As the mortgage-driven financial meltdown incinerates hundreds of billions of dollars of housing equity and stock market valuations, millions of Baby Boomers are realizing they haven’t set aside enough savings to retire early. Early is key word.
You have to consider that for the majority of Boomers, “retirement” isn’t the finish line. It’s just another phase of life – a slower-paced phase, perhaps -- in which they make a different trade-off between “work” and “leisure.”
Financial planners are urging boomer to consider delaying their retirement a few years so they can accumulate more assets and shorten the time frame they’ll have to live off their savings. As it happens, that’s what many Boomers are planning anyway.
According to research conducted at the Boomer Project, about one third of Boomers say they have no idea when they’ll retire, and another one third say they’ll continue working when they retire – whenever that is. In other words, for a majority of Boomers, “retirement” is not the major life event it was for the GI generation and the Silent generation.
For many, “retirement” represents a chance to drop out of the rat race and do something more fulfilling, whether it’s working for a not-for-profit or converting a hobby into a small business. “Retirement” provides an opportunity to recalibrate the needle in the work-life balance to a setting that affords more time for leisure and travel – but still entails some work.
In the back of their minds, many Boomers see themselves as continuing to work, earning a paycheck to supplement their pension and savings, for a good portion of their retirement. A study conducted by Merrill Lynch sited that 67% of Baby Boomers do not wish to retire due to their desire for mental stimulation and challenge.
You can rest assured that Boomers will continue to redefine aging and retirement. They will continue to be active and continue to have the most disposable income and the greatest buying power. In fact, a recent study conducted by AARP and The Center for the Digital Future found that sixty-eight percent of users 50+ indicated they sometimes or often browse in retail stores and then buy online.