Monday's Question: Will You Ever Retire?

As the article points out, Boomers have less saved for retirement & are rethinking how & where to retire. Retiring Boomers can still have fun and play hard. Lake Weir Living (LWL) in Central Florida has evolved the active adult/retirement lifestyle concept to answer the needs of today's Boomers. LWL, is a "Toy-Friendly" Community (8 miles from The Villages & 55 miles to Orlando), for Boomers frustrated with oppressive HOA restrictions & fees. New custom-homes from the $90s with no HOA and toy-fitted garages for "Toys" such as boats, motorcycles, RVs, and more. Visit their Blog for videos of new homes: http://www.lakeweirlivingblog.com

I enjoyed the story. I am a young baby boomer and retirement is not in my vocabulary. I have a profession that I can do well into my golden years. I do plan to relocate to a suburban or relaxed area. The south seems to have a lot to offer. Check out "live south" online (.com) Worth it!

Well this piece certainly sounds like an enthusiastic writers individual life experience at the moment. So the baby boomers think they know what it takes to work "inner city"? Or love life as they establish a "new business"? Think for a moment about your peers children or maybe even your own children.....babyboomers have children in their 20s or 30s, who worked incredibly hard to achieve a strong educational base and have fresh new intellect to provide our country/WORLD but many of these young and devoted people arent even given the chance for a job they worked years for. I'm not claiming entitlement, we're talking jobs for entry level teachers, nurses, business professionals, and policy makers. With the suffering & struggle this country is enduring—how about you go ahead and step down, therefore allowing another perspective to be presented? A perspective from the latest, greatest, cutting edge educational experiences of totally committed young professionals-40 years fresher than yours with stellar background and historical knowledge. Could a new generation of professionals have a genuine understanding of societal needs? It's certainly worth checking out what we've got! With the "never retiring" generation you speak of currently continuing to run this show, we're all painfully aware at what is lacking! In fact we can't afford the lack. Period. End the power struggle, take a load off, and let some of us in now

I'm 40 and I'm basically done with corporate America. I was laid off from a corrupt company in February because of "global restructuring". On the day I was kicked into the parking lot, I got a bonus check, so the company wasn't struggling. My bonus check was 5% of what the average criminal "at the top" stole for him/herself. Just one executive bonus check could pay for the salaries of two full-time employee for the entire year. My manager was an alcoholic who came to work drunk at least 20% of the time and the secretary was a 22 year old dingbat skank who took 17 "sick" days in one year and who would disappear with her boss for two hour "lunches". None of them lost their jobs. If you aren't an upper management crook, if you aren't screwing your boss or if you aren't a GIGANTIC kiss-ass, good luck out there. I saved just about everything I earned in 17 years of hell so I plan on hoisting up a couple middle fingers to the rat racers and simply kicking back and doing whatever the hell I please from today until the day I die.

Oh yeah, we're all working forever because we picked work with so much meaning for us. Yeah, we all love our jobs, right?? We are all so eager work AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. We do it for economic reasons IN PART. Huh? This writer needs to edit this piece and write it in the first person, because this is HER experience, not the experience of most.

I amunder the WUD retirement program.... Work Until Dead. I want to thank all who are responsible for this, myself included. If only I had saved 1% of all the money that flowed through my fingers, I would not be in this position. Maybe in my next life I will figure this out. Not this time, unfortunatly.

Retirement can be great we it is planned for. Most people I know did not plan to retire, to them it just happened it seems. They did not plan on getting up at 6 or 6:30 or when ever and then to decide what to do for the rest of the day. It is even worse for those who don't have the resources to retire. Living from soc-sec check to soc-sec check is really sad. So people, plan while you can, if not Life will do it for you.

What planet are you from?

We are seeing many more older people in the work force. Maybe it is because one needs to work or simply because it gives them a purpose and a reason to get up in the morning. I became a widow at age 49, which was devastating, the more so because it was totally unexpected. Having a job and a rewarding profession, which made me financially secure, was a godsend. As difficult as it was to go back to work, I did, and it was the best thing I could have done. I am not totally healed from my husband's passing. Nevertheless, working has kept me sane. I do not plan on working past my 60th. birthday. As a high school esl/bil. social studies teacher for more than 30 years, I feel, I deserve to spend the rest of my days in a less stressful environment. Teaching, regardless of what the public believes, is a taxing and stressful duty. In order to survive as a teacher for a long time, one must have a passion, a passion which goes beyond the subject matter taught. Teachers teach because they feel that learning, helping children develop their mind, and widening their perspective, is of the utmost importance. At the same time, when one is so vilified as being selfish for wanting some compensation for being underpaid, one really wants to throw in the towel, to use a cliche, which I always tell my students not to do when they write. I don't plan on working here in the United States after I retire. If I feel that I need to do something to keep me occupied, then I may go and teach English somewhere abroad where I will be respected and appreciated. The only other type of work that I would consider would be one that is totally brainless and one that does not require and drain all my mental energy.

Retirement is what people in previous generations did. We're pretty much, for the most part, going to have to work until we drop dead, for those younger than the 'boomer's.