Yes, as 1 January 2008 is approaching fast, the big news is baby boomers are getting ready for filling up the applications for retirement. There are many opinions of how it will impact the economy.
US braces for baby boom retirement wave
by Rob Lever
Mon Dec 24, 10:40 PM ET
The first of the vast US baby boom generation goes into retirement in January, setting off a demographic tidal wave with wide-ranging economic, political and social implications.
Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, born on January 1, 1946, is acknowledged as the nation's first baby boomer and the first to apply for social security benefits, for which she will be eligible in 2008.
The New Jersey grandmother is the first of an estimated 80 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, a generation that led a social revolution in the 1960s and changed the fabric of most facets of society.
The cost for government-funded social security and medical care for the boomers leaves a funding gap of between 40 and 76 trillion dollars for next 75 years, according to various estimates.
"America is facing a demographic juggernaut," says Brent Green, a marketing consultant and author, in his "Boomers" blog.
"An unprecedented number will soon be entering the retirement stage of life. One-third of the population will be over 50 by 2010. One in five will be over 65 by 2010."
Leonard Steinhorn, an American University professor and author of "The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy," says the generation often wrongly maligned as latte-sipping Yuppies has transformed most of American society.
He wrote that boomers have led or sustained most of "the great citizen movements that have advanced American values and freedoms -- the environmental movement, the consumer movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the diversity movement, the human rights movement, the openness in government movement."
He told AFP he expects this transformation to continue as boomers age. "It's not going to be a generation that's going to go off to the golf courses and do nothing."
He said boomers will push politics to a more progressive bent even though that has not yet happened because the more conservative over-60 generation still carries much weight in the electorate.
"Once younger voters begin to replace them, the socially conservative vote will dwindle," he said.
The generation is a ripe target for marketing of everything from travel to real estate to computer games for keeping minds fit.
"In the whole way we think about aging and the way companies develop products, we have traditionally been a country of the young," said David Baxter, senior vice president at Age Wave, a California-based research and consulting company focused on the over-50 population.
"If you look at the hottest products, companies think the youth market is the most important."
Baxter said marketers are still using "the myth that older consumers are stuck in their brands and not very interesting consumers. But it's the mature consumer who has all the money."
Americans aged 50 and over have a collective one trillion dollars in disposable income and control 67 percent of the US wealth, according to the over-50 social networking website Eons.
Members of the baby boom generation are big users of technology and the Internet. A Pew Internet Life Project report showed two-thirds of those between 50 and 58 had Internet access as of 2004, similar to the number of 28- to 39-year-olds.
Many are gravitating to social networking sites, especially those geared to their generation with names like TeeBeeDee and BoomerCafe.
About half of Americans will buy new homes after retirement, and many will continue to work in some capacity or become involved in social activism.
Michael Falcon, head of the retirement group at Merrill Lynch, says the nation must prepare for a "new model" for retirement.
"Multiple generations report cycling in and out of work and pursuing a new career in later life as the retirement ideal," he said in a 2006 report. "Companies need to be aware of this new concept of retirement."
A Merrill Lynch survey found 71 percent of adults surveyed plan to work in some capacity after their formal "retirement."
Carol Orsborn, a public relations executive who writes a "Boomer Blog," said the generation appears to be pursuing its dreams rather than dropping out to a quiet retirement.
"If we were hippies in the 1960s and 1970s and yuppies in the 1980s and 1990s, what are we now?" she wrote.
"At an age where expectations that our generation pull back, instead of 're-tiring' we are 're-upping' for another tour of duty in life. We are changing careers, finally getting around to taking risks with our dreams, advancing into new psychological and spiritual terrain, not only new to us as individuals, but for society as a whole. We are, in fact, Re-uppies."
On the economic side, some fear the "silver tsunami" will drain the country of its wealth, but Baxter says the United States has some advantages.
"It's true that everything in our society is built on the idea of continued growth, it's kind of a giant Ponzi scheme with every generation prior to this one having given birth to a larger generation," he said.
The problems are even more acute in some European countries and Japan which face a similar demographic time bomb. But Baxter said "the US is cushioned to some extent by a more liberal immigration policy" and because "there is more flexibility in our workforce. It's illegal to have mandatory reitirement and that's not the case in most countries."
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
by Rob Lever
Mon Dec 24, 10:40 PM ET
The first of the vast US baby boom generation goes into retirement in January, setting off a demographic tidal wave with wide-ranging economic, political and social implications.
Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, born on January 1, 1946, is acknowledged as the nation's first baby boomer and the first to apply for social security benefits, for which she will be eligible in 2008.
The New Jersey grandmother is the first of an estimated 80 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, a generation that led a social revolution in the 1960s and changed the fabric of most facets of society.
The cost for government-funded social security and medical care for the boomers leaves a funding gap of between 40 and 76 trillion dollars for next 75 years, according to various estimates.
"America is facing a demographic juggernaut," says Brent Green, a marketing consultant and author, in his "Boomers" blog.
"An unprecedented number will soon be entering the retirement stage of life. One-third of the population will be over 50 by 2010. One in five will be over 65 by 2010."
Leonard Steinhorn, an American University professor and author of "The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy," says the generation often wrongly maligned as latte-sipping Yuppies has transformed most of American society.
He wrote that boomers have led or sustained most of "the great citizen movements that have advanced American values and freedoms -- the environmental movement, the consumer movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the diversity movement, the human rights movement, the openness in government movement."
He told AFP he expects this transformation to continue as boomers age. "It's not going to be a generation that's going to go off to the golf courses and do nothing."
He said boomers will push politics to a more progressive bent even though that has not yet happened because the more conservative over-60 generation still carries much weight in the electorate.
"Once younger voters begin to replace them, the socially conservative vote will dwindle," he said.
The generation is a ripe target for marketing of everything from travel to real estate to computer games for keeping minds fit.
"In the whole way we think about aging and the way companies develop products, we have traditionally been a country of the young," said David Baxter, senior vice president at Age Wave, a California-based research and consulting company focused on the over-50 population.
"If you look at the hottest products, companies think the youth market is the most important."
Baxter said marketers are still using "the myth that older consumers are stuck in their brands and not very interesting consumers. But it's the mature consumer who has all the money."
Americans aged 50 and over have a collective one trillion dollars in disposable income and control 67 percent of the US wealth, according to the over-50 social networking website Eons.
Members of the baby boom generation are big users of technology and the Internet. A Pew Internet Life Project report showed two-thirds of those between 50 and 58 had Internet access as of 2004, similar to the number of 28- to 39-year-olds.
Many are gravitating to social networking sites, especially those geared to their generation with names like TeeBeeDee and BoomerCafe.
About half of Americans will buy new homes after retirement, and many will continue to work in some capacity or become involved in social activism.
Michael Falcon, head of the retirement group at Merrill Lynch, says the nation must prepare for a "new model" for retirement.
"Multiple generations report cycling in and out of work and pursuing a new career in later life as the retirement ideal," he said in a 2006 report. "Companies need to be aware of this new concept of retirement."
A Merrill Lynch survey found 71 percent of adults surveyed plan to work in some capacity after their formal "retirement."
Carol Orsborn, a public relations executive who writes a "Boomer Blog," said the generation appears to be pursuing its dreams rather than dropping out to a quiet retirement.
"If we were hippies in the 1960s and 1970s and yuppies in the 1980s and 1990s, what are we now?" she wrote.
"At an age where expectations that our generation pull back, instead of 're-tiring' we are 're-upping' for another tour of duty in life. We are changing careers, finally getting around to taking risks with our dreams, advancing into new psychological and spiritual terrain, not only new to us as individuals, but for society as a whole. We are, in fact, Re-uppies."
On the economic side, some fear the "silver tsunami" will drain the country of its wealth, but Baxter says the United States has some advantages.
"It's true that everything in our society is built on the idea of continued growth, it's kind of a giant Ponzi scheme with every generation prior to this one having given birth to a larger generation," he said.
The problems are even more acute in some European countries and Japan which face a similar demographic time bomb. But Baxter said "the US is cushioned to some extent by a more liberal immigration policy" and because "there is more flexibility in our workforce. It's illegal to have mandatory reitirement and that's not the case in most countries."
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071225/bs_afp/lifestyleusdemographicselderly&printer=1;_ylt=Apg.wOA2d39XaPWLeFTaL8moOrgF
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
13 Worst Places To Retire..
Dont quote me - this is the article from AOL Money site. It is a part of the 'RETIRE IN STYLE' series.
Worst Places to Retire
13 Places Seniors May Not Find So Warm and Welcoming
By CAROL VINZANT
As boomers start to retire, more cities will be rolling out the red carpet trying to attract this new demographic. City planners hope these retirees will come with bundles of money to spend, but no kids to educate. Get ready for the sales pitch and keep in mind that such promises as year-round sun, a serene natural setting, or a thriving senior community can all have their downsides.
Clearwater City, Florida: Too Many Fellow Seniors
Austin, Texas: Hard Time Getting a Doctor who Takes Medicare
Anchorage, Alaska: Fewest Fellow Seniors
Bridgeport, Connecticut: Highest Taxes
Washington, DC: Most Poor Seniors
Rhode Island: Least Older Men
Provo, Utah: Most Youthful Population
Queens, New York: Violence and the Boulevard of Death
Connecticut: Deficient Nursing Homes
Your Kids’ House
Green Valley, Arizona: Trouble in a Sheltered Community
Corpus Christi, Texas: Hottest Feeling City
Riverside, California: Declining Property Values
http://money.aol.com/special/canvas/_a/worst-places-to-retire/20071203122009990001
Worst Places to Retire
13 Places Seniors May Not Find So Warm and Welcoming
By CAROL VINZANT
As boomers start to retire, more cities will be rolling out the red carpet trying to attract this new demographic. City planners hope these retirees will come with bundles of money to spend, but no kids to educate. Get ready for the sales pitch and keep in mind that such promises as year-round sun, a serene natural setting, or a thriving senior community can all have their downsides.
Clearwater City, Florida: Too Many Fellow Seniors
Austin, Texas: Hard Time Getting a Doctor who Takes Medicare
Anchorage, Alaska: Fewest Fellow Seniors
Bridgeport, Connecticut: Highest Taxes
Washington, DC: Most Poor Seniors
Rhode Island: Least Older Men
Provo, Utah: Most Youthful Population
Queens, New York: Violence and the Boulevard of Death
Connecticut: Deficient Nursing Homes
Your Kids’ House
Green Valley, Arizona: Trouble in a Sheltered Community
Corpus Christi, Texas: Hottest Feeling City
Riverside, California: Declining Property Values
http://money.aol.com/special/canvas/_a/worst-places-to-retire/20071203122009990001
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Flight attendant retires after 50 years
Flight attendant retires after 50 years
By MARK NIESSE, Associated
Press Writer
HONOLULU - When Patti Smart was hired as an Aloha Airlines stewardess
50 years ago, it was a different job for a different time.
She rubbed elbows with Frank Sinatra, performed in-flight fashion
shows and danced in smoke-filled aisles aboard cramped DC-3s seating
two dozen passengers.
Smart, nicknamed the "Queen of Aloha," retires Friday after more than
a half-century on the job she started when she was 18 years old.
A lot has changed since the old days, when people dressed up in hats
and bow ties to fly on propeller-powered planes across the Pacific.
"You're supposed to have the same niceness, the same warmth, the same
caring. But it's faster now," Smart said. "In the older days, the
flights were longer so you had more time to be intimate with
passengers and you got to be very good friends with them."
Smart has the third most years in the sky among the 55,000 flight
attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants. The
most senior flight attendant in the nation started her job in 1950.
Smart was paid $170 per month for 85 hours of work after she was
hired on Jan. 28, 1957.
Today, as the airline's most senior flight attendant (they're not
called stewardesses anymore), she makes $43.50 per hour catering to
first-class passengers on flights between Orange County, Calif., and
Honolulu.
Hearing Smart reminisce over times gone by makes her job sound more
like fun than work. She laughs when remembering affable celebrities,
prankster pilots and a box-like cart that sheltered passengers from
the rain as they disembarked.
The job has grown on her so much that she's reluctant to leave.
"There will be sparks flying from my feet as they drag me down the
runway," she said.
One time, she got into a tight spot when her skirt flew out the
window.
As she was serving pineapple juice to passengers, she spilled it all
over her uniform. She changed into a pair of pants and washed out her
skirt in the lavatory. When she tried to air-dry the skirt by letting
it flap in the breeze from the cockpit window, one of the pilots
snatched it and let it fly out the window.
"I wanted to kill those two," she said. "I wanted to get their two
heads together and whack them. They were laughing and laughing."
By MARK NIESSE, Associated
Press Writer
HONOLULU - When Patti Smart was hired as an Aloha Airlines stewardess
50 years ago, it was a different job for a different time.
She rubbed elbows with Frank Sinatra, performed in-flight fashion
shows and danced in smoke-filled aisles aboard cramped DC-3s seating
two dozen passengers.
Smart, nicknamed the "Queen of Aloha," retires Friday after more than
a half-century on the job she started when she was 18 years old.
A lot has changed since the old days, when people dressed up in hats
and bow ties to fly on propeller-powered planes across the Pacific.
"You're supposed to have the same niceness, the same warmth, the same
caring. But it's faster now," Smart said. "In the older days, the
flights were longer so you had more time to be intimate with
passengers and you got to be very good friends with them."
Smart has the third most years in the sky among the 55,000 flight
attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants. The
most senior flight attendant in the nation started her job in 1950.
Smart was paid $170 per month for 85 hours of work after she was
hired on Jan. 28, 1957.
Today, as the airline's most senior flight attendant (they're not
called stewardesses anymore), she makes $43.50 per hour catering to
first-class passengers on flights between Orange County, Calif., and
Honolulu.
Hearing Smart reminisce over times gone by makes her job sound more
like fun than work. She laughs when remembering affable celebrities,
prankster pilots and a box-like cart that sheltered passengers from
the rain as they disembarked.
The job has grown on her so much that she's reluctant to leave.
"There will be sparks flying from my feet as they drag me down the
runway," she said.
One time, she got into a tight spot when her skirt flew out the
window.
As she was serving pineapple juice to passengers, she spilled it all
over her uniform. She changed into a pair of pants and washed out her
skirt in the lavatory. When she tried to air-dry the skirt by letting
it flap in the breeze from the cockpit window, one of the pilots
snatched it and let it fly out the window.
"I wanted to kill those two," she said. "I wanted to get their two
heads together and whack them. They were laughing and laughing."
Friday, November 16, 2007
Top 25 Cities and Regions for Retirement Jobs
Hot off the press: By Robert Powell, MarketWatch
Last Update: 9:25 PM ET Nov 14, 2007
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Most people don't get to have their cake and eat it too. Case in point: we know the best employers for workers over age 50. And we also know the best places to which Americans can retire. But where in America are the best 25 places for retirement jobs?
Here's is the list of the top cities and regions for retirement jobs:
Northeast
Harrisburg/Lancaster, Pa.
Nashua/Manchester, N.H.
Mid- Atlantic/Southeast
Bethesda, Md.
Leesburg/Winchester, Va.
Fayetteville, Ark.
Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
Washington D.C. region
Tampa/Saint Petersburg, Fla.
Sarasota, Fla.
Central/Midwest
Louisville, Ky.
Columbus, Ohio
Knoxville, Tenn.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Southwest/Mountain
San Antonio, Texas
Phoenix, Ariz.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Greeley, Colo.
Upper Midwest/Great Plains
Madison, Wis.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Kansas City, Mo.
Northwest/West Coast
Seattle/Bellevue, Wash.
Medford, Ore.
Spokane, Wash.
Sacramento, Calif.
==================================
The problems for some semi-retirees and retirees; they can not move to those places since they need to move to be near their children or families.
JM
==================================
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/top-25-cities-those-seeking/story.aspx?guid=%7BC52C26BB%2D26A3%2D4FE1%2D8479%2DA881AB449B04%7D
Last Update: 9:25 PM ET Nov 14, 2007
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Most people don't get to have their cake and eat it too. Case in point: we know the best employers for workers over age 50. And we also know the best places to which Americans can retire. But where in America are the best 25 places for retirement jobs?
Here's is the list of the top cities and regions for retirement jobs:
Northeast
Harrisburg/Lancaster, Pa.
Nashua/Manchester, N.H.
Mid- Atlantic/Southeast
Bethesda, Md.
Leesburg/Winchester, Va.
Fayetteville, Ark.
Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
Washington D.C. region
Tampa/Saint Petersburg, Fla.
Sarasota, Fla.
Central/Midwest
Louisville, Ky.
Columbus, Ohio
Knoxville, Tenn.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Southwest/Mountain
San Antonio, Texas
Phoenix, Ariz.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Greeley, Colo.
Upper Midwest/Great Plains
Madison, Wis.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Kansas City, Mo.
Northwest/West Coast
Seattle/Bellevue, Wash.
Medford, Ore.
Spokane, Wash.
Sacramento, Calif.
==================================
The problems for some semi-retirees and retirees; they can not move to those places since they need to move to be near their children or families.
JM
==================================
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/top-25-cities-those-seeking/story.aspx?guid=%7BC52C26BB%2D26A3%2D4FE1%2D8479%2DA881AB449B04%7D
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Problmes In Life.
The serious problems in life, however, are never fully solved....
The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not
in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.
(C.G. Jung, Stages of Life, CW 8, § 771
The Emergence of Positive Psychology
The Emergence of Positive Psychology: The Building of a Field of Dreams
Shane J. Lopez, PhD
University of Kansas
"Build it and they will come. Build it and they will come."
A similar eerie directive echoed in Ray Consella's mind in the popular movie,
"Field of Dreams." An epiphany occurred when Consella realized that the building of a baseball field in rural Iowa would open a metaphysical door to his past and his future.
Dr. Martin Seligman experienced a similar epiphany that occurred in his garden and was brought about by the profound words of a child, his daughter Nikki. In a 1999 speech, Dr. Seligman recounted the experience that changed his view of parenting and psychology and he concluded the following:
Raising Nikki would be about taking the strength that she had just shown--I call it seeing into the soul--naming it, nurturing it, reinforcing it, helping her to lead her life around it and let it buffer against the weaknesses and the vicissitudes. The most important thing, the most general thing I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.
Positive psychology is the other side. It is the scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning and the building of a field focusing on human strength and virtue. It builds on the bench science and research methods that shed light on the "dark side" of human functioning, and it opens the door to understanding prevention and health promotion. Dr. Seligman (1998) noted:
http://www.apa.org/apags/profdev/pospsyc.html
Shane J. Lopez, PhD
University of Kansas
"Build it and they will come. Build it and they will come."
A similar eerie directive echoed in Ray Consella's mind in the popular movie,
"Field of Dreams." An epiphany occurred when Consella realized that the building of a baseball field in rural Iowa would open a metaphysical door to his past and his future.
Dr. Martin Seligman experienced a similar epiphany that occurred in his garden and was brought about by the profound words of a child, his daughter Nikki. In a 1999 speech, Dr. Seligman recounted the experience that changed his view of parenting and psychology and he concluded the following:
Raising Nikki would be about taking the strength that she had just shown--I call it seeing into the soul--naming it, nurturing it, reinforcing it, helping her to lead her life around it and let it buffer against the weaknesses and the vicissitudes. The most important thing, the most general thing I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.
Positive psychology is the other side. It is the scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning and the building of a field focusing on human strength and virtue. It builds on the bench science and research methods that shed light on the "dark side" of human functioning, and it opens the door to understanding prevention and health promotion. Dr. Seligman (1998) noted:
http://www.apa.org/apags/profdev/pospsyc.html
Transform Your Life
Transform your Life - by Pastor Will Bowen
Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts. When you eliminate complaining from your life will you enjoy happier relationships, better health and greater prosperity. This simple program helps you set a trap for your own negativity and redirect your mind towards a more positive and rewarding life.
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/
How it Works?
Scientists believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit and complaining is habitual for most of us.
Read More:
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/howitworks.html
Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts. When you eliminate complaining from your life will you enjoy happier relationships, better health and greater prosperity. This simple program helps you set a trap for your own negativity and redirect your mind towards a more positive and rewarding life.
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/
How it Works?
Scientists believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit and complaining is habitual for most of us.
Read More:
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/howitworks.html
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