Retirement As You Want It

Make Your Retirement Years Count for Others in Need

75 year old Lawrence McRae of Tuskegee, Alabama will be interviewed on "Your Life Calling With Jane Pauley," new ambassador to AARP on Tuesday 8/17. McRae discovered he had prostate cancer in his 30s, and since then has been a spokesperson for black males' getting tested.

Prostate cancer affects black men more than others, he says, and he's dedicated his post-retirement years to raising money to affect men's decision to get themselves tested. Pauley decided to include Mr. McCrae as an example of how retired people can have an impact on their communities.

Coming along too late to get a contract from the local charity bingo association, he relies on his Social Security check to pay the expenses involved in taking his message to men in the Alabama Black Belt. So, being interviewed by Pauley is a great opportunity for him and the men he targets. The McRae Prostate Cancer Awareness Foundation offers patients, survivors, family and friends the tools to get education and services.The Black Belt, he says on his website, houses the highest number of economically depressed black and Hispanic men in Alabama. What a way to make an impact in retirement!

It came to my attention recently that men from certain ethnic groups have a harder time with prostate exams. They don't like to be touched in those "private parts" by health providers. Recently, I interviewed Morris Englander, retired from the Hoyt theater presidency, on my TV show, "Alivelihood." Englander volunteers for Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and has taken on the job of going on a van to poor neighborhoods to appeal to the men to get prostate check-ups. When they wince at the suggestion, he says, often in fluent Spanish to the Hispanic men he encounters, "Would you rather die?"

Exercise Fitness is a Model for Career Fitness

Have you been laid off earlier than you expected to retire.. or realize you need to return to the job market after you've retired?

Elizabeth Craig, MBA spoke at the Positive Aging Conference in December '09. She described an empowering method to find your life work in a challenging economy. 

What do people do to maintain physical fitness? First, they discover their natural talent or something they enjoy - will it be ice skating, running, horseback riding, basketball, or doing aerobics at a gym? Then they practice their sport regularly; they push through barriers; they vary their routine so their muscles will not get used to any one; they get support from a buddy or coach; they maintain a regimen of exercising in some form daily or several times per week. They exhibit a sense of purpose and determination.

Physical fitness can be a metaphor for "Career Fitness," Elizabeth Craig suggests.  In order to thrive in this economic environment, career-seekers want to become "career athletes." Craig coaches people in Peter Waddle's model to Work Strong, the title of his book:

1. Discover your natural talent(s)
2. Take what you do well and love to do to the workplace
3. Work strong - develop your "career muscles"
4. Maintain a daily regimen of practicing and strengthening yourself
5. Get and use outside support through coaching and networking

What has been your experience in getting re-employed and what have you done to keep up your career fitness?

Which Industry Sectors Value Boomers' Expertise?

Are you one of many mature Boomers who've officially "retired" from your mid-years' career and realize that 1) You don't have enough money to support you for the next 30 years, and/or 2) You are not quite satisfied with your current life of being out of the workforce and seek the challenge and camaraderie of employment?

225 Best Jobs for Baby Boomers, written by Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin, career experts, reviewed studies about which industries employ people over age 50 and what is the projected growth of those industries. They discovered that at the top of the list are some of the same fields that have been attracting Boomers who are looking to contribute in a meaningful way to their neighborhoods and society - health care, education, and community service.

What's Next.com elaborates on which sectors provide the most satisfaction to those of you who want to combine a meaningful next career with strategic opportunity in the coming years. 

* Health Care - especially personal and home care aides scores highest in Farr and Shatkin's book with tremendous growth opportunity. Even in Feb. '09, WHat'sNext.com reports, with the economy in the doldrums, hospitals and long-term care facilities added 27,000 new jobs while the economy as a whole shed 690,000 jobs. The stimulus bill has added impetus to new hiring. Even ancillary positions, such as music and art therapy are now in more demand.
* Green careers are expected to be a hot growth industry. Energy efficiency and renewable energy enthusiasts are likely to find jobs in this burgeoning sector.
* Non-profits are often hiring dropouts from the corporate sector, especially experienced fundraisers and finance.
* Teaching will free up 1.5 million jobs in the next decade as many retire. If you've never taught before or been certified to teach, there are innovative transition programs especially for people who are facile in math and sciences.

* The US government will experience a shortage of  workers in health, security and law enforcement, and administrative positions, needing to fill 273,000 positions by 2012, according to the Partnership for Public Service. In 2008 there was an initiative aimed at attracting older workers, called FedExperience Transitions to Government.

Although older boomers still struggle in convincing corporate HR departments to hire or re-hire them, the forecast for the next few years looks more hopeful for those of you who prefer to earn income in the next period of your lives. Comment here about your experience in these fields. 

 

Re-Careering in Later Years

Despite all the news about the difficulty that mature workers have in locating new work, a study conducted by the AARP Public Policy Institute suggests that re-careering is common in later years. "Re-careering" refers to changing employers and occupation. The study points to the surprisingly large numbers of people who change careers and are quite happy with their choices, despite the fact that they are paid less and often move to less prestigious positions.

What gives? Who are these people who change careers in their 50s and 60s? Turns out that retirees are more likely to do so than those who've been laid off. Male retirees more often do so than women. Wealthy retirees and those with limited education less often "re-career." That leaves a lot of people who do. 43% of those who re-career change employers; 63% of those move to new occupations entirely.

By 2008, the study found that the 65-69 age group of men increased the numbers in the labor force from 25- 36%; women from 16-26%. The researchers make the point that there are many advantages to our economy from this trend: it boosts retirement income for families, increases economic growth and tax revenue.

Why do people change careers and what do they like about it? Some do so because they want a new challenge; some want to come back to a lifelong interest; others want to do something more meaningful. Some have skills and decide they want to take up a lucrative, often entrepreneurial, alternative to what they did in their mid-years' career. Many move from management to a service-oriented profession where they are not responsible for so many people - they want to avoid the stress they may have experienced earlier. Many want more flexible hours or want to tele-commute or work seasonally. Re-careering seems just the thing.

If you're retired officially from your mid-years' career, what do you think about "re-careering?" Have you started to do some exploration into what you'd like to do next? If not, what gets in your way? Comment below, please.

 

 

Alivelihood: New Careers As We Age

Have you been keeping abreast of my TV show series, called "Alivelihood: New Careers As We Age?" I interview people who've left their mid-years' career and have embarked on a journey to something new and often quite different from what they imagined. You can see all of the shows here. When you access this link, you get to choose any of the weekly shows that were taped since its inception in March 2009 - scroll down to the A's for "Alivelihood." Be patient, there's a visual collage Intro for a minute at the start of each show.

Recent shows feature these people:

• Amy Lampert left Wall Street to start her own program to educate women and youth to demystify the financial markets and investing. Her view will startle and inform.

Riva Berkovitz found digital photography at age 77 and has made a lively encore career from it.

 

 

 

National Service Program Targets 55+

The AmeriCorps,the US domestic service program similar to the Peace Corps, just got a boost in the legislature. The House voted 321-105 to expand the program and to target people over age 55 with special fellowships. The stipend proposed after a year of service is $5350 plus modest living expenses and an educational incentive. Now a similar bill goes to the Senate.

People would volunteer, part-time or full-time for programs in schools, health care for low-income neighborhoods, for energy efficiency and "greening" buildings, and for parks rehabilitation.

"This is a chance to constuctively harness the idealism of thousands of Americans eager to contribute time and energy to solving the nation's problems -- a chance not to be missed," commented the editorial in THe New York Times of March 24, 2009.

Does this kind of work appeal to you for your post-retirement? If so, what appeals? If not, what appeals more? Comment here, please!

Creating Meaningful Opportunities to Contribute for the Burgeoning Over-60 Crowd

Perhaps women live longer, suggests Janet Hively, PhD, creator of the Vital Aging Network in Minnesota, because they are better prepared for "positive and productive aging." In an article called "Meaningful Work in Later Life" in this month's Aging Well Magazine, Hively lists some of the elements that promote the "flow of upbeat energy," referred to often as being in "flow" or "in the zone." Here are a few of those qualities:

• continuous learning to "turn the lights on," in the words of gerontologist Dr. Gene Cohen
• working with a group to achieve a goal
• creating something - Hively is also involved with the Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network
• making a difference
• feeling needed

In order for people who approach retirement to continue to feel they are making a difference, we have a challenge to transform the values and norms of our society. Although the demographic is changing dramatically, so that our life expectancy has extended by 50% in the 20th century, we still encounter ageist remarks, such as that people over 65 are "dependents." Nothing could be further from the current reality, states Hively.

We need to create new opportunities to raise awareness of the strengths of adults over age 60 and to find ways for this huge new group to use their skills in paid and unpaid work that is valued by the community. This is Hively's mission -- and as a woman in her 70s who has started new initiatives within the last few years, she lives it every day.

Alivelihood: New Careers As We Age - New TV Show in Boston

Here's my new adventure - I'm hosting a TV show called: "Alivelihood: New Careers As We Age." In order to access it online, go to http://www.BATV.org.
Click on BATV Access, then on Video-on-Demand, then look under the "A's" for the name of the show, "Alivelihood."

You should be able to stream it onto your computer.

If you know of Boomers and older in the Boston area who have a compelling story to tell about their reinventing their lives after leaving their mid-year's career, please nominate them. If it works out, I'm offering you a complimentary coaching session.

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Nicholas Kristof wrote in the NY Times last summer an article called, "Geezers Doing Good," a look at people like Bill Gates who've left their mid-years' jobs and shifted to something socially meaningful. "If more people take on encore careers, boomers who arrived on the scene by igniting a sexual revolution could leave by staging a give-back revolution. Boomers just may be remembered more for what they did in their 60s than for what they did in the Sixties," Kristof wrote.

Encore.org, the organization started by Marc Freedman, offers stories of people who have been given the Purpose Prize by the organization for their good works. Here are a few examples of those who've been awarded monetary prizes:

• A mechanically inclined man designed a $28 machine to help rural people in Africa to shell peanuts more efficiently
• A Fargo, ND individual gathered 100s of volunteers to assist 1000s of Iraqi and Somali refugees in their city
• Another is creating ways for African-American farmers in the rural South to join the "green" economy

The "Too Young to Retire" website also has stories of people who've changed their lives in their mid-years or later.

• A woman who was a drug addict in her 20s got sober and became a community activist in her 40s-50s. See her story.
• A man in his 70s who had been a successful engineer decided he'd rather improve the world than develop products for the military-industrial complex. He segued into becoming an environmental activist. See his story.
• The 2Y2R website has many more fascinating stories of people who've re-made their lives.

Retired Executives Connect With Companies Seeking Consultants

In the next 5 years 3 million executives will leave their positions. Companies will experience a distressing lack of talent at the upper levels. Some companies are well aware of this and planning for the problem by hiring consultants for a wide variety of tasks. They do so to bring in expertise that is not available in their organization, to solve specific problems or lead a project, to bring new ideas, to train existing staff.

Hiring part-time consultants is often more cost-effective to the company because they don't have the overhead and don't have to make a long-term commitment to a full time employee. With consultants, companies can set the optimal length of employment for the project they have in mind, place talent in just the place where it's needed, and limit expenditures.

Retired executives are keen to find challenging work that will continue to engage them for years after they leave their mid-years' careers. According to a report from the Executive Brain Trust, "fewer than 1/3 expect to engage in leisure activities only during retirement."  Seventy percent expect to seek consulting positions.

52% of companies use consultants and more than 2/3 of that group use independent consultants, most often found through personal contacts or networking. Types of expertise in demand, the report found, are: IT, market research, audits, e-commerce implementation, government regulations, selection of senior management and many other business specialties.

Of those companies surveyed, more than half hired retired executives. And more than 2/3 thirds hire independent consultants, not consulting firms.

If you are a retired or almost retired executive who would like to continue to contribute your expertise and land lucrative consulting positions, these are available and attractive. Retired execs who were surveyed indicate that the rewards of being productive and getting a sense of accomplishment are the greatest benefits.

ExecBrainTrust.com is a new online social network for retired executives to share experiences about finding interesting consulting in their field of expertise. You can join, list your preferences, and pay a small percentage when you do get a position through the site.

I have no personal financial stake in this site, but thought it was an interesting service. There may be other similar ones.

Do You Work for "Daily Meaning," Not Just "Daily Bread?"

96 year old writer Studs Terkel, died a few months ago. He famously stated in his book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, that people go to work every bit as much for "daily meaning" as for "daily bread."

Marc Freedman, author of Encore...Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life,  poses the question: How do we help people to contribute their skills to making a better world for the next generation? Surely many more people believe they now have to work to replenish their depleted savings. But, how, Freedman asks, can we redefine work as not merely a paycheck, but an activity that gives us deep meaning?

A big piece of this equation is to convince employers, especially non-profits, that people over age 50 have plenty of energy, health, and skills to contribute, rather than fearing they'll train and then lose their employee to the golf course. But, HR departments are beginning to get savvy about the expected brain drain of the top echelons of their companies and non-profits. More of us have to speak out about the need in public forums... both the imminent need of employers and the desire of potential employees.

What experiences do you have in convincing employers to hire you if you're over age 50? Comment on this post or write to me at Karma@LifeSpringCoaching.com