ITHACA, N.Y. -- As the leading edge of the baby-boom generation prepares for retirement, researchers at Cornell University are finding that about one-third of the boomers surveyed are planning to keep on working. In addition, about one-third is considering more education and about two-thirds consider traveling and volunteering as important.
"Our study suggests that there is a fundamental shift in how baby boomers view retirement," comments Phyllis Moen, a professor of sociology and human development at Cornell. Moen, the Ferris Family Professor of Life Course Studies at Cornell and the director of the Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute, directs the Cornell Midcareer Paths and Passages Study to examine the retirement plans of the baby-boom generation born between 1946 and 1964.
"Many workers of this generation do not view retirement as the end of work but rather as a change in work and lifestyle, a time to do what you like rather than what you have to , including travel, volunteering and more education," Moen empasizes.
With Cornell colleagues Vandana S. Plassmann and Stephen Sweet, Moen has published a 40-page monograph, illustrated with 82 graphs and available free to the public. It summarizes the findings of a study of 887 men and women, ages 21 to 70 (with two-thirds in the baby-boom generation) who work or worked for one of four different employers in upstate New York or are spouses of these workers. Findings from the study recently were presented at the International Association of Gerontology in Vancouver.
Participants were questioned in detail about their thoughts and plans for retirement and the retirement transition. Researchers also analyzed measures of life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of mastery, depressive symptoms and health and energy, among others factors. Although many studies have looked at retirees, this is one of the few to detail how people prepare and plan for future retirement. In general, the researchers found that women are somewhat less likely than men to plan for retirement, but those who do plan start at an earlier age than men do. Women tend to plan less for their health care, hobbies and second careers in retirement. Men who are managers or professionals report the highest levels of retirement planning, in terms of both financial and lifestyle planning. The younger the boomer, the younger he or she plans to retire, suggesting that future generations will want to leave their primary career jobs early. Whether the baby boomer is single or has a partner also influences retirement plans, the study found.
"Our analysis suggests that spouses tend to prepare for retirement about the same amount," says Moen. In other words, some couples tend to plan while others do not. Seldom does just one spouse do all the retirement planning.
"Overall, we find that the baby boomers are retiring in a society where the economy, gender roles, families and 'retirement' itself are in a state of flux. Old cultural norms and institutional policies regarding retirement are out of date. Communities, workplaces and society will have to accommodate to aging baby boomers who will move into retirement healthier, better educated and more energetic than any previous generation and who don't want their fathers' retirement," says Moen. "I anticipate that baby boomers will transform the very meaning of retirement, as they have transformed institutions and expectations as this remarkably large group moved through kindergarten, college, early adulthood and midlife."
To obtain a free copy of the report, contact Carrie Chalmers at 607-255-6299 or email cc284@cornell.edu .
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging and by the Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute, a Sloan Center for the Study of Working Families funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide additional information on this news release. Some might not be part of the Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over their content or availability.
o Information on Phyllis Moen
http://www.human.cornell.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?netid=pem3&facs=1
o Overview of study
http://www.soc.cornell.edu/academics/graduate_initiatives.shtml#cmpps