Forgoing retirement isn’t an option for your clients despite the commonly held belief that we’re healthier than previous generations. Here’s why.
Forgoing retirement isn’t an option for your clients despite the commonly held belief that we’re healthier than previous generations. Here’s why.
Helaine Olen hits the nail on the head when she calls the idea of baby boomers working well into their 70s instead of retiring, “retirement porn.”
Organizations such as AARP are actively promoting this unrealistic ideal in national publications such as Fortune magazine and it’s not doing boomers any favours.
Olen points out in her article in Slate.com:
“[T]o this generation, ‘retirement’ usually means finding a different job,” Fortune opined last month. AARP’s magazine, not to be outdone, recently featured a woman who came out of retirement, quickly landing a job as the head of human resources for a charter school chain—at the age of 70. “I work a nine- or 10-hour day,” she gleefully told the magazine. That wasn’t enough for the Wall Street Journal, which upped the ante with “A Retirement Age of 100? It’s Coming.”
Olen believes that financial desperation is what’s behind this desire to work past 65 and it’s not going to get better with the passing of time because Gen Xer’s aren’t exactly financially flush. Making matters worse: many retirement experts are recommending people remain in full-time employment for as long as possible.
The only problem is this often isn’t possible.
Last October WP wrote about full-time workers having to retire early because of health issues preventing them from continuing in their jobs, exacerbating their retirement readiness, already in a poor state due to insufficient savings.
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Economist Theresa Ghilarducci of the New School points out the silliness of this idea in Olen’s article.
“Working longer is a retirement plan like winning the lottery or dying earlier is a retirement plan. Being able to work longer is not a plan. It’s a hope.”
Keeping this illusion alive for most clients is simply not being honest with them. Advisors are better served by telling it like it is.
WP spoke to Glenn Szlagowski of Assante Financial Tuesday morning about this very subject. He was crystal clear in his concern for boomer retirees in particular.
“Boomers are in shell shock or denial or both,” says Szlagowski. “Our generation [Glenn’s one of them] has moved to nicer housing in a better part of town, bought grandpa’s cottage in Muskoka ( Need a boat and a nice SUV for that), are putting 2.5 kids through university and swore off stocks in 2008 during the U.S. Financial Crisis.”
“Boomers are in denial that we are aging at the same pace as of all of humankind before us. We may be healthy. But time does indeed march on. When the majority of boomers reach age 60, panic will likely set in.”
Olen finishes with a truism advisors are wise to share with clients.
“Baby boomers are going to retire. It’s time we admitted it.”
Helaine Olen hits the nail on the head when she calls the idea of baby boomers working well into their 70s instead of retiring, “retirement porn.”
Organizations such as AARP are actively promoting this unrealistic ideal in national publications such as Fortune magazine and it’s not doing boomers any favours.
Olen points out in her article in Slate.com:
“[T]o this generation, ‘retirement’ usually means finding a different job,” Fortune opined last month. AARP’s magazine, not to be outdone, recently featured a woman who came out of retirement, quickly landing a job as the head of human resources for a charter school chain—at the age of 70. “I work a nine- or 10-hour day,” she gleefully told the magazine. That wasn’t enough for the Wall Street Journal, which upped the ante with “A Retirement Age of 100? It’s Coming.”
Olen believes that financial desperation is what’s behind this desire to work past 65 and it’s not going to get better with the passing of time because Gen Xer’s aren’t exactly financially flush. Making matters worse: many retirement experts are recommending people remain in full-time employment for as long as possible.
The only problem is this often isn’t possible.
Last October WP wrote about full-time workers having to retire early because of health issues preventing them from continuing in their jobs, exacerbating their retirement readiness, already in a poor state due to insufficient savings.
#pb#
Economist Theresa Ghilarducci of the New School points out the silliness of this idea in Olen’s article.
“Working longer is a retirement plan like winning the lottery or dying earlier is a retirement plan. Being able to work longer is not a plan. It’s a hope.”
Keeping this illusion alive for most clients is simply not being honest with them. Advisors are better served by telling it like it is.
WP spoke to Glenn Szlagowski of Assante Financial Tuesday morning about this very subject. He was crystal clear in his concern for boomer retirees in particular.
“Boomers are in shell shock or denial or both,” says Szlagowski. “Our generation [Glenn’s one of them] has moved to nicer housing in a better part of town, bought grandpa’s cottage in Muskoka ( Need a boat and a nice SUV for that), are putting 2.5 kids through university and swore off stocks in 2008 during the U.S. Financial Crisis.”
“Boomers are in denial that we are aging at the same pace as of all of humankind before us. We may be healthy. But time does indeed march on. When the majority of boomers reach age 60, panic will likely set in.”
Olen finishes with a truism advisors are wise to share with clients.
“Baby boomers are going to retire. It’s time we admitted it.”
