When does someone become old? At age 68. That’s the average of 2,969 answers provided to this question in a recent Pew Research Center telephone survey of Americans age 18 and older. But the responses varied depending on the age and gender of the person answering the question. Most people under age 30 (60 percent) said the typical person becomes old before reaching their 60th birthday. Those currently age 65 and older say old age begins at age 74. Women, on average, say a person becomes old at age 70, while men say age 66 is old.

We like to think that most entrepreneurs are 20-somethings starting Web-based businesses in their garages. Although there are a few famous business titans who launched companies shortly after college or even dropped out, that is far from the norm. Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 have had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than those age 20 to 34 in every year between 1996 and 2007, according to a recent study by the Kauffman Foundation. Dane Stangler, a senior analyst at the Kauffman Foundation and author of the study, says baby boomer entrepreneurship is likely to continue throughout the current recession, both out of necessity after a layoff and because some baby boomers have always wanted to work for themselves.

Automatic enrolling workers in 401(k) plans is generally viewed as a way to get more employees to save for retirement. Instead of requiring workers to sign up and make investment choices, employees automatically have a portion of their paycheck set aside for retirement. These involuntary investors must take action only if they don’t want to participate or disagree with the default investment amount or allocation. A 2006 law made it easier for companies to automatically enroll employees in 401(k) plans. Since then, more employers have been automatically enrolling primarily new employees in 401(k) plans. However, contrarian Punam Anand Keller, a management professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, cautions that automatically enrolling all workers in 401(k)s or similar retirement accounts makes workers less responsible for their retirement decisions and doesn’t help people figure out how much they will need for retirement. U.S. News asked Keller to explain why workers who are automatically enrolled still need to pay attention to their investments. Excerpts:

Dreaming about retiring to the golf course or a mountain town provides a welcome respite from worrying about account balances and 401(k) statements. U.S. News is looking for readers to recommend the best retirement spots in the United States. Please e-mail us at retire@usnews.com and tell us what makes a retirement gem you’ve discovered special. Please include your name, age, telephone number, the city and state you are recommending, and a short description of what makes that locale the ideal place to spend your golden years. Selected entries will be published in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

After the last recession earlier this decade, many employers suspended their 401(k) match and then reinstated it later when the company’s bottom line improved. In fact, in the years following the last recession, employers contributed more to employee 401(k)s than before the recession began, according to Dallas Salisbury, president and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute. But will this recession be different?

The world's population is graying rapidly. The age 65 and older population is projected to triple from 516 million in 2009 to 1.53 billion in 2050, according to Census Bureau projections released yesterday. The proportion of younger people under age 15 is only expected to increase by 6 percent during the same time period, from 1.83 billion to 1.93 billion.

Employers are tweaking 401(k) plans to save money. Most finance and human resources executives say that their company’s 401(k) plan needs slight modifications (56 percent) or a number of improvements (32 percent), according to a new survey. Only 9 percent of the HR employees surveyed think their 401(k) plan needs no changes, the online survey of 219 executives at companies with revenue over $100 million by CFO Research Services and Charles Schwab Corporation found. The survey went on to ask the executives what changes the company has made to the 401(k) plan since September 2008 or plans to make in the near future. The responses: