The Retirement Boom

Baby Boomers are reinventing retirement just as they have so many other aspects of their lives. They will live longer and be healthier than their parents and grandparents, and they plan to remain relevant, be fulfilled, and leave legacies. Many will continue to work well into their 70s and 80s, some because they want to, others because they need to.The Retirement Boom is a practical roadmap for making your “retirement years” a time of reinvention, excitement, and fulfillment.The coauthors of this practical guide are four Boomer professionals who have walked the walk and transformed themselves from corporate executives, CEOs, consultants, and national security policy experts into a range of new careers that more closely hew to their passions. They interviewed more than 300 people and 30 organizations in the writing of this book.The Retirement Boom includes tips, stories, exercises, and techniques to help you:Design your own “retirement” and plan for it.Use your time creatively and well.Understand what's changing in the workplace and the workforce today.Make your money last.Renegotiate life at home.Improve and keep your health.Build and leave a legacy.Simplify your life.And much, much more.

This book offers readers an invaluable study of Boomers as they march into retirement.

As the leading edge of the 'Baby Boom' generation attains age 60, members of this unusually large cohort born 1946-66 are poised to redefine retirement - just as they have restructured educational, housing, and labor markets in prior days. Looking ahead, their numbers and energy are sure to have a major impact on national pensions, healthcare, and social safety nets. Contributors to this volume note that 'Boomers' will be better off than their predecessors in many ways, having benefited from the long run-up in housing prices, dramatic improvements in healthcare, and the expanding economy. On the other hand, the generation's sheer size will surely squeeze resources and require new approaches to retirement risk management. This volume paints a complex and fascinating picture as Boomers move into retirement. On average they are in better financial and physical health than prior cohorts, and they can be anticipated to fare better than current retirees in absolute terms. Yet the distribution of retiree income and wealth will be less equal than in earlier years, and in relative terms, many Boomers will be less well off than their forebears. Contributors to the volume use many invaluable models and datasets, including the incomparable Health and Retirement Study (HRS) which affords unique insights into the status of mature adults surveyed at the same age and hence same point in their life cycles, but at three different time periods. Analysts offer new evidence about prospects for health and income during retirement, as well as pensions and housing equity, health, portfolio allocation, and financial literacy. This book offers readers an invaluable and first book-length study of Boomers as they march into retirement. As such, it represents an invaluable addition to the Pension Research Council/Oxford University Press series. It will be especially useful for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand retirement preparedness, to actuaries and tax specialists concerned with retirement system regulation, and to plan sponsors interested in the determinants of work and retirement at older ages.

Summarizes the results of a research on the economic status of the baby boomers and compares their financial prospects with their parents' generation. Presents projections of the income and consumption of the baby boomers at the age of 65.

When Every Day Is Saturday is a how-to book to plan for a happy, meaningful retirement. The Grace Retirement Inventory sets a fast opening pace and prompts thoughtful, focused questions about retirement. Some retirees seem to have failed badly while many others appear to be happy and successful. What was their guide to success? Dr. Grace's research with seven hundred retirees differentiates this book from all others. Six central themes are developed: 1) freedom and leisure, 2) financial independence, 3) separation from work, 4) family and friends, 5) health, and 6) helping others. Readers evaluate their attitude toward each of these themes and this simple measure predicts their happiness in retirement. The writing is concise, interspersed with comments and stories from the lives of current retirees. Inclusion of these vignettes adds hope, inspiration, and a dash of realism to what lies ahead for every working adult.

This paper examines the financial prospects of the baby boomers in their elderly years. The paper primarily attempts to draw together and summarize results found by other researchers, but a few new estimates are presented. The consensus of the research appears to be the following. Up to this point, the baby boom generation as a whole has a higher economic status than their parents' generation did at the same ages, but this does not hold for some subgroups. When it becomes elderly, the baby boom generation as a whole probably will have a higher economic status than their parents' generation has and will have at those ages, but, again, this may not hold for some subgroups. It is uncertain whether the baby boom generation as a whole will have enough resources in retirement to maintain their preretirement standard of living without increasing their saving or retiring later, but some subgroups will be able to maintain their living standard without changing their behavior.

Outlines how baby-boomers can plan for retirement, discussing how to invest to get the maximum return from savings and how to use an established nest egg to get the most income.