A steady stream of income from Social Security, pensions, and investments. Others think retirement is sitting around watching television or playing cards, living on Social Security, waiting until it is time to enter a nursing home. As one who has studied retirement for years and who has helped retirees and those planning for retirement, I can tell you that retirement is very different from what it used to be and from what many Americans think it is . There are almost as many kinds of retirement as there are retirees. What's even more important is that virtually everything about retirement has been transformed over the years, and the transformation continues.
Retirement is a new development.
Only a few decades ago people simply worked until they dropped or couldn't work any more. Retirement was only for the very wealthy. The federal government did not have an employee pension plan until 1920. The first Social Security check was issued in 1940. Retirement has changed dramatically.