Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
April 1, 2015 -- We were surprised recently by a group of commenters who took umbrage at the notion that you can work and also be retired. Their more traditional view was that if you are retired, you don't work, period. A few even quoted dictionary definitions to support their case. But an increasing body of evidence points to an overwhelming trend in the opposite direction - that retirement is often going to be anything but traditional or predictable. It is more likely to be a transition than it is stopping work. Instead of just cashing pension and Social Security checks and having morning coffee or golf with the guys, it might mean a change of career or a part time or volunteer job. The trend is toward more of a highly personal, very customizable
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Published on March 31, 2015
Comments 32
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
March 3, 2015 --
Note: Last year the class of 1964, the group that kicked off the baby boom when they arrived on the planet in 1946, had their 50th high school reunions.
Thank you to the almost 300 members who took the time to contribute your valuable insights to last week's "50th Reunion" survey. We now have a much fuller idea of your intentions and attitudes towards these impending celebrations. As always, it is your insights and comments that are the most interesting part of these surveys. So as promised, here is a detailed report on the findings. At the end of this article you will also find many of the fascinating comments you provided in the open ended parts of each question - we think you will enjoy them. A list of our previous survey reports is provided at the end of the article. A followup we did on our own 50th reunion is here, "An Anatomy of a 50th High School Reunion".
Highlights
This survey was one of our more whimsical ones, so we hope you enjoy
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Published on March 2, 2015
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Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Note: This survey is closed. You can read our full report on the findings including dozens of interesting comments from the survey at “Boomers Look Forward to Their 50th Reunions with Facebook and an Occasional Tad of Cattiness“. February 23, 2015 — There will be a LOT of baby…
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Published on February 23, 2015
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Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
January 10, 2015 -- A lot of people have big plans for the exciting things they are going to do when they retire. Undoubtedly many of these will be memorable experiences and a source of pleasure. Now a new study puts a different perspective on that pursuit. The study looks at the kinds of experiences - ordinary vs. extraordinary - that create the most long term happiness. The biggest finding was this - as we age we tend to get just as much satisfaction from ordinary experiences as we do those extraordinary ones.
The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research, "Happiness from Ordinary and Extraordinary Experiences". Using analysis from Facebook posts, the authors of the study found some some surprising answers. It also mentioned earlier research that shows that experiences provide people with much more happiness than material possessions.
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Published on January 9, 2015
Comments 13
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
December 21, 2014 -- Welcome back to the 50's! Your editor had the good fortune to visit Cuba this November, only a few weeks before news of the normalization of relations was announced by the President. We found Cuba to be a fascinating country of many contradictions. Our visit was educational (we went with the Florida TREE Institute) and extremely interesting.
One of the definite highlights of the trip was the chance to be surrounded by, and even ride in, countless cars of our baby boomer youth. We'd like to share this nostalgia through some musings and photos. As an interactive exercise, we'd like to enlist your help in identifying some cars that defy our cataloging skills. At the end of this article we will share a few brief observations about Cuba, if you care to read on.
Those glorious American cars of the 50s
This might be a guy thing, but when your editor was growing up in the 1950s cars were a significant
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Published on December 25, 2014
Comments 9
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
August 21, 2013 -- Now that you are retired you probably have a little more free time to pursue the interests you always wanted to. You probably also have a desire to re-connect with old friends and family. The Internet and its so called "social media" sites like Facebook are a great way to fulfill both of those desires. Their easy to use tools can instantly and effortlessly put you in contact with family, friends, acquaintances, old school mates, army buddies, long lost lovers, etc. They can also help you pursue hobbies and interests with like-minded folks in a most enjoyable way. Unfortunately, they have downsides too. Used without some common sense precautions, social media can be destructive to relationships, dangerous to you and your property, or just plain annoying. This article will first discuss the concept of social media and then outline our list of the worst mistakes retirees can make in social media.
Growth and Use
Social media is one of the fastest and most pervasive developments of all time. Facebook, the first and by far the biggest social networking site, was only available to students at Harvard University when it began in 2004. That handful of users has exploded to over a billion today; the New York Times recently reported one out of 7 people in the world use Facebook now! The Pew Internet Project reports that 72% of the U.S. online population uses
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Published on August 21, 2013
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Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
April 3, 2012 -- Some weeks we run across so many good stories and helpful features. So rather than let them go to seed, we are providing them in a form of a list. If you are interested, and we think you should be, just click on the link to get more. Here goes (a few links might require subscription):
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Published on April 3, 2012
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Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
November 29, 2011 -- Marketers have been salivating about baby boomers since the time we started overwhelming kindergartens in 1951. Developers are still excited about our huge numbers (76 million); today they are are eager to supply us with real estate for our "golden years". Yet, just as when we were in our teens a lot of companies couldn't connect with us, many of the people trying to market to us today are hopelessly young, and they don't always get what makes us tick either.
One constant is that baby boomers will never think of themselves as old. Our bodies might not look much like what they did when we got naked at Woodstock, but, attitudinally, we still tend to place ourselves in our late teens or 20's. Keeping that in mind, here are the top things that baby boomers don't want to hear as they think about retirement. Some are contradictory, but heh, who ever
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Published on November 28, 2011
Comments 25
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
July 13, 2011 -- When you were in college or just out of school, did your parents seem old to you? Mine were in their mid 50's then, and they seemed a little bit old. Funny how mid-50's feels awfully young these days. According to a new Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll, a lot of baby boomers feel the same way - the median age cited as starting to get old is 70, with a quarter going a lot higher, about 80. Younger adults, however, seem to think 60 represents the start of old age. The results among baby boomers make sense to us!
Other conclusions from the survey are interesting
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Published on July 13, 2011
Comments 3
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
June 1, 2011 -- NPR is running a call-in show today asking listeners what TV show they would bring back if they were in charge of the universe. It's a contest anyone old enough to be a baby boomer might enjoy. Through the miracle of Netflix your editor just spent a few happy sessions on the exercise bike watching the 1st 3 shows in the "Have Gun Will Travel" series, which first aired in 1957. The show, as you probably remember, features Paladin, a gun for hire. One of the beauties of having lost so many brain cells...
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Published on June 1, 2011
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