Five percent expect of retire from their present job or career but work full time doing something else, and 17 percent expect to start their own business.

Klara Samuels, a 72-year-old West Orange resident can understand the desire to extend those working years. "You can become invisible after you retire," she says. "People who retire can really suffer."

Samuels wrote about her Holocaust experiences following years of telling her stories to her husband. She is now considering writing more books. The first probably will be a user-friendly physics book. "The book I have in mind would again be drawing from what I know," she explains. "I enjoy writing and I think I would enjoy creating such a book. My main intent wouldn't be the money I might make. I've gotten a lot of gratification from writing my other book."

"Wherever I go, people come up to me and compliment me and it's very pleasant," Samuels adds.

Marika and Howard Stone of Weehawken, decided to craft their own brand of retirement while they felt young enough to try to start new joys--jobs that had less stress. A priority was being able to spend a lot more time with their two grand children and other family members the second time around.

"We are about 85 percent financially independent, but we still need to earn some money for the next five years before we could live on our reserve," Stone says. He says the couple expects to ultimately live on income derived from a combination of investments and Social Security payments.

Mrs. Stone, 58, quit her commercial-writing career last year to work as a paid yoga teacher. She teaches classes out of the couple's loft apartment, and she also is paid to teach yoga to senior citizens at a church in Jersey City.

Mr. Stone, 64, was closer to traditional retirement age. He adds, "A lot of seniors are learning to use computers and can be virtual assistants. There are a lot of different pursuits--it depends on how much fear you have of changing your life."

Mrs. Stone says, "I wanted to do work of the more nurturing, helping variety. I thought of going back to school and becoming a psychotherapist , but I kept coming back to yoga." She was a yoga student and had enjoyed it for years, and says she wanted to teach others what she had learned through the discipline.

"It gives me energy to face my life in a new way," she says. "I wanted to help do that for other people."