Movie: All is True (Shakespeare in retirement)

by Wendy, Retirement Enthusiast

How would you imagine William Shakespeare's life to be after he no longer wrote plays?



Kenneth Branagh did just that -- he imagined and wrote a movie about Shakespeare's life post-retirement, and in his version, life was hell. By day he gardens, by night he has to listen to family resentful about his retirement. I need to see this movie

The writer of the source article then explains: Marcus Tullius Cicero was against the idea of retirement. He wrote an essay "Cato the Elder on Aging" and he believed the way to stay young was a purposeful life. He wrote "I am in my 84th year, yet, as you see, old age has not unnerved or shattered me."

For most of history, people had no choice but to work until they died. By the end of the 19th century, it was possible for some people to spend their latter years in retirement. In 1883 Germany began to pay pensions to all over age 65 -- and that became the age of retirement. In 1935, President Roosevelt started the U.S. Social Security program, when half of our seniors lived in poverty.

Today, the author, Amanda Foreman, thinks that leisurely retirement may be ending. For many simply want to change their occupations at retirement, driven by personal preferences to work or finances.

Examples:

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