Should A Wichita Couple Retire At 62 or Work Part Time For A Few Years?
“Should I work one more year?”
It sounds like a simple question with a binary answer: keep working or retire.
But work doesn't have to end like a light switch. It can be more like a fire that slowly burns out.
You can leave a full time career and still work 10 or 20 hours a week. One spouse can retire while the other keeps working. You can leave Textron after 30 years and do something completely different for another 3.
I think we tend to overlook these options because retirement has traditionally meant one thing. You work until some date circled on the calendar, walk out the door, and you're done.
But the actual transition can be (and often is) messier than that.
Most people expect retirement to be more gradual than it actually is
The 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey from EBRI found that almost half of workers expect to gradually transition into retirement. Yet 3 out of 4 retirees said they stopped working completely. Nearly half also said they retired earlier than they had planned.
That's a big gap between what people expected retiring would be like and what retirement actually was.
Sometimes the decision is made for them. This could be due to health problems, changes at work, caregiving, or layoffs that move the retirement timeline forward. Federal Reserve research has also found that health problems, caregiving responsibilities, and lack of available work can affect when people retire. Other times, we default to the traditional choice because that's how retirement has always been presented to us.
But let's look at some other options.
Consider 3 different retirements
Let's use a simplified example.
Imagine a Wichita couple who are both 62. They've saved $1.5 million for retirement, have no debt, and are trying to decide whether they're ready to quit working.
There are at least 3 ways they could approach it.
Option 1: Both retire at 62.
The paychecks stop immediately.
Now their portfolio has to help cover living expenses, health insurance before Medicare, and whatever else comes up. Medicare eligibility generally begins around age 65, so retiring at 62 can mean building a health insurance bridge for several years.
They also have to decide whether to claim Social Security early or use their investments to give themselves more flexibility on when they claim.
None of those things automatically make retiring at 62 a bad idea. If their plan supports it and they want to be done, great.
But the portfolio has to start doing the heavy lifting immediately.
Option 2: One spouse retires and the other works 2 more years.
This can change several things at once.
There is still earned income coming into the household. Portfolio withdrawals may be smaller. If the working spouse can keep employer health insurance for both of them, they may have a much easier bridge toward Medicare at 65.
And the spouse who retires gets to find out what retirement actually feels like while the household still has one foot in the working world.
For a married couple, this can make a big difference in more than one way.
Option 3: One spouse earns $35,000 part time for 3 years.
Now we get an interesting middle ground.
$35,000 per year for 3 years is $105,000 of gross earned income.
If their spending stays the same, that's $105,000 the portfolio doesn't have to cover (before taxes).
Part time work doesn't automatically solve health insurance. It may complicate Social
Security if benefits are claimed before full retirement age because Social Security applies an earnings test before full retirement age. And there is no point spending 3 years doing a job you hate just because a spreadsheet says the extra money would be nice.
But the part time work doesn't have to replace a career salary to make a difference. It just needs to provide some income to take pressure off the rest of the plan.
A small paycheck can buy more than income
This is where I think the financial side gets especially interesting.
A few years of earned income can give you choices.
You may be able to withdraw less from investments during the first few years of retirement.
You may have more flexibility around when to claim Social Security. If employment comes with health insurance, you may reduce one of the bigger problems facing someone who wants to retire before Medicare.
You also shorten the number of years your portfolio has to support the entire household, which is important because retirement can last a long time (at least I hope it does).
Social Security's 2026 projections anticipate a 65 year old man will live another 18.4 years on average and a 65 year old woman another 20.9 years. Those are averages for individuals. A married couple also has to prepare for the possibility that one spouse lives considerably longer.
If you retire at 62, planning for 30 years isn't particularly aggressive.
I would want to know what happens if the money needs to last even longer.
Taking some pressure off the portfolio during the first 2 or 3 years can have an outsized impact.
There is also a reason to keep working that has nothing to do with money
This may be especially important for Wichita aviation employees.
If you've spent 30 or 40 years at Cessna, Beechcraft, or Textron, your job probably became part of your life in ways a retirement projection can't measure.
You know the people. You know the building. You know what Monday morning looks like.
Maybe you spent your entire adult life making airplanes in Wichita.
Then one Friday afternoon you turn in your badge.
What exactly are you doing Monday?
This doesn't mean you need to keep working at a job you are ready to leave. It means the transition deserves more thought than we usually give it.
Part time work, consulting, volunteering, or a completely different job can give someone structure while they figure out what they want the next part of life to look like.
Federal Reserve research published in 2026 found that among retirees who were still working, 67% cited nonfinancial reasons such as enjoying work, having a sense of purpose, or social connections. Fifty two percent cited financial reasons.
Money may only be half the reason partial retirement can be so helpful.
So, should you work part time before retiring completely?
Maybe.
I wouldn't keep working simply because you're scared to spend the money you've spent 40 years saving. That's how someone who has enough to retire at 62 ends up working until 70 while waiting to feel 100% certain.
But you probably will never feel certain.
I also wouldn't retire at 62 simply because 62 happened to be the age you picked 10 years ago.
Run the choices.
What happens if both of you retire now? What happens if one spouse works another 2 years? What happens if one of you finds something you don't hate doing for $30,000 or $40,000 a year?
Look at portfolio withdrawals, health insurance, Social Security, taxes, and what you actually want your weeks to look like.
Then decide.
Retirement may last 30 years or more. There is no rule saying the first 3 have to look exactly like the next 27.
What would change if your first few years of retirement still included a small paycheck?
This article is for educational purposes. It is not personalized advice, a recommendation, or an offer. Retirement income, Social Security, health insurance, investment, and tax decisions depend on your full financial situation and current law.
