The American Associated for Retired Persons sponsored a special Advertising Age Insights report this month called "50 and Over: What's Next?" which had some interesting facts about the changing attitudes of those who will be retiring soon, due in large part to fallout from the recent recession.
Roughly 60% of baby boomers surveyed told the American Association for Retired Persons they were "very optimistic" or "fairly optimistic" and looked forward to retirement. The remainder are probably still reeling from the financial crisis and wondering how they are going to come up with the funds to do so. The report found that as a direct result of the recession, many stopped putting money away for retirement or had to prematurely withdraw funds from retirement funds just to make ends meet. The Urban Institute recently found that amongst those in the 50-61 age group that were laid off during the recession, they were one-third less likely to find new work in the next 12 months than 25-34 year olds, and if they did, wages were much lower. Another frightening statistic: GfK MRI's Fall 2010 BoomerView report found that only 11.6% of baby boomers owned a U.S. savings bond or any stock in a company other than their current employer, about the same number that reported they were planning a trip to Hawaii within the next year. Additionally, those surveyed are increasingly worried about their financial future. One-third of working Boomers said they envisioned struggling to make ends meet during retirement, and 36% (22.3 million) said they didn't think they would be able to afford it at all. A study published earlier this year by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 4-14% of Americans who would have had adequate income to retire prior to the recession are now at risk of coming up short. More fallout from the recession is that people have had a hard time coming up with funds for caregivers. In a joint survey published last year by The Hartford and ComPsych, two-thirds of younger Boomers said they missed work in the prior six months because of caregiving. Younger boomers were primarily concerned about how caregiving impacted their work, while older Boomers worried about whether it would postpone their retirement. The survey found that two out of five boomers (approximately 31.2 million) indicated that they had become responsible for the care of a parent, many in the previous year. One positive: as a result, many bought long-term health insurance (LTC) after seeing the financial resources and time required to take care of a loved one. As regular readers of my blog know, I own a private duty caregiving service called Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and have long been a proponent of LTC, the only type of insurance that pays for the types of services my company provides. It's unfortunate that few people pick up this insurance. Some don't because it's expensive, still others have never heard of it. Most seniors want to remain independent in their own homes, rather than be placed into an assisted living facility or nursing home, and LTC often enables them to do it.

http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog/

About Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:

After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member Richard Kuehn was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. He became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:
http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog/