How Do Baby Boomers Feel About Retirement?

There are 77 million of them. They experienced Woodstock, loved The Brady Bunch, witnessed (and some participated in) the Feminist Movement, lived through the Cold War and the Vietnam War, and watched Neil Armstrong take the first steps on the moon. Who are they? They are the Baby Boomer Generation.

More and more members of the Baby Boomer Generation are coming upon retirement age, and many have fears about it. Baby Boomers face great challenges when looking at retirement: politicians are toying with the idea of scaling back Social Security, economic conditions are the worst they have been in seven decades, home values have plummeted and unemployment rates are at all time highs.

How Do Baby Boomers Feel About Retirement?

Here are some interesting facts:

• 25% of baby boomers say they plan to never retire.
• 67% of those who intend to continue working say mental stimulation is the motivation.
• 55% said they were somewhat or very certain they could retire with financial security.
• 44% of baby boomers express little to no faith they will have enough money to survive when their careers end.
• Excluding their homes, 24% of baby boomers say they have no retirement savings.
• At the other end of the spectrum, about 1 in 10 say they have saved at least $500,000.
• About 6 out of 10 baby boomers see Social Security as the keystone of their retirement earnings.
• Overall, almost 60% of baby boomers say their workplace retirement plans, personal investments or real estate lost value during the economic crisis of the past three years. Of this group, 42% say they'll have to delay retirement because their nest eggs shrank.
• The unpredictable cost of illness and healthcare is by far baby boomers' biggest fear.

Great news for children of the baby boomers: the baby boomer generation is no longer known as the "me" generation, but the "we" generation, as baby boomers are 10 times more likely to put others first before themselves.