Beyond Work
Beyond Work is the title of a recently published book by executive coach and business psychologist Bill Roiter [pictured to the left]. It’s another book about the retirement of the baby boom generation – I reckon they arrive through my transom at the rate of one a month. Nothing wrong with that: some I skim, some I read.
This one I skimmed. The subtitle is “How accomplished people retire successfully.” In that respect, it covers roughly similar ground as Sherry Cooper’s The New Retirement, which we reviewed here earlier this year.
While based in Boston, Roiter is writing for a North American audience. When he writes about Social Security, he also mentions the Canada Pension Plan; or when he talks about IRAs he mentions the RRSP in the same breath.
He begins with a survey about how accomplished people retire – not surprisingly, having been accomplished in their working years, accomplished retirees also ace retirement. They never really stop working, they just shift gears. Roiter uses a composite derived from multiple interviews of real retirees to paint a picture of the typical accomplished retiree as well as those that don’t do a good job of retiring. The latter typically were totally focused on work, never developed outside interests, then feel bereft when their old colleagues still in harness don’t wish to hear from them too often.
In my interview with Moses Znaimer earlier this week, he mentioned some statistics worth citing here; only 7% of retirees engage in a classic full-stop retirement; 50% keep working because they need the money and 40% work part-time as a way to stay connected and to supplement their retirement income.
Roiter includes an interesting chart on page 23 which provides generational profiles of the baby boomers’ parents (65 to 85 as of 2007); the Baby Boomers today (43 to 61 as of 2007); and Baby Boomers in 2030 (when they will be 66 to 84, or the age our parents are today if they’re still living).
The chart contrasts the 2030 boomers with our parents. The future boomers will be more active, more dedicated to continuous learning, focused more on self-improvement than family and will spend more on out-of-pocket health care costs.
Roiter also summarizes the work of authors like Gail Sheehy (Passages) and Daniel Levinson (Seasons of a Man’s Life), then synthesizes their insights into his own “Beyond Work” categorization of the three eras of adulthood. They are:
1.) First Era: Definition and Growth (20 to 40 years)
2.) Second Era: Consolidation and Fulfillment (40 to 60 years)
3.) Third Era: Knowledge and Reward (60+ years).
–60–
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