"If you think you can retire and live for 30 or more years off the productivity of others, you are in for a terrible surprise and a great deal of pain. You haven't earned a nonproductive retirement, nor have you 'paid your dues.' When you wake up to this in two, five or 10 years and realize that you are in big trouble, you will not only be in pain, you will dump that pain on all the rest of us who aren't retired. Don't expect us to be sympathetic for long. There are simply too many of you, and your demands will far exceed our willingness to sacrifice. And, no, we won't want to hire you. You will have been out of touch for too long. The world moves on.

Sorry. Lots of luck."

Bob Adams
Next, the Retirement Bubble
Barron's
15 June 2009

I don't know about you, but I have seen enough "bubbles" to last me a lifetime. We opened this decade with a "stock market bubble" and we are closing it with a "real estate bubble" and a global "credit bubble". These bubbles have devastated the lives of tens of millions of people in the US, Europe, and a host of other nations and the indirect effects threaten tens of millions more. The last thing we need is another big bubble, but one is already present and beginning to lose air. It is a bubble of expectations, the Retirement Bubble, and if we don't avoid it for ourselves, we will suffer again. The size and significance of the Retirement Bubble is so great, its deflation will not sound like a pop, but more like a slow-motion explosion.

The inspiration for this website and its blog was an article I wrote for Barron's, the well-respected financial journal, Next, the Retirement Bubble. I had written for Barron's before as well as a number of other print and on-line publications. Being published by a respected journal is always an honor, but it wasn't enough in this case. I realized that 99% of those who needed to reconsider traditional retirement as a goal were not paid subscribers to Barron's. How to reach them? This site and its blog are my attempt to reach out to that greater audience.

This is an "organic" website. It will grow and change over time, aided greatly by the input of people like you. Short essays covering the major aspects of the Retirement Bubble can be found here at Popping the Bubble. They will be added to in the weeks to come. In the meantime, I hope you take a moment to look through them, visit the blog and share your own feelings. Let's pop this bubble with its false expectations and not wait for it to explode in our faces.

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