The Wall Street Journal Report on Living the New Retirement

On October 28th The WSJ published one of its Journal Reports called PLANNING & LIVING THE NEW RETIREMENT.  The section was delivered on Monday morning.  What a great way to start the week.  We couldn't put it down. It contained some of the most interesting articles about retirement such as In Search of a New Identity by Sydney Lagier and So-You-Think You're-Ready-for-Retirement QUIZ by Glenn Ruffenach.  The article about living to 120 was very thought provoking and the Living the Good Life column had an interesting article about The Best Job in Retirement or Not.

Too often we see articles about retirement featuring beach chairs, an umbrella and drinks with small parasols in them.  It leads people to the wrong assumption that retirement is one big vacation.  It isn't.  It is more likely a large block of time divided by ages and stages and it may very well include new work either volunteer or paid, going back to school, starting a new business, trying new things, traveling, and even continuous learning outside the classroom.   Some will be in retirement longer than they worked. It's called longevity and that is the bonus our generation has gotten.  Gerontologists predict that over 3 million Baby Boomers will live to be 100+.

Some Boomers will move out of the country, learn a new language and go on a journey of discovery. International Living magazine is filled with articles about the challenges and joys of living in a place that probably has a significantly lower cost of living.  Making retirement funds stretch is a new form of exercise. 

Reading about the possibilities that the future represents is stimulating, thought provoking, and eye opening.  It isn't scary.  What's scary is not reading about what the future may hold and planning for it.

CREATIVITY IS AGELESS!

If you think creativity ends after a certain age, guess again. In April The New York Times carried the announcement that Herman Wouk, famed author of the The Caine Mutiny, The Naked and the Dead, The Winds of War, and other great works, is coming out with a new book,The Law Giver. He was born in 1915 and is 96 years old.  And still writing away! Now how is that for life long creativity?

He wrote his first novel during World War II when he was in the Navy sailing on a minesweeper in the South Pacific. What’s his secret besides having longevity? Wouk has kept a personal diary since the 1930s. On September 10, 2008, he formally presented the Library of Congress with his journals---over 90 volumes (he kept copies). He keeps them so that he can remember what happened during his life with greater detail and accuracy.

No matter what age you are and no matter what your creative outlet…painting, writing, sculpture, acting, etc., don’t be stopped from pursuing your goal, just because you are 50, 60, 70, 80 or older like Herman. Science shows that the brain is always rewiring. It is the rewiring that gives us the ability to continue to be creative. But it needs to be stimulated to keep it going. Yes, use it or lose it. What better way to use it than doing something creative.

His advice to aspiring authors: "Write a page a day. It will add up."

Live to 150 Years Old? Do I Want To?

I devour every article I can find on longevity. It is a tremendously important topic with broad reaching consequences for all of us. It's one of the reasons Rick and I wrote Don't Retire, REWIRE! If we are going to live longer, we better be constantly rewiring our minds and bodies to prepare for an extended future.

A recent article on the topic, brought me up short. The article, Who Wants to Live Forever? Scientist Sees Aging Cured, was written by Kate Kelland, the Reuters Health and Science Correspondent. She quotes Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the chief scientific officer of SENS, a non-profit foundation in California that specializes in rejuvenation therapy. He claims that the first person who will live to be 150 years old has already been born. The language used in the article is fairly technical and gives the scientific reasons why this can occur. Living to be 150 years old is scary to contemplate but I suspect not outrageous given the fact we have already had Jeanne Calment, a woman in France who lived to a documented age of 122.

But what I thought was equally interesting were some of the over 500 comments people left about the article on the internet. They were funny, thought - provoking and very honest-- a real stream of consciousness like we have with ourselves when the thought of living so long creeps into our psyche.

Among them were, "Does this mean the retirement age goes up to 140?"
"General Motors is going to hate this!!! My pension starts at 65!"
" I already feel like I'm 150 years old and I'm just past 50."
" Do I have to stay married to the same woman that long?????"
" Isn't earth crowded enough already."
" How many times can I transition to a new job?"
And then there are some I can't mention here, because they were a little too earthy!

The article concludes with the comment that "...the first person who will live to 1,000 is likely to be born less than 20 years after the first person to reach 150." Now that's a really scary thought! This is longevity run amuk. I guess we better rethink defunding NASA and start looking to the sky for more real estate. After all, where will we all live? As for Social Security and Medicare, there won't be enough paper to print the money needed. If we wait long enough, Mel Brooks' 2,000 year old man won't be fiction anymore.

Cornell University Has Bragging Rights For A First -Ever 80th Class Reunion

It used to be that June was about brides and weddings, but as you get older you realize that June is really about reunions! All kinds of reunions will be going on this summer: camp, grade school, prep school,high school, college, family, military, plus sorority and fraternity reunions. In fact I'm heading out to San Diego in August for a Tri Delta sorority reunion. Reunions have become big business with websites like Classmates.com and e-magazines like reunionsmag.com making the planning of and attending reunions much easier than ever before.

Reunions have been around a long time, so what was the big deal with the Cornell University reunion?

It used to be that the last college reunion most graduates attended was their 50th reunion. Then it got pushed out to their 60th. After that no one was left or physically able to attend. But today longevity has created a new milestone.

Think about this... for the first time in history there has been an 80th Class Reunion. Cornell University hosted it earlier this month. There are 30 members of the Class of 1931 still living and several showed up to celebrate!

Was it to show their loyalty and love for their alma mater? Absolutley! Was it to visit with classmates and relive the fun of a shared experience of a long time ago? Definitely! Was it because they were still vital and engaged in life? YES! These people had not retired from life, they had rewired (probably many times) and were physically showing it!

You should know that even though many were over the age of 100, they weren't all helped into their chairs. One 100+ year old got up and sang the school fight song to the sound of thunderous applause. Many of this class are still active and involved in life, and have gone through a succession of rewirings.The result is that it has kept them vital and engaged in life. They have also taken care of themselves physically and emotionally.

The Gerontology Research Group keeps track of aging and reports that the United States has over 100,000 people over the age of 100. This number is predicted to grow into the millions over the next 40 years. Will it be you or me who reaches 100? On some levels a scary thought,and yet what a tremendous opportunity to do more things and to have more experience than anyone could have ever imagined.

So when I hear people say---oh why try something new I'll never live long enough to become good at it, from now on I will always challenge that attitude. The truth is, you never know which one of us will live to be 100! So with that thought I have decided that I want my own bragging rights...I want to bop 'til I drop! I want to still be singing and dancing with my sorority sisters when we're 100. Why not? If Cornell can brag about their graduates, why can't you and I brag about our lives? So my directive to everyone is as NIKE says--GO FOR IT---you might be around for alot longer than you ever imagined!

A Longevity Secret

As I travel the country I run into people all the time now who are really old in age yet youthful in thought and outlook on life. Yes, many won the gene pool so they have longevity on their side, but others did it by having curiosity. They often tell me that having an active mind and body led to a more fulfilled and engaged long life experience.

One such person died last week. John Kluge was at one time the second richest man in America. He died a billionaire, but not one of the richest. He stayed active until his health failed. I never met him but was intrigued to discover that he had offered his longevity secret to The New York Times when they were preparing his obituary for the paper when he was 72 years old.

"I love the work because it taxes your mind. (Remember he was the founder of MetroMedia)Years ago, I could have taken a few million dollars and joined the country club and gotten in to this pattern of complaining about the world and about the tax law." But he didn't. He wasn't just into business. He grew flowers and collected paintings, African sculpture and Indian, Chines, Greek and Egyptian objets d'art. In other words, he had hobbies. He had cultivated interests, something I am constantly suggesting in my speeches.

I am pleased to say that I have met many more people lately, with a lot less money than John Kluge, who are exploring hobbies and interests as a way to constantly rewire and stay engaged in life throughout their life. No matter how busy you are take out some time for yourself.

CAPITALIZE ON THE LONGEVITY REVOLUTION!

I recently attended a seminar at DEMOS, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization headquartered in New York City. Demos works with advocates and policymakers around the country in pursuit of four overarching goals:

• a more equitable economy with widely shared prosperity and opportunity


• a vibrant and inclusive democracy with high levels of voting and civic engagement
  
• an empowered public sector that works for the common good
  
• responsible U.S. engagement in an interdependent world

DEMOS, http://www.demos.org/, does great work in terms of Ideas and Action! I went to their event to hear the brilliant Dr. Robert Butler, founder of The International Longevity Center http://www.ilcusa.org/ talk about the realities of living longer. His new book, THE LONGEVITY REVOLUTION, is terrific for professionals and lay people. The focus is on the benefits and challenges of living a long life---a subject that I think that we all need to know more about!


Dr. Butler has great delivery and great insights...and when he told the audience to exercise and work to strengthen their thighs so we can always climb stairs I knew he was right on!! What a great message for all of us Boomers!

From my standpoint I think that to really get this longevity revolution right, we need to rewire ourselves mentally, physically and civically for starters!