Not Acting Their Age
Forever young? It is also the realization that even if they work in retirement, as 80 percent of those in a 1998 AARP survey said they think they will, life without the all-defining career might be less than fulfilling to boomers. "We're never short of things to do," says Hegreness. But, he adds, "there's a certain guilt feeling we harbor. We're not really contributing to society." After all, this is the generation whose anthem included the memorable lyric of the Who's "My Generation": "Hope I die before I get old."
That's not likely, given advances in medicine and fitness. In 1900, the average person could not expect to live beyond 50. When Social Security began in 1935, the retirement age of 65 was actually older than the roughly 61 years the average male could expect to live. Today, Social Security recipients of both sexes can expect to live at least into their 70s.
That has turned the business of retirement on its head. Now, it is about managing decades of post-labor life rather than awaiting the grim reaper. That explains why so many retirees and "pre-retirees" say they expect to work well past their nominal retirement. Indeed, the trend toward early retirement in the past decade seems to be reversing slightly. After dropping for some time to about 62, the average age of retirement has leveled off at about 63. "The word retirement is going to lose its meaning over time," says Jim Thompson, director of shareholder education for AARP's investment program at Zurich Scudder Investments.
Retirement certainly isn't the word one would use to describe Sharon Dunn's lifestyle. The resident of Sun City Grand, an upscale community of people 50 and older developed by Del Webb Corp., builder of the pioneering Sun City retirement community in Phoenix 41 years ago, defies easy categorization. Dunn, 51, retired early from her job as a facilities maintenance manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. She moved to Arizona, where she intended to look for another job. But, she says with a laugh, "I haven't had the time."
No wonder. As she tells it, "My calendar just fills up." There's golf two or three times a week, bicycling, and hiking nearby mountain trails. "I was terrified of retiring," she says. "My life was my job; I worked 10 to 12 hours a day. I had no idea how much I disliked it." And her new life? "It's like being a kid again. Either I'll go back to school, or I'll look for a new job."
Great rooms. Satisfying the multiple interests of the zoomers is a marketing challenge. The cookie-cutter prescription of the retirement communities of the 1960s doesn't hold much appeal for zoomers, who as expressive adolescents spray-painted psychedelic images on the sides of their VW buses. Nor do a golf course, swimming pool, and tennis court suffice as amenities. Today's "active adult" communities have gyms that would put most college athletic programs to shame, computer labs with high-speed Internet access, and meeting rooms where local universities often hold special courses. And even the notion of moving to some Sun Belt locale is losing its shine.
advertisement
