Tomorrowville

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Life also can be active for the many other boomers who don’t choose to retire in an adult community. Meet former UC Davis Police Chief Calvin Handy, 59. He retired from the university in 2005 after 30 years of working within the UC system. He plays tenor sax in a jazz band, is working on his master’s degree in music at UC Davis, consults for Davis on police oversight issues and sits on the board of the International House and on an advisory committee on tribal matters for Yolo County. Handy, who lives in Davis, plays tennis and golf when he can and finally has a chance to read those books he wanted to, but couldn’t, while he was working.

“It’s not heaven, but it’s a pretty darned nice life,” Handy says. He is one of those boomers who chose to retire in place, in a university town and near at least one of his kids. He says one of his biggest challenges in retirement is “you really do have to learn to say no.”

There’s another advantage to boomers staying in the work force on a part-time basis — the work force will need them. There would be a massive brain drain if the Calvin Handys and Susie Hanagans of the world suddenly walked out. Boomers will be encouraged to work alongside the younger generations to pass on expertise and institutional knowledge.

“We can’t let 78 million people walk out one afternoon from the U.S. labor force,” says Zey. “You’re going to see much more interaction between the generations. Will there be job sharing? Why not? It could be someone over 75 working with someone much younger. They don’t want to work full time because they want to spend time with their grandchildren. They could be job-sharing with someone 28 who has their own family.”

“We feel the next great diversification in the work force will be around age,” adds Dan Veto, a senior VP of San Francisco-based Age Wave, a think tank and consulting company focused on aging and retirement. Veto says boomers want to work part time or even in cycles where they work five months, then take the rest of the year off. And job sharing with younger people will help stem the tide of a potential 15 million to 20 million personnel shortfall if boomers retire.

Zey and other experts recommend that boomers start thinking well before retirement about how they might structure their post-full-time working lives. If they don’t want to consult or work part time in their old careers, they may want to launch a new one and “re-career,” as Zey calls it. New opportunities include taking night classes or online courses to study new subjects or get professional certification in a new area. Boomers also may try to turn a hobby — say, word processing or dog training — into a paying cottage industry.

WHAT PENSION?

Of course, this hopeful future is predicated on two key things: money and good health. We’re not all trust fund hippies who can underwrite a workweek of only two days. Many of the boomers who will work past 65 will do it to survive. They watched their pensions erode over the past two decades, and many couldn’t save enough money to fund the martini-at-poolside life anyway.

With the rising cost of healthcare, one serious back injury, bout of cancer or chronic ailment can chew up a life’s savings.

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