Your Guide to the Best Retirement Communities

boomer1 · Joined: 24 Nov 2006 Posts: 42 Location: Madison CT

How about the same question for working as for volunteering. The statistics i've seen suggest that a huge number of boomers will be working in retirement in order to sustain the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed.

What are some good strategies for finding interesting, renumerative work that we can look forward to?

marty50 · Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 16

Interesting question.

Vanguard has a new article out that says that the conventional view of retirement - working full-time until a set date in your 60s and then shifting to full-time leisure - doesn't line up with real-life experiences anymore. . The Vanguard study, “Six Paths to Retirement,” found that Americans approach retirement in a variety of ways, many of which involve “downshifting” .

Here are the 6 paths:
- Early retirees
- Still working
- Work & play
- Returnees
-Spousal retirement
-Never retire

You can find a copy of the study at vanguardretirementresearch.com

https://institutional.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/Research?Path=PUBRR&File=RetResSixPaths.jsp&FW_Activity=ArticleDetailActivity&FW_Event=articleDetail&IIP_INF=BRRetResSixPaths.jsp

jfb48 · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 22

My number one suggestion for finding meaningful or interesting work in retirement is to choose where you live very carefully. Places with booming tourist businesses or full employment will guarantee you your choice of jobs and possibly working conditions. Unless of course you have a portable skill (computer programming) and can work from a distance.

youngatheart · Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

Employment is going to mighty important for all of us trying to live on our 401k's. So in my case i am going to look for places where there are lots of jobs. Places near resorts are at the top of my list - the hospitality industry always needs good people and they tend to be very flexible about hours.

As a matter of fact I wouldnt mind being a bag boy at a nice country club. Nothing like people shoving dollar bills at you while you enjoy the outside - and you can keep your shirt on!

retirementguy · Joined: 24 Nov 2006 Posts: 24

Try Habitat for Humanity - they are doing very good work all over the country. http://www.habitat.org/

boomer1 · Joined: 24 Nov 2006 Posts: 42 Location: Madison CT

Since i originally posted this i ran into a raft of articles about the crunch that some people see coming when all of us baby boomers retire. Critical skills shortages etc.

Anyway, here is a link to that story:
http://www.topretirements.com/blog/financial/baby-boomers-in-drivers-seat-as-employers-fret-over-losing-them.html/

6string · Joined: 16 Oct 2007 Posts: 10

I agree... I am planning to retire from the "working-to-make-a-living" group, to the more leisure "get-paid-doing-something-fun" group. I work as an engineer now, and when I retire, I'll kick my hobby into gear playing guitar in some local clubs or resorts, I hope! I do that now, too, and the money is very poor, but it allows me to buy wine and dinner so why not?

I know people that retire and then stay on as consultants, or part time in their field.... that just isn't what I wanna do or be anymore.

jfb48 · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 22

Your local library wants you. There is a new study out about baby boomers and volunteer work. Favorite volunteer efforts are for religious organizations and libraries are popular too.
http://seniorfriendlylibraries.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-research-on-baby-boomer-volunteers.html

honcho2 · Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

i think i am like a lot of baby boomers - don't have much choice, i need to keep working in retirement. Fortunately there are lots of part-time gigs that are kind of fun in our area.