If retirement remained constant at age 65, the additional life expectancy gave a person 12 new years of free time - years that never had to be - never got to be - filled before. The shorter workweek gave a person in 2000 an additional 16 hours a week.
We rightfully get kids thinking about what they are going to do for work from an early age. It's a big decision and should be given a lot of consideration.
I wonder, though, if we don't do enough to get kids thinking about who they want to be in their free time. It's a nontrivial question and could do as much to define you and your quality of life as your work.
Csikszentmihalyi notes that in studies of free time most people lapse into things like watching TV. It's easy to do but people generally report feeling less than engaged or happy doing it. The problem is, activities like tea parties, building cars, and group hikes that are more engaging are also more work; it takes a lot to set up the activities that create flow. Setting people up for more flow-inducing activity may become one of the big growth industries as growing affluence means that more people will be retiring before 65, adding even more free time to lives.
The good news is that we have more hours and years of free time than ever before; even better news for aspiring entrepreneurs is that this suggests more demand for someone to structure the activities that structure our consciousness. Retirement planning will become much bigger than cash flow management.
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