Our common understanding of the concept of retirement does not apply to Baby Boomers.

Not only is it unclear whether Boomers will be able to afford a retirement like their parents; they don’t want it. (So is it really any surprise that they haven’t saved for it?) Yet so many products and services have been architected on the expectation that they will retire in this manner that we have trouble seeing Baby Boomers for what they really are—a generation with no interest in retirement, at least not as we define it today.

Although the resolve of Baby Boomers is clear, many generation-watchers miss it because they continue to plot the trajectory of Boomers with an outdated mode of reckoning. A word to the wise: Do not ...

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