So Baby Boomer: Life Tips

Bye-Bye Employer

"Employers simply can't afford to see this Baby Boomer generation retire en masse," says Roselyn Feinsod, principal at Towers Perrin HR Services in Stamford, CT, "without witnessing significant effects on productivity, the ability to serve customers and, ultimately, the bottom line."

According to a survey conducted by Towers Perrin, employees 55 and older were found to be more engaged and committed to their work than their younger colleagues.  Workers in the 55-plus age group rated an "average motivation score" of 78 on a 100-point scale, ahead of those in younger age groups.

"Very few people are retiring in a traditional sense," says Carleen MacKay, practice leader for third careers at Ft. Lauderdale, FL-headquartered Spherion Corporation and co-author of "Boom or Bust! New Career Strategies in a New America."  Financial issues, the need to stay mentally active, passion for their jobs and other factors are fueling workers' desires to stay on the job; gradually transitioning into full retirement.

In fact, in a survey of 1,000 workers and retirees at or near retirement age, conducted by Washington-based Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 33 percent of respondents said they would delay full retirement if their organization offered a phased retirement program.

MacKay recommends voluntary phased retirement plans to keep mature workers active and engaged, and to allow organizations "the time to transfer knowledge."  Retaining that knowledge is a key issue, she says, given the sheer number of senior positions held by employees in this particular age group, and the vast amount of intellectual property companies stand to lose if not prepared for their departures.

Source: Human Resource Executive, March 22, 2006

Home for Sale Pricing Critical

As the inventory of homes nears a 10-year high, the cooling housing market is upending the conventional wisdom that guided buyers and sellers during the housing boom.

Here are some new tactics:

1.  Sellers are advised to price their homes in the bottom 25% of comparable properties.

2.  First-time buyers shouldn't overly stretch their finances expecting rising prices.  Take advantage of higher inventories of unsold homes to negotiate for a better deal.

3.  Relocating employees should look for a home that will be easy to resell if they are transferred again soon.  Stick to houses that are in top-notch condition and in an excellent school district.  Shy away from buying a home in a brand-new development because you will be competing with new construction when you sell during the next job transfer.  Be aware that employers are enforcing policies that require transferees to price their homes close to the appraised value.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2006

Employers of Baby Boomers

Some employers are taking the aging boomer population seriously and banding together to come up with better solutions.

One of those groups is the Alliance for an Experienced Workforce, initiated by AARP.  With more than 20 industry associations representing more than 5 million businesses, the focus is on finding strategies for recruiting and retaining workers over 50, says Emily Allen, director of work force programs for AARP in Washington, D.C.

''What we did was get some really high-level strategic thinkers in one room,'' Allen says. ''And they soon all realized they needed to be sharing information, and not working in silos.''

As part of a report for AARP, Towers Perrin found that ''replacing an experienced worker of any age can cost 50 percent or more of the individual's annual salary in turnover-related costs, with increased costs for jobs requiring specialized skills, advanced training or extensive experience - qualifications often possessed by 50+ workers.''

The report also found that since many Baby Boomers want to remain in the work force in some capacity, such as through phased retirement or part-time or seasonal work, it's up to employers to come up with solutions that satisfy both worker needs and employer demands.

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, March 25, 2006, www.sltrib.com 

Anti-Aging Medicine Men

Pitching tailored regiments of diet, exercise and hormones to make Baby Boomers feel younger and live longer is a booming business.

Anti-aging doctors seek to turn back the clock by prescribing megadoses of supplements that they believe prevent the body's organs from deteriorating and dying.  In addition to hotly disputed biologic drugs such as human growth hormone (HGH), there's an alphabet soup of supplements that includes DHEA, antioxidant vitamins C and E, glucosamine, Omega-3 and more. 

Women have been consumers of hormone replacement therapies for decades.  Now men are also being primed to view middle age in terms of male menopause.   That's one reason more patients than ever are starting to gobble up the anti-aging promise.  The industry pulls in $56 billion a year now and that number could swell to $79 billion by 2009.

The anti-aging arsenal could increase substantially in coming years as a whole complement of experimental biotech drugs comes on stream.  Many critics are crying for the FDA to crack down on the anti-aging industry, especially on the renegades who illegally hawk their wares all over the Internet.  HGH is by far the most controversial weapon in the anti-aging arsenal.   The claims of the promoters range "from the extreme fringe to the downright illegal," says Dr. Thomas Perls, associate professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University, who has been such an outspoken opponent of the anti-aging industry that he has been sued along with another professor in 2004 for defamation. 

Others are not anti-aging boomers. 

Here is what one woman wrote in a response to aging, "My grandmother who lived to 97 used to say she still felt the same way she did when she was 18, on the inside, and so still got surprised sometimes when she looked in the mirror."

"I have noticed her truth. I have also had folks who once they found out my number change their attitude toward me.  Not based on my looks (I look younger) or my actions or personality...purely, the number."

"Also, it seems a lot of folks let the number rule their lives as in 'I am too old to do that' etc. BTW, I am long over 30...and I have yet to find anything I am 'too old' to do.   I consider maturity to be the time when you can take care of your responsibilities, AND still do the things that are fun for you...from most any other time of your prior years."

Sources: BusinessWeek, March 20, 2006 and Craig's List, March 24, 2006

Do you have a financial advisor?

An estimated 50% of affluent Baby Boomers don't have financial advisers, according to a survey by Phoenix Affluent Marketing Service, and of those that do, nearly two-thirds have no written financial retirement plan.

The survey of nearly 1,100 Baby Boomers with a minimum of $250,000 investable assets, or a household income of $150,000, also found that 31% of younger boomers (ages 41-49) have never met with a financial adviser about retirement, while 27% of the 50-59 group haven't.

"Mass marketing to this group of high net worth individuals simply doesn't work," says David Thompson, vice president of affluent practice at Phoenix, noting that it "requires a more thorough understanding of the affluent lifestyle, attitudes and behaviors. It's obvious from our research that there's lots of low hanging fruit yet to pick."

Source: www.InstitutionalInvestor.com March 22, 2006

The Dating Game

People in their 50s and beyond are searching the Internet for romance, companionship, and sometimes marriage.

As in any age group, there are ups and downs. There's the old stale-photo trick (it's him, but 20 years and 30 pounds ago), or the date who asks right away how much money you have, or the ones who say how fabulous you are and then disappear.  Still, many older online daters say that even if they haven't found true love -- yet -- it's been worthwhile.

The main reason more mature singles are going online for love is simple: more widespread access to the Internet, hence more familiarity with online dating.   And dating sites are catering to older members.  Yahoo Personals, for example, has an advice column for users over 50, with tips -- on everything from etiquette to sexual health -- for those whose romantic radar may be a tad rusty.

Another reason: "Baby Boomers are seeing their children use online dating, and watching their success at finding mates," said Rochelle Adams, spokeswoman for Yahoo Personals. "They're seeing that it's not such a crazy concept."

Match.com, another large online dating site, says boomers (which it defines as ages 45-59) are its fastest-growing segment -- they've increased by 350 percent since 2000, now numbering 1.7 million.  Spokeswoman Kristin Kelly says older users tend to be much clearer and more realistic about what they want: "There's no substitute for the wisdom gained with age."

Source: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 16, 2006

Having less sex?

The people who sparked the sexual revolution are spending more time turning on the TV than their partners today, says an Ipsos-Reid survey.  Almost 2,500 Baby Boomers aged 40-64 were surveyed, finding most spend almost five hours a day in front of a TV but dedicate only 15 minutes a day to sex and romance.

The survey -- commissioned by Pfizer, makers of Viagra --found 58 per cent are too tired for sex, while 42 per cent say they're stressed out, and 40 per cent say they have no time.

Dr. Richard Casey, medical director of the Male Health Centre in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, which treats both men and women with sexual difficulties, says being busy is not a valid excuse for neglecting intimacy.

"I'm not suggesting you should have sex but spend the time being intimate. Go walking, go to a movie, hug and hold hands. If your relationship is healthy then that may lead to more sex."  He says to pick a time during the day when you have energy to devote to your partner.

He predicts the next generation will have even bigger issues with intimacy.  "The next generation has an attention span of a gnat and are always on their 'crackberries.' They're going to have a lot of problems with sex.  I mean, you can't multi-task when you're having sex."

Perhaps, all generations should ban the TV from entering the bedroom...

Source: The Hamilton Spectator, March 17, 2006

Priorities: Reduce Debt, Save

Today's debt bubble may derail many Baby Boomers' retirement plans -- and it's already hurting the generation that follows.

Take the recent real-estate boom. This windfall could have salved the financial wounds left by the 2000-02 stock market crash.  But instead, many homeowners have turned around and immediately spent their real-estate gains.

Federal Reserve data show that the value of household real estate climbed 71 percent over the past five years.  But mortgage debt grew even faster, up 75 percent, as folks cashed out part of their home's value when they refinanced or took second mortgages.

At the same time, car loans and credit card balances are also rising.  Outstanding consumer debt is up 27 percent over the past five years, well ahead of the 13 percent cumulative inflation rate.

"It looks like we're doing as well as we've always done," says Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. "But in fact, the world has changed.  And it's for four big, real obvious reasons."

First, life expectancy is rising, which means seniors are facing longer, and hence more expensive, retirements.  Second, health care costs continue to escalate, including for retirees covered by Medicare.  Third, real interest rates are much lower than they were two decades ago, and that means we are looking at lower investment returns.

Finally, and maybe most important, traditional company pensions are disappearing.  Among workers with an employer's retirement plan, 38 percent were covered by a traditional company pension in 2003, down from 81 percent in 1981.

"The implication is really clear," professor Munnell says. "People need to have more saved than they did in the past."

Source: Jonathan Clements, www.DetNews.com,  The Wall Street Journal

On the leading-edge

Leading-edge boomers, some 32,217,944 of them, were against many more things than they were for: the establishment, the Vietnam War and, when it came to style, the utterly boring, materialistic values of their parents, writes Dorothy Kalins in the March 20 issue of Newsweek. 

In the "Design of the Times," Kalins takes a look at the boomers' interior design philosophy, "Everything we possessed was a political statement, loaded with meaning, an extension of our personalities. But the look of their homes and the fern bars they frequented was far more than decoration; it was an act of defiance: We are not you!"

"It wasn't just the Vietnam war, the music and the drugs that fueled the boomer design revolution. Raised in Ward and June Cleaver's house-with that cheesy laminated furniture, the tacky repros of birds or flowers framed with wide mats on the walls and that godawful shag carpet on the floor-they had a cause for revolt right there at home," writes Peter Plagens.

Facing the squeeze on house payments?

In the hot housing market of recent years, many households took advantage of "affordability" mortgage loans that hold down payments for an initial period.

Now the initial periods are coming to an end on many of these loans, leaving borrowers to face resets of their interest rates that can cause monthly payments to shoot up between 10% and 50%.

More than $2 trillion of US mortgage debt, or about a quarter of all mortgage loans outstanding comes up for interest rate resets in 2006 and 2007, estimates Moody's Economy.com, a research firm in West Chester, PA.  Some borrowers will have trouble meeting the higher payments and may be forced to sell their homes or could lose their houses to foreclosures.  A recent study by First American Real Estate Solutions, a unit of title insurer First American Corporation, projects that about one in eight households with adjustable-rate mortgages that originated in 2004 and 2005 will default on those loans.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2006