Flexi retirement – a new trend?
Written by Viewber co-founder, Ed Mead.
We were sent this last week, a piece in a local newspaper in Coventry, by someone who’s benefiting from exactly what the piece is about: read here.
Perhaps there’s not been a more apposite time to look at this a bit more closely, for two good reasons
1. Adding a little extra income, however old you are, is as relevant today as ever given cost of living increases.
2. It’s precisely why we founded Viewber and feeds into a vast resource of intelligent and reliable, often older, people keen to add variety and a few quid.
Research from Investment Company and FTSE 100 member Abrdn, shows that two thirds of retirees want to continue to work and even, guessing this is pandemic driven too, 25% of those in work want to be more flexible.
Not mentioned are the positive mental health benefits of a more varied lifestyle. Stories of retired workers losing motivation and becoming sedentary can perhaps now be ameliorated thanks to changes in the economy and employment catering to this flexi style.
The expression gig economy has been misappropriated as only bad and needs to be looked at objectively. For many wanting flexibility, and we’re not talking young people charging round on bikes here, they don’t want to have to take a job if offered, and for the business offering – there’s often no guarantee of work. It’s just this kind of take it or leave it offering of casual work enabling more and more retirees to add to their schedule when they want to – not when demanded.
This is a significant sea change in working practice and puts power back with the employee in a way it hasn’t for years – which somewhat flies in the face of a blanket description of the gig economy as all bad, so don’t believe everything you read.
Fact is, if you’re retiring it’s all about drawing on many years of life experience to give a reliable service, using your acquired skill set, to anyone who needs it. It can be super-efficient for both parties and is surely here to stay.
