Are You Going to Stop Working?

Last night Kathy Adams, who leads Arlington Place of Oelwein, Iowa, an Ecumen-managed community, was elected to the school board in Oelwein. (Word is that Hillary wanted to meet a person in the heartland who represents America’s changing face of retirement.) Kathy is planning on retiring soon, but let’s get real, anyone who has met her knows she’s not really going to retire, she’s going to keep using her skills in building community. That school board job is going to be a lot of work. Kathy won’t be alone. Many others are joining her in redefining retirement.Today Dave Phelps had an interesting front-page article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: 'Retirement Age Doesn’t Mean 65.' According to his article, U.S. Census data shows: – 23.2% of U.S. residents 65 to 74 are working. – In Minnesota, that percentage is higher, 26.3 percent. -Of Twin Cities residents in their late 60s and early 70s, more than one in four, or 27.4% are working. -Among the top 20 largest metros in the U.S., only Washington D.C., Boston, and Dallas-Fort Worth are higher.A lot of boomers don’t plan on retiring. We learned that in our Age Wave Study. Many of them also say they’re going to change jobs and do work that they enjoy. This is going to change the face of the workplace significantly, including different benefit structures, flexible scheduling, more entrepreneurial efforts and a whole host of other areas.How do you view retirement? Are you going to have a traditional retirement and stop working, or will you continue working/do some work?