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Older Workers Find 'Encore Careers' Helping Others
Tweet Share on Facebook June 18, 2008 CommentThe most common jobs for people who work after age 65 are in the retail industry. But a survey released today says that baby boomers are changing that stereotype by finding jobs that not only pay the bills but provide personal meaning and have a social impact.
A telephone survey by the MetLife Foundation, Civic Ventures, and Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that almost 10 percent of those between the ages of 44 and 70 are already in "encore careers" that provide them with a sense of purpose and accomplishment—a figure the researchers estimate translates to between 5.3 million and 8.4 million older workers. Typical fields include education (30 percent), healthcare (23 percent), government (16 percent), nonprofit organizations (13 percent), and for-profit businesses that serve a public good (9 percent).
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Keeping Busy to Ward Off Alzheimer's Disease
Tweet Share on Facebook June 18, 2008 Comment (4)Jim Cook, 57, of Lincoln, Neb., had a 28-year Air Force career and then worked as a guest lecturer for the University of Nebraska. But little by little, important memories that he needed to do his job started to elude him. "My personal stigmatization was not being able to remember people's names. Fifteen minutes into the conversation, I would forget someone's name," he says. "I was less able to manage the small details that were so fundamentally crucial to my being able to do the work."
Cook's job performance reviews began to steadily decline. Eventually, "I was kind of forced into retirement three years ago," Cook says. "At the time, I thought it was just a matter of office politics. A lot of us lose our jobs." But then came the medical diagnosis: Alzheimer's disease.
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Retiring Into an Uncertain Job Market
Tweet Share on Facebook June 18, 2008 Comment (4)Many people forced or enticed into retirement earlier than planned have to find a new job to "cheer up your 401(k)," as Susanne Johnson, 62, of Long Grove, Ill., puts it. When she was 56 in 2002, Johnson accepted an early retirement offer from United Airlines. The airline was going into bankruptcy and the retirement plan was underfunded, so she was afraid she would get nothing if she didn't retire. The package included inexpensive health insurance until she became eligible for Medicare, free or low-cost flights when space is available, and a reduced pension. "You can't live at the level that we're living at on it," Johnson says of the pension.
Johnson then got another job doing information-technology procurement for a bank but was laid off in a merger when she balked at relocating. Johnson would like to work until age 66, when she can get her Social Security "full boat," but for now she's networking and job hunting. At job interviews, "every situation I am asked about I have already faced in my career," Johnson says. "I [would] bring a lot of knowledge to the company that a lot of people in their 20s don't have."
This blog post is part of an ongoing series of stories about people who retired while they were making other plans. If you'd like the story of your unplanned retirement featured in an upcoming post, please write me at retire@usnews.com and include your phone number. Or you can discuss your story in the comments section.
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Second-Career Plans Scuttled by Illness
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2008 Comment (1)Spencer Johansen, 50, a small-town police chief in Lexington, Ill., wanted to open a barbershop once he became eligible for his pension at age 55. But his plans changed in August 2006 when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. For now, he is continuing his work as police chief and wears a Palm organizer on his belt while in uniform to help him remember appointments. A neuropsychologist keeps close tabs on the progression of his disease. But Johansen knows he will be forced to retire when he becomes unable to do his job. "I guess it's not a rosy picture of retirement," he says. "There's no way to prepare for the possible diagnosis of any disease."
Johansen will take in half his current income from disability insurance payments and Social Security disability when he retires. But that will do little to finance college for Johansen's youngest daughter, who will be a freshman at Lincoln Land College in Springfield, Ill. He also recently moved into the four-bedroom home of his wife's family so he and his wife could sell their house.
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Cutting Back on Work to Take Care of Mom
Tweet Share on Facebook June 16, 2008 Comment (1)Janie Scott, 60, an occupational therapist in Columbia, Md., has scaled back her work hours and accepted lower-paying jobs so that she can spend more time taking care of her mother, who has mild cognitive impairment, in Naples, Fla. Her caregiving requires Scott to travel south at least once a month, which not all employers are willing or able to accommodate. "I can't have a five-day-a-week, traditional job," she says. "Because of [my mother's] health situation, the work that I do needs to be very flexible."
Now Scott accepts teaching and writing assignments related to occupational therapy, such as instructing fall-prevention classes at her local senior center one day a week and writing book chapters. "It's a real challenge to find work that is relevant to my years of experience," she says. Scott knows it's important to have a high income in the years leading up to retirement so that her Social Security checks will be larger, but she's having trouble finding work that pays at the level she's accustomed to that is also flexible enough for frequent visits to see her mother.
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Forced into Early Retirement from Corporate America
Tweet Share on Facebook June 13, 2008 CommentJohn Watson, 56, was an international telecommunications manager for DuPont in Wilmington, Del., until he was forced into early retirement three years ago. "There's a homeostasis when you've got a job and a paycheck and you're comfortable, and you just kind of assume it's not going to happen to you," Watson says. "It really comes without warning." Although it wasn't his choice,Watson was given one year's salary and 90 percent of his pension to retire. He's eligible for health insurance through his wife, Janice, who still works at DuPont. After leaving the company, Watson searched for a new job with a comparable salary. "I sent out 23 résumés and got turned down 23 times," Watson says. But, he admits, "I wasn't too anxious to go back to work for corporate America."
Instead, Watson started his own cabinetmaking and custom furniture business, Watsons Woodworking, in his 2 ½-car garage. "I think it is an incredible freedom compared with corporate America, where you are constrained by meetings and teleconferences," says Watson of running his own business. "My hope was that I will make enough money to fill in some gaps for the next five or 10 years."
Watson doesn't bank as much dough as he did during the DuPont days, but he enjoys the creativity of cabinetmaking. And he has some advice for those who find themselves unexpectedly retired: "If you are in a couple, try to live off one salary, so if one person loses a job, you can recover quickly and you can go with the flow."
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Unplanned Retirement
Tweet Share on Facebook June 13, 2008 CommentThe title of this blog is Planning to Retire. But retirement is something that can happen while you are making other plans. Over three quarters of people who were 51 to 61 years old in 1992 lost their jobs, became widowed or divorced, developed new health problems, or were confronted with frail parents or in-laws within a decade, according to an Urban Institute analysis. Any of these circumstances can take a bite out of retirement plans, if not force workers to scrap them altogether.
Each day for the next week I'm sharing the story of someone who retired earlier than planned. If you'd like your unplanned retirement story featured in an upcoming post, please write me at retire@usnews.com and include your phone number. Or you can discuss your story in the comments section.
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Working After Age 62 Can Affect Social Security Payouts
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2008 Comment (35)Dear Planning to Retire,
I make about $45,000 per year. Should I start drawing Social Security even if I have to give half of it back? I just turned 63. I still am working and will probably work for another two years.
If you collect Social Security and earn a certain amount of money by continuing to work, some and possibly all of your benefits can be withheld. But you don't lose those benefits forever. At your full retirement age—for you it's age 66—your benefits will be recalculated to a higher amount. But, in your case, because you are earning well above the earning test limit, the amount is the same as what you would have earned simply by delaying claiming, according to calculations by Hugo Benitez-Silva, an associate professor of economics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
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No Surprise: Boomers Don't Want to End Up in a Nursing Home
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2008 Comment (3)If I ever got sick, I think I'd like to be at home with my family. The other option for long-term care is, of course, paid caregivers. But if baby boomers of means have their way, they will be taken care of by a combination of the two, a new survey found.
Some 49 percent of adults between 50 and 70 years of age want to be taken care of at home by both family and professionals, according to a Lincoln Retirement Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates online survey of 1,011 adults with household incomes of at least $75,000 or total household financial assets of over $250,000 (not including the value of a home or other real estate). The rest of the boomers preferred long-term care at home with professionals only (35 percent), a nursing home (8 percent), and at-home care with family only (7 percent).
Tell me, who would you like to take care of you in your final days?
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Slashing Expenses Can Make Your Nest Egg Last Longer
Tweet Share on Facebook June 10, 2008 CommentRetirees don't have to commute, dry clean expensive work clothes, or live in a pricey suburb or city just because it's near work. So right off the bat, you can downsize a few major expenses. And if you're lucky, the kids are out of the house and supporting themselves, so you might be able to get by with a smaller house or condo. Here are some other ways retirees are cutting back in retirement to save money, according to a Thrivent Financial and Action Market Research telephone survey of Americans age 60 to 74.
- Giving fewer or smaller gifts to family members (37 percent)
- Traveling less or closer to home (37 percent)
- Shopping more often with coupons or at sales (36 percent)
- Eating out less often or at less expensive restaurants (32 percent)
- Living in a smaller house (18 percent)
- Walking, bicycling, or taking public transportation (15 percent)
- Moving in with children (3 percent)
Source: Thrivent Financial, 2008.
Retirees, how are you cutting back?
