More people go back to work after retirement to stay involved and feel more youthful

Sandy Jenkins had worked for years as executive secretary to the associate director of the FDIC in Dallas and retired in 1997 with "a nice savings."

She spent the next couple of years "bouncing around the country" to visit various family members in Missouri, Texas, California and Salina, and then moved back to Salina, where she'd been born and raised.

After her mother-in-law died in 2003, she decided it was time to go back to work, starting as a secretary at Trinity United Methodist Church, and then moving to the Salina Senior Center, where she works as a receptionist.

"I was used to making very good money, and I'd used up most of my savings doing all that bouncing around," she said, explaining why she decided to go back to work. "I had too many credit cards -- and I wanted to stay active."

Fun and rewarding

Jenkins, who is 77, said her job entails lots of different tasks throughout the day, and that it's fun and rewarding.

"You name it, I do it," she said. "Answering phones, setting appointments, reminding people about appointments, taking money for the exercise classes, carrying lunch trays for people who can't -- some of everything."

Compared to her job at the FDIC, Jenkins said, "This is a fun job, and the people here are wonderful -- you get attached to them -- and sometimes you lose a few and it makes you sad."

Those 55 and older

Jenkins found her job through the Older Kansans Employment Program, which works to find full- or part-time jobs for those 55 and older.

Donna Bowden is director of the Salina office of the Older Kansans Employment Program and said that on a typical day one or two people come by looking for work.

"The oldest I have now is 89," Bowden said.

That 89-year-old is taking care of people in their homes, Bowden said, and "one wasn't enough, so now she has two!"

Search for the right job

When someone comes into her office at the Salina Senior Center looking for work, Bowden said, she has them fill out a general application so she can find out what kind of jobs they've had and what they're interested in.

"Then I start searching," she said. "I wish there was one list of jobs, but there's nothing like that."

So she searches through a variety of sources, including the Salina Journal's help-wanted listings, the websites of many individual companies, the local KansasWorks office and CentralMallSalina.com, which posts job openings from the many businesses at Central Mall.

Bowden said most people who come through her door are looking for a part-time job, "to supplement their Social Security."

"Sometimes, we can send them out right away on a lead," she said. "Usually, it takes a couple of weeks to find them something."

But Bowden's services -- which are provided free of charge -- don't stop at helping find a suitable job.

"We work with them on resumés and cover letters," Bowden said. "If they don't know how to use a computer, we show them how to fill out job applications online in our computer lab. Some are very intimidated by the computer, and when I can't show them, Maurice (Kerr) can show them."

A break, back to work

A 2014 study by Merrill Lynch stated that working during retirement is becoming more common.

"Retirement used to mean the end of work," the study said. "But now we're at a tipping point; a majority of people will be continuing to work after they retire -- often in new and different ways."

The study found that 47 percent of current retirees either were working or planned to work during retirement -- and 72 percent of those age 50 or older who had not yet retired expected to continue working past retirement age.

"In the near future, it will be increasingly unusual for retirees not to work," she study said.

The Merrill Lynch study also found that Jenkins' break between retirement and going back to work is pretty typical, with 52 percent of retirees taking an average of 21/2 years off before returning to work.

Helps you stay youthful

"Retirees who continue to work in some form are more stimulated, connected to others, and proud of their lives than retirees who stop work completely," that study said. "Regardless of work status, retirees agree that working in retirement helps people stay more youthful, and that when people don't work in retirement, their physical and mental abilities decline faster."

And while those who were approaching retirement said the most likely reason they'd continue working was for the money, nearly two-thirds of those who had actually retired and went back to work said they did so to stay mentally active -- twice as many as were working for the money.

It's time to really retire

Once back in the workforce, the Merrill Lynch study found, people work an average of about nine years before they retire for good.

Jenkins has decided it's time to "really, really retire."

She's had one knee replaced several years ago, and one of her first tasks will be to get the other replaced, too.

Once she's up and around from that procedure, she's planning to get back on the road.

Life in a mobile home

"My sister is wanting to make a trip to California after my knee replacement," she said. "We travelled in a motor home for three years and loved it. We took three trips to California, and took a different route each time. And when we went to Florida, we crossed 17 states."

Rather than trying to get to a destination as quickly as possible, Jenkins said, she likes to "meander."

Inexpensive travel

"We stop at historical sites -- my sister calls them 'hysterical sites' -- and take our time," she said. "Everybody thinks it's expensive to travel that way, but it really isn't.

"It cost us an average of $80 a day for everything, gas, oil changes, sleeping, food -- that doesn't include the wear on the tires, and other long-term wear -- but that's pretty inexpensive."

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