RETIREMENT IS LETHAL: To start things off today, here’s an interesting article from Bloomberg about how retirement is apparently hazardous to your health:
Our common perception is that retirement is a time when we can relax and take better care of ourselves after stressful careers. But what if work itself is beneficial to our health, as several recent studies suggest?
One of them, by Jennifer Montez of Harvard Universityand Anna Zajacova of the University of Wyoming,examined why the gap in life expectancy between highly educated and less-educated Americans has been growing so rapidly. (I have explored this topic in severalpreviouscolumns, and have also agreed to be co-chairman of a National Academy of Sciences panel that will delve into it in more detail.)
Examining the growing educational gradient in life expectancy from 1997 to 2006, Montez and Zajacova focused on white women ages 45 to 84. In addition to differential trends in smoking by education, they concluded that among these women “employment was, in and of itself, an important contributor.” The life expectancy of less-educated women was being shortened by their lower employment rates compared with those of highly educated women.
The researchers tried to test whether the problem was that less-educated people had worse health, and therefore couldn’t work. But they found that “the contribution of employment to diverging mortality across education levels is at least partly due to the health benefits derived from employment.”
Next time you’re at your horrible job, you just thank them for keeping you alive! And here’s another interesting idea:
My own reading of all of these studies is that there is at least strongly suggestive evidence that not working, in and of itself, can be harmful to your health. And this raises the question of what it means for the puzzling finding that overall life expectancy appears to rise, not fall, during recessions.
Now I’m only speculating, but the answer could lie in the fact that, even during a recession, most people still work. Because a larger-than-usual minority don’t, pollution is reduced, traffic fatalities decline and the quality of staffing at nursing homes improves — and these changes boost the health of the people who are still working. It’s terrible to say, but the research seems to suggest that being out of work yourself may hurt your health — but having other people out of work may help it.
Is anybody else wondering whether this applies to Jacob Fisker, aka the Early Retirement Extreme guy?
CHASE UNITED FOLLOW-UP: Following up on the Chase United business card item from a few days ago: Hack My Trip has some more thorough advice on how to get both that card as well as the 55,000 mile offer on the consumer card.
LIVING IN A VAN FOR FUN AND PROFIT: You may or may not remember the story of Ken Ilgunas from a few years back. He’s the grad student who lived in a van on campus to save money:
Living in a van was my grand social experiment. I wanted to see if I could — in an age of rampant consumerism and fiscal irresponsibility — afford the unaffordable: an education.
I pledged that I wouldn’t take out loans. Nor would I accept money from anybody, especially my mother, who, appalled by my experiment, offered to rent me an apartment each time I called home. My heat would be a sleeping bag; my air conditioning, an open window. I’d shower at the gym, eat the bare minimum and find a job to pay tuition. And — for fear of being caught — I wouldn’t tell anybody.
And he pulled it off. He’s now got a new book out, plus he’s managed to get some press coverage as well. I don’t aspire to live in a van or anything, but I’m glad folks like Ken show that if you have a goal and are willing to be creative, work hard, and sacrifice a bit, you can get things done.
Happy weekend!
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