Randy Seacat expected to retire at 75 if at all.
The labor market had other plans.
Seacat lost his customer support job at Amazon Web Services in late 2020 at age 58. He has not found work since, even after applying for more than 1,700 jobs and sitting through 51 interviews. Now 61, he submitted application No. 1,746 the other day but still has no job.
“I’ve never had a problem having a job in my lifetime,” he says. “I do really great on the phone interview, but when they find out how old I am, the door slams. It’s over.”
If you’re one of many Americans who think you’ll work till 75 or 70, or even 65, think again.
The average American retires at 62, according to two annual surveys of working and retired Americans, published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
Sixty-two is not particularly old. The average over-50 worker expects to retire at 67, according to Transamerica. The average life expectancy is 77 ½. Our president is running for reelection at 81.
But few of us get to retire when we want. We might imagine easing out of our careers on our own terms. Yet in reality, retirement often comes suddenly and unexpectedly, via a corporate layoff or a household health scare.
Here are the stories of seven Americans who retired years earlier than planned, for reasons largely beyond their control.
For three of the seven, early retirement seeded financial ruin. The others exited work into a retirement that, while comfortable enough, fell far short of the life they had envisioned. One, Seacat, is still fighting retirement, hoping to rejoin the labor force one day.
1,746 applications, but no job
Seacat’s skills include internet marketing, videogame design, search engine optimization, voice acting and songwriting. Back in the ‘80s, he played and sang in Seattle hair bands.
For most of the past decade, Seacat worked at an Amazon subsidiary as a technical customer support associate, helping with cloud computing. He lost his job when the company shipped it overseas, taking a severance package along with some aging colleagues.
“And I thought, ‘OK, I’ll be able to get back to work, no big deal,’” he said. “Well, that didn’t happen.”
Seacat lived in the Seattle suburbs. His job search ranged north to Alaska, south to Portland and east to Montana.
He soon saw a pattern. Applications hit a wall when the employer figured out his approximate age. Often, they’d tell him he was overqualified.
When an application reaches the interview stage, he said, “everything goes great, until they discover that I’m a boomer.”
Even after 1,746 failed applications, Seacat says he isn’t giving up.
“I’m too young to retire,” he said. “I can’t get Social Security,” a benefit that kicks in at 62, “and I burned through most of my savings trying to save my home.”
Seacat lived on retirement savings until the autumn of 2022 when they ran out and he was forced to leave his rented home.
He purchased an RV. He could live in it, but can’t afford to rent a space in an RV park because those slots run $800 to $1,200 a month.
“I am pretty much homeless,” he said, staying with family between Seattle and Portland.
His belongings sit in a storage space that, like the RV space, he can no longer afford. If he doesn’t pay the bill soon, he said, “it’s gonna be gone.”
It’s hard to imagine a more industrious job seeker. Even so, Seacat said he’s surprised he doesn’t get more empathy when he shares his story.
“People tell me all the time, ‘I know people who are 60 who are working,’” he said. “And I tell them, ‘There’s a big difference between working at 60 and getting hired at 60.’”
A career unravels in a fateful fall
Larry Zarzecki planned to work till he dropped.
He would put in 35 years at his Maryland police department, then segue into a job in security, following a time-honored tradition in law enforcement.
At 49, Zarzecki’s retirement plan unraveled, along with his life.
He developed a tremor in his hand. He started struggling with balance. At length, a doctor diagnosed Parkinson’s disease.
Zarzecki balked at telling loved ones and colleagues. But soon enough, the disease announced itself. An ill-timed freezing episode in 2013 sent him toppling down the stairs of his family home. He suffered a brain injury and severe spinal damage. Doctors wondered if he’d ever walk again, let alone work.
He spent 21 months in the hospital, learning to walk and talk all over again, and relearning the story of his own life: The brain injury had wiped out his memory.
Zarzecki wanted to work again, but no one wanted him.
“I couldn’t even get a job as a greeter at Walmart,” he said. “Everything is fine until you get to the point where you have…
Read More: These Americans were forced to retire well before 70. Here’s why.