The Not Too Ancient Fallacy of 65

10,000 steps and age 65 are two numbers that have one thing in common.

Origins

Did you know that the 10,000 daily steps rule didn’t come from medical insight? It came from a Japanese pedometer company’s marketing campaign back in 1965. The device was named Manpo-kei, which translates in Japanese to “10,000 steps meter”. It has no clinical basis it was just a catchy round number that somehow became gospel.

The idea of a retirement age of 65 has the same problem.

Retiring at 65 traces back to 19th-century Germany.

It came from a political calculation, not a human one. The number was deliberately set above the age when most people were expected to live to so that pensions wouldn’t have to be paid out at scale.

When other nations built their pension systems, many simply borrowed the number. The US adopted age 65 to begin pension payments in 1935 because actuarial and economic data showed it would be sustainable with payroll taxes. Canada started with age 70 in 1952 and then lowered it to 65 in 1965.

The result?

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are expected to leave the workforce every year not because they’re done, but because some false number said so. When people turn 65 we all say “time to retire!”

When Jocelyn and I left our pastoral roles at North Pointe in March 2019, the narrative shaped around the transition was that we were retiring. I was 64. That was my only regret. I should have done a better job of communicating that we were letting go of something precious and looking for God’s next for us.

The church was strong and healthy and in it’s 102nd year, it was at it’s highest in gospel impact, adult salvations, baptisms, servers, attendance, and missions giving. We loved the family of North Pointe. No longer being with them was one of the hardest things we chose to do. There was still fuel in our tanks, but we believed NP could be better served in the long run by a next generation of leaders.

Our Nexts

After North Pointe, Jocelyn and I led a team to Israel, I wrote and published a book, and in June I was hired to be the interim lead pastor in Barrhead. That was an awesome 9-month journey from August 2019 until May 2020. We went into COVID together, physically distanced.

And, in January 2020 I held two jobs. I was hired as a full time team member with the ABNWT District and over the last 6 ½ years have been privileged to help lead adaptive change. I now serve as Director of Leadership Development, Vitalization, Multiplication and Church Transitions. As well, I am a founding director of the national organization, Church Vitalization Canada. My older friend, Gary Taitinger, is the President of CVC and he is going strong.

Active

Being purposefully engaged helped me maintain a significant level of mental and physical health. Doing important work is a privilege and I’m grateful to our District leadership for giving me this opportunity.

We know there will be an end to this role, sooner than later. But I want to stay purposeful after this role.

Our youngest son is an actuary. Actuarial math asks at what age is it statistically efficient to retire someone in order to save the pension funds money.

Human math asks how do we keep knowledge contributing, at every age, for as long as someone has it to give.

I hope this post will help you think about your future.

Don’t hold on past your best before date.

Don’t opt out of what you love just because you’re 65. Some roles are mentally, spiritually, and physically demanding. Maybe you’ll be involved in what you love but in a different way. Support, consult, advise. Keep learning, growing, stretching.

Plan now for what life will look like after 65, 70.

What do you think? Please join the conversation and post a comment below.

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