With the November presidential election quicklyapproaching, outgoing president Barack Obama is facing the sametransition thousands of his fellow baby boomers are facing each day— retirement.

At 54, Obama is one of the youngest outgoing presidents inhistory. He is at the tail end of the baby boomergeneration and is a decade younger than the traditional age ofretirees in the United States. He may well choose to continuecareer pursuits for years before settling into retirement.

Several other presidents have continued working after theirpresidential terms, while others withdrew from the spotlight.Following his presidency, Franklin Pierce publicly denouncedAbraham Lincoln, but by the end of the Civil War he was all butforgotten by the American public, and little was written about himwhen he died in 1869.