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12 People Who Are Changing Your Retirement

The Wall Street Journal, 2/16/08

Abstract:

Joseph Coughlin describes his work as "trying to get people to 'age cool.' " More specifically, as director of AgeLab, a research program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is pushing advances in transportation, healthcare and housing off drawing boards and into older adults' lives.

And he can't do it quickly enough.

"If we don't hurry," he says, "the products being designed now aren't going to be there when the boomers need them."

Prof. Coughlin is one of hundreds of people across the country whose work, in effect, is shaping the future of retirement. The motives may vary — educators, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and policy makers are all involved in the effort — but the goals are much the same: to learn about, and improve the quality of, later life.

Demographics, of course, explain the sense of urgency. Each day, on average, almost 8,000 people in the U.S. turn 60. Just last month, the first of 78 million baby boomers reached age 62 and became eligible for Social Security.

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