Announcement: Retirement Survey

[EDITORIAL NOTE: Even though he thinks it's too messy for public consumption, newly-listed elderblogger, Mike Nichols of Anxiety, Panic & Health, sent in a photo of his blog workspace for the Where Elders Blog feature. How about some of the rest of you who haven't done this yet? And quarterstaff photos too.]

Web searches for various phrases about and including “retirement” return hundreds of thousands of results of which a majority is advice on financial planning for later years primarily aimed at younger workers. Many of the rest are for websites of (usually expensive) retirement communities not infrequently containing the word “active.”

And while news stories abound in regard to workers remaining employed past standard retirement age and, conversely, retiring early, trustworthy statistics are hard to come by.

So I have constructed our own retirement survey. Like the previous survey on elder use of technology and blogging, the results will not be scientifically valid against the U.S. or any other population. But it will give us a sense of retirement in relation to elders who enjoy reading and producing blogs.

It is really three different surveys, one for three different conditions of retirement and you need complete only one. These surveys, for people age 50 and older only, are much shorter than the tech/blog survey – it will take no more than two or three minutes to finish.

The surveys are anonymous. You will not be asked for your name, email address or any other personally identifiable information. The surveys will remain open until 12 midnight, eastern U.S. time on 18 July 2008, and results will appear here on three successive days during the week of 21 July.

As during the last survey, I’ve prepared a little graphic. If you would like to help get as many respondents as possible, you are welcome to post it on your blog and link it to this page. Or, you could write a short post linking to this page. (You can’t link directly to the survey from the badge because there are three different ones.)

Here are links to the three surveys. Choose the one that applies to you, and enjoy.

Currently Retired

Not Retired

Retired, Then Returned to Work

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Granny Annie recalls a most embarrassing moment in Hair Today, Hair Gone – Today.]