Baby Boomers

Baby boomers have lived through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Martin Luther King Jr., the race to the moon and the Communist threat, Watergate and a few wars. Along the way, most became comfortable using computers and the Internet. Now, as they ease into their golden years, they'll be part of another change: They'll be the first generation who can apply for their Social Security benefits completely online. Yesterday, the Social Security Administration announced that people who reach retirement age, as early as 62, can go to the federal agency's Web site and fill out a benefits application.

Clutching a freshly purchased Pilates video, Liz Overstreet, who's 56, pauses for a second to think about what she, a vibrant working woman with toned arms and thick hair, is doing at, of all places, an AARP convention. "I'm not old," Overstreet, who is from Lanham, almost scoffs. "If you're 50 or 55 or 60, you're not old. This show is about - what are they calling it? - 'life after 50.' "We're all here looking for stuff to do, places to go, things to buy and information. Our parents were old people.

It seemed like a good idea. Baby boomers who never got around to saving as much as they hoped promised to keep working past retirement age. The joke in the generation has been: "I'll just work forever." And the intent has shown up repeatedly in research. But now along comes an economic downturn, and people are losing jobs. It looks as though Plan B, a lifetime of working, might not be an option to rescue undersavers after all. "It's a perfect storm," said Jack VanDerhei, a Temple University professor and fellow at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Shakespeare, a guy who knew a thing or two about reeling in an audience, wrote, "The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony." Four hundred years later, last words are apparently no less compelling. Millions of people tuned into a dying professor's last lecture on YouTube, and millions more bought the book based on it. Tuesdays With Morrie, similarly stocked with deathbed life lessons, became a publishing phenomenon a few years back.

Vicki and Tom Goodman were thinking ahead when they decided to remodel their Catonsville cottage. They knew their 11-year-old son, Riley, would need more space and privacy as he entered his teen years, so just having two bedrooms on the upper level was not going to suffice. But they started thinking really long term after consulting with a contractor who also happened to be an "aging in place" specialist. Although they have no mobility issues now, they decided against their original idea of expanding the second floor and instead decided that remodeling the first floor would be wiser.

The gathering after the funeral took place in a catering hall instead of a relative's home - because there was no longer a relative's home nearby - so, when the two hours were up and all the food had been served, three waitresses started quickly clearing tables and moving chairs. That was a signal for the rest of us to head for the doors and get on with our lives. There were quick farewells and hugs and kisses, then into the parking lot and into cars, and back to the errands and chores of a busy Saturday.

WASHINGTON -- If you haven't heard of a Maryland woman named Kathy Casey-Kirschling, you will. The federal government picked her as the nation's first baby boomer (she's said to have been born one second past midnight on New Year's Day, 1946) and started giving her publicity. Recently, the Social Security Administration posted a YouTube video of Casey-Kirschling applying for old-age benefits. Viewers of "First Baby Boomer files for Social Security" can watch her put on reading glasses.

We are in so much trouble, boomers. I know, I can hear the Gen-XYZs saying, "Please, not another baby boomer whining about getting older." Well, bear with me here. Our pain might be your pain one day. I've just come back from visiting my mom. She lives in a large, Baltimore-area retirement community. She'll turn 95 this fall, but she still steams through the halls behind her walker as if the place were on fire. She calls it "playing golf," and walks the "links" at least three times a day. But she is struggling with vascular dementia (hardly anybody hits 90 without slipping a cog)

Baby boomers are receiving a lot of attention from financial services firms looking to help them manage retirement, but it may be the next generation that needs the most help. Nearly half of people age 35 to 42 are at risk of not having enough money in retirement, according to research published this month by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Increasing longevity, a higher retirement age for collecting Social Security benefits and fewer traditional pensions all put this group - which it defines as Generation X - at risk, said one of the study's authors, Alicia H. Munnell.

So many folks in my generation (Gen Y) are going out on their own after college or after short stints in corporate America. Instead of thinking about how to get along with the boss, they're becoming their own boss, tackling all sorts of issues associated with running a business. So it's not entirely surprising that colleges and universities are seeing the entrepreneurial ambitions of their students and trying to help. I spent a lot of time reporting on the increase of entrepreneurship education, including in Maryland where many colleges and universities are offering courses and activities and expanding other opportunities, such as providing internships at startup companies and providing seed money for new businesses.