The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

Gromotka: The billionaire’s plan for retirement

Carlos Slim has been all over the news lately for suggesting the idea of an 11-hour-a-day, three-day workweek. His face is all over the place, that crazy guy, from CBS to the HuffPost to the three local radio stations that babbled about it yesterday morning before yelling at me that I could win a Hooters lunch for my entire office JUST BY CALLING IN.

His thinking is that, by working less and having a better life at home, you’ll work smarter and live longer, making retiring later in life less of a drag. Through his model, we’d have to work until we’re 70 or 75 years old, up from the typical retirement age falling between 50 and 60.

Wait a second — 50 or 60? Is that what he really said? CBSNews says it is. That’s … not the official retirement age in Mexico. Or anywhere, really, except Slovakia and Luxembourg. I knew it was too good to be true. By his mathmagic, people in the United States would retire at 120, maybe even 130, probably.

Plus, with a long-day, three-day workweek, we might not be able to watch prime-time Monday programming such as “Dancing with the Stars,” which makes the deal sound even less appealing.

Slim is doing a trial run of the idea at his communications company, so we’ll have to wait and see what the interns think when they retire at 75 to know if it works.

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