Retirement Dreams

By Mutea Rukwaru

For most workers retirement is concurrent with aging. They feel the final phase of existence has begun. The end of life, that has been distant for so long, has come more clearly in the view thus making suppression of awareness of human mortality more difficult to ignore. Retirees may feel like material that is ready for disposal. The depersonalization of gifts eg. Watches or framed prints for all retirees may consolidate the feeling of ultimately being just an unit for disposal.

Retirement is a time of great uncertainty. You have lost your status, your job, your friends, your health is declining including your libido, your self esteem is down, your income is reduced, you have many idle hours and you wonder what to do with them, your spouse also wonders what to do with you. It is now you are starting you marriage life. All those years you have been married to your job and so you were strangers. Repackaging yourself is not easy. With men it is very challenging because with them their identity is tied to work. They become objects of pity and many of them live in a denial for sometime, but later they accept the reality. Accept the reality and move on:
•Serve your community.
•Save.
•Boost your mental health.
•Make new friends and maintain connections with old ones.
•Participate in physical activity.
•Learn a new skill and keep training your brain.
•Don’t smoke.
•Eat healthy.
•Try new technologies.
•Help design your community
READ MORE IN RETIREMENT DREAMS!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mutea Rukwaru
• Release date: Dec 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9789966085900

Mutea Rukwaru

Mutea Rukwaru is an accomplished author of international reputation.He is an author of 17 bestselling books. He has written widely in the areas of research and family. He has wide knowledge in world of practice having been in the Department of Social Development for 33 years and also being in the world of academia, that is Universities and Kenya Schools of Government.Some of the top selling books include:Anatomy of CrimeFinancial Success Every Family's DreamEducation at CrossroadTraining at its bestMilestones of lifeHow to be a better CounselorThe winning familyThe Tie that bindsHappy though marriedFundamentals of social researchWhat happy couples knowSuccessful time managementStatistics can be funStrong in the stormSnapshot view of Social ResearchSocial Research Methods a complete guidePowerful Proposal, Powerful PresentationUpcoming titles being published by Eureka publishers are: Limits of Medicine, Dreams of my Motherland and A Place to feel at HomeMutea Rukwaru holds a Masters of Arts in Sociology (Counseling) and a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), Upper Second class honors from Nairobi University

Book preview

RETIREMENT DREAMS

By

MuteaRukwaru

ISBN: 978-9966-085-90-0

OTHER BOOKS BY MUTEA RUKWARU

(In order of years of publication)

Happy though married (2003)

The Tie that Binds (2005)

Successful Time Management, the Challenge for the Modern Manager (2006)

What Happy Couples Know (2006 a)

Fundamentals of Social Research (2007)

Milestones of Life (2007 a)

How to be a Better Counsellor (2007 b)

Anatomy of Crime (2008)

Winning Family (2008 a)

Financial Success Every Family’s Dream (2008 b)

Education at Cross roads (2009)

Training at its Best (2010)

Social Research Methods : A Complete Guide (2015)

Powerful Proposal Powerful Presentation (2015a)

Statistics Can be Fun (2016)

Snapshot View of Social Research (2017)

Strong in the storm (2017a)

Published by EUREKA PUBLISHERS

P.O BOX 1414 – 60200 MERU

Copyright Mutea Rukwaru 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher and author except for the inclusion of quotations in a review.

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ISBN: 978-9966-085-90-0

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my family for creating a serene atmosphere and for their encouragement and positive spirit.

I am grateful to my fellow colleagues, the retirees or call them senior citizens. I am grateful to them for sharing and trusting me with their stories. It is my hope that what is captured in this book will help them to have a safe and happy retirement, not only for them but also for posterity.

Great gratitude to my designer Fred Nganga for the design finesse and touch that always brings my books up several notches.

To my fellow fans of my previous works, your thirst for another book has been a great inspiration. Your enthusiasm and dream of work to help retirees have a better and a safe tomorrow beyond 21st century, has seen the birth of this book before time. I salute you.

Dedication

I dedicate this Book to senior citizens (Retirees) who due to forces not of their own may not have a chance to read this book.

M.R

Preface

For most workers retirement is concurrent with aging. They feel the final phase of existence has begun. The end of life, that has been distant for so long, has become more clear thus making suppression of awareness of human mortality more difficult to ignore. Retirees may feel like material that is ready for disposal. The depersonalization of gifts eg. Watches or framed prints for all retirees may consolidate the feeling of ultimately being just an unit for disposal.

Retirement is a time of great uncertainty. You have lost your status, your job, your friends, your health is declining including your libido, your self esteem is down, your income is reduced, you have many idle hours and you wonder what to do with them.Your spouse also wonders what to do with you. It is now you are starting your marriage life. All those years you have been married to your job and so you were strangers. Repackaging yourself is not easy. With men it is very challenging because with them their identity is tied to work. Many become objects of pity and some of them live in a denial for sometime, but later they accept the reality and they move on. Please:

Serve your community.

Save.

Boost your mental health.

Make new friends and maintain connections with old ones.

Participate in physical activity.

Learn a new skill and keep training.

Don’t smoke.

Eat healthy.

Try new technologies.

Help design your community and

READ MORE IN RETIREMENT DREAMS!

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE- Introduction

CHAPTER TWO - RETIREMENT PLANNING

CHAPTER THREE- RETIREMENT THEORIES

CHAPTER FOUR- GENDER AND RETIREMENT

CHAPTER FIVE- PSYCHOLOGY OF RETIREMENT

CHAPTER SIX- DEPRESSION AND RETIREMENT

CHAPTER SEVEN- RETIREMENT AND RELIGION

CHAPTER EIGHT- RETIREMENT AND FRAUD

CHAPTER NINE- SENIOR CITIZENS AND HEALTH

CHAPTER TEN- FAMILY AND RETIREMENT

CHAPTER ELEVEN- HYGIENE, HOMELESSNESS AND RETIREMENT.

CHAPTER TWELVE- A WILL AND A LIVING WILL

CHAPTER THIRTEEN- THE LAST WORD

CHAPTER ONE- Introduction

When we insist on categorizing

people as either young or old,

we create falsely conflicting camps

for attention or action – Pattie Moore

Definition of retirement

Technically, retirement means the end of one’s career. But anyone who is retired or is close to retiring, knows thats only the half of it. To some retirement feels like the end of one’s lifetime and the beginning of another. To others, it feels like falling off a cliff. This life altering event doesn’t just affect bank accounts and daily schedules; it also has a profound effect on romantic relationships.

Denton and Spencer (2009) defines retirement as:

Non- participation in labour force.

Receipt of pension income.

End of career employment.

The two scholars argued that retirement is essentially a negative notion, a notion of what people are not doing – namely, that they are not working. A more positive approach would be to focus, instead, on what people are doing, including especially their involvement in non-market activities that are socially productive, even if those activities do not contribute to national income as conventionally measured.It is important to point out that the concept is fluid, no doubt shifting over time as social conditions and individual expectations evolve.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, retirement refers to:

Withdrawal from office or an official position.

To give up one’s business or occupation in order to enjoy more leisure or freedom especially after having made a competence or earned a pension.

Retirement can also be seen as a transition of career. One might "retire" for instance from public service of Kenya at 60 years and then start a new career, full-time or part time, perhaps doing something entirely unrelated or doing work related to an earlier career. And such a return could occur even after several years of being out of the labour force. Some who became disabled may decide not to return to work but appear not to have retired because they received employment related benefits.

Retirement can be voluntary or involuntary, it can be gradual or sudden, and it can be permanent or temporary. From this, it is clear that the notion of retirement is complex and that not one definition will satisfactorily represent all situations.There is also phased retirement or gradual disengagement from work. In such a case the disengagement from work activity can take place 10 years that is at 50 years and only at age 60 years is the level of engagement zero. It is important to point out that this scenario is not common in Kenya. Many other paths are possible, including retiring to full engagement especially at Senior managerial positions, but on contract terms.

Withdrawal from paid work

This book will focus on retirement as the withdrawal of older workers from paid working life. This is the notion most commonly used and is generally consistent with popular, as well as more technical usage of the term. It is of interest to note that this usage excludes those workers mainly women who have spent little or no time in the labour force but many have made significant contributions in terms of home production. McDonald (2006), observed that historically, women were essentially invisible workers and therefore invisible retirees" because many did not work in the paid labour force.

In a nutshell retirement has been defined as:

Non-participation in labour force.

Reduction in hours worked and /or earnings.

Receipt of retirement income.

Left main employer.

Change of career or employment later in life.

Self – assessed retirement-here individuals describe themselves as retired or not, all other information is ignored.

Combination of indicators.

Statistics Canada points out that a retired person refers to:

A person who is aged 55 and older.

Is not in the labour force.

Has received 50 percent or more of his or her total income.

Deschenes and Stone(2006) defined a respondent as retired if she or he had left the labour force or market for good which meant the respondent was neither employed nor seeking work for at least one full year and had not returned to work (by the end of the survey period) and was also in receipt of retirement income. Palmore et al (1985) defined retirement in this wise:

Self-assessment.

Working few hours.

Receiving pension income.

History of retirement

In 1881 Otto Von Bismark the conservative minister, President of Prussia, presented a radical idea to the Reichstag requesting government to run financial support for older members of society, in other words, retirement. If you were alive, you worked probably on a farm or if you are wealthier you managed a farm or larger estate.

Bismarkargued to the Reichstag that those who were disabled from by age and invalidity had a well grounded claim to get care from the state. It would take eight years, but by the end of the decade, the German government would create a retirement system, which provided for citizens over the age of 70 years if they lived that long. But it is important to note that even with retirement, most people still worked until they died.

In USA, in the mid- 1800’s, certain municipal employees, that is the fire fighters, cops and teachers mostly in big cities started receiving public pensions. In 1875 the American Express Company started offering private pensions. In 1920’s a variety of American Industries, from railroads to oil and banking, were promising their workers some sort of support for their later years.Most of these pension programmes pegged the retirement age to 65 years. This mark had less to do with health and more to do with economics. Workers could keep on working for years, and old age did not necessarily mean bad health. Convention wisdom held too that by 60 a man had certainly done his best work, and should give way to the next generation (see www.theatlantic.com)

History of retirement from early man

In the beginning there was no retirement, and there were no old people. In the Old Stone Age everyoneworked until age 20, by which time, nearly everyone was dead usually of unnatural causes. Any early man who lived long enough to develop crow’s feet was either worshipped or eaten as a sign of respect.Even in Biblical times when a fair number of people made it into old age, retirement still had not been invented, and respect for old people remained high. In those days it was customary to carry on until you dropped, regardless of your age.When a patriarch could no longer farm or herd cattle or pitch a tent he opted for more specialized less labour intensive work:

Prophesying.

Handing down commandments.

Or he moved with the kids.

Later in the century

As the centuries passed, the elderly population increased. Their numbers had reached a critical mass. It was no longer just a matter of respecting white bearded patriarch.Old people were everywhere:

giving advice.

Repeating themselves.

Complaining about themselves.

Trying to help.

Getting in the way and making younger people feel guilty.

Plus they tended to hang on to their wealth and property.

This made them very unpopular with the middle aged sons who were driven to earn their inheritances, the old fashioned way by committing patricide. As late as the mid 18th century, there was a spate of killings in France. In Meru the age set called Mbaya was notorious for holding to their property and especially land and they were reluctant to even show their sons where to build. They felt that if they didn’t behave this way, their sons would neglect them during old age. So this was a tactic to buy loyalty from their sons perpetually.

In 1882, Anthony Trollope wrote a futuristic novel, The fixed period, in which he foresaw retiring large numbers of old men to a place where they would be encouraged to enjoy a year of contemplation followed by a peaceful chloroforming, but this was hardly an acceptable long term strategy.

World renowned physician William Osler laid the scientific foundations which, when combined with a compelling economic rationale eventually made retirement acceptable. In 1905 valedictory address at the John Hopkins Hospital where he had been physician in Chief said that it was a matter of fact that the years between 25 and 40 in a workers career are the 15 golden years of plenty. He called that span the Anabolic or constructive period. Workers between ages 40-60 were merely uncreative and therefore tolerable. He had hated to say it, because he was getting old.After age 60, the average worker was useless and should be put out to pasture.When it comes to retirement, there appears to be two camps: those who hate the idea of quitting work and those who can’t wait for the day they can walk out of their office and never return. One thing everybody agrees on, is that it is not fun getting old.

Marketers are making retirement respectable. Instead of being the beginning of the end, it sounds like nirvana- do what you want without any responsibilities. The boomers think they are 16. Marketers try to keep the charade going. "Retirement will look so good, others are going to be jealousy. (Seehttps://www.McCarthyand stone.co.uk/lifestyles-living-old).

Types of retirements in Kenya

The following are types of retirement in Kenya:

Compulsory retirement on attaining mandatory age which is 60 years, and 65 years for those who are challenged.

Voluntary early retirement but not less than 50 years.

Abolition or reorganization of office.

ill-health.

Public interest.

Forced retirement like what happened in the year 2000 in Kenya.(See COR 2006).

Statutes and regulations relating to pensions and retirement plans.

The following are the main statutes:

Pensions Act (Cap 189).

Pensions increase Act (Cap 190).

Retirement Benefits Act No 3 of 1997.

Income Tax Act (Cap 470).

National social security Fund Act (Cap 258).

National Social Security Fund Act No 45 of 2015.

National Health Insurance Fund Act No 9 of 1998.

Provident Fund Act (Cap 191).

Public Service Superannuation Scheme Act No 8 of 2012.

Parliamentary pensions Act (Cap 196)

Presidential Retirement Benefits Act No 11 of 2003.

Retirement Benefits Deputy President and Designated State Officers Act No 8 of 2015.

Asian officers family pension Act (Cap 194).

Asian widows’ and orphans’ pensions Act (Cap 193).

Primary Regulatory authorities of the pension schemes in Kenya.

The primary regulatory authorities in Kenya are the Retirement Benefits Authority and the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Objects and functions

Regulating and supervising the establishment and management of retirement benefits schemes.

Protecting the interests of members and sponsors of the retirement benefit sector.

Promoting the development of the retirement benefits sector.

Advising the Minister (Cabinet Secretary) responsible for finance on the national policy to be followed regarding retirement benefits schemes and implementing all government policies relating thereto, and

Approving trustees remuneration by members during annual general meetings, after every three years.

Framework for taxation of pensions

The taxation of pensions in Kenya is guided by section 8(5) of the income Tax Act.The following are not subject to tax:

The first 600,000 Kenya shillings of lump sum commuted from a registered pension or individual retirement fund.

Contributions that are less than 20,000 shillings per month or 30 percent of the pensionable salary, whichever is less.

Income earned from investments.

Pension payments after attaining the age of 65 years (see https://gettign the deal through.com/area/57/…../pensions-retirement-plans-2017-Kenya/V)

Grounds for getting pension

Retirement benefits are provided to the member until his or her death and thereafter to his or her surviving spouse on the following conditions:

Attaining normal retirement age.

ill-health.

Permanent emigration of the member.

Death in service-benefits that are payable to his or her surviving spouse and any other dependants when a member dies in service and

Benefits on a member leaving service on his or her own free will, or dismissal by the employer (public interest).

Redundancy or retrenchment due to reorganization.

Abolition of an office.

Coup detat-new government.

Pressure by Bretton Woods organizations that is World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Voluntary early retirement.

Phased retirement (Delayed retirement)

It refers to a voluntary gradual progression from full time work to complete retirement from paid employment (see Brainard 2002 and Sheaks 2007).It is important to point out that this is not common in Kenya but probably with time it will be experimented.

Phased retirement may include the following:

Decreased hours.

Job sharing.

Extended leave of absence.

Changes in work responsibilities.

Becomes an independent contractor to one’s former employer.

These arrangements may occur before full time retirement or the complete cessation of work (See Hunchens and Papps 2005).

General reasons for retirement

The following are reasons for retirement:

To rejuvenate an organization.

As an alternative to laying off people during downturns.

As a way of saving money (after all, older people are generally more expensive to employ).

As an alternative to firing because of poor performance.

As a way of unclogging employment channels in order to create promotion opportunities for younger people.

Poor health.

Organizations mandatory retirement policy.

To pursue one’s hobbies.

Due to family responsibilities-to take care of households, children, family members.

Chronic diseases of one’s spouse.

Early Retirement

A lot of people feel desperate due to drudgery of their jobs. Many are not happy with working and would choose a different career if