Opinion: Retirement age a personal decision

It was an uplifting video. Florence Rigney shown still working as a nurse at Tacoma General Hospital in Washington at 91 years of age.

She did retire briefly at 65, but after six months went back to work. She works two days a week as an operating room surgical nurse. Much of her time she's on her feet setting up equipment, getting the operation rooms ready and helping patients.

She has been a registered nurse for 60 years and is the oldest one still practising in the United States.

She looks fit and healthy and said she loves her job. Her clinical colleagues say she runs rings around team members half her age and she is a mine of information and knowledge. At that age she would be.

To keep up to date and current she had to be prepared to upskill in the use of technology that wasn't even dreamed of when she started her nursing training in the 1940s.

She drives herself to and from work and does the same eight hour shift as the other nurses. She had indicated though that she was thinking of calling it a day. She was looking forward to doing some volunteer work.

Don't you just love people like Florence. We have people like her here in New Zealand as well, working well past the age of state superannuation entitlement. Just the other night I was talking to a 75-year-old doctor who still goes into the health clinic two days a week.

But for some people retirement can't come soon enough. Perhaps theirs has been a hard working life - long hours, strenuous work, little pay. You would want some respite at the end of a 40-year working life. Maybe it was just a job to start off with that became permanent, with little opportunity to progress.

Each person's work experience is different. And there are some lucky ones who retire early. I have a few friends who told me they had always planned to retire when they turned 50 and they did.

Retirement from work will not suit everyone. Some people will continue to work for as long as they can. Often out of necessity. Others because they own their own business and don't yet want to let go, and for some there might be the opportunity to continue in the job they enjoy but at reduced hours. Everyone is different.

I know older men who left work as soon as they reached the age of superannuation entitlement. Their bodies were shot, worn out. They had worked on the wharfs, in the bush and timber mills, freezing works, in road and dam construction, and tunnelling jobs.

They started their working lives in these jobs long before automation and technology was introduced. These brought significant changes and reduced body wear and tear.

This week when the prime minister signalled the age for superannuation entitlement will lift from 65 to 67 years, in gradual steps starting in 20 years time, it received mixed reaction.

There was criticism and objection to the current situation where anyone can work and still receive superannuation - the superannuation they contributed to during their working lives by paying taxes.

Surely if they are still working, they are still paying their taxes. Still contributing.

Research has proved time and again that people who retire and remain active are healthier and happier. For some people this means even though a superannuate, they want to continue to work. Perhaps with reduced hours, knowing they are valued for their work, and that it contributes to their overall health and wellbeing.

I know employers who would hate to see their older employees retire altogether and walk out the door. These employed superannuates are probably saving this country millions of health dollars by remaining healthy, active and engaged in work. Not by adding to an already overburdened health system.