loved the social aspect of working and being around young, active people. He loved that there was a day care attached to his Century 21 office. When the little kids would come in, that was delightful for him.”

Hard cold reality 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the workforce is getting increasingly gray. 

It estimates that 13 million people age 65 and older will be working in 2024.

While that's a relatively small number in the projected workforce of 164 million, it projects that the oldest age groups — 65-74 and 75-and-older — will grow faster than any other age groups between  2014 and 2024. 

The 65-74 age group in the labor force will grow by 55 percent.  

The number of workers in the 75-and-older age group will grow by 86 percent. 

The labor force as a whole, including all age groups, will grow by just 5 percent.  

The bureau reported that people are working later in life for a number of reasons.

“They are healthier and have a longer life expectancy than previous generations,” it said in its projection report. “They are better educated, which increases their likelihood of staying in the labor force. And changes to Social Security benefits and employee retirement plans, along with the need to save more for retirement, create incentives to keep working.”

Lack of retirement savings is a big concern.

The exact dollar amount needed to retire varies from person to person depending on their expected standard of living, geography and lifestyle.

A survey of 1,015 adults in August by The Harris Poll on behalf of TD Ameritrade showed that six in 10 Americans said they were behind in retirement saving. Just 38 percent that said they started saving and investing early.

The Harris Poll included multiple generations. It defined millennials as ages 23 to 38 (born 1981-96), Gen X as ages 39-54 (born 1965-80) and boomers as ages 55 to 73 (born 1946-64).

Housing was the No. 1 reason millennials were behind on retirement savings. For Gen X and boomers, it was inadequate income.

Millennials will need to stay on the job beyond age 67, Social Security’s full-benefit retirement age for anyone born after 1960, according to a survey done by Aon, a professional services firm.  

“Eighty-five percent may not be able to retire comfortably by age 67,” it said. “(They) won’t be prepared for retirement until age 70 or later.”

The Boston College report, which found a similar scenario, stopped short of saying it was all bleak.

It offered millennials a ray of hope.

“The good news is that retirement is still a long way off for these millennials. A lot will depend on their future savings patterns, financial market returns and how long they work. It will also depend on the extent to which Congress preserves Social Security’s scheduled benefits and the extent to which policymakers can reduce the coverage gap by expanding the availability of retirement saving plans in the workplace.”

Huss, the Appleton Realtor, puts it into simpler language.

She says that those entering the workforce must be smart and start retirement saving early. 

“They live for today. They have to learn to live within their means and save regularly,” she said. “You have to pace yourself.”

Contact Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.