Delayed Retirement<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Kerby <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Anderson
 
 
            Back in the 1990s I wrote a book on the baby boom generation that made some predictions about what would occur in that decade and the 21st century. At the time, I predicted that many baby boomers would have to postpone retirement because they were not setting aside enough in their retirement funds. Sadly, that has become the case.
 
            Unfortunately this unexpected result caught many off guard. For example, an article in Businessweek said: "Companies from cruise lines to retirement communities and financial consultants have been planning for this mass retirement. They hope to profit grandly by selling goods and services to tens of millions of relatively young boomers with bulging nest eggs and decades of free time ahead."
 
            Many of these companies were encouraged when last fall, the first baby boomer filed for Social Security benefits. They hoped that there would soon be a tsunami of retirees. Unfortunately, businesses that thought they would be selling products and services to this wave of retirees are changing their business plans.
 
            Kevin Coyne of Atlanta's Coyne Partnership says, "the size and growth rate of the U.S. retirement market will be much smaller than is widely believed." Others are coming to the same conclusion. Bruce Schobel, vice-president of New York Life Insurance notes that: "it's no secret that some are delaying retirement."
 
            There are lots of reasons ranging from falling stock prices and house values to skyrocketing health care costs and energy costs. In fact recent stock losses have led 14 percent of retirees to consider returning to work.
 
            The implications of this phenomenon are many. It is likely that postponing retirement may postpone the impending drain on the Social Security Trust Fund. This may provide more time to deal with its impending insolvency.
 
Postponing retirement will also increase the percentage of working elderly in our churches. Pastors, elders, and church staff should take note and plan their programs appropriately. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.