The "Silver Tsunami"?

The following article is featured on EzineArticles.com
http://EzineArticles.com/?id=854024

The leading edge of what the US government has referred to as the Silver Tsunami will begin to be eligible for retirement beginning next January. Baby boomers are beginning to reach retirement age and nearly 80 million people retiring over the next 20 years will totally wreck our economy. OR NOT! You see, the generation right before ours was sold on the idea of working to 62 or 65 and then retiring and living a life of leisure. The baby boomer generation is not necessarily buying into that scenario en masse. In fact, a significant percentage of baby boomers have no plans to retire any time soon. Many will work long beyond the age of 65, either full time or part time. More and more US employers are beginning to realize that they will need these folks to keep working beyond the traditional retirement age because there are not enough Gen X'rs to fill all those jobs. And Generation...Y, for lack of a better identifier, those in the generation right behind X, are a much smaller group as well. Right after the baby boom years there was a sort of "baby bust" when far fewer babies were born. So as that group matures, there will be considerable holes in the work force. Perhaps the tension between baby boomers and younger workers won't amount to much after all. Neither group set up the situation that we are all facing, when a very small number of people is expected to support a very large crowd of retirees. It now looks like at least some of the problem will be relieved by boomers working and contributing for several years beyond "normal retirement", and therefore not claiming Social Security benefits for a number of additional years.

Some few companies are already taking advantage of changes in the law that allow them to accomodate older workers taking retirement in phases, or steps. First a reduction in the number of hours per day or days per week they are working, while still retaining full benefits, will keep a lot of seniors employed and happy, and not burdening the system. Some will continue to work because they simply wouldn't know what to do with themselves otherwise. Some will continue to work because they cannot see any other way to continue to take care of their basic needs. Some will change jobs and schedules to try something new, or something they have long been interested in. These variations are not being factored into all the gloom and doom headlines concerning Social Security and baby boomers, so perhaps the problem will not be quite as overwhelming as we are being led to believe. In any case, any baby boomer who has been paying attention and who has had any choice in the matter, is not counting on Social Security as their sole means of support in retirement. Others really have little choice.
Next week this blog will have a poll concerning such matters, and we hope you will participate. For now, please leave your comments below. What plans, if any, do you have for retirement?