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Greater numbers of Australians are opting for early retirement

John Fletcher surprised colleagues last year when, a few months short of his 50th birthday, he stepped down as chief executive of Australian-based building materials company Brambles.

"I've done a lot of work and missed a lot of family life," Fletcher said on leaving one of the country's best-paid jobs. "No one would raise an eyebrow if I was 65."

More and more Australians are following Fletcher into early retirement after devoting an inordinate amount of time to their jobs early on.

John Banks, head of Australia's biggest recruitment firm, said people don't want to work until they are 65 any more, and are prepared to make sacrifices in their 30s, 40s and 50s to assure an early start to their twilight years.

"They want to build their nest egg quickly and establish their careers so they can gain a balance in life," Morgan said.

The average age for retirement for a man is now 58, down from 65 half a century ago, and the average for women exiting the workforce is 41.

Almost half of those between 50 and 64 are now not in paid work.

Just because Fletcher gave up a high paying job is no guide to whether he will find early retirement fulfilling. There is growing evidence that many Australians leave their jobs too soon.

"This is a very serious issue," said Veronica Sheen of the Council on Ageing. "We know there are strong links between unemployment and poorer mental health, and we also believe it leads to poorer physical health -- the two are related."

The latest research shows a long-term trend has been reversed and nowadays older Australian men are taking their lives at a greater rate than their 20-something counterparts.

Sydney psychiatrist John Snowdon, who has looked through the coronial records of 210 men over 65 who killed themselves, said depression was a factor in at least three-quarters of those suicides.

Some have begun to argue that the trend for early retirement is bad for just about everybody and should be stopped and even reversed.

The Allen Consulting Group, in a study for the National Australia Bank, reckons getting back to a retirement age of 65 for men and 60 for women would boost the economy through increased consumption, a bigger workforce, a reduced burden on the state, and not least, a bunch of happier and wealthier older Australians.

Allen Consulting's Vince Fiztgerald says to stop retirees' standards of living from falling and to increase the supply of vital skills in the labor force, the country should be aiming at raising the average retirement age by 2051 to 68 for men and 66 for women.

The report, understandably, generated a lot of hot-air about people being pressed to the grindstone until they were just about in their graves.

But it gained support from Ted Sent, the chief executive of PrimeLife Corp, the biggest operator of nursing homes in Australia.

"People today are capable of working past 65 and, in fact, do not want to retire at 65," Sent said.

He warned that, with the current trend, a quarter of the population will be over 65 by 2041, most of them effectively idle.
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