Cashing in on retirement angst

Financial service companies are trying to cash in on the hopes, dreams and angst of Baby Boomers who are in the throes of retirement.

In fact, more and more marketers are seeing the size of the cohort -- and its relative wealth -- as one big cash cow.

From financial companies to pharmaceuticals to cars, we’re seeing more and more advertising that tell us we’re desparately in need of retirement planning and medication to ease our arthritis, lower our cholesterol, and re-erect our erector sets.

On the financial services front, Prudential is the latest to address Baby Boomer retirement through a series of ads (and a web site) focused on that First Day of retirement and what that means in terms of expectations, dreams, hopes and anxiety.

On the web site, you click on a picture of a new retiree and you’ll get their story.

An automobile engineer from Rhode Island, who retired on July 4, 2011, said: “Goals and desire that are realistic will be key to living the kind of retirement I want. Once you’re comfortable in your own skin, life is easier.”

My retirement story started in June of 2008.

I didn’t retire, I was retired.

My retirement eligibility with my company had arrived earlier that year, but I figured I’d stick it out for a couple of years, more perhaps.

I didn’t really have a plan, but economic changes at the company forced a plan on me, and I was given a one-time offer of an incentive to retire. It was the classic offer I couldn’t refuse from the corporate mafia.

I remember my first day of retirement distinctly. Normally awake by 6:30 a.m., I was wide awake at 5 a.m., anxious and disoriented.

Disoriented because, all of a sudden, I had no place to be, no meetings to attend, no tasks to get done by deadline.

Anxious because, all of a sudden, I had no plan for what was next in my life: I had no second act, no encore planned.

(For an idea of what it’s like, check out videographer Mike Kravinsky’s online series about Baby Boomer reinvention, “The Nextnik.”)

It was like I’d been abducted into an alien world of having nothing to do after an adult lifetime in a world with everything to do.

I don’t woodwork. I don’t fix cars. I’m not the least bit handy when it comes to handyman work.

But I can’t do nothing.

I read, I write, I research. So I parlayed skills learned from 30 some odd years in the newspaper business into a bunch of freelance writing and editing jobs that keep me occupied, engaged, and as busy as I want to be.

Financial service companies may want to help us with a plan, but the truth is that a lot of us Baby Boomers don’t have a plan -- we don’t have a financial plan, much less a life plan for retirement.

We’re just going with the flow, just as we’ve always done, making lemonade when there are lemons, guacamole when there are avocados, and plans when there are opportunities.