Boomers

I'm a member of a blessed group of individuals. I am a baby boomer. Over my lifetime us 'boomers' have influenced everything from fashion to sexuality; from exercise to consumerism. And alas now, we're reshaping the notion of "retirement . "

My father retired at age 58 after a 40-year career with his one and only life-long employer. His employer provided him with a defined benefit pension. It was indexed to the cost-of-living in Canada. On the day he passed away at age 78, he was earning more as a pensioner than he did as an active employee. Not long after that, defined benefit pension schemes started to fade away, they'd become too expensive to fund as people like my Dad lived longer than mortality tables had predicted. A funding crisis resulted. They were replaced by defined contribution retirement plans or by nothing at all. And the consequences of that change are only now starting to be realized. But I digress.

Recently I read in the local paper that 93,000 people will turn 60 years of age in Hong Kong next year. And that this rate of aging to 60 will increase over the next couple of decades, peaking at 135,500 per year reaching 60 in the year 2023. That's a lot of lost skill in a city that boasts a population of only 7 million and a workforce that's probably less than half of that.

This loss of manpower has long been known and accurately predicted in extensive studies. But what isn't yet known is the true consequence on the workforce - or on the way we "boomers" will reshape the notion of retirement. One thing is certain, we will reshape it. We always have. We'll likely have better health than our forefathers and in some cases more income too - although the recent financial tsunami and defined contribution pension schemes has done much to destroy that. We'll aspire to greater adventure, we'll become lifelong learners. We'll try to be a vital part of society in our "golden years" much as we've been throughout our lives.

I'll comment more on this phenomenon in later blogs. But suffice to say, the impact on society of this enormous surge of retirees hasn't yet been fully factored in, to our medical system, our workforce, or our definition of "retirement ". Leave it to the boomers to redefine all of those too.