Copier Careers® Poll Results & Comments
Poll: Do You Plan to Retire?
Most Still Planning to Retire
Last month we discussed the recent return of retired professionals to the workplace. So we were curious to hear about your own retirement or un-retirement plans. We had a solid turnout of 6,153 votes this month!
Most of our readers (71%) reported they planned to retire. 28% said they would retire as soon as they could, 26% said they were currently on-track to retire in their late 60s and 16% were hopeful but said they were behind on their goals.
24% of voters have retired already but 16% of the total vote say they are working again while only 8% of the total report still being retired. This aligns with our expectations as the Copier Channel is a good candidate for a returning surge of “unretired” workers.
If two-thirds of our retired workers are now among the unretired, does that mean the same will happen to two-thirds of our 4,371 hopeful readers? That’s nearly 3,000 people! Are our remaining 5% right to scoff at retirement plans?
Probably not – remember there is a sampling bias at play here. Most of our readers are actively working while retired folks are much less likely to read our newsletter and vote on our poll. Unretired folks are currently reaching out and looking for employment, so they would naturally be more likely to vote.
Here are the full results:
Do you plan to retire?
- Definitely, as soon as I can! (28%, 1,740 Votes)
- I’m on-track to retire in my late 60s (26%, 1,620 Votes)
- Hopefully but I’m behind on my goals (16%, 1,012 Votes)
- I retired but am working again (16%, 1,012 Votes)
- I’m already retired (8%, 486 Votes)
- Retire? Ha! (5%, 283 Votes)
Some comments from y’all:
- “I’m just waiting for my 401K to bounce back… eventually.”
- “Nope, I love what we do. I take off when I want.”
- “I hope I live long enough to enjoy a retirement. I’ve been working so long it feels like it’s never going to end! It would take some adjusting to get up and not go the office every day but that is a change I’m willing to make!”
- “The lack of planning during and after COVID was non existent at my company so I retired. I do plan on working again, if the shortage of qualified technicians causes increases to the ‘Copier’ pay scale.”
- “I am sick and tired of the micromanagement for numbers movement and no longer caring about the customer. I’m done ASAP!!!”
- “I was planning to retire spring of 2023 but with inflation being so high, I have to wait as I did not plan for a 20+% increase in cost of essential living expenses. Now I am planning more towards 2024 or beyond, as global wars and threats of wars in vital supply countries will likely add to the cost of goods.”
- “Our retirement plan: ‘After you die you don’t have to come in any more.’”
- “Companies are unwilling to pay enough to get qualified technicians. The industry used to support a middle class lifestyle. That’s no longer true.”
- “I’ve half-joked for a long time that I expect to die with a screwdriver in my hand. I’ve got some money in 401k’s and some value in my house. Plus Social Security, if that can be counted on anymore. But I’m not sure it will all be enough to be comfortable and I’m not expecting to retire until at least the full SS age of 67, probably later. At 61, my health is better than many people a lot younger than me, and I am taking care of myself for the long haul. Besides, old is always at least 10 years older than whatever age I currently am!”
- “I’m in my late 50’s and should be able to retire at 65 but I’m holding out some hope that it may be a bit sooner.”