The Changing Nature of Retirement

Do you think that the nature of retirement is changing? There seems to be a lot of evidence in support of it. A lot of baby boomers, my parents included, either won’t or can’t retire. A surprisingly high number can’t afford the high price of retirement, but just as many seem to have decided that a standard retirement would bore them out of their minds.

My mother’s a boomer — she’s in the middle of starting up a brand new business. She jokes about eventually stopping, but two days without a new project and she gets fidgety. Gen X and Y are just as bad. Considering that the nature of work is changing, with the drive towards telecommuting, flexible working schedules and people who are perpetually on call through cell phone, email, Blackberry or whatever, I think even fewer people are going to actually be capable of not working for any great length of time.

Instead, I think the age of retirement is going to become the age where people pick up new careers, try out new paths or strike out on their own. After all, with medical advances, a person can easily have two more decades after retirement — definitely longer than you need to perfect a golf swing. Even if people only choose to spend an extra decade working, it can dramatically alter job markets, entrepreneurship opportunities and health care.

I think a lot of people are starting to see retirement as a bad thing — there’s the stress of staying home with family every day, added expenses and no income, and the danger of boredom. It will be interesting to see what our parents, as well as ourselves, do as we age.

by Thursday Bram

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