June 13, 2006

Revising retirement: Attitudes are changing on golden years, nest eggs

By Teresa M. McAleavy

 Jun. 13--Michael Becker knows plenty of his contemporaries plan to enjoy golf, long strolls on the beach and other pleasures of retirement.

But the owner of Fabulous Mats and More at the Wayne Towne Center is having none of it.

"I'd like not to retire," said Becker, 64. "The idea of an early bird special in Florida is not my idea of fun."

Becker is among a growing number of folks across the globe who want more out of their golden years than just taking to the links, playing with the grandkids, or toiling in the garden. A recent global survey found that many people want to work well past the age of retirement, and that money isn't always the reason.
The survey also reflected changing attitudes about who should fund retirement, with a mere 5 percent worldwide saying it's a company's responsibility to provide for retirees.

The Future of Retirement survey, done for the London-based HSBC banking group, found that 72 percent of respondents want to do away with mandatory retirement. And only 25 percent of those surveyed in 20 countries and territories plan to work because of financial need. Others were more likely to want to do something meaningful in their later years that will also involve staying fit physically and mentally.

Becker, who didn't take the survey, shares similar views.

"I made and lost a million three times," he said. "But even if I did have enough put away for retirement, I wouldn't do it. I need to be stimulated."

The survey of more than 21,000 people and 6,000 employers also revealed a disconnect between bosses and workers. It found, for example, that rather than exit the workforce altogether as they age, about two-thirds of individuals would like to work part time, or in more casual arrangements that involve taking occasional sabbaticals to do things like travel. By contrast, only 30 percent of employers said they offer workers opportunities to put in fewer hours.
Thirty-seven percent said they would offer older workers a chance to do "new kinds of work."

"We found that it's not an urgent or pressing issue for companies to attract or retain older workers, even though almost half of employers globally said they felt the loss of older workers would result in a loss of corporate DNA," said Geoff Brooks, senior vice president of retirement services for HSBC. "There really is a gap between what employers say they fear and what they're doing about it."

Ken Dychtwald, president and founder of San Francisco-based Age Wave, which studies aging populations, said the global survey shows that employers need to re-think their policies.

"If all the boomers start to march out the door, there will be a talent shortage," said Dychtwald, who grew up in Newark and advised HSBC on the survey.
"If you recruit, value and retain older workers, they will work until they're not able to and you won't have a brain drain at your organization."

Dychtwald said bosses should consider offering phased retirement programs that allow for part-time work, chances to mentor younger workers, and leaves of absence.

Pamela Harper, president of Business Advancement Inc. in Glen Rock, agrees.

"The nature of the workplace is changing," Harper said. "Companies need to change to stay competitive."

Harper believes, like many, that because people are living longer, healthier lives, fewer seem to be embracing our grandparents' notion of retirement.

"People are using retirement as a jumping off point to do something else,"
said Harper. "And because of that, they're taking more ownership in terms of how they want to live and fund their lives."

Indeed, in the survey, 43 percent of individuals said that funding retirement should be up to each worker. About 30 percent said it should be the responsibility of the government, compared to 20 percent who said families should foot the bill for an elder member, and just 5 percent who said an employer should pay for the retirement of employees. The remaining 2 percent gave other answers.

The findings reflect a shift in the United States in recent years away from more traditional defined benefit pension plans that were employer funded, to
401(k) plans that employers administer and can contribute to, but are primarily fed by workers.

"A lot of folks have given up on the expectation that the employers are going to help them," said Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers. "It's a reconciled attitude that the responsibility principally will fall on the individual."

Government, respondents said, should also play a role in paying for aging populations. Thirty-seven percent said they like the idea of having some form of government "enforced" savings, and 13 percent supported increasing taxes to fund aging populations.

"Even though we have forced savings in the form of Social Security in this country," Van Horn said, "people are skeptical about it. The mindset is changing and people are planning to work longer, in many cases because they need to, and in many because they want to."