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"The pair lives very comfortably, without wants or financial worries. They've had no trouble making friends in their new community because the folks in Belize speak English. They eat out three or four times a week. They barbecue lobster and filet mignon at home. They have reliable Internet to keep them connected to the outside world. By choice, they do not have a television. "I used to think that the news was important," Jason explains. "But not anymore." The retired couple has a maid and a gardener, each of whom visit once a week."

"I'm passionate about "career management," a phrase I use to talk about taking personal responsibility for our individual careers. Long gone are the days when a company had loyalty towards employees, specifically keeping them on-board for decades and providing a healthy pension after retirement. How many companies are offering a lifetime job with nice benefits after retirement? Not many. "

"Fearing a shortage of qualified managers as business picks up, some companies are bolstering leadership-development efforts. Layoffs and training cutbacks in the past two years have thinned manager pipelines. And employers worry that baby boomers who postponed retirement during the recession will start to depart as recovering stock prices reinflate retirement funds."

"We read in newspaper headlines that the economy may have permanently lost 20 million jobs, that 70 million "baby-boomers" are ready to retire, that 50 percent of the workforce will be people of color by 2028, that younger workers are changing careers five to seven times, that America is losing its half-century of global economic dominance and that the global skills gap is worsening. The US workplace is experiencing radical transformational changes. These changes will require new skill-sets for future career success and to start closing the non-competitive skills gap."

"When James Marvin retired from the Navy Seals in September, he had two choices: seek a civilian government position in his current state of Virginia or pursue the unknown. He chose the latter. "We literally put the 'for sale' sign on our home, packed up the minivan, and drove cross-country," says Mr. Marvin, 44, who moved to Seattle with his wife and daughter to pursue a position with an alternative energy company."

Big U.S. employers, worried about replacing retiring baby boomers, are wading deeper into education and growing bolder about telling educators how to run their business.

Even before the financial crisis, many baby boomers hadn't saved enough for retirement. Then stocks plummeted. In 1998, the average 50-year-old who had been working for at least 10 years had a 401(k) balance of $85,000, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Factor in the recent market drop, and more than a decade later, that worker's 401(k) has grown to just $93,000. In short, we keep getting older, but our 401(k) balances, they stay the same.

Was it a mirage? Not just our formerly fat 401(k)s but also the whole idea of a comfortable work life followed by an evergreen retirement, replete with health coverage, perks aplenty and - oh, yes - pension checks as far as the eye could see.

"The biggest changes in family life sometimes happen gradually. New employment data suggest one such seismic change is upon us: Job-holding patterns between the generations have turned upside down."