But Gassman hasn’t exactly retired. Instead, like many baby boomers now speeding past 55, he’s opted for pre-retirement. That’s the name increasingly given to the status of people who leave their old jobs behind but continue to work on their own terms and timetables. They include people in their late 40s, 50s and early 60s who are taking buyout offers, or simply quitting, then putting their skills back to work part-time, often as consultants or contractors for the industries and even the companies they just left. Characteristically affluent, pre-retirees can afford to work outside traditional corporate structures because technology and a tight labor market are making firms more flexible about outsourcing for needed expertise.

Pre-retiree Gassman, for example, will work as a consultant to the jewelry industry, keeping tabs on chain stores, serving on a few boards, and traveling around the world for industry conferences and trade missions. With money in the bank and the kids out of college, he and his wife, Mary Bo, recently built a dream home in rural Hanover County north of Richmond. "I want to try something a little different, with a less hectic schedule," he says. "I think you’re going to see a lot more people behind me do the same thing." The numbers are certainly there. Boomers — the 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964 — began turning 55 this year at the rate of nearly 12,000 a day. And while pre-retirees by definition generally don’t need to work, like most boomers they seek a balance of pleasure and purpose in their lives.

They are finding it in some of Virginia’s more interesting places: rural retreats, golf and boating communities, even urban hot spots like Old Town in Alexandria and the capital’s Fan District. Says Cecil Sears, director of economic research at Integra Realty Resources in Richmond: "They’re all over the map, in every sense. They’re doing what they want, when they want, where they want." With its mild climate, diverse landscapes and relatively inexpensive real estate, the state rapidly is becoming a haven for pre-retired Northerners as well. "We’ve got an aging baby boomer population who have experienced 10 years of economic growth, consolidation of industries through deregulation leading to early retirement offers and who have also benefited from inherited wealth," says Mike Toalson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia. "They’re fortunate enough to be in a position to call it quits a little earlier, and one of the states benefiting from that is Virginia." (Map of Virginia's hot pre-retirement communities.)

For some, the state is the first stop on a southward migration. Take Tom and Bonnie Hill. They moved from New York to Hillsville in southwestern Carroll County two years ago. Nature lovers, they sporadically searched the mountainous stretch between Winchester and Asheville, N.C., for nearly 8 years before deciding on their 4-acre, partially wooded property with meadow, stream and small pond. Tom, 55, now works part-time as a contractor for his former employer, a Denver-based company that installs pneumatic-tube delivery systems for hospitals around the country. With the couple’s four children out of college and scattered along the East Coast, making visits easy for them and the grandkids was a consideration. "All in all, we’re centrally located," he says. "Virginia had the right combination of amenities and affordability we were looking for." Hill plans to fully retire within two years so that he can devote more time to helping Bonnie, 53, landscape and enjoy their property and the wildlife it attracts. "Between the birds and the deer and the everything else that comes to see us," she says, "it’s heaven."

Other middle-aged arrivals are transforming historic neighborhoods like the Fan in Richmond, where they’re buying rental properties, fixing them up and moving in. "Crime is not as big a concern for these Northerners and the cost is such a plus," says former Virginia Commonwealth University business professor Wallace Johnston, who took early retirement himself five years ago at 58 and now writes a syndicated column and produces a radio show. "I went from education to edutainment," he laughs. "I’m still out hustling. I make no bones about any of this." Johnston and his wife, Sigrid, moved last year from a house in the suburbs to a Fan duplex. Culture and convenience attracted the empty nesters. "We just like this lifestyle better — to be able to get out on the sidewalks and walk around, stroll over to the restaurants. It’s easier to get to places downtown."

Of course, when many people think pre-retirement, they see visions of green fairways and blue waters. Developers are happy to oblige. Dozens of resort-style golf and boating communities have been built throughout the state in recent years, a boom that shows little sign of letting up soon. "If anything, we’re not building enough of that product for them fast enough," says Virginia Beach real estate deal-maker Van Rose Jr., who has brokered communities throughout Hampton Roads and currently is behind the multi-amenity Marina Bluff project in Newport News. Demand has even led developers to place big bets farther afield, such as in Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore, where the vast Bay Creek community is emerging with designer golf courses, a 224-slip boating marina, bayside beaches and the first of a planned 2,000 condos and homes.

Developers also are hustling to create new kinds of communities. As Toalson of the homebuilders association says, "The top two amenities are still water and golf … but there is a trend toward more open space for walking, biking and hiking." For instance, just south of Winchester a 970-acre community called Shenandoah is being built around a 120-acre fishing lake. The nature-themed resort will also offer hiking, biking and wildlife watching, with an on-site naturalist who helps residents build backyard wildlife sanctuaries. Shenandoah hopes to become the first National Wildlife Foundation-certified community started from scratch.

Natural blessings of geography and climate are the basis of the state’s appeal, Virginia Beach’s Rose believes. "This is the transition zone. Virginia and North Carolina are the places for people who want four seasons and a variety of topography." It’s what drew Elaine and Richard Moser. They moved from their home in suburban Ellicott City, Md., to rural Orange County’s Lake of the Woods community three years ago after taking early retirement from Bell Atlantic. "We did some looking around," says Elaine, 48. "We knew we didn’t want to go farther north and we wanted to stay near our family in Maryland." With its golf, biking and water sports, Lake of the Woods, about 15 miles west of Fredericksburg, fit the bill. The Mosers own a 3-bedroom rancher on the 9th fairway of the community’s course. With a party room and pool table, they would be forgiven for whiling away their time with friends here or out on the links. But like good pre-retirees, the Mosers aren’t idle: Richard, 56, teaches business courses at nearby Germanna Community College, and Elaine programs Web sites for state agencies through the Virginia Information Providers Network. "The ability to telecommute is absolutely essential to me," she says.

Technology increasingly enables pre-retirees to enjoy remote homesteads while staying connected, and more and more communities are accommodating these high-tech part-timers with high-speed Internet access. For example, in its magazine ads the James City County golf community Stonehouse touts its fiber optic connections as much as its highly regarded course. Stonehouse Property Manager Rose Dykstra says the broadband data pipes empower everyone from day traders to doctors, reliably delivering stock market stats or hospital X-rays in a blink. Armed with laptops and myriad wireless devices — though cellular coverage in the Commonwealth can seem spotty compared to neighboring states — pre-retirees are seeking out Virginia’s farthest reaches. "I could do my consulting any place," says 57-year-old W.O. "Bill" Jones III. He and his wife, Carolyn, last year moved from Deltaville on the Chesapeake Bay’s western bank to Onancock on the Eastern Shore. The sailing couple wanted a "real home in a real place," he says. They found it in Onancock’s 1878 waterfront town hall, which has served as a residence since 1920. Formerly president and CEO of Kjellstrom & Lee, a Richmond construction and engineering firm, Jones pre-retired in 1998, keeps an office at the firm and serves on its board. He is also a director at Richmond Children’s Hospital and consults for Mount Vernon in Alexandria.

While affluent pre-retirees most often come from successful careers in the private sector, high-income state workers could soon swell their ranks. According to the Virginia Retirement System, the number of retired state employees rose from 61,500 in 1991 to 94,800 in 2000. VRS Director of Media Relations Bill Sullivan expects that number to balloon even faster as workers who turn 55 with 30 years of service take advantage of the option to retire with full benefits, as enacted by the 1999 General Assembly. "Almost all of them continue to work in some capacity," he adds. Result: more well off pre-retirees. Yet determining exactly how many of them live in Virginia is difficult, says Bill Mezger, chief economist for the Virginia Employment Commission. "They don’t fit any traditional categories, and we don’t have very good numbers yet." Kevin Burns, a demographer for the Virginia Department for Aging, describes pre-retirees as a growing trend that may be flushed out when numbers become available from Census 2000.

Complicating the numbers is the fact that for every pre-retiree working because he or she wants to, there are some people working to make ends meet. National polls consistently find boomers spending too much and saving too little, and despite fears about Social Security, 30 percent of Americans in their 50s have saved less than $10,000 for retirement, while only 29 percent have saved at least $100,000. Whether from desire or necessity, 80 percent of boomers say they plan to work at least part-time well into their traditional retirement years. "We’re really seeing two trends," says Sara Rix, AARP senior policy advisor. "More people are retiring early and more people are working later. There are fewer and fewer in the middle, who retire at the traditional age of 65."

A pre-retirement pioneer, Bud Denton moved to Kingsmill, the sprawling three-course golf and boating community in Williamsburg, 17 years ago at the age of 45, thinking it would be a great place to transition into retirement. But Denton never got around to it and, at 62, he shows no signs of slowing down. Formerly president of a Hampton Roads economic development agency, Denton works part-time, leveraging his international network of corporate contacts and traveling to market Virginia Beach to firms overseas. Kingsmill is a convenient base of operations. "It’s just so centrally located. I can ride right over to Norfolk or Richmond if I need to, and this place is nice to come back to. Not a lot of hustle and bustle." Except in October, of course, when the PGA Tour’s annual Michelob Classic rolls past his home on the 3rd-hole fairway of Kingsmill’s River Course: "That, I can always take a little time off for."