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giscard78 t1_j5hwmge wrote

It would have been interesting to know about people who retire at 67, if it’s people who need the money vs. those who work in niche fields that truly interest them vs. those who made work their entire life and have little else to do.

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9throwaway2 t1_j5jm64k wrote

this is probably a bimodal skew. Ward 3/6? Successful law partner that refuses to retire. Ward 8? Service worker.

But honestly, DC now is skewing more to the successful professional if you look at average wages of the employed.

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giscard78 t1_j5jmr1b wrote

> this is probably a bimodal skew.

Exactly. There’s two or more hidden groups that lumping them together accurately describes neither. There’s no “why” to any of this analysis, just that people are generally older when they retire, and if you retire here then you need a lot of money.

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xanadumuse t1_j5jvv2r wrote

It’s also a bad analysis in that it doesn’t show if these numbers reflect rental or homeownership as part of retirement. Additionally there are other factors to include such as state income tax etc. how you retire looks very different than say a billionaire or someone on food stamps.

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International_Ad8264 t1_j5jte7f wrote

I mean average wages don’t necessarily tell you that much, one person making $1m and nine making 0 is an average salary of $100k

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9throwaway2 t1_j5k1nl8 wrote

yup, hence my comment about the bimodal skew. I could have clarified saying average wages by sector or neighborhood.

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sly_python t1_j5kgq04 wrote

I just wanna give a shout out to 'bimodal skew', the stats nerd in me appreciates this so much.

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OllieOllieOxenfry t1_j5jma20 wrote

My dad is almost 80 and he's totally passionate about what he does, he works in academia. Everyone who knows him says that cant imagine him retiring. He's really sharp and healthy so he doesn't seem that old, I think his passion keeps his brain young.

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Redwolfdc t1_j5jpzsm wrote

This is 100% a valid question. I know some elderly lawyers that seem to never want to retire. They could financially they just don’t want to.

A lot of people who “retire” from a formal career also do go back to some type of job, start a small business, or even just work part time because they need something to fill the time

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