What Retirees Want

1The Age Wave Is Rising: How the Boomers Are Transforming Retirement

WHAT DOES “RETIREMENT” mean anymore? Literally, the word “retire” means to “leave” or “withdraw” or even “disappear.” In popular connotation, retirement has become the time to end your career, kick back, and relax in a life of leisure. Today, however, retirement is in the midst of an incredible transformation, and tomorrow's retirement will have a whole new timing, meaning, and purpose.

The new retirement is not a time of gradual decline, nor is it about growing old quietly. Our studies find that increasing numbers of older men and women are not interested in “acting their age” and retreating to the sidelines. They'd rather rebel against ageist stereotypes and be productive and involved – even late-blooming – in their maturity. They see retirement as an opportunity for new dreams, contributions, and personal reinventions with new interests, relationships, and ways of living. Passive leisure is being replaced by adventure travel, “edutainment,” and “voluntourism” as a vital, turned-on generation of retirees seeks new experiences and new ways to learn.

Richard Eisenberg, Managing Editor of Next Avenue, talks about those ambitions: “People have different dreams. For some it's about starting a business that they've thought about for years. For some it's about learning a new language, or taking up an instrument, or going back to a hobby they had when they were children, or having the time to spend with family or ...