Freeway of the future?
Why are retirees locking themselves away in leisureville?
William Hanley, Financial Post Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008
Had Walt Disney envisioned the housing development of 2008, he might easily have conjured up The Villages north of Orlando in central Florida. Had George Orwell envisioned the housing development of 2008, it also might have been The Villages, a sprawling age-segregated and gated retirement community that could have the motto: In Golf We Trust.
Indeed, after reading Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias, I'm inclined to believe The Villages is Disney's Magic Kingdom for the over-55s with an undertone of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a place where utopia meets dystopia, where endless leisure coexists quite comfortably with numbing, autocratic conformity.
Author Andrew D. Blechman, a young New Englander, at first can't believe the descriptions of The Villages provided by a retired older neighbour who is moving there with his wife. They seem so over the top and kind of creepy. After all, the largest gated community in the world has 75,000 residents (with another 35,000 on the way), spans three counties, two zip codes and 8,000 hectares, sports three dozen golf courses and has 160 kilometres of trails for golf carts, which are the primary mode of transportation for the Villagers.
In this totalitarian gerontopia for retirees, residents can drive their golf carts to movies, supermarkets, churches, recreation centres, clinics, dozens of pools or two crime-free "village" centres. Just about everything can be found in this peculiar paradise except for one thing: children.
The Villages, like thousands of gated retirement (and non-retirement) communities across North America, offers residents not necessarily a world without children, but a world with children on demand. A person must be at least 55 to buy a home in The Villages and no one under 19 may live there. Children can visit, but their stays are limited to 30 days a year.
The rules of The Villages are strictly enforced:Weeds must be removed, lawns -- at least 51% sod -- edged and hedges over four-feet high are prohibited. So, too, are clotheslines and individual mailboxes. Pets are limited to two per house, window air conditioners are forbidden, Halloween trick-or-treaters are not allowed.
And big neighbour, like Orwell's Big Brother, is always watching. Golf-cart passersby are sure to complain if these and other covenants are broken. Further, the local newspaper, The Daily Sun, is a junior league Ministry of Truth of the corporation that runs The Villages, so bad news is no news.
Though Blechman was both dismayed and amused by descriptions of The Villages, he decided to visit with his older friends and find out for himself what the attraction is behind retirement community gates. Leisureville is not exactly an expose of age-segregated retirement living, but a lively and thoughtful account of a lifestyle that can be at once entertaining and appalling. The book is full of warm, appealing characters. It also has tinges of the sadness and wistfulness that often accompany the later years.
Blechman goes beyond The Villages -- "a retirement community on steroids" -- to Arizona and to the oddly named Youngtown, the first elders-only community, and to Sun City, which once bloomed in the desert but is now a half-century old and showing it. The many problems and issues that have caught up with Sun City, the butt of many an ageist joke in my youth, will likely one day visit The Villages and its smaller kin, he says. They include, most notably, a lack of tax-base support for local schools as retirees say they've paid their education support dues over their lifetimes. Blechman talked to many Villagers who said they'd also paid their share and were tired of giving back.
Blechman wonders what, exactly, they've given. "Blessed to be born into one of the richest generations in the history of the world, they've led a life that most people can only dream of. Such good fortune wasn't a matter of luck: it was given to them by previous generations who made untold sacrifices through two world wars and a devastating depression. ? Surely today's retirees have something more to pass on than a love of golf and perceived entitlement to lock themselves away
in leisurevilles. That's no citizenship; that's secession. It's a form of surrender, an acknowledgement of societal failure."
Hold on, Andrew. This is not the end of the world.
While there is something to worry about in the trend to leisurevilles, only a small percentage of retirees and Boomers will opt to lock themselves away. Indeed, well over half of Boomers say they're not going to retire. They and most others will stick around and work and coexist like the rest of society, possibly escaping for some R&R during the winter months.
In the meantime, many of those in The Villages and elsewhere will tire of the lifestyle, forgo the weather and head back home -- even if it is just for the summer or to visit family occasionally.
And those who stay the course will find their communities necessarily morphing over time into places resembling towns with the usual needs and problems.
The prospect of retiring to The Villages or any other gated retirement community doesn't interest me.
I've never even been in one, but I have this strong feeling that they're ghettos for the elderly --grey-ttos, if you will.
Yet, while I can't quite understand the desire some folks have to retire to such white-bread conformity, I respect the right of those who do. Even Andrew D. Blechman acknowledges that leisurevilles are "a powerful vision that has proved to be very appealing to a sizable segment of aging Americans."
whanley@nationalpost.com
Showing posts with label active. Show all posts
Showing posts with label active. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Touring America’s Retirement Communities
Touring America’s Retirement Communities
By Daniel ElkindThu. May 15, 2008
HAVING A BALL: Seniors enjoy lawn bowling at an Arizona retirement community.
Leisureville: Adventures in America’s Retirement Utopias By Andrew D. Blechman Atlantic Monthly Press, 256 pages, $25.
Del Webb’s Sun Cities in the Arizona desert; The Villages north of Orlando, Fla.; a new Catholic-themed town called Ave Maria: Home to nearly 12 million people, these are America’s largest and most popular gated retirement communities, or, as Andrew D. Blechman calls them in his new book, “Leisureville,” “America’s retirement utopias.” The Sir Thomas More reference is neither obligatory nor inapt; the guiding concern of Blechman’s inquiry is what this age-based phenomenon means for us as a society, and what its moral implications are for the future.
Historically, Jews have often been at the forefront of utopian movements — especially failed ones — and from Karl Marx to William Levitt, they have publicly staked their reputations in these places that, by definition, do not or cannot exist. Youngtown, the first retirement community in America, was built outside Phoenix in 1954 by Benjamin Schleifer, a Jewish immigrant from Minsk who, apparently, was inspired by Plato and the 71st Psalm: “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort.” (After Youngtown, he went bankrupt trying to found a kibbutz for American retirees in the Arizona desert.)
The founder of The Villages in Florida, Harold S. Schwartz — whose ashes are permanently part of the statue erected to him in the “village” of Spanish Springs — was the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Hungary. But while many members of these communities are Jewish, too, and synagogues can be found amid their golf turf and sprawl, Blechman’s primary interest is not in the eerily false perfection of such places, but rather in the American psychology of segregation, radical individualism and the fears underlying the dreams of their residents: Who or what are these pleasant-villagers trying to keep out?
One obvious culprit is old age itself. Blechman is shocked by the total absence of Halloween at his uncle’s upscale community in central New Jersey, where children “aren’t forbidden so much as discouraged.” He remembers that the new hospital in The Villages will not include a maternity ward. And in a chapter on housing laws, he correlates class with race, showing how legislation against families with children is often intended as a barrier of entry for minorities and other low-income groups. It is clear that after religion and language, the multigenerational family has become the last casualty of immigrant life in America. With their children and grandchildren living scattered across all 50 states and various parts of the world, many of those wealthy enough to retire prefer the arrested development of age-segregated communities, with their health care facilities, private newspapers, elevator music stations and, in one case, the world’s longest golf cart parade of “nearly 3,500 low-speed vehicles” to the exigencies of a typical hometown. Yet in one sense their excesses and feelings of entitlement are only symptoms of our own.
The Villages, for example, is the largest gated retirement community in the world, spanning “three counties, two zip codes, and more than 20,000 acres […] subdivided into dozens of separate gated communities,” that share “two manufactured downtowns, a financial district, and several shopping centers, […] all of it connected by nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails.” Unlike Sun City, which has aged less gracefully than it promised to, The Villages is still relatively young and expanding. With 75,000 residents and room for 35,000 more, it comprises a kind of Disneyland for people who no longer want to pay taxes for schools they’ll never attend — though presumably their grandchildren will — and, just like Disney’s pet project in what once was Florida swampland and citrus, it is essentially a company state accountable only to Chapter 190, an umbrella law that gives developers jurisdiction over the land they’ve purchased at lucrative rates and over the homeowners who reside there in ignorance of how their villages are actually governed. Thus beloved by real estate developers, by the food and beverage industry and by such retailers as Wal-Mart, these retirement colonies are in many ways the reactionary offspring of late capitalism, utopias for tax-shy seniors who would rather turn their backs on a system that provided for them when they were “55-” and on its tradition of democratic representation in which the welfare of all citizens — not just the leisure class — is taken into account.
But not all retirees are deadbeats; some of them just want to live completely surrounded by people exactly like themselves. In their increasingly younger old age, more and more Americans prefer to be comforted by the predictability of a fabricated paradise where they can ultimately choose to ignore the world beyond. Living under a kind of voluntary siege, promiscuity and its consequences are the only things thriving in these “geritopias”: According to Blechman, seniors “are now one of the fastest-growing populations at risk of STDs,” because “more than sixty percent of sexually active older singles have unprotected sex.” As if on cue, he meets Mr. Midnight, a pot-smoking, Corvette-driving, 63-year-old former biology teacher from Illinois. Mr. Midnight tells Blechman that due to the favorable female-to-male ratio, a bachelor can have a memorable time in a retirement community, though he does have a couple of rules: not sleeping with anyone younger than his kids, and not falling in love.
Another resident bachelor, 73, tells him about the teenage waitresses, wife-swapping and a group of swingers allegedly posing as a wine club. Finally, a female retiree says, “The only problem with being a widow in The Villages is that you’re so busy you forget you are one,” and life, presumably, beats on at its electronically synchronized pace.
Part exurban exposé, part postmodern Roald Dahl parable, “Leisureville” reads more accurately like a dark Stanley Elkin novel — remember the mortuary ‘burbs of “The Rabbi of Lud” or Main Street, U.S.A. in “The Magic Kingdom”? — in which a satiric journalism of today’s lifestyle realities has replaced the journalistic satire of yesterday’s consumer fads. Only whereas Elkin’s novels ultimately reassured us by mocking the sincerity of human folly, the surreal humanity of characters like Mr. Midnight and Del Webb — the construction magnate whose experience in building planned communities before Sun City included internment camps for more than 25,000 Japanese — is often all too real, and close, for comfort.
Were the sun to have set on him in The Villages, even Ben Flesh — the Franchiser — might have run for the still-underdeveloped Florida hills.
Daniel Elkind is a writer and translator who lives in Brooklyn.
By Daniel ElkindThu. May 15, 2008
HAVING A BALL: Seniors enjoy lawn bowling at an Arizona retirement community.
Leisureville: Adventures in America’s Retirement Utopias By Andrew D. Blechman Atlantic Monthly Press, 256 pages, $25.
Del Webb’s Sun Cities in the Arizona desert; The Villages north of Orlando, Fla.; a new Catholic-themed town called Ave Maria: Home to nearly 12 million people, these are America’s largest and most popular gated retirement communities, or, as Andrew D. Blechman calls them in his new book, “Leisureville,” “America’s retirement utopias.” The Sir Thomas More reference is neither obligatory nor inapt; the guiding concern of Blechman’s inquiry is what this age-based phenomenon means for us as a society, and what its moral implications are for the future.
Historically, Jews have often been at the forefront of utopian movements — especially failed ones — and from Karl Marx to William Levitt, they have publicly staked their reputations in these places that, by definition, do not or cannot exist. Youngtown, the first retirement community in America, was built outside Phoenix in 1954 by Benjamin Schleifer, a Jewish immigrant from Minsk who, apparently, was inspired by Plato and the 71st Psalm: “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort.” (After Youngtown, he went bankrupt trying to found a kibbutz for American retirees in the Arizona desert.)
The founder of The Villages in Florida, Harold S. Schwartz — whose ashes are permanently part of the statue erected to him in the “village” of Spanish Springs — was the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Hungary. But while many members of these communities are Jewish, too, and synagogues can be found amid their golf turf and sprawl, Blechman’s primary interest is not in the eerily false perfection of such places, but rather in the American psychology of segregation, radical individualism and the fears underlying the dreams of their residents: Who or what are these pleasant-villagers trying to keep out?
One obvious culprit is old age itself. Blechman is shocked by the total absence of Halloween at his uncle’s upscale community in central New Jersey, where children “aren’t forbidden so much as discouraged.” He remembers that the new hospital in The Villages will not include a maternity ward. And in a chapter on housing laws, he correlates class with race, showing how legislation against families with children is often intended as a barrier of entry for minorities and other low-income groups. It is clear that after religion and language, the multigenerational family has become the last casualty of immigrant life in America. With their children and grandchildren living scattered across all 50 states and various parts of the world, many of those wealthy enough to retire prefer the arrested development of age-segregated communities, with their health care facilities, private newspapers, elevator music stations and, in one case, the world’s longest golf cart parade of “nearly 3,500 low-speed vehicles” to the exigencies of a typical hometown. Yet in one sense their excesses and feelings of entitlement are only symptoms of our own.
The Villages, for example, is the largest gated retirement community in the world, spanning “three counties, two zip codes, and more than 20,000 acres […] subdivided into dozens of separate gated communities,” that share “two manufactured downtowns, a financial district, and several shopping centers, […] all of it connected by nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails.” Unlike Sun City, which has aged less gracefully than it promised to, The Villages is still relatively young and expanding. With 75,000 residents and room for 35,000 more, it comprises a kind of Disneyland for people who no longer want to pay taxes for schools they’ll never attend — though presumably their grandchildren will — and, just like Disney’s pet project in what once was Florida swampland and citrus, it is essentially a company state accountable only to Chapter 190, an umbrella law that gives developers jurisdiction over the land they’ve purchased at lucrative rates and over the homeowners who reside there in ignorance of how their villages are actually governed. Thus beloved by real estate developers, by the food and beverage industry and by such retailers as Wal-Mart, these retirement colonies are in many ways the reactionary offspring of late capitalism, utopias for tax-shy seniors who would rather turn their backs on a system that provided for them when they were “55-” and on its tradition of democratic representation in which the welfare of all citizens — not just the leisure class — is taken into account.
But not all retirees are deadbeats; some of them just want to live completely surrounded by people exactly like themselves. In their increasingly younger old age, more and more Americans prefer to be comforted by the predictability of a fabricated paradise where they can ultimately choose to ignore the world beyond. Living under a kind of voluntary siege, promiscuity and its consequences are the only things thriving in these “geritopias”: According to Blechman, seniors “are now one of the fastest-growing populations at risk of STDs,” because “more than sixty percent of sexually active older singles have unprotected sex.” As if on cue, he meets Mr. Midnight, a pot-smoking, Corvette-driving, 63-year-old former biology teacher from Illinois. Mr. Midnight tells Blechman that due to the favorable female-to-male ratio, a bachelor can have a memorable time in a retirement community, though he does have a couple of rules: not sleeping with anyone younger than his kids, and not falling in love.
Another resident bachelor, 73, tells him about the teenage waitresses, wife-swapping and a group of swingers allegedly posing as a wine club. Finally, a female retiree says, “The only problem with being a widow in The Villages is that you’re so busy you forget you are one,” and life, presumably, beats on at its electronically synchronized pace.
Part exurban exposé, part postmodern Roald Dahl parable, “Leisureville” reads more accurately like a dark Stanley Elkin novel — remember the mortuary ‘burbs of “The Rabbi of Lud” or Main Street, U.S.A. in “The Magic Kingdom”? — in which a satiric journalism of today’s lifestyle realities has replaced the journalistic satire of yesterday’s consumer fads. Only whereas Elkin’s novels ultimately reassured us by mocking the sincerity of human folly, the surreal humanity of characters like Mr. Midnight and Del Webb — the construction magnate whose experience in building planned communities before Sun City included internment camps for more than 25,000 Japanese — is often all too real, and close, for comfort.
Were the sun to have set on him in The Villages, even Ben Flesh — the Franchiser — might have run for the still-underdeveloped Florida hills.
Daniel Elkind is a writer and translator who lives in Brooklyn.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Is A "Phased Retirement" Your Best Option?
By Kent Johnson
There's been a lot of buzz lately about so-called "phased retirements," where older workers choose to work less -- and on their own terms -- rather than retire completely. This can ease the financial burden of having to live entirely off your retirement savings or social security, while still allowing flexibility and time to do the things you really enjoy in life.
And this doesn't mean you have to settle for working part- time in a fast food restaurant or as a greeter in a department store. More and more companies are using phased retirements as a way of retaining their older employees, which they see as valuable assets (which of course they are). Older workers often have decades of critical knowledge and experience that they can pass on to their younger co-workers, which benefits everyone concerned.
Easing into retirement can lessen the shock of suddenly having no place to go in the morning, a situation that many newly-retired workers have difficulty adjusting to. This is especially a problem for workaholic types who've been logging 50 or 60 hour work weeks for most of their adult lives. And for people who have no hobbies, outside interests, or children, the hours of the day can seem to stretch on and on.
There are also financial considerations with retirement. With people living longer than ever, and the ever-increasing cost of living, it's becoming harder to retire with a comfortable standard of living (especially if you want to travel, upgrade your home, buy expensive furnishings, etc).
Which is where phased retirements come in. In one recent survey, over 60 percent of workers between 50 and 70 years old said that they'd like to work part-time before they fully retire. These older workers also want retirement benefits, health insurance, and other benefits -- although most realize that a smaller paycheck will be part of the deal as well.
Not all employers are willing or able to allow their older workers to ease into retirement. In fact, formal programs of this type are rare, so you'll probably have to approach your boss or human resource department and make some sort of informal arrangement. If there are other older workers at your company already in a flex program, then you ask them about their arrangement, and how it was established.
One reason that formal phased retirement programs are rare is the fact that the Federal Government hasn't enacted legislation in order to define just how such programs should be administered. There are health insurance issues with some companies, and pension rules that prohibit some employers from giving partial retirement payments to workers who wish to trim back their hours before full retirement age.
But with the overall population aging, and the baby boom generation approaching 60, look for more companies -- large and small -- to implement some sort of phased retirement program.
After all, if done correctly, it can turn out to be a win- win situation for everyone.
Kent Johnson - author, publisher, career coach. "Helping people realize their dreams one career at a time." Your Dream Career.com - your source for career tips and info ==> http://your-dream-career.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Johnson
There's been a lot of buzz lately about so-called "phased retirements," where older workers choose to work less -- and on their own terms -- rather than retire completely. This can ease the financial burden of having to live entirely off your retirement savings or social security, while still allowing flexibility and time to do the things you really enjoy in life.
And this doesn't mean you have to settle for working part- time in a fast food restaurant or as a greeter in a department store. More and more companies are using phased retirements as a way of retaining their older employees, which they see as valuable assets (which of course they are). Older workers often have decades of critical knowledge and experience that they can pass on to their younger co-workers, which benefits everyone concerned.
Easing into retirement can lessen the shock of suddenly having no place to go in the morning, a situation that many newly-retired workers have difficulty adjusting to. This is especially a problem for workaholic types who've been logging 50 or 60 hour work weeks for most of their adult lives. And for people who have no hobbies, outside interests, or children, the hours of the day can seem to stretch on and on.
There are also financial considerations with retirement. With people living longer than ever, and the ever-increasing cost of living, it's becoming harder to retire with a comfortable standard of living (especially if you want to travel, upgrade your home, buy expensive furnishings, etc).
Which is where phased retirements come in. In one recent survey, over 60 percent of workers between 50 and 70 years old said that they'd like to work part-time before they fully retire. These older workers also want retirement benefits, health insurance, and other benefits -- although most realize that a smaller paycheck will be part of the deal as well.
Not all employers are willing or able to allow their older workers to ease into retirement. In fact, formal programs of this type are rare, so you'll probably have to approach your boss or human resource department and make some sort of informal arrangement. If there are other older workers at your company already in a flex program, then you ask them about their arrangement, and how it was established.
One reason that formal phased retirement programs are rare is the fact that the Federal Government hasn't enacted legislation in order to define just how such programs should be administered. There are health insurance issues with some companies, and pension rules that prohibit some employers from giving partial retirement payments to workers who wish to trim back their hours before full retirement age.
But with the overall population aging, and the baby boom generation approaching 60, look for more companies -- large and small -- to implement some sort of phased retirement program.
After all, if done correctly, it can turn out to be a win- win situation for everyone.
Kent Johnson - author, publisher, career coach. "Helping people realize their dreams one career at a time." Your Dream Career.com - your source for career tips and info ==> http://your-dream-career.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Johnson
The Workplace is going Grey
By Teena Rose
Article provided by SuccessfulResumes.com.
Leading executive resume writer to catapult your second career.
A popular perception in the workplace has always been that employers were all too eager to offer early retirement packages to encourage older workers to step aside because of their salary and benefit costs to the company. That perception may be on the way out, as the greying of the baby-boomer generation is poised to leave American companies short-handed.
Concern in the U.S. and abroad is quickly approaching a watershed moment as employers are staring a shortage of workers right in the face. In 2011, the Employment Policy Foundation expects there to be 4 million more jobs than workers. That number is expected to rise to 35 million unfilled jobs by the 2030.The outcome, experts say, will be more seniors remaining or returning to a job site that will include many more post-65 workers. The terms blue-collar and white-collar workers will be joined by a new adage. The silver-collar worker.
With 76 million people in the baby boomer generation (1946-64) and just 45 million Gen-Xers, the numbers define a clear gap that will need to be filled using various strategies, including extending the typical working life beyond 65 years as advocated for years.
The trend has become so pronounced, companies have formed partnerships with the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) to create a Featured Employers community, which highlights employers who are senior-friendly. Some of the companies include big names like Home Depot, Walgreen's, Verizon and MetLife. As demand increases, AARP expects the list of employers eager to hire older workers will grow substantially.
According to networking website ExecuNet, industries where seniors are seeing the biggest gains include health care, high tech, financial services, business services and defense/aerospace. And the three biggest industries where huge future gaps are expected, include retail sales, registered nurses and postsecondary teachers. Retaining or hiring older workers also gives employers the loyalty advantage. According to a recent study, workers age 55 to 64 have been in their jobs three times as long as their younger counterparts. The study, released late last year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that 25-34 year-olds averaged 2.9 years at the same job, while 55-64 year-olds averaged 9.3 years. Since turnover is costly, and the glut of workers is expected to rise soon, the retirement-age worker may hold more advantages than the recent college graduate."We've definitely seen that older workers are more loyal," Astra Group consultant Sara Jung told Inc.com. "Younger workers are more likely to jump ship if they get a more attractive offer."Another trend focused on recently by Time magazine is the "bridge job."
Before going into full retirement mode, many workers over 55 are slowing instead of stopping their careers with part-time jobs of full-time jobs for typically less than a decade.
Not only will companies need older employees. Older employees will need the companies, and the income they provide.
"In the next five to 20 years, we're going to see a lot of people who think they're going to be ready for retirement, and all of a sudden they're going to work out the numbers, look at how much money they've saved and realize, 'I can't retire,' " Bouchey Financial Group CEO Steven Bouchey told the Albany Times Union in January. "I always say that everybody dreams about retiring on a hill overlooking a lake. Many people are going to be retiring in a trailer overlooking a swamp."
_____________________________________________________
Teena Rose, Book Author, Columnist,Resume Writer,Career Specialist, 1999 - Present. Provide resume writing and career services to an array of career professionals, ranking from new graduates and entry-level jobseekers to business owners and executives. Target advice and coaching services to give jobseekers a leg-up against "the competition."
Article provided by SuccessfulResumes.com.
Leading executive resume writer to catapult your second career.
A popular perception in the workplace has always been that employers were all too eager to offer early retirement packages to encourage older workers to step aside because of their salary and benefit costs to the company. That perception may be on the way out, as the greying of the baby-boomer generation is poised to leave American companies short-handed.
Concern in the U.S. and abroad is quickly approaching a watershed moment as employers are staring a shortage of workers right in the face. In 2011, the Employment Policy Foundation expects there to be 4 million more jobs than workers. That number is expected to rise to 35 million unfilled jobs by the 2030.The outcome, experts say, will be more seniors remaining or returning to a job site that will include many more post-65 workers. The terms blue-collar and white-collar workers will be joined by a new adage. The silver-collar worker.
With 76 million people in the baby boomer generation (1946-64) and just 45 million Gen-Xers, the numbers define a clear gap that will need to be filled using various strategies, including extending the typical working life beyond 65 years as advocated for years.
The trend has become so pronounced, companies have formed partnerships with the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) to create a Featured Employers community, which highlights employers who are senior-friendly. Some of the companies include big names like Home Depot, Walgreen's, Verizon and MetLife. As demand increases, AARP expects the list of employers eager to hire older workers will grow substantially.
According to networking website ExecuNet, industries where seniors are seeing the biggest gains include health care, high tech, financial services, business services and defense/aerospace. And the three biggest industries where huge future gaps are expected, include retail sales, registered nurses and postsecondary teachers. Retaining or hiring older workers also gives employers the loyalty advantage. According to a recent study, workers age 55 to 64 have been in their jobs three times as long as their younger counterparts. The study, released late last year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that 25-34 year-olds averaged 2.9 years at the same job, while 55-64 year-olds averaged 9.3 years. Since turnover is costly, and the glut of workers is expected to rise soon, the retirement-age worker may hold more advantages than the recent college graduate."We've definitely seen that older workers are more loyal," Astra Group consultant Sara Jung told Inc.com. "Younger workers are more likely to jump ship if they get a more attractive offer."Another trend focused on recently by Time magazine is the "bridge job."
Before going into full retirement mode, many workers over 55 are slowing instead of stopping their careers with part-time jobs of full-time jobs for typically less than a decade.
Not only will companies need older employees. Older employees will need the companies, and the income they provide.
"In the next five to 20 years, we're going to see a lot of people who think they're going to be ready for retirement, and all of a sudden they're going to work out the numbers, look at how much money they've saved and realize, 'I can't retire,' " Bouchey Financial Group CEO Steven Bouchey told the Albany Times Union in January. "I always say that everybody dreams about retiring on a hill overlooking a lake. Many people are going to be retiring in a trailer overlooking a swamp."
_____________________________________________________
Teena Rose, Book Author, Columnist,Resume Writer,Career Specialist, 1999 - Present. Provide resume writing and career services to an array of career professionals, ranking from new graduates and entry-level jobseekers to business owners and executives. Target advice and coaching services to give jobseekers a leg-up against "the competition."
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Baby Boomer Generation Will Stay Active in Retirement
Artical From Baby Boomers Magazine - March 5th, 2008
While early Baby Boomers are entering retirement age, we intend on doing so having active fun. There is no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. Fortunately for Baby Boomers times have changed since our parents retired. Nowadays there's definitely no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. In fact, many of today's Baby Boomers believe that the best way to keep from growing old is to remain active. And they're right. While many of us are intending on working well past traditional retirement ages, we intend on fun doing so..
While early Baby Boomers are entering retirement age, we intend on doing so having active fun. There is no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. Fortunately for Baby Boomers times have changed since our parents retired. Nowadays there's definitely no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. In fact, many of today's Baby Boomers believe that the best way to keep from growing old is to remain active. And they're right. While many of us are intending on working well past traditional retirement ages, we intend on fun doing so..
Today's Baby Boomers enjoy most anything that's done outside the home in a group setting. Biking, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, bowling, playing cards, eating out, exercising, shopping, traveling, indulging in the arts, and even dating are just a few of the many fun activities for Baby Boomers to choose from. Basically, when it comes to keeping active and entertained, nothing is off limits for today's Baby boomers!
As Baby Boomers grow older, many are choosing to move into communities that have been designed to serve our aging market. Whether they're called "over 55 communities" or "adult communities" or "manufactured home parks" and even "ALFs" the one thing all these communities have in common are lists of scheduled activities. These lists help keep members of the community informed of upcoming fun activities for Baby Boomers can participate.
Going online is another excellent way to find out about fun activities for Baby Boomers. No longer something to be afraid of using and learning, Baby Boomers are finding the Internet just as convenient a source of information and research as the rest of society. To help meet the growing demand of Boomer online users, local libraries and other community centers are marketing introductory classes on computer usage and safety to Baby Boomers. Classes are worthwhile and they're filled to capacity which further proves that fun activities for Baby Boomers know no boundaries.
Special Baby Boomer interest websites (such as BabyBoomer-Magazine.com) and Social networking sites are another valuable source of fun activities. What began as a way for the younger generation to make friends has caught the attention of the Baby Boomers. And why not? Social networking sites are a great way to meet others from across town or across the globe who share similar interests. Besides meeting others, visitors to these sites find plenty of scheduled activities with open invitations meaning that if you're interested in the activity, then you're invited.
Fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation are out there and there's no limit to what we'll find once you start looking. Staying active and social are both not only enjoyable, they're great for our physical and mental well-being. With so many fun activities for Baby Boomers taking place every day, there's no longer any excuse for being bored!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
