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Millions of Not Quite Retireds just want jobs
Rebecca D. Costa
03/27/11
Mitch, a telecommunications engineer once in high demand, looks down at his coffee and shakes his head. We're sitting in the kitchen of his three-bedroom home in Cupertino on the edge of Silicon Valley - a place where overnight millionaires once were commonplace. "We thought we had enough. We figured a million dollars in the bank was the magic number. We even hired a financial planner to look over our investments."
Welcome to the NQR generation: the Not Quite Retireds. They planned. They diversified. They resigned gracefully from their careers. And now they need a job.
Their numbers are exploding just as the prices of heating fuel, food, health care and gasoline hit new highs. A Wyoming newspaper reported last month that 433,000 seniors older than 65 were on the hunt for work. This is the highest level recorded since the federal government started keeping unemployment statistics in 1948.
According to AARP executive Deborah Russell, people don't have money to retire anymore. A recent AARP survey revealed that "1 in 4 respondents 45 and older are planning to work much longer. One-third of them cited falling home prices and shrinking investments as the main reasons." Statistics from the National Home Price Index concur. The latest report shows a 15 percent decline in home prices - the worst drop ever cited. "Our home was our fallback position, and now that's gone," says Michael, a 51-year-old engineer who worked as an executive at Fairchild Semiconductor and Lam Research. He retired to Boise, Idaho, but has dusted off his resume and is preparing to re-enter the workforce.
There was a time when we reserved nicknames for up-and-coming generations. We labeled them Baby Boomers, yuppies, DINKS (double income, no kids), X, Y and Z. But today, no generation poses a greater threat to the economy than the millions of men and women who can no longer afford that fictitious reward for a life well lived. As more and more NQRs watch their savings dwindle and hit the streets in search of "supplemental income," young people hoping to jump-start their careers find themselves up against older applicants willing to work for health benefits - or just a little something to cover their property taxes or a family vacation.
Don't get me wrong. NQRs have their essentials down. They aren't in danger of losing the roofs over their heads - at least not yet. They still have two cars in the garage, a smattering of stocks and bonds, and credit cards that aren't maxed out. NQRs aren't broke. Their lifestyle just isn't sustainable: One morning, Americans older than 50 woke up and discovered they're going to run out of money before they run out of life.
NQRs are the silent victims of broken pensions, endangered Social Security and Medicare benefits, a volatile stock and real estate market, and prices rising faster than any financial planner could have prepared them for. They live in every neighborhood in America, silently pondering nest eggs that are now half the size they need and puzzled about what to do about financial safe havens that no longer exist. The latest report from Fidelity Investments indicates that retirees have already lost an average of one-fourth of their retirement savings. But the most shocking report came from Wells Fargo Bank at the end of 2010. In its sixth annual retirement survey, the bank indicated that the average retirement savings for Americans 50 to 59 is a paltry $29,000. At a 5 percent return rate, this means they have $190 per month to add to their Social Security income - not enough to cover the average household grocery bill.
And speaking of Social Security, how many NQRs opt to collect early benefits while working? There are 78 million Baby Boomers in the country today, and as of 2008 the oldest of them became eligible for Social Security benefits. The University of Illinois reports that as many as 3 out of 4 Americans are claiming early benefits to make ends meet or because they fear Social Security will go bankrupt.
"We're trying to hang on - giving up golf memberships and time shares, entertaining less, and other things we looked forward to when we retired," says Charles Olson, former vice president for sales for Zycad Corp., a company once touted as the hottest IPO in Silicon Valley. Olson began consulting after retirement and now is back at work full time.
The NQRs are the millions of silent Americans who thought they were retired. They don't want another career. They already did that. They just want a job - preferably an uncomplicated job. They don't care about promotions or getting that parking place reserved for the employee of the month. They don't need attaboys, stock options or job retraining. That's the great thing about NQRs - they're happy to collect their checks and go home every weekend and pretend they're still retired.
So NQRs are on the hunt for jobs where they don't have to manage employees, travel for the company or navigate office politics. NQRs are happy to work as independent contractors and consultants and spend their weekends as real estate brokers hoping to sell one house a year. They've taken jobs as part-time teachers, dog sitters and writers and are the fastest-growing market for home-based Internet businesses.
They have time to vote, and in 2012 they're going to cast their vote for the candidate who has a new plan for how NQRs can get off the treadmill. Pundits who are in the business of predicting who will prevail in the next election would do well to pay attention to the Not Quite Retireds - those tough souls who dusted off their briefcases and suits and went back to work just to hang on to what they have, those everyday heroes who would rather take a part-time job than lean on their children or the government, those whose golden years have been reduced to copper.
What distinguishes the NQR generation?
-- Between the ages of 50 and 70 years.
-- They're "house poor."
-- They're educated.
-- They had successful careers earning high incomes.
-- They planned for retirement.
-- They have a diversified portfolio that no longer can support them.
-- They already have downsized and trimmed back without resorting to drastic measures.
Rebecca D. Costa is the author of "The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction."
Contact The Chronicle at www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...IN1D1IGCFR.DTL
Rebecca D. Costa
03/27/11
Mitch, a telecommunications engineer once in high demand, looks down at his coffee and shakes his head. We're sitting in the kitchen of his three-bedroom home in Cupertino on the edge of Silicon Valley - a place where overnight millionaires once were commonplace. "We thought we had enough. We figured a million dollars in the bank was the magic number. We even hired a financial planner to look over our investments."
Welcome to the NQR generation: the Not Quite Retireds. They planned. They diversified. They resigned gracefully from their careers. And now they need a job.
Their numbers are exploding just as the prices of heating fuel, food, health care and gasoline hit new highs. A Wyoming newspaper reported last month that 433,000 seniors older than 65 were on the hunt for work. This is the highest level recorded since the federal government started keeping unemployment statistics in 1948.
According to AARP executive Deborah Russell, people don't have money to retire anymore. A recent AARP survey revealed that "1 in 4 respondents 45 and older are planning to work much longer. One-third of them cited falling home prices and shrinking investments as the main reasons." Statistics from the National Home Price Index concur. The latest report shows a 15 percent decline in home prices - the worst drop ever cited. "Our home was our fallback position, and now that's gone," says Michael, a 51-year-old engineer who worked as an executive at Fairchild Semiconductor and Lam Research. He retired to Boise, Idaho, but has dusted off his resume and is preparing to re-enter the workforce.
There was a time when we reserved nicknames for up-and-coming generations. We labeled them Baby Boomers, yuppies, DINKS (double income, no kids), X, Y and Z. But today, no generation poses a greater threat to the economy than the millions of men and women who can no longer afford that fictitious reward for a life well lived. As more and more NQRs watch their savings dwindle and hit the streets in search of "supplemental income," young people hoping to jump-start their careers find themselves up against older applicants willing to work for health benefits - or just a little something to cover their property taxes or a family vacation.
Don't get me wrong. NQRs have their essentials down. They aren't in danger of losing the roofs over their heads - at least not yet. They still have two cars in the garage, a smattering of stocks and bonds, and credit cards that aren't maxed out. NQRs aren't broke. Their lifestyle just isn't sustainable: One morning, Americans older than 50 woke up and discovered they're going to run out of money before they run out of life.
NQRs are the silent victims of broken pensions, endangered Social Security and Medicare benefits, a volatile stock and real estate market, and prices rising faster than any financial planner could have prepared them for. They live in every neighborhood in America, silently pondering nest eggs that are now half the size they need and puzzled about what to do about financial safe havens that no longer exist. The latest report from Fidelity Investments indicates that retirees have already lost an average of one-fourth of their retirement savings. But the most shocking report came from Wells Fargo Bank at the end of 2010. In its sixth annual retirement survey, the bank indicated that the average retirement savings for Americans 50 to 59 is a paltry $29,000. At a 5 percent return rate, this means they have $190 per month to add to their Social Security income - not enough to cover the average household grocery bill.
And speaking of Social Security, how many NQRs opt to collect early benefits while working? There are 78 million Baby Boomers in the country today, and as of 2008 the oldest of them became eligible for Social Security benefits. The University of Illinois reports that as many as 3 out of 4 Americans are claiming early benefits to make ends meet or because they fear Social Security will go bankrupt.
"We're trying to hang on - giving up golf memberships and time shares, entertaining less, and other things we looked forward to when we retired," says Charles Olson, former vice president for sales for Zycad Corp., a company once touted as the hottest IPO in Silicon Valley. Olson began consulting after retirement and now is back at work full time.
The NQRs are the millions of silent Americans who thought they were retired. They don't want another career. They already did that. They just want a job - preferably an uncomplicated job. They don't care about promotions or getting that parking place reserved for the employee of the month. They don't need attaboys, stock options or job retraining. That's the great thing about NQRs - they're happy to collect their checks and go home every weekend and pretend they're still retired.
So NQRs are on the hunt for jobs where they don't have to manage employees, travel for the company or navigate office politics. NQRs are happy to work as independent contractors and consultants and spend their weekends as real estate brokers hoping to sell one house a year. They've taken jobs as part-time teachers, dog sitters and writers and are the fastest-growing market for home-based Internet businesses.
They have time to vote, and in 2012 they're going to cast their vote for the candidate who has a new plan for how NQRs can get off the treadmill. Pundits who are in the business of predicting who will prevail in the next election would do well to pay attention to the Not Quite Retireds - those tough souls who dusted off their briefcases and suits and went back to work just to hang on to what they have, those everyday heroes who would rather take a part-time job than lean on their children or the government, those whose golden years have been reduced to copper.
What distinguishes the NQR generation?
-- Between the ages of 50 and 70 years.
-- They're "house poor."
-- They're educated.
-- They had successful careers earning high incomes.
-- They planned for retirement.
-- They have a diversified portfolio that no longer can support them.
-- They already have downsized and trimmed back without resorting to drastic measures.
Rebecca D. Costa is the author of "The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction."
Contact The Chronicle at www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...IN1D1IGCFR.DTL
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