Do pharmacists actually retire?

Started by feelit83
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feelit83

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Ive been noticing that there are alot of 64+ year old pharmacists that are still working full time; and some even working 60+ hours a week for overtime? What is the retirement rate for pharmacists? If they keep working till 70-75, will there be a demand with all the new schools opening in say 10 years?
 
feelit83 said:
Ive been noticing that there are alot of 64+ year old pharmacists that are still working full time; and some even working 60+ hours a week for overtime? What is the retirement rate for pharmacists? If they keep working till 70-75, will there be a demand with all the new schools opening in say 10 years?
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They have to retire sometime
 
I know PHS and military pharmacists can retire after 20 years, I'm not sure how many stick it out longer, I'm sure a good number do. I don't know if chains have any kind of retirement plans outside the standard 401k. Most of the pharmacists I've read about/heard from don't stay with a company long enough to get any kind of pension based retirement (I don't even know how many companies have such a thing for pharmacists.) OldTimer and SDN would probably tell you what the options are as you get more "experienced"😉. But it appears a lot just go part-time somewhere as opposed to just giving it up altogether and retiring.

I'm not sure of the affect of all this on demand, but I would imagine it would reduce it somewhat overall as the population of pharmacists reaching retirement age work part-time in lieu of retiring. By how much is the question.
 
Pharmacy has a huge number of part time workers. Last time I saw the statistic, it was in the teens. You have a lot of women working part time, and there is a large number of older pharmacists (age 50+) working part time.
 
feelit83 said:
Ive been noticing that there are alot of 64+ year old pharmacists that are still working full time; and some even working 60+ hours a week for overtime? What is the retirement rate for pharmacists? If they keep working till 70-75, will there be a demand with all the new schools opening in say 10 years?
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Probably not, I would drop out now while you still have the chance.
 
The ones I know, never formally retired. At one point, the store I work at had all 3 pharmacists over the age of 75. None of them worked more than 20 hours per week though, and they mostly worked due to boredom.
 
I wonder at what point SHOULD a pharmacist retire? I worked with an older pharmacist who was 69 years old and he didn't seem to be as knowledgeable on drug interactions, etc. as the "younger" pharmacists at the store. Just a thought, I wonder how companies approach this.
 
Someone asked about pensions. I have a pension from my years of inpt full time hospital work - >20 yrs.

Hospitals have notoriously horrid pensions - always have even before the the change from defined benefit to defined contribution. I have both.

I also have 401K's & 403B's (non-profit equivs to 401Ks).

I plugged the numbers - for my own situation, it did not make financial sense to go beyond 20 years for employment. That also corresponded with my desire to leave that employment, so it all worked out.

I have a significant number of years into another retirement plan - fortunately, the vesting years are small.

For the individual who said some of us work part-time due to boredom, its not usually boredom - its not having to put up with "stuff" that comes from full time work.

Finally, for the pharmacy student who didn't think those of us who are older are as knowlegable on pharmaceutical care - that may not always be the case, altho I'm sure you can find examples which are true. However, with experience comes wisdom & knowing how much & when to give out information, what is significant & what is not & how important it is to demonstrate our knowledge.

Some of the most knowledgable pharmacists I've ever worked with are older than me - I still learn from them.

The OPs question was demand. The number of >65 yo pharmacists won't significantly affect demand - that will be the marketplace.
 
ageldred said:
I wonder at what point SHOULD a pharmacist retire? I worked with an older pharmacist who was 69 years old and he didn't seem to be as knowledgeable on drug interactions, etc. as the "younger" pharmacists at the store. Just a thought, I wonder how companies approach this.
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i don't think that knowledge is a function of age...i'd say it's all about how invested one is in expanding their knowledge base
i've worked with young part timers who were just that...part time in all respects....
 
I almost retired at 40..and planned on part time consulting.. didn't pan out😎 Instead now I'm full time consulting..and plan to retire at 45 and consult part time.

I'll let you know in 4.5 year if it pans out.
 
And retirment has nothing to do with age. It's a function of cashflow... if you have enough cashflow to maintain your lifestyle at any age without working, then you can retire.
 
I don't think I'll ever be able to retire. I plan on living 100 y/o. And at that milestone, I'll have my head chopped off and cryogenically frozen... so science will one day regrow me a body. Hopefully it's a male body... but hey, I'm not too picky. And hopefully they would have found a way to replenish the neurons in my brain so I don't live a new lifetime full of parkinsons and alzeimers. So anyways yeah, I've gotta save up quite a bit for such endeavors. 😉
 
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