Sometimes I Feel Like a Piece of Bologna

Boomers Nearing Retirement -- or Are They?

Liz Taylor of the Seattle Times offers some fascinating – and frightening—stats on the status of retirement and retirees today. She talks about the 78 million Baby Boomers who have started turning 60. She states:

In 2000, Americans 65 or older accounted for 12 percent of the population. In 2030, that figure will climb to nearly 20 percent. Yet in 2075, when every boomer is dead, people 65 or older will be 23 percent of the population. The numbers will go up, not down.

The shift is the result of two immutable forces that have been going on for decades and will continue: declining mortality and declining fertility.

This "demographic tsunami" has no precedent.

There’s a litany of institutions and supports that will soon be overwhelmed — Social Security, Medicare, assisted living, our doctors' offices — yet the issue is barely on the public's radar.

When Social Security chose age 65 as the official retirement age in 1935, the average life expectancy was only 63. Today, boomers who make it to age 60 are likely to live to 83.

Employers are responding with more flexible schedules and benefits to attract seniors who will work into their 70s and even 80s, both because they are healthier and because they have not saved for retirement.

There’s a lot more information in the article. Worth reading and pondering. How are you coping with being an aging Boomer?

Labels: Baby Boomers, Medicare, retirement, Social Security