Unretirement: How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and the Good Life

Description

The budget battles of recent years have amplified the warnings of demographic doomsayers who predicted that a wave of baby boomers would bleed America dry, bankrupting Social Security and Medicare as they faded into an impoverished old age. On the contrary, argues award-winning journalist Chris Farrell, we are instead on the verge of a broad, positive transformation of our economy and society. The old idea of "retirement"--a word that means withdrawal, describing a time when people gave up productive employment and shrank their activities--was a short-lived historical anomaly. Humans have always found meaning and motivation in work and community, Farrell notes, and the boomer generation, poised to live longer in better health than any before, is already discovering unretirement--extending their working lives with new careers, entrepreneurial ventures, and volunteer service. Their experience, wisdom--and importantly, their continued earnings--will enrich the American workplace, treasury, and our whole society in the decades to come. Unretirement not only explains this seismic change, now in its early stages, it provides key insights and practical advice for boomers about to navigate this exciting, but unsettled, new frontier, drawing on Chris Farrell's decades of covering personal finance and economics for Bloomsberg Businessweek and Marketplace Money. This will be an indispensable guide to the landscape of unretirement from one of America's most trusted experts.

Chris Farrell is a contributing economics editor for Bloomsberg Businessweek and personal finance expert and economics editor for public radio's Marketplace Money, Marketplace, and Marketplace Morning Report. He is also the author of The New Frugality and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In Unretirement, Chris Farrell neatly sums up the ordeal that we are said to face . . . One reads the results of his reporting and research almost with a sense of gratitude. * The Wall Street Journal * For older workers at a loss for ideas and eager to postpone the inevitable, Farrell's how-to-cope book will provide a comforting road map and set of possibilities. * Publishers Weekly * Finally, an author doesn't think the Baby Boomer generation is going to bankrupt the nation . . . Farrell makes a great case for a longer working career for many people . . . What a breath of fresh air here. * Bookloons.com * Carefully researched and articulately presented and backed by an abiding positive outlook . . . [Farrell's] practical book should occupy prominent shelf space in the business collection. * Booklist * Recommended for those unsure that retirement is for them. * Library Journal * This book is absolutely for Boomers, it's also, surprisingly, something that Gen X'ers should check out, too. If you've already retired, are about to, or have worked all your life so you don't have to work someday, Unretirement is unmissable. * Peninsula Clarion *