Just to provide some further insight into the truly global nature of the issues facing the planet with regard to older people, here are some extracts from an article by Tammy Erickson in Harvard Business Online/Business Week (for which we thank her).

“This year, the first Boomer will turn 62, the age at which one becomes eligible for what the U.S. government calls "early retirement"—the opportunity to begin collecting government benefits, albeit at 75% of the rate that one would be entitled to receive by waiting four more years.

The first Boomer registering for benefits from U.S. Social Security was Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, born one second after midnight on January 1, 1946, now making her eligible for this early retirement option. Throughout the year, an additional 3.2 million Boomers in the U.S. alone will also turn 62. That's 365 every hour. About half (49% of the men and 53% of the women) are expected to choose official early retirement.

Over the next 22 years, nearly 80 million Americans born from 1946 to 1964, the generally accepted boundaries of the Boomer generation, more than 10,000 per day, will become eligible to join the club. In 2011, they'll turn 65 and be eligible for Medicare. In 2012, those who didn't take early retirement benefits will turn 66 and qualify for their full share.

Boomers will be the first generation to enjoy a dramatically new life stage. Most face a significant period of healthy, active, non-childrearing adult life. Advances in health care, and resultant changes in life expectancy, will give Boomers time that no other generation has yet had. By the time their children left home, members of past generations were largely "old," ready to slow down and reap the rewards of work. Boomers at this point are still essentially "young," and full of capabilities and energy.

Boomers will almost certainly want to "work"—whether for pay, in barter, or in service to others—for four reasons:

1. Time. With life expectancies into the 90s, Boomers who retire at 62 will have 20 or 30 years of time—far too much for this active generation to spend on cruise boats or golf courses—as much time as many have spent in a first career. Plenty of time to go back to school, start in a new profession, found a company…almost anything else one can imagine.

2. Opportunity. The economic options for older workers are unprecedented. As the gap between the number of people who will be available to work and the demand for workers, particularly those with skills and experience, widens, Boomers will enjoy a growing demand for their skills. The knowledge economy, lessening the demand for physical labor, will reinforce acceptance of older workers

3. Leverage. The growing shortage of talent brings a shift in power: those who want to work will have the option of reshaping the relationship between employees and employers. Coupled with the advances in communication technologies, possibilities to work when and where you prefer will proliferate.

4. Unfinished agenda. Boomers are confronting the reality that many of their idealistic teenage ambitions are yet unfulfilled. As they surface from the intensity of first careers, many are looking to shape second tours of duty that focus on giving back.

Modeling what I expect we'll see from most Boomers, Casey-Kirschling, who spent her career as a seventh-grade teacher and nutrition consultant, is not planning to relax in a hammock. As she told CNN: "What's ahead for me is at this point I'm trying to reinvent myself—I'm doing some consulting…And then I'm also really into volunteering at this point in my life. I was in Katrina. So I want to make sure they get an opportunity to work with the American Red Cross again. So I'm going become a disaster instructor, hopefully for the future."

This year is, above all, the time to begin to prepare for your second career. Do you want to negotiate a more flexible arrangement with your current employer, turn a hobby into a business, find a way to give back?

Commenting on Casey-Kirschling's big first step, the Commissioner of Social Security said "Kathy has reached a personal milestone—she has made the transition from the workforce to retirement." Really? “

For the full article see http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jan2008/ca2008013_652478.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_managing