Only 1 in 10 Boomers Have Actually Retired. Which Kind of "Still Working" Will You Be?
Retirement used to be a single word with one meaning. Not anymore.
By 2025, roughly 74% of Baby Boomers were eligible for full Social Security benefits. In 2025, roughly 65% of Baby Boomers are fully retired and out of the workforce. Boomers still make up close to 15% of the entire U.S. workforce, working well past the age their parents' generation would have already handed in the badge and the office key.
This is not a fluke, and it is not a small group of outliers who love their jobs a little too much. It is a full demographic shift, and it is coming for Gen X next.
The Numbers Are Not a Fluke
Nineteen percent of Americans 65 and older are working today, compared to just 11% back in 1987. Workers 65 and up are projected to make up 8.6% of the labor force by 2032, up from 6.6% a decade earlier, and older adults are expected to account for more than half of all labor force growth this decade.
Nine million Americans between 44 and 70 are already in what researchers call encore careers, work that blends income, purpose, and impact. Another 31 million say they want one.
And the pandemic gave us a preview of what happens when people retire before they're ready to be done. Of the 2.4 million people who retired in 2020, 1.5 million had unretired again by early 2022. They walked away, sat with it, and walked back.
Gen X's version of this story has a sharper edge. Forty-eight percent of Gen Xers anticipate returning to work after retirement because of financial concerns, compared to 21% of Boomers. Twenty-eight percent are extremely or very concerned about their income lasting their lifetime, compared to 14% of Boomers. Gen X isn't just following Boomers back to work. Gen X is walking in more anxious, with less certainty about the number in the bank.
Two Different Roads Back to Work
Here's what the headlines miss. There are two very different roads that lead to the same place, still working after the age you thought you'd stop.
One road is returning or continuing to work as a necessity. The math didn't work. The market didn't cooperate. The pension isn't what it was supposed to be. You're going back to work because you have to, and there's no shame in that. Plenty of smart, hardworking people are on this road.
The other road is a choice. You could stop. The math would hold. But sitting still doesn't fit who you are, and you'd rather build something on your own terms than fill the days with nothing that matters to you.
Both roads end at the same word, working. But they are not the same experience, and they do not have to be. The difference is whether you're the one deciding, or whether the decision is happening to you while you wait to see what shakes out.
I Didn't Wait to Have It Figured Out
When I found the space that became Mud Hut Pottery Studio, I didn't wait for a business plan or a fully built-out location. I called the landlord directly. While the unit was still under construction, I built the website, the Yelp page, the Instagram, the Facebook. The phone started ringing before there was anywhere to answer it. I couldn't turn the creatives away, so we started classes in the studio shed in my own backyard.
Nine months later, we officially opened the doors, with classes already in full swing. Three years after that, Mud Hut was doing over $900,000 in revenue.
None of that happened because I had the whole plan figured out first. It happened because I decided to figure it out as I went, and I started moving before I felt ready. That is the same muscle this moment is asking you to use. Not certainty. Motion.
This Is an Own It Chapter
If Believe It is where you confirm what you're worth, Own It is where the BOLD Blueprint asks you to move. Action cures fear. The step you're avoiding is the step that sets you free.
You do not need the whole plan to decide which road you're on. You need one honest answer and one action.
Ask yourself which road you're actually on right now, need or choice, and be honest about it. Then ask what the smallest deliberate step would look like this week. Not the five-year plan. A conversation with someone doing the version of this you want. A skill you'd charge for. A single client you could take on to test it.
The trend is going to sweep you back into the workforce either way, need or choice, whether you plan for it or not. The only thing you actually control is whether you're the one steering it.
Your Next Step
Don't let this decision default to you. If you already know you're leaning toward choice, or you're trying to figure out how to turn a need into something you'd actually choose, that's exactly the conversation I have with clients every week.
On a discovery call, we'll look at where you actually stand, what you have to work with, and what the next chapter looks like when you're the one designing it.
Book your free discovery call:TriciaFoxCoaching.as.me/FREECONSULTATION
About Tricia Fox
Tricia Fox is a business and wealth coach for women over 40. She built Mud Hut Pottery & Art Studio to $900,000 in revenue in under three years, owns an 8-door real estate portfolio, and started with nothing but four kids, multiple jobs, and a decision to figure it out. She is the creator of the BOLD Entrepreneur Program. Learn more at triciafox.org.
