There is a conflict of epic proportions brewing that involves the ubiquitous Boomer Generation. This conflict, to no surprise, involves the image of retirement and the attendant struggle to gather the assets that undergird that retirement. Financial service companies are pulling out all the stops to court and cajole the Boomers into entrusting them with their presently meager assets on the assumption that they alone can assure them the kind of dreamy golden years the Boomers believe they are entitled to.

Dust off any study of Boomer expectations from the past twenty years and you will find a common thread in most of them. Boomers believe themselves to be unique – and indeed they are because every generation is shaped by events and cultures that depart from the previous generation. They consistently declare that they will work forever – some out of necessity, others out of passion. They declare that their work in the later years will be “meaningful”, not the humdrum stuff they are now required to be engaged in. Most think they will never grow old, because old is always defined as anybody 15 years older than they are. Lastly, most of them seem to believe that today is much more important than tomorrow.

These are some core beliefs that many of the Boomer Generation subscribe to in varying degrees. While some may hold more traditional beliefs these core values are significant enough that a whole set of marketing systems have emerged in the past 20 years, and therein lays the basis for a potential crisis in expectations.

Let us begin with the very concept of retirement. If Boomers say they will never retire, do we need to redefine the word? We do. Just as the current generation of mature adults rejected the label “SENIOR”, so will the Boomers reject “RETIRED”. Downshifting is my term of choice – I am not a Boomer, but my cohort, the Pioneers, closely resembles the first wave of Boomers. I want to be known not as a retired person, but somebody who is still engaged, even if it is in a volunteer capacity. Change the language, and the first conflict is gone.

The second one is a bigger challenge, and that is the understanding of longevity. The conventional thinking wants us to believe that we are going to live to be about 147, by most Boomers’ calculations. One financial service company uses three models (actual models) that portray three different couples, and, lo and behold, the smart couple that chose their products was comprised of a man who looked mighty dapper in his mid 70’s and a wife, who daresay, was a bit younger and quite fetching! On the other side of the spectrum was an update of American Gothic – the only thing missing was the pitchfork. No question, they did not choose the featured products and now they were sad and forlorn…The underlying hype that goes with this pitch to the Boomers who are working day and night in pursuit of the dream, is that they need to stay the course, throw more money (or in some cases any money) into these nice products and they will one day be the guy with the fine white Dick VanDyke - looking mustache. The “one day” part is the second potential conflict. We trot out longevity data and proudly proclaim that we are all living longer, and Mr. & Mrs. Boomer can expect to live well into their 90’s – and look like Brad Pitt and Madonna when they arrive. I recently attended a meeting where the speaker, to prove this point, asked the room how many people in attendance (about 50) had a relative – current or past - who lived to 90. The groups’ ages ranged from the early 40’s to one or two in their late 60’s, and of that group about 6 hands went skyward. I do not question that the over 80 crowd is the fastest growing segment of our population. What I do question is what does another generation’s life expectancy have to do with me – a 62 year old, or my sister who is only 53? Even the most cursory look at the lifestyles of the people who are now 80 –90 years old with a focus on how they lived when they were 40 –50, reveals a stark difference when compared with that of people who are currently 40-50 reveals a stark difference. When my 88-year-old father in law was in his 40’s, women were not leading men in cardio incidents. When he was 40 our population did not have an obesity epidemic. I could site a dozen health issues that were different, all of which has to cast some doubt upon the Boomers’ longevity odds. Critics of my concerns will counter by saying that we are also exercising more, eating healthy and drinking bottled water. Fine, but leave that bottled water in the sunlight in your car for 8 hours and the plastic will release some serious toxins. We may try to eat healthy but preservatives, artificial additives and other “junk” in our food supply may be negating those efforts. And how do we reconcile the fact that 40 years ago all the food our parents ate was cooked in lard, they ate eggs and sausage for breakfast everyday, and had not a single food choice that was low carb or low fat. Finally, what role does stress play in our lives that was not in theirs? Had the speaker in that room then asked the gathered audience how many had peers – their own age or younger who were dead, the number of hands would have been significant – I know because I ask that question of my audiences.

We need a new dialogue – one that looks closer at the individual person and is willing to challenge some of the conventional wisdom being issued by certain sources with vested interest in the outcome. Employers need to reconsider their workforce and begin to plan for downshifting instead of retirement. And all of us need to revisit the pressures that conspire to burn out the workforce and drive them away from an already shrinking labor market. Average retirement age in the U.S. is reported to be 62. The first Boomer will be there in slightly more than a year, so we don’ t have a lot of time to change our language and redesign our thinking as it relates to the next phase of our lives.

Ronald W. Cavill CFP®, Cavill and Company