Retiring at 60 feels like a dream come true. No more Monday morning alarms, no deadlines, no office politics. For a lot of people, it’s the finish line they’ve been running toward for decades. So why are so many of us crossing it, only to turn right around and head back?
The reality is messier, more emotional, and frankly more expensive than most retirement brochures ever tell you. The gap between what you imagined retirement would look like and what it actually feels like can be jarring. If you retired in your early 60s and found yourself back at work a few years later, you’re not alone. Let’s dive in.
The “Unretirement” Wave Nobody Warned You About
The growing trend of “unretirement” is reshaping workplaces and personal finances, as more retirees opt to go back to work to supplement their income, stay engaged, or simply to keep life interesting. This isn’t some fringe behavior. It’s becoming a mainstream response to a retirement experience that, for many people, simply didn’t deliver what was promised.
As many as roughly one in five older workers are rejoining the labor market in their 60s and 70s. That’s a staggering number when you think about it. And it’s not just a financial story. The top reasons seniors returned to work include the cost of living increasing more than expected, boredom, and insufficient retirement savings.
In 2024, roughly 37 percent of people age 55 and older were employed, up from about 31 percent back in 2000. The old idea of a clean exit at 65 is quietly becoming a relic. The question is, what’s really driving people back, and what mistakes are they hoping to correct?
Retiring Too Early Without a Real Plan
Here’s the thing about retiring at 60: you may have the financial math figured out, but the lifestyle math is a whole other problem. Most people spend years planning the exit but almost no time planning what comes next. That gap is where the trouble begins.
Retirement can trigger several psychological challenges, prominently featuring feelings of social isolation, loss of identity, and depression. During the transition from a structured work life to retirement, many individuals face a profound change in daily routines, which can lead to feelings of aimlessness and loneliness.
The initial excitement of retirement, often called the “honeymoon phase,” may decrease, revealing underlying boredom and a struggle for purpose. Think of it like this: you spent 35 years building a train track, and then you suddenly removed the train. It just… stops. The tracks are still there. The energy is still there. But there’s nowhere to go.
The Cost of Living Hit Harder Than Expected
Inflation is the retirement plan killer that nobody budgets for properly. You can have a solid savings figure and a monthly income that looked perfectly comfortable in 2018, and then watch it quietly erode as groceries, utilities, and housing costs creep upward year after year. It’s not dramatic. It’s slow, and that makes it even more dangerous.
Key reasons behind the decision to re-enter the job market include the increasing cost of living, boredom, rising housing costs, and the need to pay off non-medical debt. One out of every five survey respondents reported they had returned to work due to rising expenses. These aren’t people who made catastrophically bad financial decisions. They’re people who got surprised by the real world.
The main financial motivation to return to work is simply needing the cash. Some people in retirement find their expenses have gone up more than they figured, or something happens with the market, and they become concerned about outliving their resources. While the idea of returning to work after you’ve retired seems like a good idea on paper, there are implications that could affect your savings and any benefits you’ve already received.
Social Security Got Complicated When You Went Back
Going back to work sounds straightforward enough until you realize it can directly affect your Social Security benefits. This is one of the most misunderstood consequences of unretirement, and it can quietly cost you a lot of money if you’re not paying attention.
If you started collecting Social Security benefits before your full retirement age, which is 67 for those born in 1960 or later, and then return to work, your benefits could be reduced. This rule is known as the earnings test, and the Social Security Administration applies it to anyone who is working and receiving benefits before their full retirement age.
For every $2 you make above $23,400 for 2025, $1 of your Social Security benefits will be deducted. If you hit full retirement age in 2025, you can earn up to $62,160, and for every $3 over that, the SSA will deduct $1. Honestly, a lot of people returning to work at 64 have no idea these thresholds even exist. The surprise can sting.
Boredom Was More Destructive Than You Imagined
Nobody wants to admit that boredom pushed them back to work. It feels almost embarrassing, like you failed at relaxing. But the psychological reality is real and it’s backed by serious research. Work gives people far more than a paycheck. It gives structure, identity, and a reason to get up in the morning.
Depression is a very common byproduct of retiring. Almost one in three retirees say they feel depressed. That number would shock most people who are currently counting down the days to their last shift. Feelings of boredom, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment can develop, exacerbating mental health issues. Financial stress, health challenges, and the adjustment to new social roles further strain emotional well-being.
Retirement can be lonely. You’ve gone from having a stable daily routine to figuring out a new way of life with perhaps less social interaction. You can feel a little on the outskirts without the buzz of an office, worksite, or shop floor. For many people, the workplace wasn’t just a job. It was a social world. Leaving it creates a vacuum that hobbies and grandchildren simply can’t always fill.
You Underestimated the Power of Work on Your Identity
We talk a lot about what people do for work. Rarely do we talk about how much work shapes who people think they are. When you retire, you don’t just lose a job title. You lose the version of yourself that woke up every morning with a clear role to play. That loss is deeper than most people realize until they’re living it.
As individuals transition into retirement, they often grapple with identity loss. A critical step in preparing for retirement is redefining one’s identity. Many retirees tie their self-esteem closely to their careers, and losing that structure can lead to feelings of aimlessness.
Social isolation and loneliness are key drivers of depression among older adults. People who get work-related social support are less likely to experience depression, so for these individuals, replacing the work-based network would be an important step in avoiding social isolation and maintaining quality of life in retirement. Going back to work at 64, for many people, is less about money and more about reclaiming who they thought they were. That’s not a failure. That’s just human.
The Ageism You Encountered Was Real and Brutal
So you decided to go back. You updated your resume, polished your LinkedIn, and walked confidently into the job market. Then reality arrived. The job market for people in their 60s is, let’s be honest, far from welcoming. It’s something many people don’t realize until they’re actively looking.
About two thirds of workers age 50 and older have reported seeing or experiencing age discrimination in the workplace, a proportion that has not changed since 2024. Among job seekers who are 50 and older, nearly 6 in 10 believe their age has created obstacles during the hiring process due to ageism. These aren’t perceptions. These are documented, consistent, and frankly damaging patterns.
The cutthroat nature of working in sales was a new stressor. So was the ageism encountered. Job seekers may struggle to land a job because of ageism in the hiring process. They could also face difficulty finding a job because their skills don’t meet changing technology requirements. Returning to the workforce at 64 can feel less like a fresh start and more like navigating an obstacle course designed specifically for people younger than you.
The Financial Traps You Didn’t See Coming
Going back to work to earn more money makes obvious sense on the surface. More income, right? Except the financial picture is rarely that clean. Between taxes, benefit reductions, and the actual cost of working again (think commuting, clothing, lunches), the net gain can look very different from the gross number on your paycheck.
While you might bring in more income on paper, income taxes, costs associated with your employment such as commuting and clothing expenses, and the loss of free time might make returning to work not worth the reduction in benefits. It’s the kind of thing a financial advisor will tell you after the fact, never before.
More than half of respondents of a 2024 CNBC and SurveyMonkey poll say they are behind on retirement planning and savings. In 2025, those age 50 or older can contribute an additional $7,500 to their 401(k) plan each year, up to $11,250 for those age 60 to 63, as well as an extra $1,000 across Traditional and Roth IRAs combined. Returning to work does create one genuine silver lining: the ability to make catch-up contributions and shore up savings before a more permanent retirement.
The Health Impact Worked Both Ways
Not all of the news is gloomy. Depending on the type of work and the working conditions, going back to work can actually have a measurable positive effect on health. The key phrase there is “depending on.” The wrong job, at the wrong pace, under the wrong kind of pressure, can do the opposite.
Long-term research indicates that mental and physical health often improve during the initial years post-retirement. However, these benefits can fade as time goes on, highlighting the importance of sustained activity and social connection. The irony is that the honeymoon of early retirement fades, and work can actually restore some of what faded.
As individuals age, their social connections may diminish due to factors like retirement, loss of close friends and family, or physical limitations. This loss can contribute to chronic loneliness and social isolation that ultimately have adverse effects on both physical and mental health. For some people, going back to work isn’t the mistake. Staying isolated at home, with no structure and no purpose, is the greater health risk.
What the Real Mistake Actually Was
It’s tempting to say the mistake was going back to work. It’s tempting to say it was retiring too early. But honestly, the real mistake was simpler, and it happened long before the retirement date: not having a plan for the non-financial side of retirement. Nobody builds a retirement plan for their identity, their social life, their sense of purpose. And that gap is what sends people back.
In a study by T. Rowe Price, roughly half of those working in retirement needed their paycheck, while nearly as many chose to work for social and emotional benefits. The split is almost equal. Which means for a massive portion of returning retirees, money was never really the main story at all.
It stands to reason that many retirees see part-time work as a good transition strategy into retirement. Overall, more than half of retirees want to continue working in some form, while just under half would stop working all at once. The lesson isn’t that you should never retire early, or that going back to work is shameful. The lesson is that retirement, at any age, requires as much emotional planning as financial planning. Maybe more.
Conclusion: The Lesson Nobody Puts in a Brochure
Retiring at 60 and returning to work at 64 isn’t a failure. It’s a course correction. The mistake, in most cases, wasn’t the decision to retire. It was the assumption that retirement would simply fill itself with meaning, purpose, and financial comfort without deliberate effort. Life doesn’t work that way, and neither does retirement.
The data is clear: unretirement is increasingly common, with significant numbers choosing to re-enter the workforce each year. The reasons are financial, emotional, social, and deeply personal. No two stories are exactly alike. Yet the underlying theme is almost always the same: people underestimated how much work shaped their lives until it was gone.
If you’re currently retired and feeling restless, or still working and planning your exit, the most important thing you can do is think beyond the numbers. Plan for purpose. Plan for people. Plan for the version of yourself that shows up on a Tuesday with no meetings and nowhere to be. That person deserves a plan too.
So here’s a thought: if you could go back and tell your 59-year-old self one thing before signing those retirement papers, what would it be?