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Table
of Contents
1.
Essay
Contest: Win a copy of WSJ Complete Retirement Guidebook
2.
Social
networks for the 50+
3. Encore: Finding Work That Matters in
the Second Half of Life reviewed
We
gave The Wall Street Journal Complete Retirement Guidebook a thumbs
up in our last edition of Reinventing Retirement (and not just
because co-authors, Glenn Ruffenach and Kelly Greene, are good
guys). Well, here's your chance to get your hands on a copy of the
book, and a shot at being published on www.2young2retire.com
Write an essay between 250 and 500 words on this subject:
How
could older people change the world for the better?
Hint:
Choose a social issue that could bring out the best (experience,
maturity, talents) in 'second halfers.' Describe the problem and
offer a solution (or write about what you would do). Give it a
headline. Run it through spell check. Then email your essay to
Marika@2young2retire.com
by June 30. We'll notify the winners, ask for permission to
publish, and collect information for mailing, at that time.
Attracted
by the zippy slogan, 'loving life on the flip side of 50,' we signed
up for Eons.com, the social networking site founded
last year by Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com. The money people
seem to think there is a need for an age-segmented social networking
site, if the most recent $22M round of financing is an indication
(http://www.eons.com/about/release/pr_20070305).
But
after joining five different groups – careers, home business,
books, yoga and long distance grand parenting – and sampling the
interaction, we find ourselves in the same boat as Howard Rheingold,
author of Smart Mobs and expert on the social implications of
communications technology: "Is being over 50 years old a strong
enough affinity? I'm not so sure.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2006-09-22-eons-boomers_x.htm
Actually, wait, it's been changed to 49 and older. Isn't that the
upper edge of the 18-49 age group beloved of advertisers? Hmmm.
We
have friends who claim that social networking is one of their best
business-building tool. For us, the jury is still out re: the
question of utility. But one thing we learned after joining Eons
and My Space is that social networking has its own culture and ways
of communicating. Before you jump in, you might want to absorb
Social Networking 101:
http://www.eons.com/money/feature/careercenter/social-networking-101/14744
Thoughts
on the subject? Write to marika@2young2retire.com
BOOK
SITE
In the midst of sound and fury about the boomers, there
is a steady, reassuring voice of hope and reason. In his new book,
Encore: Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, Marc
Freedman wastes no time in painting two starkly contrasting visions
of the future. In one, boomers – 'greedy geezers' – on an
endless, subsidized vacation, have sabotaged the economy, tipping the
nation into decline. In the other, 'boomer labor power' fueled by
Encore Careers, -- what he calls 'purpose-driven jobs' -- makes life
more meaningful, fulfilling and financially sustainable, not only
for boomers themselves, but for generations to come.
Freedman,
49, founder and ceo of Civic Ventures, a think tank and an incubator,
generating ideas and inventing programs to help society achieve the
greatest return on experience, has shifted away from an emphasis on
voluntarism that characterized his earlier book, Prime Time: How
the Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America.
He believes that given the right policy decisions and bold new
initiatives to address the 'experience dividend,' million of boomers
will make a virtue of the necessity to generate an income later in
life, and enter into a new phase of work that may be shorter in
duration, but 'weigh more' in impact.
What
is needed, he writes, is a new social contract with older people that
directs them not toward the outdated 'freedom from work' of an
earlier generation and time, but 'freedom to work.' To illustrate,
five 'Encore Pioneers' tell their stories and show what is possible
when you don't accept the status quo. Former car salesman, Robert
Chambers, now provides low-interest loans and fuel-efficient cars to
the rural poor in New Hampshire. After thirty years as a truant
officer, Jacqueline Khan, began to train for her new career as a
critical care nurse in her early fifties (see her featured in Time
Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1619545,00.html).
“In choosing work that is aimed at making a better world, these
leading-edge baby boomers are challenging the definition of success
for all Americans,,” writes
Marc Freedman. In the future he envisions, these examples of Encore
careers will be commonplace and the dire forecasts of those who saw
inevitable social collapse caused by an aging society, will seem as
absurd as Y2K.
Read
this book and light your own fire. The Appendix, Your Encore, is
packed with resources to help you find your way and keep the flame
burning. “The future is calling.” Freedman concludes, “What
are we waiting for?”
POTPOURRI
Could
your small business use $25,000? Out of the Box is a contest for
the best business ideas, sponsored by UPS. Send them your idea
before September 1, 2007 and get in the running:
http://www.outofthebox.ups.com/home.html
Do
you know what your volunteer time is worth? According to
Independent Sector, at $18.77 an hour, volunteers performed the
equivalent of more than $152 billion in service in 2006. Volunteering is actually good for your health. Find out more: http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/07_0506_hbr_brief.pdf
Of
course, providing care to a family member probably isn't counted in
the Independent Sector totals. Many of us will find ourselves in that situation as our
aging parents set records for longevity, but in failing health.
Read more: International
Longevity Center: http://www.ilcusa.org/prj/caregiving.htm
Traveling
to visit the grands this summer? Timing is everything. Here's a
site that helps you plan a trip when fares are at their lowest:
http://www.farecast.com/
Stay well, make it new, make it better.
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