Perhaps you have heard of the term "encore career."
Popularized by Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures — a nonprofit think tank on boomers, work and social purpose — it's used to describe a post-retirement career. The word "encore" serves to both applaud and promote people seeking purposeful work after they retire from their traditional professional career.
Let's hope this term catches on big time in the coming decade. It will be imperative to the prosperity of the country that fewer boomers retire in the traditional sense of the word.
Once 2011 began, the first of the baby boomers started hitting age 65 — and will continue to do so at the rate of 10,000 per day for the next 19 years. By 2025, there will be 66 million Americans over age 65. How the over-65 crowd decides to spend its days will have a tremendous impact on the country.
It's no secret that a large percentage of boomers — more than half, by most of the many studies I've seen — have not saved adequately to be able to even remotely maintain their lifestyle throughout a traditional retirement. But beyond that, America can't afford to have a large percentage of boomers sitting on the sidelines once they exceed the traditional retirement age.
