Frederick E. Allen
Leadership View
Tens of millions of Americans lost big chunks of their retirement savings in the recession. Many lost their jobs, too, and not a few of them are still out of work. Social Security and Medicare are against the ropes. How is anyone supposed to ever retire again?
You're going to spend more time in the workplace and less time here. Image via Wikipedia
Nearly half of them expect to have to support aging relatives, adult children, grandchildren, and siblings, and of that fraction, 70% expect to be supporting their adult children. The findings also indicate that before the recession 62% of people 55 and over felt financially secure; now 44% do. Back then 28% of them considered themselves “worried”; now 39% do.
So where’s the bright side in all this? Ken Dychtwald, the founder of Age Wave, says, “Having been jolted by the last several years, Americans have adopted more realistic and pragmatic views of the possibilities before them. They now see retirement as a time for new priorities, new opportunities and new strategies for today’s challenges.” Is that just putting a bright face on a bad situation? Here are a couple of relatively encouraging numbers: Today 54% of those over 55 consider retirement a new chapter in life, not just a winding down; 10 years ago only 38% felt that way. And nearly two thirds say they’d prefer to be doing some work in retirement, “to stay active and involved.” As Dychtwald puts it, they want to “move back and forth between periods of work and leisure” in “a more active and productive version of retirement than their parents’ generation.”
That may be a good thing whether or not it grows out of financial need. After all, as I reported earlier this year, several studies have found that keeping active, with a real sense of purpose, is the biggest key to living long and in good health. We may all be, in a way, better off unable to retire the way earlier generations did.
Find the full study here.
2010 Forbes.com LLC™
__________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.
