Though many baby boomers aren’t really thrilled to admit it, there are numerous birthday milestones going on right now.

“Every day, 8,000 people turn 60,” says Clara Hurd Nydam, president of Career Momentum Inc.
in Madison.

If that’s not a figure that will make you cringe, this one will.

“Due to the current economic conditions, the average retirement age is not really 63,” she says.

Care to venture a guess? It’s actually 57.

“Baby boomers are exiting their jobs in significant numbers — some voluntarily as they reach retirement age and some involuntarily as a result of corporate downsizings,” she says.

The problem is, there’s a serious case of collective denial going on in the workplace among this demographic group.

“I’m guilty of it, too,” laughs Hurd Nyham. “Our perceptions of retirement were established by what our grandparents did. But we’re living so much longer and are so much more active, that those perceptions are quite inaccurate now.”

This year, Hurd Nydam’s firm started offering a new retirement coaching program in partnership with Career Partners International called New Horizons. Designed as a program that companies can offer their eligible employees, it helps individuals envision and develop a plan that addresses seven key life issues critical to a successful retirement.

“Companies today are looking for ways to meet the unique needs of the baby boomer employee, especially as they transition out of the organization,” she says.

She stresses that the program is really targeted at currently employed people.

“It’s important for people in their late 40s to early 60s to really start facing the reality of retirement,” she says. “Some people are reaching their early 60s and realizing that they are no longer able to retire in the way they thought they would.”

When retirement is a surprise, and continued employment is a reality, it can be hard for individuals to switch into a new mode.
“People have a tendency to continue looking for the same job they’ve had previously,” she says. “Unfortunately, many of those jobs are gone, meaning there’s fewer jobs available in those categories.”

According to a recent AARP survey, 70 percent of baby boomers intend to keep working and earning in retirement. Three-quarters of respondents said their ideal job would offer the “opportunity to learn something new” and 65 percent hoped to find a job with better life-work balance.

The New Horizons coaching program is unique, says Hurd Nyham, because it is holistic.

“While it does include financial planning, we don’t stop at just that one aspect,” she says. “Our coaching helps individuals design a future for themselves and how to plan and execute that transition for the future. And we’re not selling any sort of product. It’s about helping people plan.”

Hurd Nyham suggests to her clients that they partner with their employees in offering this program.

“By sharing the cost, the employee gets his or her skin in the game,” she says. “It’s not ‘just another workshop,’ and it helps them really take the planning process seriously.”

In the long run, doing some advanced planning does more than provide individual assistance to valued employees. Hurd Nyham says the benefit is far more global than that.

“If you have employees who are unprepared for retirement, there’s a very good chance they will be caught off guard financially,” she stresses.

And that’s where things can snowball.

“As they adjust from employment to retirement, they’re going to exhaust their unemployment benefits … and then most likely draw on their 401(k)s early, which will result in penalties,” she says.

Unprepared retirees are applying for Social Security benefits as early as they qualify and Hurd Nyham says that the country is collectively tapping into those benefits at a much greater rate that was ever anticipated.

“It’s a crisis, not just for the individual, but for the country,” she notes.

By Laurie Arendt

Laurie Arendt is editor of CRW. She can be reached at crweditor@crwmag.com