I spent last week at the NCOA-ASA/Aging in America Conference and Mary Furlong’s What’s Next Boomer Business Summit.
The two events (always held in connection with each other) overlap in nice ways, but this year they revealed some sharp distinctions between the world of “aging” and the world of “aging Boomers.”
As Boomers age it becomes clearer that some terms that defined America’s seniors will not work for their younger cohort, but the industries that serve them both have yet to notice.
Take “retirement.”
At the ASA conference, there were actually 15 presentations with “retirement” in the title. At Mary Furlong’s event, there were none.
The reason was clarified at the first keynote speech at the Boomer Business Summit, when Steve French from the Natural Marketing Institute presented research on “Shifting Boomer Paradigms.”
The biggest shift? Boomers are not going to “retire.”
According to Steve, at least 60% of Boomers want to work after retirement. Of those, the largest group plans to work to remain active, but a sizable percentage will work for the money, and many will keep jobs for the social aspect of working as well.
The great behemoth called “retirement,” representing multiple decades when healthy aging Americans hoped to enjoy leisure time without working, is over. When 60% of a generation — and the biggest, fastest-growing demographic in the country — says it won’t be retiring, the “retirement” industry should change its name.
We see this phenomenon very clearly at VibrantNation.com, where our members — all of them smart, successful women 50+ — constantly restate their interest in ongoing work.
Some examples:
- Donna Hull: “Now that I work for myself…I don’t think that I’ll ever retire. In fact, I’m finding that a travel blogging business takes as much time as I can give it. The result? I’ve turned into a workaholic who is looking for more balance in her life. But I’m loving every minute of it.Since I live in the southwest in a city with many retirees and snowboards, I’ve observed that most of my retired friends are not retired at all. They may have left their long time jobs and occupations, but they’ve replaced them with hobbies, volunteer work and new businesses. I don’t know anyone who lounges around all day.”
- realestatelady: “Ten years ago I was more ready to retire than currently.”
- Pani Susan: “I’m semi-retired, teach part time and really can’t see myself quitting until, as a former colleague put it, ‘they carry me out feet first.’ My energy level may drop off (I’m imagining) when I hit 70 or so, but for now I’m just enjoying doing what I love and being able to support myself in the style to which I’ve become accustomed (modest!).”
VibrantNation.com will continue to report from our vantage point on the Vibrant Woman’s rapidly changing attitudes about work and money, but in the meantime, if you are in the financial, housing, healthcare, or media industries:
Stop talking to her about a “retirement” that she doesn’t plan to have.
thank you so much Lisa, that helps a lot. I know he tried to blame me for so much stuff, but like I told all of his family and mine none of that added up to a divorce. I do realize it's his needs, it just hurts so bad to think how many years he's
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Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
as for me, I l o v e retirement. After working for over 40 years outside an inside the home, being married and having kids, I was looking forward to retirement. Although I enjoyed my career as school librarian very much, it became cumbersome to have to get up at 6:00am every day, especially when the door to the car was frozen shut, since I did not have a garage. The work-load kept steadily increasing and it started to be overwhelming, when librarians were put in charge of all textbooks as well. We were told, that it was the only way to keep our jobs. My school was the largest and had 7,000 textbooks. At inventory time it became a mad-house, with teachers “hiding” books in storage areas. If a school lacked a certain book, it was requested that all librarians search for the extra copies and send them via courier. 36 computers in the library and book-exchange every half hour for different classes. Also adding bar-codes with all the extra computer input for all library and text books. Science kits and book kits were also to be sent to different schools as per request by teachers. [Then try and get them back, oh, what fun!!]. Due to ill health, I decided to retire two years before I turned 65. Financially a huge adjustment to about one third of my former paycheck, but, hey, I need less and want less. After a sinus and a knee surgery, I decided to slow down somewhat and totally enjoy doing very little of anything for the time being. When I feel like it, I might tutor, volunteer or travel, if I can afford it. In the meantime, I read a lot, write some and I am very happy to have joined VN. We are now “allowed” to work full-blast until 70 [in Canada], if we get a doc’s permission every year. The government seems to hope that we drop dead at 71, so they won’t have to pay us any pension at all. What’s the point, folks? We take away jobs from the 30somethings, who need to support themselves and/or their families. Thank goodness, I have a half decent Health Insurance for my “Old Age”. As soon as the weather gets really nice, this lady will be on her bicycle touring the neighbourhood and the trails along the river. You want to keep working, until you drop, go ahead, enjoy. To each her own, I say. P.S. My Profile Pic was taken in 2008. Except for the bum knee, I am doing great now. Going for Gel Injections into the Meniscus disk. Wish me luck.