I'm 68 With $3.1 Million and I Want to Keep Working, but My Spouse Says It's Time to Call It Quits

A $3.1 million nest egg could buy you a pretty comfortable retirement. A recent Northwestern Mutual survey found that Americans think it will take $1.26 million in savings to cover their retirement expenses without stress. With $3.1 million to your name, you’re looking at about 2.5 times that amount.

Plus, on a basic level, a $3.1 million nest egg could result in a generous annual income when combined with Social Security. If you apply the famous 4% rule to a nest egg that size, it results in annual withdrawals of $124,000 without adjusting for inflation.

Social Security, meanwhile, pays the average recipient today $2,000 a month. If you’ve managed to amass $3.1 million, you may be an above-average earner who’s entitled to a larger monthly benefit than that.

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But even if not, you’re looking at roughly $150,000 in annual income when you combine the typical Social Security benefit and $124,000 a year from retirement savings. That could certainly cover the bills and still allow for extra spending on hobbies, travel, and other things you enjoy.

But what if you’re not ready to stop working at 68 with $3.1 million and your spouse insists that it’s time to bring your career to an end?

It may be that your spouse has recently retired, is lonely and wants your company. Or, it could be that your spouse is worried you’ll work to the point where you won’t leave yourself with enough “good” years to enjoy retirement.

It’s a situation you’ll need to work through. And part of that means addressing your reasoning for wanting to continue working.

What's driving that persistence?

It’s not a bad thing to want to continue working in your late 60s. If you're still working at 68, you're surely not alone. As of late 2023, 19% of Americans ages 65 and older were still employed, says Pew Research.

Holding down a job in your late 60s and beyond has clear benefits, from stretching your nest egg to being able to delay Social Security past full retirement age for boosted monthly benefits.

Plus, many people enjoy working and find it fulfilling. If that’s the boat you’re in, you may want to keep working for mental and emotional health reasons, even if you don’t need to work for financial reasons.

But it’s important to nail down the reason for wanting to continue working. If it’s a fear of losing your identity, a counselor may be able to help you embrace retirement and find ways to continue feeling like a person in the absence of a job. And if a fear of running out of money is keeping you chained to your desk, that’s something you can work through with the help of a financial adviser.

You can also take some comfort in the giant nest egg you’ve accumulated to date. While $3.1 million doesn’t guarantee that you won’t deplete your savings in your lifetime, it raises the odds of your money lasting, especially if you’re careful managing that money.

Avoiding marital strife

You may want to continue working at 68 for perfectly healthy reasons — you like your job, you enjoy the company of your colleagues, and you have grandchildren or causes you’d like to help support with your extra income.

Take it seriously

But if your spouse wants you to call it quits, that’s something you’ll need to resolve jointly. The fact of the matter is that continuing to work doesn’t just dictate what you do with your days. To a large degree, it could impact your spouse, too.

If your spouse is retired and wants to travel, and they don’t relish the idea of doing it solo, the fact that you’re continuing to work could be getting in the way of your partner’s retirement dreams. And if they worked hard and saved diligently, they deserve to enjoy some of the upside, too.

Find a compromise, if possible

To that end, talk things through and see if you can arrive at a compromise. That could mean scaling down to part-time work or taking an unpaid leave of absence for a few months to travel and indulge your spouse.

Or, if you love what you do but your spouse wants you to have more flexibility, try seeing if your employer is amenable to having you work on a consultant basis. You’ll likely give up benefits like healthcare and a 401(k), but you can retain your paycheck (at least to some degree) and stay busy while potentially getting to do your job when and where you choose. Plus, at 68, you’ve got Medicare to fall back on if you lose your employer health coverage.

Remember, it can be frustrating to be the only one retired when you're part of a couple, though it's not uncommon. A recent Ameriprise survey found that among current retirees, only 11% of couples ended their careers at the same time.

Show some empathy for your spouse

So, try to consider the situation from your spouse’s perspective. It may be that they had to retire recently due to factors beyond their control, such as health issues or company downsizing. And now, they may be feeling lost without you.

This isn’t to say that you should rush to leave your job just because your spouse wants you to. But with a $3.1 million cushion, you should certainly have the financial flexibility to make changes to your current schedule. And you may find that if you change the scope of your job, whether by going part-time or doing it on a freelance basis, both you and your spouse can get what you want.

Read More

• Can Both Spouses Collect Social Security Benefits?
• Things to Do When Retired and Bored
• What You Should Know About Spousal IRAs
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