We now know what will consume the time and efforts of many thousands of people over the next ten to fifteen years: surveying people about their retirement plans. How long will you work? Where will you live? Who will handle your investments? What can I sell you? We already see almost daily surveys from all corners, attempting to find out what will actually happen to the Baby Boom generation. Of course, there’s a simple explanation for this trend: whatever this generation does, it will have a lot of money to spend, and many people want to know where that money will be spent.

A survey just issued reports that existing retirees stopped working at an average age of 58. Those who have not yet retired plan to work until age 68, on average, suggesting a disconnect between what workers want and need to do and what they will actually do. Almost half of pre-retirees did not have a formal retirement income plan. Both statistics reveal that Baby Boomers are in many cases not thinking seriously about retirement and are hoping that “something will happen”, like a government bailout of retirees. Why not? Everyone else seems to get a bailout.