Baby Boomer retirees not as numerous as estimated
The wave of Boomer retirees that marketers have heralded for so long, may not be such a big one after all.
Last year, an estimated 78 million Baby Boomers were poised to retire, or so they thought and companies were ready to sell to these people with money and time to spare. Only? These workers have both social and economic reasons to stay on the job:
“It’s no secret that some are delaying retirement,” says Bruce Schobel a vice-president and actuary at New York Life Insurance and a former adviser at the Social Security Administration. After all, boomers face falling stock and housing values plus skyrocketing health-care and energy costs. These are all reasons to stay on the payroll. Meanwhile, stock losses have led 14% of retirees to consider returning to work, according to the AARP.
and (from the same article):
Social forces are also keeping workers on the job, says Joyce Manchester, an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. With divorce rates up, more boomers are depending on one income. Many have children just entering college. And a greater number of women now hold white-collar jobs, which are less physically taxing and so easier to stick with than jobs women held in the past
Though my thoughts aren’t scientifically based, I think there are many people who just don’t see themselves as retirees at age 65 and they keep working because they want to. My dad is one of them, though he doesn’t see himself as a retiree at 75, either, but that’s just him.
I know many people my age, though not Baby Boomers, who will still have kids in high school when they’re (the parent, not the kid. Heh.) 65 and retirement just isn’t a possibility or even a thought at that age.
Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older and my dad and mother in law are my models for working and he’s still working and she just retired from full-time at 82, but 65 just seems too young to think about it.
If the stock market recovers, we hope to “retire” long BEFORE 65. I put it in quotation marks, because both my husband and I know we may end working at least part time to help make ends meet. Then again, I haven’t worked full-time in 20 years, so maybe I’m already “retired.”
I’m looking for a better word than ‘retirement’ to describe the time when most people stop working full time. ‘Retirement’ holds a stigma of being ‘used up’ and ready to ‘throw in the towel’. I’d rather look at the work and experiences that I have had up to this point as just training for something even more fun, fulfilling, and productive to do when I have more control over the hours/days that I choose to be engaged.
I would say to the companies who are ready to pounce on my free time and spending power that they are assuming that I haven’t put much thought into either…that is a dangerous assumption.
There is certainly also some (negative) residual effects from this. Sitting in the Gen Jones crowd (not quite baby boomer, not quite Gen X), the effects of people on my age (and younger) definitely get hurt in the career path by the older baby boomers that are either not retiring because of “need” or just not retiring because they are “not ready to give it up”
Using myself as a example, since those with a bit more “experience” than me, choose to continue on longer, it in effect caps my growth going forward since the upper positions are not being vacated.
This of course may wind up with the effect if it taking me longer to reach those positions, thus staving off my own retirement, which of course then affects those that follow me.
I have been visiting this site and decided that I can continue to learn a lot and hopefully can contribute a lot to the dialog. But first, I want to be up front about my intentions. I am associated as a technical liaison with a new web site called the http://www.Over60Exchange.com. This web site was originally created to cater to the needs of “seniors over the age of 60,” and is now being expanded to include “Boomers, Seniors, and those who fol-low.”
We recognize that many individuals who reach the age of 60 are not physically, mentally, or financially prepared to enjoy the so-called “Golden Years.” In order to meet the challenges we face in these days of great uncertainty, many Boomers and Seniors need to re-examine how they approach and solve problems. Over60Exchange is developing guidelines to help Boomers and Seniors evaluate and evolve their current “mind-sets.” Those who are willing to engage in critical assessments of current mind-sets can observe and/or participate in online forums focused on “per-sonal reinvention.”
I invite you to check us out at http://www.Over60Exchange.com. And remember, we are evolving this web site. You can watch the progress and offer suggestions. Then, when we are ready, you can participate in “Personal Reinvention.”
I look forward to your comments and suggestions.