Yes I am concerned for the Gen Y promise of finding good work, but it’s not because Boomers will clog the system. From what I listen to and observe of most Boomers of a certain age over 55 is that, even though many say they want to work longer for whatever the motivation, they much rather would want to do it differently – and that doesn’t square with the fear of Gen Y being squeezed in the process.

Against the grain of a global economy seriously readjusting itself, perhaps the real issue has to do with the quirky shift in where the jobs for the real work of the future will be. Plenty of old and emerging needs where the Gen Y promise is yet to be fulfilled. Along with that – what can be expected, at least for the foreseeable, is new work and career patterns that shouldn’t be compared to the Boomer experience. 

All being well, longevity for a 25 year old looks like another 60 plus years of living with other financial matters to deal with right now other than saving for a retirement. Student debt, a rising cost of living, mortgage martyrdom, coping with the eventual care of their elders. Previous generations managed to make it and no doubt so will this one.

Living longer may not be everybody’s prospect, but however we see our current age as being our “mid-life”, the forethoughts of how we will live our days for another 20 – 40 years is a different stretch of thinking than a vague blob of time called  “retirement”. 

In a few weeks time I have been asked to put on a retirement planning seminar for a small group of employees who are obviously in a certain zone of “mid-life”. I really want to more than nudge them from retirement to longevity thinking. It may take us to a reality of discomfort as we talk of aging incrementally towards a much older age – and yes, even visit the “art of dying” to quote a George Harrison song.

Our longevity thinking is parceled into gardens of reflection and intersections of conflict, with variables at constant play – changes in health, relationships and financial predicaments, not to mention facing abrupt decisions about where we will move and how we will adjust. 

Retirement? Get over it. The prospect of our journey in longevity is a gift to be opened with care, concern and maybe just a pinch of cheerful expectation – if we think we can afford it.

So I reframed this to suit my touchy reaction to the title “Opportunity Encounter! What is the Prospect of Work in later Life”. The recent heat around raising the age limit on Old Age Security in Canada has brought out the issue of the need to work longer to fend off the pangs of a “retirement” life. (Example headliner from Maclean’s Magazine – “Back to work, grandma”.)

But this is not news. What is news is that we need to get over the false sense of shock, that we even have to discuss it as news. Well maybe it’s shocking news to some who still figure that the “Freedom 55” plan is the goal. Then where?

My central point in this Ottawa conference message regards the prospect of work in later life was, that our definition of what work is and our relationship to work and the options, needs to be redesigned. On a person to person basis the experience of work in later life will mean something different. Grandma going back to work at the meat counter (as depicted in Maclean’s editorial page 4, Feb.13) isn’t the only frame.

What is old age? It sure doesn’t feel like 65 or 67 even makes that definition any more. As my father used to say; “it’s not your age that defines you, it’s the condition you’re in.” And that’s your health or your wealth or a combination of both that needs to be considered. I’m not even so sure that increasing old age security goalpost to 70 would be such a tough thing as long as we have empathy for considering those whose overall condition makes it hard make ends meet.

Let the media and political banter continue and wait to see what Flaherty’s chosen path really looks like when the Federal budget is presented, and let’s see how the numbers crunch. Boomers have come along as a generation with a certain entitlement mentality that we peg our life decisions on the financial expectations of a “retirement plan”. There are worse fates than an adjustment to OAS eligibility.

Let’s focus more on engaging in later life and a lot less on retiring. Old age will come.  

If you’ve been asleep, there’s been consistent discussion on moving the goalposts from 65 to 67 for some time (as one segment of the nation’s budget considerations). But as James Flaherty, Canada’s Finance Minister said recently around this subject, “…we haven’t chosen a path”.

It’s obvious with the aging demographics, for western countries such as Canada, something will have to give as we go about financing longevity. It’s finding a balance between short term agro and long term sensibility. I suppose if you’re 24, not 64, moving the goal posts may not have the same immediate impact, but in the long run it’s your future too 24 – what do you think?

Not everyone has the financial plan that integrates comfortably with the CPP and OAS collection age. From direct knowledge of the thin financial lines of others, moving the goalposts right now would make life a lot more challenging. One thing we can’t forget is that our lifetimes in general continue to increase. This prickly calibration exercise won’t go away. I suggest you set up Google alerts on this subject just to keep pace as we find our “chosen path”.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/16/f-vp-schlesinger-aging.html?cmp=googleeditorspick

For what Joe asks are the right things, including on a macro level – who will be leading the effort to find solutions for the contrasting problems of an aging world? Joe says he’ll leave it to the planners (he might be referring to retirement & financial planners) and the politicians to solve the riddle in the promise of longevity.

If we leave it up to those two groups we may get solutions we might not like – solutions we  didn’t have a voice in creating. It’s really up to all of us; in our families, circles of friends and in our communities to start working on the issues. Schlesinger outlines the usual concerns in his article including the cost of health care and the fear that (as so many others trumpet) – “as more oldsters continue to work, there are fewer jobs for the young in today’s tight labour market.”

Absolute nonsense. Sorry Joe, get real. As much as I dig your concerns, it’s not going to be about “jobs” or the lack there of –  if anything there will be enough “work” out there for everyone to serve the plethora of needs for an aging society.

We must give credit to Theodore Roszak’s Longevity Revolution 2001 and the 2008 Robert N. Butler book with the same title for giving us the platform for this ongoing story. I can’t tell you how steep my library on the subject of longevity has become. The subject matter is far wider than what one TED talk can cover, but it finds the right note for the “personal journey” part of the story. And it’s a positive message on aging as we start the new year. 

One thing Jane Fonda has always learned to do over her 70 plus years is how to reinvent herself. Her brand is stronger now than it’s ever been and with her 2011 book “Prime Time”, she has ramped up her old fitness message for her aging audience – with her staircase metaphor and third act theory. None of this is new to me, but I give her points for clarity of message. Aging. It does all start with what your mind and spirit tells you it is.

Thanks go to my friends Gerald Bramm and Gail Irvine for tipping me off to this TED link.

Jane Fonda: Life’s third act | Video on TED.com  

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/12/28/aging-longevity-chasing-cures.html

So it’s starts with the mice again. Scientists have come up a cocktail for mice that through tests have shown that the aging process can be slowed and brain function can be improved. I know for sure the cocktails I had over the holiday season didn’t help my aging process quite like theirs for the mice at McMaster University in Hamilton. 

The CBC article goes on to say how some of the mice “acted like restless teenagers showing spontaneous motor function that fades in humans in a universal sign of aging.” Well the fix is in. Now maybe we can all relate better to the teens in our lives. But watch out for the cocktail recipe as it may not be safe for humans as prescribed for those mice.

It’s really about what we’re doing to explore and innovate on products and services to help extend our life span in a healthier and happier way. The promise of longevity may well be enhanced by these scientific cocktails, but finding a cure for aging?

But if I’m left hanging with one thought over the Christmas and Hanukkah Holiday Season, it’s about intergenerational connectivity. Maybe it’s because this is a time of year that many families come together. I’d like to leave behind the hyper-filled headlines of 2011 – shouting about “generational warfare” and maybe have one wish that we for once and for all time we flame that one into cinders.

On an individual basis, regardless of age today, the promise of longevity may be bountiful for some and a burden for others. It’s a shared reality that we work on developing social networks that build on intergenerational collaboration to improve economic and public policy platforms that account for managing extended lifetimes.

To share in closing, earlier today I Skyped with a young friend who lives in Germany (a 30 year spread between us), and since then I’ve reflected about how much I hope for his future – his promise of longevity; that he has an open road of choice and a long enough time to create his positive life story with the same kind of good fortune I’ve had.  

Best longevity wishes for 2012.

The Globe & Mail article from Dec.11, 2011 “Older women lead the pack in job gains” confirms all this. I meet mostly professional women clients, still of working age, and I usually see two characteristics – an open mind to reinvention and a drive to contribute for an extended period of their life, while they tend to serve multiple roles in relationships outside of work.  

Not surprisingly the operative phrase I hear from the 55 plus (women and men) is “I want or need to work longer, but I want to do it differently!”. And quite often, “differently” looks like some form of self employment, from short term independent contract work to setting up a web based business.  

Yet it’s not always true that these “older women of working age” have a positive feeling about themselves. For every one I meet that exudes a self awareness, there seems to be double the number that harbour self doubt, saying – “my age will work against me.” Back to the confidence game again. 

Well, the parade of older women of working age will grow even more over the next decade, and there will be a loads of work that needs doing for women in redefined roles in the personal and professional services areas of the economy.