The Power Years': Make Your 40s the Best Years Yet

Sept. 19, 2005 — -- Retiring at 55 to a life filled with leisurely days of golf and afternoon cocktails is a dying concept, says Ken Dychtwald, psychologist, gerontologist and author of "The Power Years."

When it comes to retirement, "please forget everything you've been told," Dychtwald says in his new book. As the baby boomers reach their "golden years," they are redefining retirement just as they have redefined almost every stage of life up to that point.

More often, people are staying in the work force longer. One major reason is that life is expensive, and as people live longer, they need to work longer to support themselves. But many baby boomers decide to keep working because they are not ready to "fade away." They have more dreams to pursue, and, Dychtwald contends, would be bored if they entered traditional retirement at 55.

Dychtwald offered the following advice to "Good Morning America" viewers entering their "power years."

First, do what you really want to do now. You don't have to impress anyone or earn as much as you've been earning.

Second, reinvent your career. Go back to school or do something you love but have never done professionally.

Third, realize there is a brain drain of boomers leaving the work force so more people will be looking for your expertise and will value it.

Dychtwald offers much more advice in his book, and you can read an excerpt of "The Power Years" below.

Excerpt: 'The Power Years'

Do you long for a life without work or pressure in which yourdays are spent baking for the grandchildren or playing eighteenholes of golf in the morning, followed by a leisurely lunch andafternoon of bridge, then cocktails, a delicious early dinner, anda good movie? After all, that's how it worked for our grandparentsand parents, isn't it? We grew up surrounded by this modelof a leisure-filled later life.

Please forget everything you've been told. It's not your obligationto go away just because you're getting older. Nor is it yourbirthright to cede all responsibility to your community andmankind so that you may lead a life of leisure in retirement. Ofcourse, you may choose these paths if you wish, but in our viewthat would be a mistake. Certainly there is no guarantee thatyou'll be able to afford a carefree romp through later life or eventhat you'll enjoy it if that's where you can afford to wind up.Reinventing yourself and repowerment -- ramping up life whereand when you choose and in ways that excite you, not windingdown into obscurity -- is the mold-shattering, exciting new stagethat will come next for our generation.

Welcome to the Power Years

While we've had our heads down toiling away these past fewdecades, spending more time than we might have envisioned atwork and raising our children, the world has changed enormously.As we all know, the Internet, global trade, medicalbreakthroughs, and more are speeding up the pace of life even aslife itself is being extended, posing new challenges in our careersand families. In this book, we cannot hope to deal with all thechanges confronting our lives. Yet it's vitally important for eachof us to appreciate just how different things really are and willbecome as we move into the next stage of life, a stage that we -- the eighty-four million North Americans born between 1946 and1964 as well as hundreds of millions more maturing adultsaround the world -- will redefine as the power years.

Reinventing Retirement

The majority of our parents worked for one company all theirlives. When their careers ended at age sixty-five, the norm wasthat they got a nice party and a gold watch and happily hoppedon board a slow cruise into the sunset. Forty years of toil behindand the kids now grown, both Dad and Mom were done. Theyfloated over the horizon, eagerly retreating to a life of leisure.

For their employers, it was a great deal. They got to bring inyounger, more energetic, and less expensive labor.

For a lot of reasons, many of us won't have the same optionsthat our parents had. For one thing, government and employee-sponsoredentitlements have questionable futures, and the ideaof early retirement, or even for many of us the idea of retirementat sixty-five, took a quantum leap backward when the globalstock market bubble burst in 2000, eroding much of our savingsand more than a few of our dreams.

Demographic trends threaten to foist an unprecedentedlabor shortage on the world economy. Companies of all sizes andshapes are going to want us to stick around longer and will bewilling to provide us with a great deal more flexibility to do so.Meanwhile, our careers have been far more mobile. We'vebounced among three, four, five, or more employers, often in asmany cities, and we won't have been with any one of them longenough for a gold watch, much less the pension and wall-to-wallretirement health coverage that our parents might have beenblessed with.

The slow, lazy cruise that our fathers and mothers eagerlysigned up for turned out to be a little too slow and lazy. Lookhard enough and you'll see that many of our parents havebegun to rebel against the idea that they should fade away;they're going back to school and back to work, taking up writingor painting and otherwise reengaging with a society they haddropped out of. Throughout this book we will lean on the experiencesof what we call Ageless Explorers, the growing number ofleading-edge adults of our parents' generation and some fromeven farther back, to illustrate the changing nature of the poweryears. Our hope is that you'll find these anecdotes inspirationaland that the glimmers they provide will meld into a beam of lightthat helps you navigate to -- and through -- your power years.

These years present a unique opportunity for us. The notionof staying in the game longer, of not having to step aside at a setage, will liberate us, setting us free to lead the lives we want tolead by staying engaged, vital, and youthful as long as we like.Opening before us is a whole new stage of life squeezed betweenour primary career years and a steadily retreating old age. Just aswe moved from adolescence into adulthood three or fourdecades ago, we are now pushing into a whole new period ofdiscovery and personal growth -- what we call middlescence -- asmore and more of us make the most of the many fruitful decadesthat lie ahead.

Our generation is coming to realize that we will have numerousdecades to live past the age commonly thought to be the time to stop working. What we do with that time will set us apartfrom all previous generations.

This book is for people like you who are beginning to contemplatewhat comes next and how to make the most of it. Make nomistake -- this is not a retirement guide. It's about unretiring -- about how to shed your dated preconceptions about life afterforty, fifty, or sixty and stay in the game in ways you'll find satisfyingand invigorating. Money is important, and we'll deal withthat critical issue in Chapter 7. But that's where this book stopsbeing like anything you've read before. Countless opportunitiesare developing to let you live all aspects of your life to thefullest -- from staying connected with your kids and grandkids(and, eventually, your great-grandkids) to choosing emerginghousing designs and lifestyles for a new, active time in your lifewith fewer responsibilities; from finding love all over again withyour spouse (or someone new, should you be searching) to goingback to school for the fun of it; from where, how, and why tomake new friends to where and why you should pick up stakesand move to a city or town that will let you live and thrive as youalways dreamed.

We'll discover new passions and explore long-dormant desires.We'll stay active by working longer or volunteering, by trying ourhand at writing or painting or running a small business, and ourcontinued involvement will promote our well-being and prove avital resource to the communities in which we live.

You are on a far different life track from that of yourparents; you just may not fully understand it yet. But you soonwill, and this book is meant to help you as you ramp up yourlearning curve.

On a recent vacation with his family in Orlando, Florida, Danwas staying at a wonderful resort, the Gaylord, where heobserved an apparent oddity that both encouraged and, at leastinitially, dumbfounded him. The hotel had two equally spaciousand convenient swimming pools on either side of the grounds.One was designated as a quiet zone for rest-seeking grown-upsand marked "No One Under 18 Allowed." That pool area mightas well have been a mausoleum -- not a single person was in thewater. The other pool, by contrast, was overrun with raucousteens and quite a few bawling toddlers.What stunned Dan wasthat many of the mature adults he would have expected to findat the quiet pool had opted away from that morguelike environ,preferring -- even in some cases with no children or grandchildrenin sight -- the lively atmosphere at the pool bustling withthe energy of youth.

Which pool will you choose in the years ahead?

When is the last time you seriously asked yourself what youwill do with the rest of your life? Is there a second or a thirdcareer you'd like to explore? A small business you want to start?Do you want to study art or open a bed and breakfast? Haveyou dreamed of taking up acting or going to cooking school?Where should you live for the perfect combination of weather,fun, friendships, family, lovers, intellectual stimulation, andlifestyle? What will all that free time do to our marriages andother relationships? Where and how will we live? What will keepour minds active and our lives relevant? Will this be the worstperiod of our lives -- or could it possibly be the best? Mostimportant: what choices must we make now to ensure the kindof extended life after career that we have always envisioned?

You can't get there if you don't think about it, yet few peopleask the key questions. We assume that we can deal with theseissues when the time comes, reasoning that as long as we manageto save a lot of money, everything will work out. But this is backwardthinking. A big pile of money shouldn't be your primarygoal.Who you want to be, what you want to feel, and what youwant to do with your power years are the critical considerations,and from those spring the types of choices and trade-offs you'llneed to consider.

You wouldn't think of building a house without a plan.Youwouldn't go on vacation without thinking through your itineraryand even your wardrobe. So why leave your power years tochance? Even if you're not wealthy, you can enjoy an active,fulfilling, and youthful next stage of life by understanding yourgoals and creating a carefully thought-out plan that makes thosegoals possible. In this book, we will guide you through everyaspect of this blueprint and show you a wide range of choicesand possibilities you may never have considered.

As we step over the threshold into maturity, we will transformthe stage of later life known as retirement into something thatsquares with our generation's desire to work, play, and love onour own terms, staying young in mind and body, and engaging innew pursuits without becoming bogged down with too manynumbing obligations. With greater energy and drive, higher expectationsfor our later years, and a greater willingness to repeatedlyreinvent ourselves than any previous generation, perhaps we'llreshape work into something that we can do three days a week, oreight months each year, or seven years per decade. And withextended longevity, why wait until maturity for a long break? Whynot take time off along the way? Instead of being stuck on a one-careerpath for life, why not go back to school, learn some newskills, and reinvent ourselves again and again?

The Baby Boom Becomes the Age Wave

What we're naming the power years has also been called bysome our third age, a concept derived from the European traditionof adult education. This view holds that there are three agesof man, each with its own special focus, challenges, and opportunities.In the first age, from birth to about thirty, our primarytasks of life are biological development, learning, and survival.During most of human history, the average life expectancywasn't much longer than the end of the first age, and as a result,the entire thrust of society was oriented toward these basicdrives.

In the second age, from about thirty to sixty, our concernsfocus on forming a family, parenting, and work. We apply thelessons we learned during the first age to these responsibilities.Until very recently, most people didn't live much beyond thesecond age. But with today's longer life expectancies, new generationsof youthful, open-minded, and high-spirited men andwomen are not interested in fading into the sunset at sixty.

A third age, which spans the period from sixty to ninety (andlonger), is unfolding ahead of us. This is a less-pressured periodin which we can further develop our intellect, imagination, emotionalmaturity, and wisdom. This is also a period when we cangive something back to society based on the lessons, resources,and experiences we have accumulated over a lifetime. We neednot be social outcasts, but instead can assume the role of a livingbridge between yesterday and tomorrow, and in this way play acritical role that no other group is as well suited to perform.

In recent decades, a small but growing number of olderadults have been rejecting the social pressure to "act their age."They have been rebelling against ageist stereotypes and seekingto remain productive, involved, and late blooming well into theirmature years.They are everywhere—within our families, amongour friends, and in our communities: the executive who becomesa high school teacher; the grandmother who goes back to collegeor who writes her first book; the accountant who becomes anartist. Ask them when they think they'll start to feel elderlyinside, and they'll probably say never!

In his book The Virtues of Aging, Jimmy Carter lit the repowermentpath in a single phrase at the end of this telling passage:"In one of her hour-long special interviews, Barbara Walterscovered all the aspects of my life, from the farm to submarines,from business to the governor's mansion, service in the WhiteHouse, and from president back home to Plains.Then she askedme a question that required some serious thought: 'Mr. President,you have had a number of exciting and challenging careers.What have been your best years?' After a few moments Iresponded with absolute certainty: 'Now is the best time of all.'"

If the past fifty years of boomer evolution have taught usanything, it is this: as we enter each new life stage we keep whatwe like and replace the rest, like remodeling a house.

We'll be moving and experimenting with new lifestyles. As westay in the game longer both socially and economically, we'llreshape family and community life. One breathtaking findingfrom the Merrill Lynch New Retirement Survey surfaced whenwe asked boomers how they would describe themselves. Tentimes as many survey respondents said they "put others first" assaid "put themselves first." A far cry from our rambunctiousteenage years and our swinging single period, we're now focusedon keeping our marriages strong, on trying our best to raisehealthy and happy children, and on caregiving our parents (theaverage boomer now has more parents than children to care for).The me generation has grown up to be a we generation.This attitudeshift will reshape philanthropy and volunteerism and mayvery well be the cornerstone of the new retirement values.Today'sretirees have the lowest volunteer rate in the country, while thoseour age who are actively helping out in our kids' schools and incommunity churches/synagogues through various philanthropicactivities actually have the highest volunteer rate. If this desire tomake a difference continues into retirement, we may see a hugechange in the role of retirees overall -- from taking to giving.

With the right insight and planning, we'll be able to mergewhat we most enjoy in our youth -- energy, freedom, flexibility,health, and personal growth -- with the good things that comewith age, things such as experience, perspective, wisdom, anddepth. One thing is clear: as our massive numbers ultimatelycatch the wave, the ripples will stretch far and wide.

The Seven Reasons These Are the Power Years

Why are these becoming the power years? Here are seven reasonswhy the rest of your life has more potential than you mayhave considered:

1. We'll Be Living Longer and Healthier

In 1800, the average life expectancy was less than forty years. By1900, when one in five babies didn't make it to their fifth birthdayand common causes of death were diarrhea, influenza, pneumonia,and tuberculosis, life expectancy at birth was justforty-seven years.Thanks to advances in public health, nutrition,and wellness-oriented lifestyles, today the average lifetime hasstretched to more than seventy-seven years in all of the modernizednations of the world. Japan has one of the highest expectancies:seventy-eight years for men and eighty-four for women, foran overall average of eighty-one years. The tiny nation ofAndorra, squeezed between France and Spain, tops the worldcharts in this regard with newborn boys likely to reach eighty-oneand newborn girls expected to make it to eighty-seven, foran overall average of eighty-four years. The United States is fardown the list, with an overall life expectancy of seventy-seven -- behind Singapore (eighty-two), Switzerland, Sweden, Canada,and Italy (all of which have expected average life spans at birthof eighty years). If you've already made it to fifty, you can expectto live at least until your mid-eighties, and thanks to impendingscientific breakthroughs, these numbers will keep increasing.

We will live longer and grow old later in life than any previousgeneration. Incredibly, two-thirds of all those who havemade it to age sixty-five in the history of mankind are todaywalking the earth. We're not just living longer, we are also in betterhealth and enjoy greater youthfulness and vitality.There aremore fifty- and sixty-year-olds running marathons, buyingHarleys, starting new careers, going to rock concerts, and gettingfacelifts than ever before. Our increasing longevity and goodhealth, coupled with our natural desire to remain youthful, arethe greatest forces behind the power years. But technology andmodern medicine are playing vital roles as well. Impendingmiracle treatments could help us beat everything from arthritisto Alzheimer's, and the arrival of the information age is takingmuch of the physical toil out of work and other pursuits.

The upshot is that great numbers of people -- not justexceptions -- are able to work and play as they like far longerthan anyone might have expected.

2. The Cyclic Lifeplan Will Replace theOutmoded Linear Model

Greater longevity and vitality will change core patterns of society.When people lived just thirty or forty years, life followed awell-defined linear path. We grew up, went to school, workedhard while marrying and rearing a family, and then we died.Everything had its place, and life was too short for secondchances. Increased longevity transforms this model. All aroundus, the linear path is being replaced by something more flexible.As Maddy Dychtwald explained in her book Cycles, now we cancycle in and out of careers -- interspersing periods of rest andretraining. We may end up working longer, but rather thansaving all of our leisure for the end of our lives, regular breaksthroughout adulthood will become commonplace. Formal sabbaticalsand informal work leaves will be part of every majorcompany's standard package of benefits.

The landmark New Retirement Survey that Ken directed in2004 with Merrill Lynch was based on interviews with more thanthree thousand boomers (www.totalmerrill.com/retirement).The study found that only 17 percent of them said they intendedto stop working for pay forever in their next stage of life. Awhopping 42 percent reported that they hoped to cycle in andout of work and leisure for extended periods throughout life; 16percent expected to continue working part-time; 13 percentwere planning on starting their own business; and 6 percent fullyintended to keep working full-time right through their retirementyears. Incredibly, of the 76 percent who intended to continueworking in some fashion, more than half were hoping to doso in a completely new career or line of work!

Further, when asked why so many wanted to stay involvedwith work, the overwhelming response was not money. Instead,two of three said the main reason was to stay mentally active.Members of our highly educated and productive generation simplydon't want to live a life of intellectual stagnation and mentalirrelevance.

3. We'll Have a Big -- and Growing -- Pool of Role Models

How about John Glenn going back into space, and what aboutSumner Redstone, who in his eighties is chairman of Viacom,and Rupert Murdoch, who at seventy-four is chairman of NewsCorporation? They are running two of the world's largest mediaempires as though they expect to be around to see their visionsrealized decades hence.Who knows? Maybe they will be.

Warren Buffett remains the world's greatest investor midwaythrough his seventies. People magazine named Sean Connerythe sexiest man alive in 1989 when he was fifty-nine. SophiaLoren is pretty terrific in her seventh decade of life, too. JoePaterno, at seventy-seven, signed a four-year contract extensionto coach the vaunted Penn State football team.

Late achievement, while multiplying in frequency, isn'taltogether new. Grandma Moses didn't start painting until shewas almost eighty. Groucho Marx launched a new career as atelevision-show host at sixty-five. George Bernard Shaw wasat work on a new play when he died at ninety-four. Galileopublished his masterpiece Dialogue Concerning the Two NewSciences at seventy-four. Noah Webster was seventy when hepublished An American Dictionary of the English Language.Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum in NewYork at ninety-one. Mahatma Gandhi was seventy-two when hecompleted successful negotiations with Britain for India's independence.I. M. Pei was seventy-eight when he designed theRock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. Picassopainted The Rape of the Sabines at eighty-one. Golda Meir wasprime minister of Israel from ages seventy to seventy-six. JessicaTandy was eighty when she won her first Oscar for Driving MissDaisy. Mary Baker Eddy was eighty-seven when she foundedthe Christian Science Monitor. At ninety-three, Lillian Gishstarred in The Whales of August seventy-two years after starringin the silent film Birth of a Nation. At ninety-four, conductorLeopold Stokowski signed a six-year recording contract. At ahundred, Ichijirou Araya climbed Mount Fuji.

In their day, these remarkable men and women may havebeen considered highly unusual. But these Ageless Explorershave carved new trails ahead of us and represent the first waveof maturity pioneers. We baby boomers will be next, and we'llturn this thorny trail into a superhighway. Many of us arealready thinking ahead. Joel Levinson, fifty-one, has begun topicture his power years as a real-estate investor. He's enjoyed afruitful career in the advertising business and has run his ownagency for the past decade. But he doesn't want to do that forever,and sees real estate as an exciting challenge and a way tobuild both an income stream for life and his net worth. Joel is ina great spot. He's reaching financial freedom ahead of his ownexpectations, and he has already begun mapping out how he'llbreak into the real-estate game, which he has been quietly passionateabout for years.

"Every time we plan a vacation, I build in time to go offalone and scout out properties in the area," he says. "I lovecomparing values and studying what makes one place worthmore than another. And lately I've begun to bore friends whoare even remotely connected to the real-estate industry -- lawyers, brokers, investors -- with all my talk about getting intothe game."

Joel says he's just days away from making his first investment."Have been for years," he jokes. "There's always anotherbook to read or another property to look at, so I've been slow topull the trigger. And I'm wary that prices may be a bit inflatedthese days." But he figures all of his hours studying markets willpay off when he finally buys that first property. Besides, he'senjoyed every minute of his research.

Joel still has two kids at home, so he's in no rush to give uphis primary, high-earning career. "The longer I wait, and themore I study, the greater chances of success I'll have when Ifinally start buying," he says. "I don't intend to take big risks. I'llbuy one at a time and keep reinvesting the profits, and see how itworks out. I figure I can minimize any chances that I'll losemoney. I'll probably do very well, and if nothing else I'll enjoyhow I'm spending my time."

4. We'll Be Wiser about What Matters

Having climbed much of the mountain, you now have a prettygood view of life. As we accumulate and make sense of life's lessons,most of us have come to appreciate that the joy that moneyalone brings is fleeting, and that true happiness revolves aroundlove, relationships, and our sense of fulfillment at work and atplay. Most of us reach this basic understanding in our middleyears -- sometimes precipitated by the death of a parent, our kidsleaving home, or the failure of a career or marriage. But for themost part, by the time we're fifty and still young enough to shapeour later years, we understand that money, while it's important,is not what underlies happiness.

Ken recently headed a massive international study withHSBC Bank, The Future of Retirement (www.HSBC.com/futureofretirement). When eleven thousand people of all agesfrom regions including Brazil, Canada, China, France, HongKong, India, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and theUnited States were asked what they believed contributed mostto achieving a happy old age, the overwhelming first choice was"loving family and friends." Thanks to the additional longevitywe'll be experiencing, we will have both the time and the wisdomto realize what brings true happiness.

In a series of surveys over the past twenty years, Forbesmagazine has asked people to rate their happiness on a scale of 1to 7, with 1 being "not at all satisfied with my life" and 7 being"completely satisfied." No surprise, those on the Forbes 400 list ofwealthiest people in the world clocked in with a healthy averageresponse of 5.8. But so did the modest-living Inuit people offrigid northern Greenland, and so did the cattle-herding Masai ofKenya, who live in huts with no electricity or running water.

Tom Hagan of Covington, Ohio, sold his pharmacy businessat age fifty-six. But he didn't retire. He remains employed in theindustry; he simply gave up the headaches and rewards of ownership."The secret to life is being fulfilled," Hagan says. "It hasnothing to do with money. I have friends who are worth $50 millionwho are miserable. They hate their wives; they hate theirchildren. I love my life. I'm still working, and I plan to work untilI die. I love my new job. It keeps my mind active. I couldn't imaginesitting around and watching TV every day."

5. We'll Have New Freedoms

The kids are gone or soon will be. College and the house arepaid for -- well, mostly paid for. In any case, you probably haveamassed a fair amount of home equity, and hopefully you'vebeen stashing some money in a retirement plan at work. It's notjust that your kids' schooling and the mortgage are mostly takencare of. Things like braces and summer camp and all the thingsyou put in your house are largely paid for; you don't need a lotmore stuff. With many of your biggest parenting-related financialobligations coming to an end, you'll be endowed withgreater freedom to do the things you've always wanted. Meanwhile,your busy schedule is beginning to let up, providing youwith a windfall of free time that will let you take on new challengesor pursue hidden passions and long-suppressed dreams.

And because the economy will want to simultaneouslyprevent a brain drain and declining consumption by keeping allof us earning and spending longer, it will become easier to stayat work or start a new career. The vacuum of workers maturingmeans that older adults will be in demand and more able tochoose our own schedules, and still remain valuable. With therise of flextime and part-time schedules and contract and projectjobs and job sharing, there are millions of exciting paths for us toexplore in the work world—throughout the world.With onlineuniversities, we can retrain at home or pursue a life as a writer orartist or some other dream.

6. We'll Still Have Clout in the Marketplace

Our huge numbers and often free-spending ways have ensuredthroughout our lifetime that anyone with something to sellwould be inclined to tailor it to our wants and needs. Our demographicand financial wells of influence won't run dry as wemature. We'll live longer and healthier and remain active consumers.Meanwhile, as a generation, our wealth will continue tomultiply. Already, today's fifty-plus men and women are theprincipal buyers of luxury cars, leisure travel, and high-end giftsand jewelry. We own 40 percent of all mutual funds and 60percent of all annuities.While we are just 30 percent of the population,we control more than 70 percent of all of the wealth andaccount for more than 50 percent of consumer spending. As wemature and collectively inherit an estimated $20 trillion, we willbe as cherished as ever in the marketplace.

Advertisers will need to break free of their addiction toyouth. Many wrongly believe that all adults have already chosenthe brands they will stick with for life, while young people haveyet to choose their cola, sneaker, cell phone, or whatever. Thisflawed view will stop paying off; marketers will increasinglycome to realize that at fifty or sixty we not only have money tospend but also are eager to ditch our old lipstick for the latestcolors. As we age, we will remain interested in new adventuresand experiences, and we will spend freely to reach our fullpotential in the power years.

In the years ahead, watch for growth in industries such as thefollowing:

• specialty diagnosis and treatment centers for particularbody parts, such as the eyes, ears, muscles, bones, ornervous system

• therapeutically cloned kidneys, livers, lungs, hearts, skin,blood, and bones for tune-up or replacement

• nutraceuticals engineered with macro- and micronutrientsto fight aging

• cosmeceutical rejuvenation therapies for both men andwomen

• antiaging spas

• high-tech exercise gear and equipment programmed toprecisely train users to build stronger, healthier, and moreyouthful bodies

• smart acoustic systems in telephones, radios, and TVs thatcustomize signals to accommodate the auditory range ofeach user's ears

• Silver Seals -- for-hire teams of elders with variousproblem-solving talents who are deployed to fix difficultcommunity or business issues

• lifelong learning programs at colleges, universities,churches, and community centers and on cable TV and theInternet

• "retirement zone" stores featuring products and technologiesappealing to older adults with free time

• adventure travel services that send older adults to off-thebeaten-trail locations

• mature employment and career transition coordinators;experience agents -- similar to travel agents -- who can becommissioned to orchestrate any type of request, whetherit's a party, learning program, psychotherapy, sabbatical,travel adventure, spiritual retreat, introduction to newfriends, dates, or business partnerships

• mature dating services to help the tens of millions of singlemature women and men find new relationships

• longevity-oriented communities for health-minded elders

• intergenerational communes

• Club Med-like residences for those who enjoy active socialprogramming

• urban arts retirement communities that focus on culturalpursuits

• university-based intergenerational housing for peoplewho desire lifelong learning

• hedonism complexes for mature swingers

• multinational time-share clubs for those who aren't interestedin settling down in one location

• long-term-care insurance financing to provide securityagainst the possibility of late-life chronic health problems

• longevity insurance that, rather than paying an individual'sfamily in case of early death, provides financialsupport for people who live very long

• estate management and trust services to help familiesmanage the $20+ trillion inheritance cascade that is aboutto occur

• reverse mortgages to help people who are cash-poor but"brick-rich."

7. We'll Be Open to Change

Personal growth and self-improvement are the new order, and asthis mind-set blossoms, it will open the doors to fulfillment andachievement that might otherwise have been stifled.

The world of continuing education may best illustrate theappetites of a generation that loves to learn and grow. Already,a thriving adult-education industry has begun to flourish,including magazines, books, audio, video, Internet learning programs,and adult-education seminars, workshops, and courses.About forty million adults participate in one or more educationalactivities each year. As the need to continuously upgradeskills becomes a requirement, lifelong learning will becomecommonplace. In response, colleges and universities have begunto aggressively pursue adult students. USA Today recounted:"admission officers and financial-aid directors from campusesacross the USA echo the message: Older students are as desirable --often more so -- as the traditional 18-to-24 college crowd.And they're just as eligible for grants and loans as their youngerbrethren. Adults, they say, are better motivated, usually haveeducational goals in focus, and have experiences to share withyounger students."

A quiet revolution is occurring. Students over age thirty-fivewere just 5.5 percent of higher-education enrollment in 1970;today 22 percent of all college students are over thirty-five.Meanwhile, the percentage of adults age sixty-six to seventy-fourwho enrolled in at least one adult-education course morethan doubled between 1990 and 2000, to 20 percent. Retireesrepresent 25 percent of the ten thousand University of Chicagostudents taking noncredit courses in the arts and sciences.The trend toward older students will build as adults of all agesseek to upgrade their knowledge through formal universityprograms, correspondence courses, and employer-providedretraining. This is a worldwide phenomenon. In one respect,Canadians are leading the way, with 6 percent of all adultsenrolled in one or more university courses. South Korea rankssecond, followed by Australia and then the United States. ButNew Zealand, Finland, Norway, Spain, Ireland, and Francearen't far behind.

Aging Rocks

Being a grandpa or a grandma will rock if we plan for those lateryears now, doing what we must to be able to stay active, in tune,and in touch. Is it possible to stay hip when we've reached theage of grandparenting? Ask Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, PaulMcCartney, or Keith Richards. All of them have kids with kids.They still rock, and none has lost an ounce of cool. When askedabout his age, Richards recently commented, "Getting old is afascinating thing.The older you get, the older you want to get."

We have grown up equating retirement with old age. But withthe oldest of our generation starting to celebrate sixty, that'sbeginning to change. We aren't looking to be old or to winddown. We're looking to begin a whole new life when we reachour fifties and sixties. Having a positive outlook and understandingthat life's next chapter is just that -- not the beginning of theend of life -- are vital to making it fun and fulfilling.

The power years are coming, and we want to be your guides.