Boomers Put Retirement on Hold

The word retirement takes on a whole new meaning when talking about the Baby Boomer generation. Bingo, shuffleboard, and golf every day are passé. We want to be busy, just not as busy. We want to stay involved, but not 60 hours a week involved. We want to continue earning, but without the stress and pressure of a traditional job.

Essentially, Boomers have finally grown up. We have become working caregivers to our parents and children, and our concerns range from finances to relationships to health. Can you believe the drop-out generation currently sees itself as family-oriented? That the former protest-everything-generation now say they put others before themselves?

Boomers are the first generation whose average member will live into their 80s. An avalanche of octogenarians is approaching. Now there are 9 million Americans 80 or older. By 2050, there will be 31 million, according to US Census Bureau estimates. In 2000, there were 250,000 people worldwide over 100. By 2050, there will be 3.8 million. Yes, that’s a lot of old people. But consider this – in a recent survey, one third of Americans in their 70s said they consider themselves to be middle-aged, as did 22% of those 80 or older.

And when the time comes, our care homes could look something like this: “Pass the bran muffins, light the incense, and crank up the Rolling Stones. It’s breakfast time here at the Lakeside Ranch Rock-n-Roll Care Home and Spa. AND, do you realize that in about 40 years, we’re going to have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos?

Retire? Boomers can’t picture themselves quitting all forms of work, playing golf and traveling in their RVs. Rather, they see themselves as transitioning into part-time work at their chosen profession, or learning about a new trade or industry. Those boomers who do see retirement in their future see it as beginning at 70 or 75, not the traditional 60 to 65. In other words, we plan to live longer and postpone old age.

The money earned during these transition years will help fund their lifestyle, and they won’t be tapping into their retirement nest egg until well past 70. This suggests that retirement planning as we know it today will need to reinvent itself as well. The boomer concept of financial freedom is the point at which they have the ability to move on to the retirement they envision, no matter what age.

No matter how many boomers there are or how they choose to live the next chapter of their lives, financial planners will need to carefully rethink their current models. Yes, the times, they are a changin’ and business as usual no longer works. Flexibility is the key; no longer will the “senior” fit into the box with all their peers. Each will have a different vision of what financial freedom means to them, and those planners unable to make quick adjustments to the planning concept will be left behind.

We Boomers have affected social change with every decade since the 60s. There’s no reason to believe that this trend won’t continue.

Linda Thompson is founder and President of Life Path Solutions. She is author of Planning for Tomorrow, Your Passport to a Confident Future, a common sense approach to life planning, and A Caregiver’s Journey, You Are Not Alone, a survival guide for working caregivers. Linda is currently writing her next book, Every Generation Needs a New Revolution. Linda can be contacted at 480-899-8647 or through her web site at www.LifePathSoltuions.biz.