A New Retirement Planning Approach

Abstract

Noting that numerous studies document the gulf between the perception of Baby Boomers of what they desire in the future and the ability to attain such goals, the author highlights the major forces that are shaping how Baby Boomers are responding to retirement planning and articulates a new paradigm that is faced by many professionals in the financial planning industry. He indicates that the biggest challenge before us is how we can motivate a generation to plan for a retirement transition that is off in the distant future. He argues that this generation perceives itself as evolving into a new world without thinking through a linear process of incremental planning steps. The author suggest that, in order to understand many of the psychological and attitudinal “disconnects,” we must recognize that this generation has adopted a cyclical perspective in moving through life. Baby Boomers feel quite comfortable in moving back and forth between roles, thus being unpredictable in terms of when they will attain economic, social, and familial goals. Thus, he concludes that, if there is anything we can depend on in the future, it is the banishment or any uniform qualities of what constitutes being “old” in America.