The Silver Ceiling

William Dietrich of “The Seatltle Times” wrote about “Retirement? Not this generation” on 22 October 2006. I like his style and alhough he says nothing we haven’t said, I like the way he says it:

The problem some baby boomers have with impending retirement is the problem the unchurched have with the afterlife: Hell looks like more fun.

Who wants to sit on a cloud in a robe playing a harp for eternity, when the bad people below get to run around naked and play mischief?

Similarly, how many games of golf can you play or fishing holes can you plumb before repetition begins to make it seem like … work? Especially when the geezers who stay on the job have more money, dine out, go on cool vacations and kick more butt?

Retire? Can’t afford to. Don’t want to. Don’t need to. And the 76 million baby boomers, the first of whom hit 60 this year, expect medical science to keep them wheezing forever.

Which means, sorry, Generations X, Y and Z.

Call it the silver ceiling. If Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones can rock into their 60s, boomers plan to hang on longer than the vampire Lestat. Human Resources, get ready for the living dead.

At least that’s what boomers are telling pollsters like the American Association of Retired Persons, which reports that up to 80 percent of those answering their surveys plan to continue working — for money or for charity — past normal retirement age.

That may be boomer baloney. Fewer than one in five over 65 work for pay now, and they represent just 3 percent of the work force. Many employers are still slow to recognize them as prime timber, not dead wood.

Poor health, other opportunities or plain old weariness may force a good chunk of that 80 percent to bail. Historically, about 40 percent of U.S. workers have stepped out of their jobs sooner than they expected, mostly because of health problems or layoffs.

But boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) make up 40 percent of the U.S. work force, and when financial planners tell them they need to sock away seven to 15 times their annual salary to comfortably quit, even the midnight shift at 7-Eleven starts to look like a necessity.

Source: http://www.gotriad.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWSREC0103/61020016/-1/GTCOM0200

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