Fifty-Five And Still Going !

At fifty-three the thought of retiring is the furtherest
thing from my mind. The way I see it I'm just hitting
my stride. Besides with all that extra time on my hands
I'd probably get in trouble running behind a young skirt.
The mind is still sharp and my health is ok so why would
I want to retire. My dad still works because he says he gets
bored sitting around the house. So why not continue to work
if you can. Lots of employers are begging for qualified people
to fill positions. I'll retire when they put me in the ground.


Gary Passmore sold his thriving public affairs business and moved to California with retirement in mind — a little fishing, some travel and a lot of relaxation. Then the stock market took a nosedive, his savings dried up and the blue suits came back out of the closet."I love my work and I'm happy with what I do, but it was not a choice," said Passmore, the 61-year-old director of the Congress of California Seniors, a Sacramento-based advocacy group. "I thought I should go back to work to re-create a nest egg…. I'll work as long as I can."

Passmore is one of a growing number of Californians who find themselves working later in life, according to a report released Monday by the California Budget Project. The proportion of women ages 55 to 69 who were working rose 9.2 percentage points between 1995 and 2006;
for men, the increase was 10.6 percentage points. Experts in aging and the workplace called the change significant and said it has been fueled by a complex mix of social factors, good and bad.

Longer lives and better health mean people are physically able to work longer. A diminished retirement system and a sharp rise in baby boomers who feel financially unprepared to swap briefcases for golf bags mean that many will be forced to work longer. Some industries — healthcare, for one — are so strapped for qualified workers that older employees have more opportunity to work longer. And a cultural change in the way Americans think about employment means that some may actually want to work — in second careers, new small businesses or jobs that are less lucrative but more fulfilling.

"Financial security, retirement security, is a lot more precarious," said Mark Beach, spokesman for AARP California. "That's the downside. The upside is that a lot of people are looking at work differently. They are embarking on second careers, seeing their work life as multitiered." The California Budget Project is a Sacramento-based think tank that works as an advocate for low- and middle-income residents. Its report, which culled data from federal statistics, showed that workers ages 55 to 64 and those from the traditional retirement age of 65 to age 69 are working more than in the past.Workers in the younger group were employed at a fairly steady rate of about 54% between 1979 and 1995, but then the percentages began to surge — to about 59% in 2000 and nearly 62% in 2006.





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