How Technology Will Transform Retirement Plan

(WSJ) Get ready for a new array of devices and services that will make it easier to work, stay healthy, live at home and remain connected to friends and family.

For the next generation of retirees, the question that will trump all others will be a simple one: How do you add life to longer lives?

As people live longer, and spend more time in retirement, the challenge will be to get more out of those years. How do you find a rewarding second career? How do you stay close with friends and family? How do you maintain independence and mobility? How do you embrace new experiences?

The equally simple answer: technology.

The next-generation retiree will have an unprecedented array of technologies and tech-enabled services to invent a new future for working part time, remaining social, having fun, living at home, staying healthy and arranging care.

Many of the solutions will be driven by the “Internet of Things”—where household objects can use Internet connections to think, talk and communicate with one another, enabling an entirely new on-demand service industry for older adults. Kitchen appliances will monitor a person’s diet and relay that information to a doctor. Older people will order up services they need to handle chores that have become too difficult, everything from housecleaning to car rides. Even clothing will connect people to a larger network of services that will monitor, manage and motivate them well into older age.

This new world of retirement will come with plenty of challenges—among them, costs and possible loss of privacy. But if the challenges can be met, these innovations could transform retirement into a new and vibrant period of life that is about living better as much as it is about living longer.

Here’s a closer look at some of the innovations.

STAYING ON THE JOB

Retirement was once a clear line between work and not working. Today, a career may be completed, but work is not over. Recent AARP research suggests that nearly four out of 10 baby boomers are planning to work in retirement. Some over-50s report that they plan to work until they drop. These days, that’s easier hoped for than done. Not only do older people battle the preconceptions of bosses and co-workers about older workers, but they also face a rapidly changing work environment that demands new skills. And they’re often forced to think of work in a new way, as a series of contract projects rather than a regular job.

Now technology is offering new options and flexibility. Telecommuting isn’t a new idea, but it’s crucial for retirees who want the freedom to accept whatever opportunities suit them without disrupting their lifestyle. With smartphones and tablets, the newly retired can be productive from home, beachfront or grandchild’s playground.

The Internet also frees retirees from having to seek out colleges to brush up on job skills. Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, let retirees learn what they need to stay competitive or enter a new field.

READ ALL