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However, I have been very troubled by the lack of usefulness among so many of my cohort. I’ve observed far too many boomers and older adults make themselves irrelevant. I was really troubled when I read that last year the average American retiree watched more than 48 hours of television per week. I don’t believe that’s the best we can do, or that’s the best we can be as elder men and women.
I realize that it takes a lot of effort to remain current, and it takes a lot of work to understand new technology and a lot of work to understand modern culture and understand why folks like Childish Gambino or Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas are so interesting and to understand the appeal of TikTok. Stepping outside your time and your era and being a part of the present requires a willingness to continually learn and grow.
I challenge pre-retirees and retirees to ask: How do I try and see and feel the world from the perspective of those far younger than me? That is an important activity in our new longevity. That we spend time and energy not to just try to hoard our life and our memories, but that we also actively try to be empathetic to different people, younger people.
In your book, you write about Life’s Third Age. Can you describe that?
For our first 30 years of life, our focus is on biological development, making friends, identity formation and seeking a partner. Then, from 30 to 60, it’s a period occupied with building a family and a productive career. However, because of medical breakthroughs during the 20th century, what is now emerging is a whole new stage of life between 60 to 90. And that is uncharted territory, but we know for sure that it offers far more than the limited retirement arrangements that our parents and grandparents pursued.
This new Third Age is about reinvention of oneself. It’s no longer, only wow, you have time and are free to do your thing. It’s about continuing to grow, learn, meet new people, try new things and even discover new purpose. I also believe that there are important roles and accountabilities that need to be filled by today’s elders.
As boomers pave this new territory, younger generations will take notice and they will embrace the fact that life has got some hairpin turns and twists over the course of a 100-year life. They will have time to work and other time when they’ll play, and there’s a good chance that they will pursue multiple careers over the course of such a long life. In the future, it will be commonplace for there to be continued course-corrections and cyclical reinventions rather than this massive retirement.
How is retirement a sequence of shifts over time?
People have traditionally thought of retirement as an on-off switch. You’re working and then you’re retired. I see it as a series of stages. There’s the pre-retirement “anticipation” period when folks are imagining what they’ll do and who they’ll be when they no longer work. Then the immediate period of retirement is like a liberation, a honeymoon period where people are usually exhilarated.
That only lasts a year or so, and then there is another shift toward reorientation where people explore those big questions of what am I going to do all day long and what will matter to me? Then, further downstream there is another shift toward reconciliation, when folks piece together what their life was — to make sense of it and turn it into wisdom and get set to leave their legacy.
Going forward, I think that there will be even more shifts for retirees — or should I say “Third Agers” as people are forced to re-craft their plans, or they initiate the shifts themselves. Some people will become either bored or curious and will consider going back to school, or starting a nonprofit, or learning a foreign language or writing a memoir or training for a marathon. And, of course, there are unexpected subplots. Someone you love gets sick and you have to spend your time caregiving, or your adult kids move back home. Bingo — all your plans change.
What has emerged from your research that retirees should think about?
The importance of interdependence alongside independence — we all would do better in our later years if we’re connected and not isolated. And how do I maximize my health span, not just my life span?
And there’s the serious issue of funding our longer lives. A third of the boomers have close to nothing saved for retirement and no pensions; that is a massive poverty phenomenon about to happen, unless millions of people work a bit longer, spend less, downsize or even share their homes with housemates or family.
What is the biggest mistake retirees make?
Far too many think far too small. I have asked thousands of people from all walks of life over the years who are nearing retirement what they hope to do in retirement. They tell me: “I want to get some rest, exercise some more, visit with my family, go on a great vacation, read some great books.” Then most stall. Few have taken the time or effort to study the countless possibilities that await them or imagine or explore all of the incredible ways they can spend the next period of their lives.