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Baby boomers are redefining retirement in America. No longer the time when retirees exclusively enjoy leisure and travel, retirement is an opportunity for many to become their own bosses.
Baby boomers creating retirement rebirth
By: LIBN Staff	June 18, 1999	Comments Off on Baby boomers creating retirement rebirth
The retirement of Americans born between 1946 and 1964, around the age of 65, is driving political debate in the halls of Congress on a number of issues from Social Security to health care reform. But for Main Street, USA, the real question is: What will the baby boomers have on the entrepreneurial landscape in the next century?
According to Victoria Williams, research assistant at the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, baby boomers' attitudes, expectations and behavior toward retirement are different compared to their parents and grandparents. A recent American Association of Retired Persons study by Roper Starch Worldwide, discovered that about 80 percent of baby boomers would continue to work, while 16 percent will do volunteer work.
The study found that 35 percent of respondents expect to work part time primarily for the self-fulfillment that it provides. Of those who expect to remain in the labor force, 23 percent expect to work part time solely for income, 17 percent expect to start their own businesses, and 5 percent expect to work full time doing something else. The study, conducted in April 1998, was based on 2,001 currently employed respondents born between 1946 and 1964, ages 33 to 52.
"The retirement of baby boomers in the next decade will certainly define the business culture of the 21st century," said Jere W. Glover, the SBA's chief counsel for advocacy. "Public policy makers will have to anticipate these demographic changes and ensure that laws affecting small businesses serve the needs of new, but older, entrepreneurs."
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 66.7 million baby boomers between the ages of 33 and 52 were employed in 1998. If — as indicated in the AARP survey –17 percent of those retiring baby boomers started their own 10 weeks pregnant business, an entrepreneurial base of an estimated 11.3 million small businesses would exist. If past is prologue, the growth of the small business sector will create new jobs in the economy.
A recent poll commissioned by PaineWebber from the Gallup Organization on investor attitudes found that 85 percent of investors expect to continue with some form of work, while most of them would like to be their own bosses after retirement. Most American investors who plan to retire do not intend to follow traditional retirement patterns, such as the pursuit of travel and leisure.
The PaineWebber study identified four categories of emerging retirees, who said they would:
– Become an entrepreneur/seek a new job (60 percent).
– Work as long as possible (15 percent).
– Enjoy traditional retirement (15 percent).
– Seek work/life balance.
Many in PaineWebber's entrepreneur group viewed retirement as an opportunity to start their own businesses and become their own bosses. Of the 60 percent polled, 26 percent intend to start a full-fledged business, and the remainder say they will turn a hobby into something that generates revenues. Most investors in this group have already made money with their hobbies. For more information regarding baby boomers and retirement, contact Williams via e-mail at victoria.williams@sba.gov.
1:00 am Fri, June 18, 1999
LIBN Staff
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