Reading Time: 3 – 4 minutes

The issue that causes the most anxiety in my eldercare planning classes is MONEY. How do we pay for everything we may need when we get old?  What is going to happen to Social Security and Medicare? If we want to keep our jobs, how do we fight ageism? How can we afford to retire if we don’t have a pension?

My answer to all these issues is, “We keep on working, learning, and growing.”

Social Security has only been around since 1940.  Before that most people worked until they died. If they were lucky they had family who took care of them if they became incapacitated. If they did not have family, they were in trouble.

Seventy years later things have changed:

• People are living longer.
• More people are living with chronic illness.
• Medicine has made fabulous advances.
• Families members live farther away from each other.
• There are more jobs that do not require the physical strength.
• The fast growing population segment is Centenarian.
• The largest population segment is the Baby Boom Generation which believes it can be whatever it wants to be.

Statistically, we will die sooner if we stop working, become isolated, or no longer have sex.

So work, build your real social networks (face to face with human beings), and have safe sex as often as possible!  Not a terrible future.

As a Baby Boomer committed to pragmatic self-determination, I hasten to add that the work we do in the future does not have to be the work we have done in the past.  In fact, you may miss some of the greatest joys of your entire life by failing to look beyond your current definition of work.

I have had four careers.  I was a classical musician until my 30′s. Then I was a project manager and executive for emerging technology companies for 20 years. I moved into real estate investment half way through my technology phase. After three management jobs in a row were outsourced to India, I moved into real estate full-time. Six years ago I combined caregiving, real estate investment, and eldercare consulting into my current career.

Maybe it is not a career if I do a bunch of stuff.  Maybe it is just work that suits me.  No matter how you label it, I am happier with the work I do now than I have ever been.  I have not set my alarm in six years;  I do not have a boss;  I set my own hours;  I make enough money.  The key is that I stopped following the world’s rule book after I turned 50 and started listening to myself.  I was finally smart enough and had enough experience to be my best advisor.

The great joy of living long enough to reach middle age and old age is that we are also smarter and make better decisions.  We know time is finite and refuse to waste it on things that do not matter to us.

No matter what your current work situation is, it is a good exercise to start day dreaming about the things you have not done.  What were you good at before you chose a professional career path? What physical obstacles may make your current work less attractive in the future? Who has the job you wish you had?  What are your untapped talents?  It would be a pity to die without trying them out.

This is a HUGE issue.  No government social service will be equipped to provide all the things we need when we become more frail.  Think about the things you might be able to do if you cannot walk or drive.  There are options out there.

The best part about this next phases of your work life is that it is FUN. For those of you who have always followed the rules, it may to time to start breaking a few.  For those of you with worn out bodies, take stock of the things your mind can do without causing you physical pain and exhaustion. Think about the kinds of unmet needs out there in your community.  How could you help meet some of those needs.  Even better, how can you get paid to do it?

Just start making it up. And then tell The New Elder’s Blog about what you are doing and how you made it happen.  We are our future, so let’s help each other make it a good one.

Copyright TheNewElder 2012