{"id":845317,"date":"2025-12-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=845317"},"modified":"2025-12-25T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T05:24:09","slug":"south-africans-are-working-beyond-retirement-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/845317\/south-africans-are-working-beyond-retirement-age\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africans are working beyond retirement age\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans are increasingly working beyond retirement age, with many working in the \u201cGrey Zone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, retirement was relatively straightforward for South Africans, with many retiring at 60. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is now changing amid global population trends, new career patterns and shifting attitudes to work that are disrupting one of the most established ideas in personal finance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retirement is now becoming a transition, not a finish line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The question is no longer ‘when will you retire?’ but ‘what does retirement even mean anymore?” said Craig Lawrence, Financial Planner at BDO Wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The space between full-time employment and complete retirement, with what researchers have called the “Grey Zone,\u201d is now the new normal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 2026, BDO Wealth launched consultancies, transforming hobbies into income streams and embracing portfolio careers that blend passion with purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These moves are not necessarily driven by financial necessity, as research shows that people are resisting the traditional retirement age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many are skipping full retirement as it can result in a loss of identity, meaningful work and social connection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grey Zone is thus a solution, with many having continued engagement without the pressure of a nine-to-five workday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longevity is also rewriting the rulebook, with global life expectancy continuing to rise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2030, one in six people worldwide is expected to be over 60 \u2013 a demographic shift that’s already forcing financial institutions and governments to rethink retirement frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the standard three-stage life model of learn, earn and retire is becoming obsolete, and being replaced by an approach where people cycle between learning, earning and transitioning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRetirement isn’t stopping anymore; it’s shifting, evolving, and becoming deeply personal,\u201d said BDO Wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Grey Zone is expanding, careers are multiplying, and longevity is creating both opportunities and challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe winners in this new landscape will be those who plan proactively, preserve strategically, and view financial guidance as a way for navigating life’s transitions and money moments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warning for Gen Z<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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On the other end of the scale, Gen Z workers are now starting to get well into their careers, and the predictions over the work choices are coming true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many are seeing multiple job changes, diverse income streams and non-linear career paths that are not the norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average young professional has already had several employers, and each transition represents opportunity and risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The risk is that every job change brings temptation to cash out retirement savings, leaving many to ignore the compound growth lost from early withdrawals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amounts lost from this are staggering. For a 28-year-old with R50,000 in retirement funding, they may be tempted to cash out, as the tax of R4,000 seems small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if those funds were invested and grew at 8% a year until age 65, the amount would reach roughly R860,000, 17 times the original value. This would be lost via a withdrawal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many South Africans are working beyond retirement age, but for some, this is a choice, not a result of financial difficulties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":702501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[24309],"class_list":["post-845317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-bdo-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845317"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846784,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845317\/revisions\/846784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}