Hello everyone and welcome to Q-Lips.
This is Simplified Speech and if you don't know what that is, let me explain.
Simplified Speech is our series which features clear, natural and easy to understand English conversations between native speakers about an interesting topic.
And I am joined here by my co-host, Indiana today, and we are going to talk about A very interesting topic indeed, I think.
But first, let's say hello to Indiana.
Indiana, hello.
How's it going?
Hey, Andrew.
Hello, listeners.
I'm doing well.
I'm a bit tired from work this week.
It's been a long one, but I'm hanging in there.
I'm still here.
Hanging in there.
You know, I was thinking today I was listening to a podcast as I was heading to work myself.
And I thought I'm going to give a shout out to all of the Q-Lips listeners who are commuting to work right now.
So if you are listening to this podcast and you are on your way to work, I hope you have a great day and a shout out to all of our commuters.
Hey, if you're heading home after the workday too, we'll give a shout out to you as well.
Thank you to all of the listeners out there who are spending their free time studying English on their way to work and from work.
We really appreciate you guys.
Indiana, maybe this is a fitting segue talking about work because, well, I'll let you do the honors.
Could you introduce our topic?
What are we talking about today?
Sure.
So today we're planning on discussing retirement.
So basically, you know, I think we'll talk about what some common lifestyles are, or activities that people pursue after retirement in.
You know, I live in the United States and you're living in Korea and you're from Canada, right?
So we can talk about those different perspectives, what we're seeing.
Yeah.
Perhaps what?
When is a common age to retire and, uh Yeah, what we think would be our dream retirement lifestyle, I suppose.
Everything about retirement.
And yeah, it's projecting well into the future for me.
I'm only 41.
And Indiana, I think you're quite a bit younger than I am.
So almost 30, almost 30.
Okay, so we got a long way to go before we can retire.
But we can talk about it.
We can dream about it and think about it.
And that's what we will do in this episode.
So guys, we'll get started with our conversation in just a moment.
But before we do, I want to let everyone know that there is a helpful study guide, plus an interactive transcript, plus a speaking class for this episode that is available to all Q-Lips members.
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Guys, we really, really do appreciate it.
Okay.
And with that being said, let's get started with our episode four today, which is all about retirement.
And maybe we'll start Indiana by talking about some typical retirement dreams.
So maybe we'll start with the USA and your country and your context.
What does the typical American think of when they think of retiring?
What is like the ideal retirement?
I think for a lot of people, it's filling their time with their hobbies and not having to worry about work and just focusing on, let's say, playing golf all day or traveling whenever you want to, without worrying about taking time off from work or your kids that you have to take care of.
You basically don't have so many responsibilities anymore.
So I think a lot of people just want to spend their time having new experiences and enjoying their hobbies and traveling.
But also specifically for the United States, I would say, and I live in the Northeast, right?
So our winters are incredibly cold.
I think a lot of people who are from New York City or the Northeast might dream of moving to Florida, permanently relocating to a warmer state like Florida where there's lots of retirement communities and people of that age, or perhaps even Arizona.
I do know that there's been a lot of migration within the United States, a lot of people moving from one state to another state.
A lot of people are choosing Arizona, old and young alike.
It's a very popular state to be living in right now.
So yeah, I think those are some of the first things that come to mind for me.
How about you, Andrew?
What do you think?
Did I miss anything key here?
No, that sounds like you nailed it.
I think in Canada, it's a little bit different, but pretty much the same.
Very similar in that people like to pursue their hobbies once they retire.
So I think golf, especially for guys, you see like if you go to the golf course early in the morning during a weekday, it's going to be a lot of retirees there hanging out and playing golf.
Or maybe doing some other kind of sport that's not too physically demanding.
I don't think there are a ton of retirees that are playing football, like tackle football or anything like that.
Rugby, yeah.
I know that...
I know that there are men's leagues for seniors in Canada for ice hockey.
So yeah, all sorts of different sports and leisure activities, hobby activities.
Mentioning Florida and Arizona, that's a great one.
There are people in Canada who are called snowbirds.
That's the nickname that we have for them.
And snowbirds are people who go south for the winter to live and in the warmer climate of like the Southern United States and then come back to Canada for the summer.
They spend the winter in the Southern part of the United States Florida Arizona, like you mentioned.
States like that that have a nice, warm climate in the winter.
And then in the summertime, when it's nice in Canada, they'll go back.
So we call those people snowbirds.
And yeah, there are a lot of snowbirds who are retirees.
Also travel.
I think a lot of people who couldn't travel when they were younger, maybe due to work or family responsibilities.
Once they retire, then that becomes an option for them.
However, even I'm feeling it now, Indiana, when I'm 40, it's like traveling is a lot of effort.
Of course, it's fun.
It's really eye-opening.
It's a great experience.
But it is physically demanding.
You have to walk a lot.
You have to spend a long time on cramped airplanes and sometimes stay in hotels that aren't so great.
It's kind of thing.
So it is physically demanding.
So there are cruises which are really popular with retirees in Canada.
I think a cruise is like the way to do it or an all-inclusive vacation.
All-inclusive is where everything is provided for you, right?
The hotel, all of the food, all of the transportation.
You don't have to do any planning on your own.
It's just everything is provided for you, all-inclusive.
So I think retired people tend to gravitate towards that kind of vacation, and to gravitate, that's kind of a difficult expression.
So I'll explain it.
It just means to do that sort of naturally, like that feels like the most natural.
It's like gravity is pulling you in that direction, right?
You're getting pulled towards the all-inclusive vacation just because it's easier and more convenient.
You're naturally drawn to it.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Okay, very good.
Indiana, you mentioned that Florida and Arizona are kind of places that retirees like to go.
And guys, that's what we can call a retired person is a retiree.
Do you know why retirees like to go to those states?
Are there any other reasons?
Part of it could be in the United States, there are different tax laws.
Of course, there are federal tax laws, but state to state, there are individual tax laws.
So some states don't have any income tax, although I guess when you're retired that's not as much of a problem.
But there are various differences between states with their taxes and affordability as well.
So that could be a part of it, but mainly I really think it's the weather.
You know, you think of Florida and you think of beaches and it's like oh, just a vacation every day, probably.
And then Arizona, it's a very dry heat.
So unless you're really exerting yourself, you're probably not going to sweat very much.
Like it actually, the heat can sort of dry, wick away the sweat that gets on you.
So it's a very comfortable heat, I think. to live in that environment.
So I think yeah, just the weather, the comfortable temperature.
That means a lot to a lot of people.
If you had to choose between Florida or Arizona those are your only two options which one would you choose?
That's so tough.
I don't want to go to either place, but maybe.
That's not the option.
I know.
Oh, God.
I would choose Arizona just because I like that dry heat compared to the humid heat.
And there's no gators in Arizona.
You don't have to worry about the alligators.
But there are tarantulas.
I've visited my husband's family there once.
And when we were walking up to their front door, there was just this massive tarantula which is, like it looks, like a spider.
It's like the biggest spider you've ever seen.
And it's got thick legs and it's hairy.
So they have their own critters in Arizona.
But yeah, I think I agree with you.
The dry heat is pretty appealing.
Okay, good.
Let's move on to our second talking point for this episode.
We're going to talk about some of the cultural practices around retirement.
And maybe this varies from state to state as well.
I'm not sure.
I know many things in America vary from state to state.
But in Canada, we have more, well, things sometimes do vary from province to province as well.
Like tax is a good example that varies from province to province.
But as far as retirement is concerned, the retirement age in Canada is 65 years old.
So once you hit 65 then you are able to retire and receive your pension and some benefits that are associated with retirement.
How about in the States?
Is it the same?
Do you have like a national retirement age or does it vary from place to place?
I think the standard age now for retirement is about 66.
But yeah, as you mentioned, with a public pension or public retirement benefits.
So we have the Social Security Administration, which administers retirement money and And you can, I believe, choose to retire a little bit earlier maybe, like I think, it's 62 years old.
But if you choose to receive those benefits earlier, you get less of them.
Like they give you a smaller amount of money per month.
And then if you choose to retire later, like at 67 or 68, I think you can receive more per month.
So somebody who's ready or willing to continue working past 66.
Maybe they're going to say to themselves like oh actually- it would be worth it for me to keep working.
I like my job.
I'm feeling fit and physically well.
And then I can get more money later per month.
So I think a lot of people take that into consideration when they're going to retire, because they will receive more or less benefits.
Yeah, very interesting.
So if you retire early, then you get a smaller benefit for a longer amount of time, assuming that you live a long time.
Right.
But if you keep working later, then you get more benefit, but for a smaller amount of time.
Interesting.
Indiana, I'm going to ask you a controversial question here.
And that is, do you think workers should be forced to retire at age 65?
Because as you were saying just a second ago, like, it seems like there's an option to keep working.
Maybe you could work until you're 70 years old, for example, and you're not forced out by the company or forced out because of a law.
Now, of course, this might vary from company to company.
I'm not sure about each different employer's policy on this, but should workers be forced to retire at 65?
On the one hand, I could see how many people would think like I'm still physically able to work and I love my job and I don't want to retire.
I want to keep going.
That makes a lot of sense to me.
If that is your situation.
On the other hand, i could see how so many young people would be like okay retire, i need this job.
Like we need to clear some space for the new people to come into the company and to enter the economy and start working.
So yeah, i don't know, it's kind of a tough situation.
But what do you think if you had to choose a side?
That's very tough.
If I think about a flat rule, like everybody has to retire at this age, it applies to everybody.
I don't love it, but I do think that I guess would be fair.
I think I have an issue more if if it's um the rule is applied on a case-by-case basis, because then that sounds more like age discrimination, right?
And the first person, the boss just likes them and wants them around.
But the other person, they just don't like them.
And they can use this age discrimination.
I mean, this rule, they can use it to kick them out of the company, force them to retire.
I don't think that would be fair at all.
It seems quite discriminatory.
And it could be used unfairly.
So I would feel a little uncomfortable with that, I think.
Yeah.
But on the other hand, quickly moving to just a brief digression to politics, so many people in the United States are complaining that the people who represent them in Congress or in the government there's such a skew the amount of people in their 70s and 80s who are serving them.
It does not represent democratically necessarily the younger people's thoughts and ideas.
There's a very big generation split there.
And there's predominantly, which means just mostly, a lot of older people serving in the government.
So perhaps for something like that, it would be helpful to have a more diverse group of people from different ages to get, like you said, get that new blood, get new people who have different perspectives into the workplace and, in this case, the government.
That could be very helpful.
So I don't know.
I feel a little worried about it because it sounds a bit discriminatory.
But in some cases, it could be quite helpful.
Okay, now I'm going to force you to answer the controversial question.
That's a tough one.
I can see both sides of it.
I think if I have to choose a side, I'm going to say forced retirement for everyone at 65, just because we need to give young people work.
I think we need to get young people employed.
And I think if you're older maybe you have some money you can go do what you want in your retirement.
I'm assuming maybe that there's a pension in Canada for people who are retirees.
Hopefully there is.
Hopefully the government is taking care of retirees to an extent.
At least I hope that's true.
There's always concern that the pension fund is going to run out and there won't be enough money for retirees.
So assuming, yes, that they're okay, then sure, you guys can go give some space to the young folk.
We need to get them in and get them working.
And I think it's stressful for young people when they can't find employment.
So I want to give them an opportunity.
At the same time, I realized that 65 is not actually that old.
And those people do have a lot of experience and wisdom.
And that's like definitely very, very beneficial.
So that's why it's so hard to make this decision.
But maybe we could find a role for them somewhere else.
I'm not sure.
Maybe they could be better used in some other capacity.
But I don't know.
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one.
Hmm.
Indiana, what about some of the different options for people when they retire?
I've heard of semi-retirement before.
I've also heard of second careers before.
Do you know anything about these?
Well, from my personal life, I see that my father-in-law is completely retired and he spends a lot of his time, as we mentioned.
Like you know, he'll travel or he actually runs a chapter of a BMW car club.
So he's pretty active in his own field. in his own way, doing a sort of second job.
Of course, that's not paid.
It's like volunteering.
But my mother-in-law is semi-retired.
So she was a gynecologist in OBGYN.
She used to deliver babies.
Now she's not doing that sort of surgical setting, baby delivery activity anymore.
But she will teach med students or she'll go into a clinic like once, maybe twice a week and see patients and sort of mentor medical students.
So that's kind of like her semi-retirement situation where she still works, but it's very few hours, maybe like 15 20, maybe even less than that per week.
It's very satisfying for her because she's still getting to participate in the career that she loved, but she has a lot more time to enjoy her semi-retirement and focus on sports and enjoying time with her husband and everything like that.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's exactly what I was just thinking about when we were debating that issue a second ago.
I think we need forced semi-retirement at 65.
Maybe not full retirement, but yeah, come into the office like a day or two a week, mentor the new employees, you know that kind of thing.
That sounds good to me.
Maybe that's like an ideal compromise.
Yeah.
Right.
When you have a wealth of experience.
Yeah, it's kind of a waste to If you want to participate and contribute and give it back.
It's a waste to force somebody out of that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Very interesting.
And a second career, I know this is really common in Korea, so maybe I could mention it here and...
I think it does happen to an extent in North America, but maybe it's more common here in Korea.
And listeners, I'd love to know if this is a thing in your country as well.
But many people, once they retire here in Korea, they still need some income.
They need an income source.
And so it's not too uncommon to see senior citizens getting another job, maybe like a part time job as a retired person.
So they'll stop working for their company, their career, that's finished, and then they'll find something new.
Yeah, one of the ones that I see, I think most often is around apartment complexes.
So each apartment complex and, of course, the majority of Koreans live in an apartment and they're in these big complexes with several towers and thousands of families that live in one complex.
So they'll have a security guard.
And I think, because Korea is such a safe country, this is really actually nice because it's like a safe country.
The security guards are often retired men.
And I don't think the job really requires them to be like chasing away criminals or anything like this.
Like, You know, occasionally there'll be some issue that they have to solve.
I was walking my dog the other day in front of an apartment complex and there was a little fender bender.
And so the security guy was out there sort of dealing with that situation.
You know, there's like little issues that you have to do, maybe maintenance stuff.
But yeah, I don't think you're like chasing away criminals or car thieves or anything like that.
So it's a pretty safe job and I don't think it's super, super physically demanding.
But And so I know that a lot of retired Korean men think that's a great job for them and they'll do that as their second second career or as their part time job once they retire.
Yeah, I mean, that sounds nice, too.
Like you get to know everybody in your building.
If you're social, you say, hey, how's it going?
You know, like you can sort of really get a sense of that community in the building, which is pretty cool.
Yeah.
So, Indiana, why don't we pull out our crystal balls here and we'll look into our futures.
And I don't know if it's possible to imagine your retired life right now.
Like, who knows what the world will look like after 20, 30 years for us.
But maybe we could talk about just like... are ideal.
Like is there anything that you would like to do when, when you retire, that maybe you or maybe you would like to do it now, but you just don't have time because of life?
So you're thinking, okay, I'll, I'll put that on the back burner and I'll do it later once I retire.
I would love to just focus on language learning and reading and intellectual pursuits if I had all the time in the day.
But also I think it's really important for me, my goal currently, right now looking ahead for the future, but also just enjoying life now.
I'd like to stay fit and physically well and very mobile.
I like to try to maintain my level of fitness to enjoy life now, but also in the hopes of when I'm actually able to retire.
I can do sports any day of the week or I can travel easily without experiencing hip pain or difficulty walking.
I think that would be a really important part of my retirement would be being able to be physically fit and travel easily and not be limited if I can help it from enjoying what I want to enjoy.
So I think just the typical things for me, traveling, enjoying some casual sports and socializing.
But one thing I can think of that would be I'd like to do it sooner than retirement, but also at retirement would be a great age.
To do this would be like host an exchange student from a high school or from a university.
Because when I went to Japan, I stayed with a host family and it was, you know, middle-aged mom and husband and two kids, right.
So they weren't retired.
But it was such an amazing experience.
And I thought it was so cool what they offered me and like how they let me into their lives.
And I would love to do that someday.
So yeah, when I have all the time during the day to think about what I can cook for my guest or like where we can go on the weekends, that would be a cool American cultural experience for them.
I feel like that would be an awesome way to spend my retirement.
So yeah, that's one of my dreams, I guess, for my golden years, as they say.
So that beautiful, relaxed, wonderful time of your life, your golden years.
Nice.
Yeah, that's interesting.
I have a cousin, an older cousin that's.
I don't know exactly how old she is, but probably at least 20, 25 years older than me.
So she's right around retirement age.
And in fact, I think she might be retired.
Her and her husband do that.
They host shows students that i think they mostly host chinese students, but maybe some japanese and korean as well.
I think those students hit the jackpot, like she, she loves them.
She's always talking about them.
Whenever i see her, she's always talking about her students almost like they're her children, like she really takes such good care of them and so Yeah, I think that could be really fun.
So that's a great idea.
I also liked how you mentioned the intellectual pursuits, because this is something that I've always wanted to do in my life, and I would love to do it now.
I just really can't dedicate the time.
But let's do a PhD degree.
So I think...
Once I retire and I suddenly have some time, why not just go back to university and do a PhD and just enjoy the study?
Maybe with no pressure of graduating.
I don't know if the university would love that or not, but take my time.
Just take one class a semester and... and study and learn and keep my brain active.
And, as far as I know, in Canada university education is free for retirees.
They can go and attend university for free.
So wouldn't even have to pay tuition.
Yeah.
So I always thought, hey, why not?
Well, you know, I'd love to do a PhD now, but I just can't take five years out of my life to put my life on hold while I go back to study.
Of course.
Well, what would you like to study in your dream retirement, going back and doing your PhD?
Yeah well, I mean, I did my master's in applied linguistics and my life's work here is related to that topic, right?
Teaching English and studying Korean and thinking about second language acquisition.
So probably it would be related to that, but...
Yeah, who knows what second language acquisition will look like after 20 years.
I might need to find a different thing to study, a different focus.
Or, who knows, maybe I would just start from scratch and do a whole new field that I have no experience in.
That could be cool too.
Maybe I'll do both.
I don't know.
But I've always thought that maybe I'll spend my retirement studying and trying to become Dr Andrew.
We'll see.
That might be something I'd like to do.
And I also dream about maybe going back to Canada in my retirement as well.
And I guess I wouldn't necessarily be a snowbird because the winter in Korea is not so cold.
I guess I would be the opposite.
I would like to spend the winter in Korea and spend the summer in Canada, just because the summer in Korea is so nasty and hot and humid.
So I'll go back to Canada for the nice, pleasant summer and then come back to Korea for, like the fall and the winter.
Maybe that's the plan.
I love it.
And it's such a beautiful dream.
Even if, when you retire, applied linguistics PhD, it's not relevant in the same way that it is today.
Who cares?
You're not expecting to get a job after your PhD and your retirement.
You're just studying for the sake of enjoying the learning and advancing your mind.
So yeah, study whatever you want.
That's the perfect dream.
It sounds so nice.
No stress about the job, just pure knowledge.
Right.
Yeah.
And like maybe even you could contribute to the field, right?
Like adding to the body of knowledge, doing some research and adding that way.
And yeah, I think that'd be fun.
So I've always thought that that could be the move for when I retire.
Very cool.
Okay, Indiana, I think we're almost at the end of this episode.
But before we wrap up, we were planning to share some retirement related expressions with everyone here.
So guys, we prepared.
Some.
There aren't actually too many expressions about retirement, at least not too many positive ones.
There are like a lot of English expressions for when you're older and maybe getting towards the end of your life.
And maybe we could do a different episode about that.
It's a little darker, but we do have some kind of positive idioms and expressions about retirement.
So let's share them with everyone, Indiana.
I'll let you go first.
Which one would you like to introduce?
Sure.
So I mentioned a little earlier, I said my golden years.
So that refers to your retirement age or the later stage in your life, perhaps your 60s 70s, even your 80s.
People who are interested in U.S.
TV shows or media, you may have heard of or should look up The Golden Girls.
It's like a funny sitcom from a few decades ago with Betty White.
And it was like sort of this comedy show about these retired women.
And I imagine they probably also live in Florida.
I don't remember for sure.
But it seems like they're in a very warm climate.
Yeah, so The Golden Years is just a very nice, you know, word coming from gold.
And it's like ah, this beautiful time, this rich time when you don't have to work and you're enjoying your life.
That's your golden years, your retirement years, and we should also mention the david bowie song.
Indiana and i were mentioning before we started recording that we can't say this expression golden years without getting the david bowie song stuck in our heads.
So guys, if you don't know the david bowie song called golden years, you're gonna have to go to your music app and search for it and just be warned it will be stuck in your head for a long time.
It's a very catchy tune.
It's quite an earworm.
Yeah, but it's good.
It's worth it.
Look it up, guys.
A kind of related expression, which is a little darker, is called your twilight years.
And twilight is the time of day just when the sun is setting.
It's like around sunset.
You know, maybe sun has just set and it's not quite dark yet.
It's actually a really nice time of the day, especially in the summer.
Yeah.
But that time of the day is called twilight.
And yeah, you could imagine your twilight years.
There's some imagery there, right?
The sun is setting.
It's getting darker.
You're getting towards the end of your life.
So golden years is more positive.
Twilight years is kind of like when you're getting towards the end.
So those two expressions.
Indiana.
I thought of one and I was going to share it with you before we started recording and then it totally escaped my mind and I couldn't remember and it was driving me crazy.
But during our conversation here, it came back to me and it is an empty nester.
So an empty nester is a parent who has no children living with them in the family home anymore.
It's an expression we use a lot in that context.
It's funny that there's that word because it's coming from this idea of a bird who has a nest that they live in.
And then they had eggs, but now their baby birds have left.
There's no babies left.
There's no eggs.
There's empty nester.
And then there's also, this could be related to retirement, this expression nest egg.
So a nest egg is basically, usually it's money, but I guess it could be an asset like a house.
But usually a nest egg is a large amount of savings that you have put away for the future, expecting your retirement.
I guess it could also be for if you relocated and had a very expensive move or change in your career or the, i guess, if you had some emergency.
But i think for a nest egg.
We usually think about this these savings, this money you keep as for your retirement for the future.
So yeah, you might refer to your savings for the future as your your nest egg.
It's something you're going to uh, enjoy and use later on um, and you're.
It's important to have a nest egg.
I would say, if you can, yeah.
And then another one that comes to mind is living the good life.
To live the good life and often we say that retired people are living the good life just means that you know like times are good, you don't have to worry about work or going to the office or hopefully any, any stress, and you can just enjoy those years.
You worked hard during your life, you worked hard during your career, and now you can enjoy the benefit of that, and we call that living the good life, although We should clarify that we could use this for any period in our life, but it is just one that is often used to talk about retirees.
Yeah.
I might also use it if I was on a long vacation and it's just been so great.
I'm like, yeah.
How are you doing on your vacation?
Oh, I'm living the good life.
I used it in that context just the other day.
I had a friend who sent me some pictures and he was camping with his family.
He's got a little child and he was playing with his boy.
And I said, oh, you're living the good life.
It looks like you're really happy and enjoying life.
So Yeah, we can use it for all kinds of like happy situations, positive situations, but it is one that we do use to talk about retirement as well, if the retirement is that kind of happy, positive situation.
For sure.
Good.
Well, Indiana, I think this will bring us to the end of this episode.
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So it's a great way to talk about some of the things that you hear here on the podcast.
So just visit our website, hulips.com.
You can sign up and become a member today, get the guides and join us in the speaking classes.
Okay, well, I think that is going to be it for now, everyone.
Please take care and we'll talk to you in the next episode.
Until then, bye-bye.
Goodbye.
