Tag: baby boomers (Page 2 of 3)

Retiring or rethinking?

02/26/2018 /

Now that you’re getting closer to retirement, or you’ve long since retired, you’ve probably faced the decision about whether you want to work longer, work part-time, try something new, or run as far as you can from anything resembling employment.  Some are more fortunate than others in this regard, and some just aren’t sure.

It’s frustrating to work hard all your life and have in the back of your mind that soon you’ll be taking it easy…at least not punching a clock every day…and then economics change that scenario.  Life is just expensive, no matter whether you stay in your same home, or you dream of moving to a new home by the  ocean or in mountains.  You may have been a saver, but you probably still wish you’d started earlier and saved more.  Or, you could  be like so many people, and only just now have the ability to save anything at all.

It’s the dilemma of the day and it’s only going to get worse. Baby boomers are living longer than previous generations and retiring later. About three in every four Americans plan to work past retirement age and almost two-thirds said they will continue to work part-time. About 10,000  turn 65 each day, yet fewer than half said they expect to retire by 65.

People are working later in life for a number of reasons. They are healthier and have a longer life expectancy than previous generations. They are better educated, which increases their likelihood of staying in the labor force. And changes to Social Security benefits and employee retirement plans, along with the need to save more for retirement, create incentives to keep working.

And whether you want to keep working, or have to, you might be thinking about a change. Maybe even working for yourself.  Data from Bureau of Labor Statistics shows hat workers in older age groups have higher rates of self-employment than do workers in younger groups. Knowledge and resources gained through years of experience may put older workers in a good position to work for themselves. (Just remember this comes with its challenges as well…do your homework!)

Or maybe you’ve spent your career in an office and would love to get into the outdoors. Or perhaps you’re retiring a  teacher and prefer giving tours of a local museum.

Then there are the challenges that come with being over 60 and wanting to be taken seriously by younger co-workers.  Society is prone to dismiss us. Younger workers often don’t even “see”  us, much less take our ideas and expertise seriously.  It often leads to baby boomers doubting themselves, wondering if they are really out of touch and have anything valuable to contribute.

Yet the good news is science is on our side.

Research shows successful older people manage to use their brains differently, and by doing so are doing just as well as younger people. One interpretation is that we boomers and beyond have a larger set of knowledge and thus we can rely on our experience when processing new information.  We use our experience as “filters,” dismissing some new information, but working more efficiently with the information we have and ultimately doing just as well as younger people with more powerful brains.

So, while the young person in the next desk can  run faster, you know the shortcuts…so you might reach the finish line just as fast.

Bottom line?  We aren’t doing things wrong, we are doing them differently. And even better…we score better in social conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability than do younger people.  This is probably not news to you. Take the cell phone away from some young people and they lose the ability to communicate.  BUT…you better be up on the technology you  need to stay in the game.

So don’t let the headlines scare you…remember you  are a reserve of knowledge, experience and sound common sense earned over a lifetime.

You have value.

Now get out there and rock it!

 

“It’s never too late to do something extraordinary.”

            Anonymous

Losing power. Again.

05/30/2017 /

Day 3 of no electricity due to a recent storm.

Day 3 of no internet (without driving to another location).  Day 3 of no unlimited life on the phone (without driving elsewhere to charge).  Day 3 of no television, radio, CD player, Netflix and other entertainment choices powered by electricity.

Day 3 of no way to straighten or curl hair.  To flip a switch and see your face well enough to “fix it”, as my mother used to say.

Day 3 of thinking about all the food in your refrigerator that had to be thrown away.  And realizing how dependent you are on electricity when mealtime comes around.

Day 3 of realizing you should have done the laundry…because you’re almost out of underwear.

Day 3 of your long-haired dog panting and looking at you with imploring eyes.

Day (and night) 3 of getting candles set up in the right places so when the sun goes down, you can walk through your residence without crashing into anything.  And of sitting still on the couch and listening to the occasional traffic, or hearing neighborhood children outside playing, or a mockingbird serenading its top 40 bird songs.

Day 3 of just being.  Other than the stress of having to figure out when you need to be somewhere to receive work emails, you are for all practical purposes, truly without power.

As in powerless.

Of course, we are always powerless.  But we don’t know that.  With so many gadgets and plug-ins and apps, we really are the masters of our universe most of the time, at least in our den.

At least in our minds.

Yet let one good 100 mph microburst show up, and everything suddenly gets very dark.

Very quiet.

For some, it’s truly the first time they have ever really just had to be.  And it makes them quite uneasy.

Just sitting, listening to the sounds of the evening, thinking, meditating, breathing.  Or, fidgeting, fretting and letting frustration win.

What if life was always like this?  If you finished your work, had your dinner (which came only from what you had grown or raised), and now spent your evening by candlelight, with no external stimulation?

it’s interesting that we have come so far in so many ways, obtained so much knowledge, learned about so many wonderful cultural opportunities, expanded our minds as never before, and yet, when we can’t “turn something on”, something that it outside of us, that does not directly engage with us, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.

Withdrawal can be very hard.

I confess it’s illuminating (even in the dark) to realize just how dependent I am on white noise…on an electronic presence in the room that seems to “connect” me to other people and feels safe and familiar.  There’s nothing wrong with enjoying that.  But I wonder, does it keep me from a little too comfortable?

As baby boomers and beyond, we’ve had so many different experiences, and we’ve more than earned the right to enjoy sitting on the couch and watching movies, or listening to music, or just enjoying being inside the air-conditioning.  But maybe very once in a while, we should pretend we don’t have electricity, and power ourselves down.

And sit in the dark.  And hear the symphony that is the night:  a breeze, laughter, the hoot of an owl, gentle rain.

It might help us remember just how powerless we really are.   I”m okay with that.

But I confess…I’d rather do it when it’s 60 degrees.

How strong are we?

04/17/2017 /

Recently I was in a Sears store buying ankle weights and 2 dumbbells.  As for why, I’ll do my commercial for people over 50 needing to do some form of weight training for their bones, particularly women because we lose so much of our muscle mass as we age.  I personally want to always be able to carry my own groceries, do my own yard work and get that 40 pound of dog food from the trunk of the car into the house.  And I can.

But after a move, I left behind some of my weights so when I saw that Sears had these discounted, I decided to get them.  As I’m also a member of a gym, I only wanted small weights for use at home (dumbbells 5 pounds each, ankle weights also 5 pounds each).  So in total, this purchase weighed 20 pounds.

And the woman checking me out, who was older than me by a few years, reacted with surprised that I thought I could carry them out.

Seriously?

“It’s only 20 pounds,” I said.

She still frowned.  “You sure you can carry that?”  And then she struggled to get them in the bag.

Wow, I thought.  If you can’t carry 20 pounds, that is more than sad.  That’s serious.  Maybe her husband is doing all the heavy lifting, but what if she’s left alone?  Why would she not want to be able to do that for herself?

The ironic part is, I then went home and emptied and spread sixteen 40-pound bags of top soil…carried the bags from my car to the yard, then carried each bag to where I wanted it emptied, then spread it out.

16 x 40 = 640 pounds.

Not saying it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done, or that my back didn’t talk to me a bit.  But I still did it.  And I was glad

I know the day is coming when I won’t be able to do things like that.  Or even sooner, when I just don’t choose to do things like that.  And that’s perfectly fine.  Haven’t we all earned that right?

In fact, when you think of it, once you are a boomer and beyond, you’ve carried a great deal of weight already….work, disappointment, love, heartbreak, marriage, divorce, children, death, success, failure, and the very real desire to get even with the cable company.

So maybe we can put down a few things now and again.  But sometimes I feel the strongest when I can sense another person Is questioning my viability.  Like when a much younger person looks at me like I’m a museum piece.

Or when I’m completely ignored because of my age.

I want to say, hey, let’s talk about what real strength is…and what it takes to get it.  Years and years and years of heavy lifting.

And as long as I can carry the load, I’m going to do my best.

Because I think we’re all a lot stronger than even we realize…and sometimes it feels good to remember that.

“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

      A.A.Milne

Let’s be honest.

07/06/2015 /

Seriously.  Let’s be honest. Shall we?

Or, as boomers, can we?

I read an article the other day that said baby boomers are not very honest. It claimed we don’t tell the truth about ourselves on online dating sites, or post current photos. We supposedly tell our children and grandchildren, “do as I say, not as I did.”

We don’t volunteer the truth about our age. Our weight. Our marital status.

We fudge on our taxes and fib to our bosses.

And then, the article went on to say, we growl at the younger generations and claim THEY are the ones who don’t act responsibly.

photo-1428263197823-ce6a8620d1e1

Is there really such a divide? After all the years we spent saying not to trust anyone over 30, are we now the ones who can’t tell fact from fiction?

I sometimes wonder what happened to the concept of truth. Cable news survives on reporting false information…hey it was on television, so it must be true. Sports figures use drugs and then can’t recall doing it until they get caught. Authors steal work from others. Executives make up résumés.

Politicians…don’t get me started.

These are people of all ages. Yet I admit I’m probably more disappointed in a public figure over 55 who gets caught lying, cheating, or scamming. Surely we’ve grown up enough to get past the need to distort things. Life is hard enough, why make it even harder by coming up with a fake story you have to remember?

Then there’s the little white lies that maybe aren’t so bad for us. Like not wanting to acknowledge aging or limitations. Not grinning with joy when the kid bagging the groceries says ma’am or sir. Not being content to fade into the background because society says it’s through with us.

Talk to a member of the Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) and they might give you an earful about us boomers. Like how we are taking their jobs because we won’t gracefully retire. How instead of saving money for retirement, we’re out dancing, taking cruises, and learning to zip line…thus leaving little or no inheritance.  We’re ruining the planet.  Too greedy.  Too self-centered.  We won’t admit we’re older.

shutterstock_139285652Interesting perspective. Yet I’m not sure what we are supposed to do…it would be great if America valued age, wisdom, elders. If people with gray and white hair were sought out for their counsel and opinions and younger people really respected those who have gone before. Unfortunately, I don’t think we are there.

So maybe we’re really teaching the next generations how to keep on living…how to stay viable and healthy and engaged long past the standard expiration date.

What do you think? Are we being honest with ourselves about who we are? Are we denying our age and robbing someone else of an experience? Or are we paving the way for a new attitude about growing older?

I know this: I am a boomer. I feel about 36 inside. And I’m not ready to fade away just yet.

 

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.”

     Virginia Woolf

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Rock The Wrinkle

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑