Plan Now For A Boomer Retirement

Lying in a hammock or perfecting the old golf game for 20 years might seem the ideal retirement to baby boomers at 3 p.m. on a hectic Wednesday, but it will likely lose its luster after a few years.

Unlike their parents, baby boomers have plenty of healthy years ahead of them once they reach 65, thanks to modern medicine. Add to that the shortage of skilled employees in the workforce, and baby boomers have the option of working through what was once considered the traditional retirement years.

Since trudging to the office until age 85 sounds horrific, the question is: What will an enjoyable and fulfilling retirement look like? In her new book, Retire Retirement: Career Strategies for the Boomer Generation, Tamara Erickson explores boomers' options and offers guidance for achieving them.

Ideally, the workplace will be flexible and boomers will work on a project basis as opposed to five days a week from 9 to 5. Or it will be a time when they can explore a second or even third career. But the key is to start planning now.

"Most people have not gotten their head around the idea of the next 20 to 30 years," says Erickson. "When you ask most people what they're going to do when they retire, most people are lucky if they can come up with a one year plan."

That's not enough. Although Retire Retirement is written for individuals, Erickson urges companies to have an equal role in figuring out the best way to put boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, to work after age 65. Instead of fretting over the "brain drain" employers say will happen when droves of boomers retire, she tells companies to change the traditional model. And that shouldn't be beyond them; just look at how accommodating most employers are when it comes to flexible working arrangements for new parents, for instance.

Erickson recently spoke to Forbes.com about what the ideal retirement world will look like to boomers. Here is an edited transcript.

Forbes.com: What should boomers do to prepare before they reach the typical retirement?

Erickson: First, they need to ask themselves if they want to work at their existing company or branch off into something new. The reality is most companies don't have policies in place that will make it easy to stay. That's why boomers should start talking to their company five to 10 years before the typical retirement age.

Many companies suggest putting these experienced employees into mentor roles as a way to transfer their knowledge to the younger staffers. Is that an option?

I think that's ridiculous. How many advisers can any corporation have? The most attractive option is to create project work. Companies have to get a lot smarter about breaking jobs down into projects that can be done cyclically or in chunks.

So not necessarily working Monday through Friday, 9 to 5?

Right. They might work intensively for two or three months, but then they'll take a break and come back when they're needed on another project.

That sounds complicated for companies, logistically.

That's why companies need to get started today. It will take time to get these jobs into place. I can't tell you how many times companies say, "We don't have those kinds of jobs." I say, create them. Jobs that aren't naturally project-based can be chunked out into time slots.

Look at one of the hottest trends in nursing. It's having contract nurses travel to hospitals around the country and the world for periods of time. They sign up for contracts of about three months and then take time off and then they sign up again. Companies need to look at that model for their older employees who don't want to fully retire.

Have you seen examples like that in other professions?

We're starting to see signs of that in specialized science areas. There are online services where retired scientists and engineers can go to tap into projects. They work on the project and then they can sign up for something new.

What if a boomer wants to go in the other direction and start a new career?

You can't sit in a cubicle and think up something. The way to find this second path is by trying different things. If you're a few years away from making a transition, start now to experiment with your hobby, volunteer organization or some other interest. Start doing more and explore if can turn it into a commercial activity. Learn by doing.

What's the big message to boomers who are approaching age 65?

Start thinking about this early. I want people to change their assumptions. There's an assumption that old people are not welcome in the workplace. That's continuing to change. We're not our parents' generation. We have a longer period of time after retirement. Work doesn't have to be a very rigid 9 to 5 and going into the office. We assume our kids will leave us. That assumption is untrue. Boomers will continue to have warm relationships with their kids, and that will influence what they want to do later in life. We're seeing reversal of dispersion of the nuclear family. Some boomers will want to change their geographic location because they will want to follow their kids. And the work they want to do should have spontaneous flexibility to accommodate that.

This is all great to talk about, but the reality is many companies are offering buyout packages to their older, more expensive employees. Those people are then having a hard time finding work because other companies think they'll be too expensive to hire. Isn't that the harsh reality?

You see the most innovation at the ends of the spectrum. You see it in higher-skilled technical jobs and in places like Wal-Mart. We've still got this big middle which is the norm. It's an interesting question and I don't know how fast those two ends will overtake the middle.

What industries or companies are being most progressive in this area?

Aerospace and petroleum engineers tend to be progressive since they need engineers and they're highly skilled fields. Generally, though, it will happen in whatever industry experiences a talent shortage. The truth is nobody will do it unless they face necessity.