Life happens.

アメリカ人のリタイア年齢に関する統計を興味深く読みました。

平均は62歳なんだそうです。

The average American retires not at 80, or 70, or even 65, but at 62. That statistic comes from two different annual surveys of working and retired Americans, one from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), and the other from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.

(Daniel de Visé. Think you'll work past 70? Good luck. Why most of us retire earlier. USA Today. January 24, 2024.)

いくら本人が働き続けたいと思っても、望み通りに行くかは別問題。

引用記事によれば、半数以上は計画（希望）よりも早くリタイアせざるを得なかったという統計があるそうです。

The hard truth: We don’t always get to retire when we want. The reality of retirement in America is a “radical departure” from what workers envision, Transamerica reports.

Many people imagine easing out of employment on their own terms. But actual retirement tends to arrive abruptly and unexpectedly, triggered by declining health or corporate downsizing. The new year has brought a cascade of layoff announcements from big companies like Amazon, Citigroup, and Google.

（中略）

In the Transamerica survey, 56% of retirees said they retired sooner than they had planned. A much smaller share, 7%, retired later than expected. Only 37% retired on their own schedule.

(ibid.)

リタイアを余儀なくされた状況は様々ですが、ほとんどは病気や健康上の問題を理由とするもので、次いでリストラなどの影響が挙げられています。

Why do so many of us retire sooner than we had hoped?

Simply put: Life happens.

In the Transamerica report, nearly half of those who retired earlier than planned blamed their health: physical limitations, illness or disability. Roughly two-fifths blamed their jobs: They were laid off, downsized or lured into early retirement, or they were no longer happy at work.

(ibid.)

要するに、

Life happens.

ということなのですが、これは、

人生、色々な事が起きる

という意味の定型的なフレーズです。思い通りには行かないこと、想定外のことが起きるものだ、ということです。

以前取り上げた、

Shit happens.

というフレーズも参考にどうぞ。