How the "golden years" became a destination

Fears, and Opportunities, on the Road to Retirement

Excerpt:

It is important to remember, .... that the concept of leisurely retirement years is a relatively new one, beginning around the 1950s and 1960s.

"Before that, people just worked until they dropped dead," he said. "As people lived longer, there began an awkward phase that turned into the golden years and became a destination."

Thus began retirement communities like Leisure World and travel programs like Elderhostel for older people, now renamed Road Scholar. Financial services firms, housing developers and others started marketing the idea of a "new American aristocrat -- now leisure wasn't just for the wealthy but for the middle class and even working class," said Mr. Freedman, who is also the founder of Civic Ventures, a research organization that looks at "boomers, work and social purpose."

The trouble is, those post-work years of playing golf and touring the country in a recreational vehicle weren't supposed to last for 30 years. And just as the notion of golden years "made a virtue out of necessity, we need to do that again," Mr. Freedman said, by starting a national debate on what this phase of life was going to look and be like.

Comment: Interesting read