Boomers slow down, but won’t quit

Second of five parts

David Bugden says he cannot imagine when he would leave his Silver Spring dental practice, regardless of what age is defined as retirement.

“I’ll probably never retire,” he says. “I’ll probably just slow down a little bit.”

As his three children enter college, the 53-year-old dentist is looking toward phasing in more leisure activities after they leave home.

“I’m a competitive target shooter,” Dr. Bugden says. “By the time my kids are out of school, I would like to shoot professionally.”

Other times, he wants to take “weekend jaunts” on his motorcycle with his wife, Kimberly.

Baby boomers such as Dr. Bugden are redefining the senior years from an age of rocking chairs and family visits to merely a change in their career plans.

In this series, The Washington Times examines how the aging of America’s largest generation will rock the social-service and health care systems created by their parents’ and grandparents’ generations and how the boomers are living out their own vision of getting older.

With about 78 million of them born from 1946 to 1964 still living, boomers are creating the biggest shift toward retirement in America’s work force of any single generation.

“With boomers living longer and remaining engaged and employed beyond age 65, many of the traditional financial assumptions regarding retirement need to be re-examined,” says James P. Gorman, president of the Global Private Client Group for the financial firm Merrill Lynch.

Career counselors coined the term “protirement” in the 1990s to describe workers who plan to supplement their savings and Social Security benefits after retirement with second careers.

In addition to earning income, they want to use their experience to do the work they enjoy.

Some corporate executives might want to join the Peace Corps, bankers would build yachts, and mechanics would run greenhouses.

“They no longer have to worry about putting two or three children through college,” says Kelley Coates-Carter, AARP Maryland spokeswoman. “They can focus on something they always wanted to do. If they’re looking to transition into other careers, one of the first things we tell them is to think about their passion.”

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