It goes without saying that retirement ain't what it used to be. The recession decimated the nest eggs of many Americans, and a tough job market has prevented a lot of people from putting money toward their golden years.
"The traditional industry definition of retirement is for people to save, turn 65, stop working and never set their alarm clocks again," says Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. "But that's just not the reality today."
People are working longer (sometimes out of necessity, sometimes by choice), starting businesses in retirement, and even joining virtual retirement villages that help seniors with everything from getting rides to weekly doctor's visits to organizing theater trips.
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So is this new face of retirement a good or a bad thing? Collinson says that it depends on your mind-set — some retirees see work as a burden, while others view it as an opportunity to try something new and stay engaged.
Given how much has changed, it's not surprising that there's a whole new lexicon of retirement terms out there. (What in the world is a SKIer, anyway?) So we asked Campbell Harvey, a Duke University finance professor and author of The New York Times Dictionary of Money and Investing, to weigh in on the new lingo.
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