After years spent dedicated to your career, the thought of entering directly into full-time retirement might leave you wondering if your valuable knowledge and experience might be going to waste. This feeling may be especially pronounced if you have invested in higher education. Across the board, men and women with advanced degrees remain in the work force longer. And the more advanced the degree, the greater the likelihood that they will work past age 65. In 2012, nearly half of men age 65 and over (47.0%) with professional degrees were still working, more than double the rate of their counterparts with just a high school diploma. Similarly, 45.2% of women age 65 and over holding a doctorate degree were working, more than triple the rate of their cohorts with just a high school diploma. Researchers theorize that work is too engaging for folks to want to leave.

If you're contemplating remaining in the workplace well into your 70s, there is strong statistical evidence that you're not alone. Since the early 1950s there had been a trend toward earlier retirement, but that trend started to reverse about 15 years ago. In April 1994, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for men 55 to 64 was 64.5%. It hovered around 70% in July 2013. The number of older women working has doubled since 1950. The LFPR among women 55 to 64 was 43.7% in April 1969. It reached 61.1% in May 2010 and hovers around 60% today. For women age 70 to 74, their LFPR has more than doubled since 1987 - from 6.6% in January 1987 to over 16% in 2013.

Retirement has reached a crossroads. On the one hand, Americans still consider 65 the "appropriate" age at which to retire. Nowadays, Americans who reach age 65 can expect to live, on average, another 20 years. Because of these longer lifespans, the idea of going from a busy career directly into a settled, 'Golden Years' routine no longer appeals to many people reaching retirement age. Many workers on the verge of retirement feel they have many decades of productivity still to come, during which they want to contribute as much as they possibly can.  Increasingly, retirement doesn't have to be an exit from a working life, but a springboard into a new kind of career, perhaps the pursuit of a lifelong passion that may be even more rewarding than the decades spent achieving professional goals. The idea of a life of leisure after retirement might appeal to some, but for many, two decades is too long to spend simply on vacation.

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