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News July 2013

Aid for Age

Oldest Boomers’ Rapidly Changing Attitudes and Lifestyles

By Tait Trussell

The figures on boomer retirement represent a big change since 2007 and 2008 when only 19 percent of the oldest boomers were retired as well as a leap up from the 45 percent retired in 2011.

 

Most of the oldest of the baby boomers – those now age 67 – say there’s no way they’re “working till they drop.” This attitude flies in the face of past predictions about their employment intentions — to keep working.

This is one of the significant findings in a new report about the forefront of this massive segment of the population, the first of whom were born in 1946

More than half of the 1946-born boomers are already fully retired. Thirty-eight percent of them say they were just plain ready to quit work, although 10 percent say they lost their jobs and another 17 percent cite poor health as the reason they retired.

Twenty-one percent, however, are still working full-time and don’t plan to call it quits until they reach age 71 — largely because they have to keep going. That’s up from age 69 — the age given in a 2011 report. Some 14 percent are working part-time, not as a matter of choice. You can blame the still half-asleep economy.

The new numbers on the aims of the oldest boomers come from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, which has been gathering and analyzing trends affecting seniors for the past 16 years.

The figures on boomer retirement represent a big change since 2007 and 2008 when only 19 percent of the oldest boomers were retired as well as a leap up from the 45 percent retired in 2011.

In 2012, the Institute studied baby boomers at age 65 in a study ”How America’s Baby Boomers Will Transform Aging, Work & Retirement.” The new study tracks the group as they aged two years. It examines their finances, family life, housing as well as their views on generational issues.

The majority of retirees report, as might have been expected, that they now have less income than when they were working. Yet – unexpectedly – only 20 percent said they felt their standard of living had declined.

This may well show how much of the country’s population has had to adjust to difficult changes and “slow times,” the report said.

While the oldest boomers have plunged into retirement, even though some have been forced to, the Institute says “they seem to be largely feeling healthy and positive.” On the negative side, however, about half of this cohort “may not have achieved their retirement savings goals and are not confident about paying for the next phase of their lives.”

Here are some other major findings of the Institute’s report:

  • Half of the 86 percent who are collecting Social Security benefits began collecting earlier than they had been planning to.
  • Four percent of the oldest boomers are self-employed, while 14 percent are at jobs part-time or seasonally.
  • The top retirement shadow hanging over these boomers was concerns about long-term care. Some 31 percent were worried about this for themselves or their spouse.
  • Fewer than 25 percent have long-term care provisions in spite of their concern.
  • 82 percent don’t plan to move; rather they plan to age where they now live.
  • Eight percent owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
  • The average number of grandchildren these boomers have is 4.8.
  • 79 percent of oldest boomers have neither of their parents living.
  • More than one in 10 are providing regular care for a parent or older relative.
  • Oldest boomers see themselves as being “old” when they reach the age of 78.5.
  • 16 percent of these oldest boomers see themselves as being sharpest mentally now in their 60s. But the largest percentage thinks they were sharpest in their 40s.
  • More than 40 percent of these oldest boomers are reasonably optimistic about their health and 20 percent actually feel good about their personal finances.
  • More than half of this group feels their generation is leaving a positive legacy for future generations in terms of values and morals and good work ethics. The others apparently believe morals and work ethics have declined, with concerns about our heritage as a free republic and prevalence of “political correctness.”
  • Some 23 percent are pessimistic — about the government and the economy, with historically high national debt and a nation so partisan and divided.

The research was collected at the end of 2012. A total of 1,003 respondents were surveyed by phone.

 

Tait Trussell is an old guy and fourth-generation professional journalist who writes extensively about aging issues among a myriad of diverse topics.

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