How Baby Boomers Will Transform Aging, Work & Retirement

DocuTicker: The MetLife Report on "Early Boomers: How America's Leading Edge Baby Boomers Will Transform Aging, Work & Retirement" contains startling news for the first group of Boomers to enter retirement, and likely those who will follow. It says those born between 1946 and 1955 will transform the American concept of retirement by forgoing the tradition of a leisure-filled life.

Instead, their financial obligations among other things will encourage many of them to remain in the workforce, some indefinitely.
Many Boomers are unable to retire as anticipated, the study says, because they may have debt from putting their children through college, borrowing against their homes and, in many cases, second home ownership.

• Over the next 10 years aging Early Boomers will cause a 50% rise in the number of people 65 to 74 years old, a growth rate for that cohort not seen in 50 years.
• It is estimated that at least two-thirds of Early Boomers are grandparents and a rising number are responsible for their grandchildren.
• The labor force participation rate of Early Boomer men and women is at a 15-year high; trends suggest that it will rise further in the future.

Since they expect to live longer than their predecessors, they fear outliving their savings, and their financial nest eggs have been severely impacted by low interest rates and an uncooperative stock market. Their family finances have also been stretched by the fact that one in four have adult children still living with them. Full Report


Intriguing retirement statistics.

• One of the 77 million baby boomers reaches 50 every seven seconds. That is around 11,960 people a day and 4 million a year.
• The age for retirement was set at 65 by Kaiser Willhelm in the late 1800's.
  
• In 2001, 77 million Americans were 50 and older (comprising 28% of the population). By 2020 that segment will be 36% of the population.
• Nearly 6,000 Americans turn 65 every day, that figure will jump to 9,000 as the baby boomers age.
• Nearly 39 million Americans were 65 or older in year 2009.
• In 2008, Medicare provided health care coverage for 45 million Americans, making it the largest single health care payer in the nation. Enrollment is expected to reach 78 million by 2030, when the baby boom generation is fully enrolled.
  

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