Retire? Not These Folks

Sept. 2, 2007 — -- It's 10:30 a.m. on a hot summer Friday and about two dozen traders in dull-colored smocks are arrayed in and around "the pit" -- the shallow, rounded trench where cotton futures are bought and sold at the New York Board of Trade. They're watching television monitors displaying cotton prices while waving wildly, shouting out their bids.

It's capitalism in action -- frenetic action.

At one edge of the pit stands a grey-haired, slightly stooped man. He's somewhat more composed than the others and when he barks his orders his voice betrays the hint of a Southern accent. He's been doing this for 30 years, trading for himself in the pit and at its two prior locations in lower Manhattan, including the World Trade Center. The man is Jim Phillips, and at 78, he is the oldest trader on the floor by nearly two decades.

"I love the job, and I love the challenge, and I love the people, and I love the activity, getting up and having to get out of bed," he said.

Retirement? That word isn't in Phillips's vocabulary.

"What would I do?" he added with a wide-eyed expression of mock incredulity.

Phillips is among millions of older Americans choosing to keep working rather than retiring. He has made a very good living buying and selling cotton futures and he vows to keep doing it for as long as he is physically capable.

"I guess as long as I can walk up here and stand up," he said, "and as long as I don't go bananas."

"He's a very active man who doesn't want to sit around and do nothing," said cotton trader Jewel Weiss, 60. "I mean, it's hard to do nothing."

Whether by volition or necessity, Americans are re-defining how they spend their golden years. These days, 70 may not be the new 60, as one variation of the popular saying goes. When it comes to work, 70 may be the new 50 or even 40.

A study this year by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute reports that 30 percent of Americans between the ages of 65 and 69 are now employed, compared to 18 percent in 1985. The trend is expected to continue. A University of Chicago survey of 38- to 52-year-olds found that 79 percent planned to work past age 65.

"It's no longer that a job is just something you do, go home forget about," said Steve Slon, editor of AARP The Magazine. "It's something that I do, that I care about, that involves me, that engages me. It's something you don't want to walk away from."

Read more about the trend at USAToday.com by CLICKING HERE. And watch a full report tonight on "World News." Check your local listings for air times.