In case you missed it, there was an interesting article in the February 16, 2010 issue of U.S. News & World Report by Emily Brandon, entitled “10 Ways Baby Boomers will Reinvent Retirement.” It is a good article, and I hope you will read it, as well as some of the related articles to which the article includes internal links. There are some helpful insights and references to how we will cope with our very different needs.
This article is largely focused on the ways the Baby Boomer generation will “Re-invent retirement.” In most cases, we will have no choice but to re-invent retirement in the ways noted. These re-inventions of retirement all have more to do with how boomers will adapt to a different environment than that into which our parents retired. So necessity will be the mother of most of these reinventions, such as having no pension plans, needing to manage our money and investments, coping with being the “sandwich generation,” receiving less in social security support, and being in debt when we retire.
While these “re-inventions” will certainly be facts of life for Baby Boomers as we grow older, I think the tone of the article fails to recognize some very important characteristics of this generation.
First, boomers are the wealthiest generation in history.
Second, receiving less money from social security depends upon the age at retirement. If we work until age 70 or 72 (which the vast majority of us say we plan to do), we will receive more money.
Third, needing to work two extra years to recover what our retirement accounts lost in the recent economic crisis is, again, not a problem, because we don’t want to stop working at age 65.
Finally, the Boomer generation is not just defined by our financial situation. We will respond to the necessities we are faced with, and we will respond in ways that are both effective and that make us happy.
Boomers are a generation that has been learning how to respond when life hands us lemons. We have learned how to make spectacular lemonade!
I would like to hear from you. Tell me what you think.
Are you sitting in a chair with a handful or lemons? Or are you making lemonade?
If you are making lemonade, what recipe are you using?
“It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.” — Henry James
