Are Millennials and GenXer’s More Prepared Than Previous Generations for Retirement? Probably Not? So What?

I’m not sure how many in my subscriber tribe fall in the GenX or millennial age category. I’m guessing not the majority. Regardless, I’m forging forward with this message because it also has relevancy for us modern elders.

Statistics are revealing that the millennial and GenX generations are less financially prepared for retirement than previous generations. Here’s a chart that supports that:

The chart sends off some pretty scary signals if you are stacking it up against the still prevalent view of where one should be to experience traditional, full-stop retirement.

Here are some headlines from a Business Insider article quoting a Boston University economist who warns that GenXers and millennials will be facing a “retirement crisis.”

    • Over half of Gen Z and millennials could enter retirement with insufficient savings, says a Boston University economist.

    • With inflation rising, the magic number for a comfortable retirement could be close to $3 million.

    • Working later in life to catch up on savings might not be a tenable solution.

The article goes on to suggest that, while $1 million has long been considered the “magic number for retirement savings”, for late GenXers and millennials that number should be closer to $3 million.

Chew on that for a second and do the math.

So, you’re 30 and have $37K in the bank. A well-meaning financial planner suggests that you should find an occupation and adjust to a lifestyle that will enable you to accumulate that $3M over the next 35 years (he/she probably still holds the number 65 as sacrosanct).

That’s too much math for me to calculate, but I’m comfortable suggesting that you will need to start saving somewhere around $2500-$3000 per month.

Uh – have fun with that!

Even if you are a slug and settle for a mere $1 million, the number is still a lifestyle-destroying number.

That’s why the retirement story is changing.

Although far too many of us pre-boomers and boomers continue to infer it, GenXers and millennials aren’t stupid. They are very aware. Many are looking at the consequences of previous generations’ commitment to the 20th-century linear life model of Learn – Earn – Retire – Die and deciding they want no part of it.

They are realizing it isn’t about the numbers, but about the lifestyle. They see no logic in a model that suggests 30–40 years of busting your hump and sacrificing health and relationships to achieve a number to support what, for far too many, is a retirement that is shorter than expected and full of health challenges as a result of the stress and poor lifestyle habits built into this old model.

Traditional, full-stop retirement is dying –

-and GenXer and millennials are helping drive the demise.

There is a growing “never retire” movement beginning to develop that eschews traditional retirement in favor of a life plan that calls for retiring into a lifestyle early in life doing what you enjoy most, are good at, that brings value to the world and the community, that supports their financial needs, and that they can do late into old age if they choose.

Call it a “never retire” model.

Yep, it’s totally antithetical and counter-cultural. But, it recognizes that the Learn-Earn-Retire-Die model worked 50 years ago, but makes no sense now. Learning and earning can be spread over the lifetime and in a way that is more fulfilling, less stressful, less selfish, less self-indulgent, and more in step with how our lifespans and healthspans are changing.

So, yes GenXers and millennials are less prepared for the archaic, traditional retirement model but are growing in their awareness of a more sensible, logical, relevant model that puts lifestyle and experience ahead of money and puts them on a path for a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lifespan.

Should we be taking notes?

The reality is that lots of us modern elders – especially the younger boomers who missed the internet boom – aren’t financially prepared to support our extended life spans. Check out that $280K average retirement savings for the 65+ in the chart above. That may get us a lifetime of bingo and backgammon, but not much else.

Sorry, Mabel – the Norwegian cruise is off the table.

Maybe it’s not too late for us to listen to these youngers and jettison the retirement mindset and consider the never-retire option. I’ve been giving semi-retirement a go for almost two decades now balancing labor, leisure, and learning and it feels increasingly comfortable as the years advance.

But, no one wants to be me – including me more days than I wish to admit.

I’ll keep rolling with this model until the parts give out.

Maybe those behind us are onto something!

Whaddayathink about this?  We’d love to have your two cents worth – or more. Leave us a comment or shoot an email to gary@makeagingwork.com.

 

 

 

 

I’m Still Alive Because I Traded COPD for CPD.

On June 5, 1979, I was on track for COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

I had been a serious smoker for 18 years. I’m talking 2-packs-a-day in Marlboro country for nearly two decades.

On June 6, 1979, I jumped off that track and opted, instead, for CPD – continuous personal development.

A cigarette or cigar has not touched my lips since.

Had I not jumped, I don’t believe I would be writing this today, at 80, having just completed a brisk 30-minute walk and a touch of strength training in my office with my adjustable kettlebell and exercise bands.

Between 6/6/79 and today, I watched my father and an uncle die of COPD.  I am now witnessing its devastation play out with my sister.

All were multi-decade smokers.

Slow, creeping, irreversible suffocation is at the absolute bottom of the list of the ways I want to leave this planet.

We didn’t know better.

My formative years were in rural southeast Wyoming. In the 1940s and 1950s, smoking was not only accepted but it was also touted as healthy by doctors, dentists, actors.

I remember an ad for Lucky Strikes showing wounded veterans from the Korean War in a hospital ward smoking with the message that Luckies were an important part of their recovery.

Demonstrating a heavy dose of hypocrisy and naivete during high school, I would only smoke during the summer and not during school because of athletics. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t good.

But it was cool back then. And cool, as an adolescent, was important – just as it is today.

We didn’t know better, I guess. It was 1964 before the Surgeon General issued a general report citing health risks associated with smoking and 34 more years of denial and stonewalling by the tobacco industry before they admitted culpability and ponied up a $264 billion “settlement.”

It was hard, hard, hard!

If you’ve been a smoker, you know how hard it is to quit.

It took enrollment in an 8-week program called SmokeEnders (now offered online) for me to quit – along with the ever-present and openly expressed concern from my wife and two elementary school-aged children.

I remember that nearly half the SmokeEnders class of 40 had some level of emphysema and were there on doctor’s orders. Very few of these extreme cases were able to quit and most dropped out.

But, I was ready. I had already started running and knew that this had to happen. The class was the catalyst for me. And helped launch me into a four-decade Continuous Personal Development (CPD) process.

CPD is a big bucket.

6/6/1979 kickstarted an evolutionary process of personal development that continues today. What started as smoking cessation and an increase in physical activity has evolved into a deep commitment to continuous mental, physical, social, and spiritual growth.

I’ll offer up a few things I’ve learned on this non-stop journey:

Takeaway #1:

It’s never too late to start to improve; it’s always too early to quit.

CPD is age-independent. I push myself at each workout. I’m striving to get better every day at my writing. I still read a book a week and have for over 15 years. I’m learning that not knowing is more important than whatever I do know and that I’ll always be behind.

Takeaway #2:

With very few exceptions, we are born with a birthright of health and bodies and minds with amazing resilience and recuperative powers.

Just as my lungs returned to normal after 15 years, nearly all of the parts of this magnificent collection of cells will recuperate from mistreatment or accident when given the right tools. Collectively, we’re not very good at knowing what those tools are, or, if we do, we fail to use them.

Takeaway #3:

Culture is not our friend.

We’re persuaded to compare and seek comfort, convenience, and quick fixes. We choose a Snapchat/Instagram world where comparison sneaks in to rob us of joy. We are drawn away from our natural selves and give up our individuality in order to conform.

Takeway #4

We’re on our own to protect our birthright of physical and mental health.

A healthcare system that can’t/won’t spell prevention. A food industry that delights in our naivete and in destroying our livers and pancreases. A pharmaceutical industry that rides profitably on the backs of both. An entertainment industry that dulls our brains and steals 5+ hours of our time daily with mountains of drivel. All foes of CPD.

CPD is hard too.

CPD isn’t convenient. It’s often uncomfortable. It’s easy to abandon.

I had trouble giving up the Marlboro’s because there was a strong physical addiction as well as deeply ingrained habit patterns.

My goal is to strive to entrench my CPD in the same way while I give thanks that it stepped in for the COPD.

Do you have a 6/6/1979 in your story? Tell us about it. Leave a comment below for others to see. We’d love to hear from you on this topic.

We’re Approaching a Tipping Point – Start Saving Yourself Now!

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

Should this headline concern you?

Kaiser Permanente reports $1.5B Q3 loss

How ’bout these reports?

Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health (the largest Catholic health system, and the second-largest nonprofit hospital chain in the United States) reported a $1.3 billion operating loss for the 12-months end on June 30.

Ascension, based in St. Louis (a private healthcare system ranking second in the United States by number of hospitals) also reported a $1.8 billion loss for the fiscal year’s end in June.

Or this:

Third-quarter payer (insurance) profits:

  • UnitedHealth Group: $5.3 billion, up over 28 percent
  • Cigna: $2.8 billion, up over 70 percent

Third-quarter provider profits:

  • HCA Healthcare: $1.13 billion, down over 50 percent
  • Trinity Health: $1.4 billion in 2022 losses, down over 135 percent

These have come in the last couple of weeks from a leading healthcare newsletter, Becker’s Healthcare. 

I don’t expect you’d have much reason to tune into Becker’s. I do because I’ve been swimming in the shallow end of the hospital pool for over 18 years, as a (former) executive healthcare recruiter, career coach, and, currently, as a coach, resume writer, and online presence (LinkedIn) expert for healthcare executives.

So, what’s the big deal?

Many big businesses suffer swings in profitability. Most recover, some fade away.

How might this scenario be different?

Look, my crystal ball has resulted in me eating a lot of broken glass, so consider the source for what follows. I’m going to suggest that we, of evolving “modern elder” status, be alert.

Alert to what?

It seems COVID-19 may be forcing us to be honest by exposing many of the inherent weaknesses in our healthcare system – a money-driven, often counter-productive sick-care system built on cure and a model more and more experts – even those running it – are saying can’t sustain.

It’s also a model that isn’t addressing the mind-blowing deterioration of the health of the U.S. population.

It’s a system that won’t dare utter words “prevention” or “upstream”, both antonyms and anathemas to a model built on “cure” and “downstream.”

You’re on your own. Save yourself!!

I’ve been camped on that theme for the last five years but now I’m more than a little hyped up about the importance of knowledge-based self-care.

Operating on the fringes of the U.S. healthcare system for nearly twenty years has connected me with some of the brightest, most driven, selfless, dedicated, overworked, and under-appreciated people on the planet.

Healthcare professionals are some of the hardest-working and most committed people you will ever encounter. Hundreds of conversations with C-level hospital and medical practice executives over the last several years have informed me of the incredibly complex and daunting challenges they face.

I was once told that a hospital is the most complex organism on the planet to manage – perhaps as complicated as trying to run the military.

It’s herding cats at its best.

Yet, faced with incredible challenges, these execs show up every day, problem-solve, herd the cats, and help save lives.

They don’t complain.

They forge on –

-even aware they are steering a ship that is starting to sink, rapidly.

Are we finally going to be honest-

-about how busted our healthcare sick-care system is? If Harvard Health says it busted, it must be busted.

Here are some additional insights published recently by Becker’s Healthcare Review. Please note the portions I’ve bolded.

“Healthcare systems in the U.S. have had a challenging year, and they are on track for their worst financial year in decades, according to an Oct. 25 report from Health Affairs.

Dramatic margin fluctuations have characterized 2022, and U.S. hospitals are still operating substantially below pre-pandemic levels. Most metrics improved month-over-month in August as revenues and expenses climbed compared to July. However, most organizations are in poor shape with a negative operating margin, according to the report. 

Several factors suggest hospital margins will continue to face challenges in the coming years. The labor shortage is noted as the primary driver for rising hospital costs. Nursing labor is a critical point as the report indicates hospitals have lost about 105,000 employees, and nursing vacancies have more than doubled. In response, hospitals have relied on expensive contract nurses and extended overtime hours, which caused labor costs to surge. The national nursing shortage is a continuing problem as a substantial segment of the labor force is approaching retirement, and the shortage of new nurses is projected to reach 450,000 by 2025. 

Payment rates will eventually adjust to rising costs, which are likely to occur slowly and unevenly, according to the report. Medicare rates, adjusted annually based on inflation, are projected to undershoot hospital costs and are expected to widen the gap between costs and payments. 

Economic uncertainty and the threat of recession are expected to create continued disruptions in patient volumes. While healthcare has been referred to as “recession-proof,” high-deductible healthcare plans and more aggressive cost-sharing mechanisms have exposed patients to costs, making them more likely to weigh them against other household expenditures. 

Combined, these factors suggest that the current financial pressures are unlikely to resolve in the short term.”

Consider these comments from Scott Galloway, Clinical Professor at NYU Stern School of Business, in a recent blog post:

“The U.S. Healthcare industry is a wounded 7-ton seal, drifting aimlessly, bleeding into the sea. Predators are circling. The blood in the water is an unearned margin: price increases, relative to inflation, without a concomitant improvement in quality. Amazon is the lurking megalodon, its 11-foot jaws and 7-inch teeth the largest in history. With the acquisition of One Medical, Amazon is no longer circling…but attacking.”

Professor Galloway allows facts to speak for themselves (you may want to read his full blog here):

Per capita, U.S. healthcare spending went from $2,968 in 1980 to $12,531 in 2020 (both in 2020 dollars), resulting in an industry with 13% of the nation’s workers and total spending accounting for a fifth of U.S. GDP.  

Two-thirds of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. result from sick-care issues (medical expenses and time off work).  

Forty percent of adults in the U.S. have delayed or gone without needed sick care because it’s too expensive.  

The U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates among developed nations.  

Professor Galloway concludes with this summary opinion;

“No industry has better demonstrated the dis-economies of scale. If we received the same return on our healthcare spending as other countries, we’d all live to 100 without getting sick … U.S. healthcare is the worst value in modern history.”

U.S. healthcare is the worst value in modern history precisely because it is not healthcare – it is overburdened sick care.

Regardless of age, now is the time to start elevating our self-care knowledge, take charge of our health, put better habits in place, and jettison the mindset that says there is always someone that can come and save us from our poor lifestyle habits.

Nobody’s coming.

They’ll just wait in their inefficient hospital or medical office buildings for you to wade through all the paperwork and languish in the waiting room to get 15 minutes to be told which drug or surgery is appropriate to treat your “downstream” issue.

But, wait – what about Amazon, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart?

They all are getting into the healthcare business to provide primary care services. Doesn’t that change things?

Don’t be deceived. Follow the money. Do these companies do anything that doesn’t appease shareholders?

They are the sharks in the water circulating this bleeding hulk and see the opportunity to take their vast technology experience and put it to work to streamline an inefficient system.

It doesn’t change the brokenness because it remains a sick-care system. These companies see the opportunity to get you in and out of that 15-minute cure-based system faster and tap that government/insurance cash cow quicker.

More people in and out quickly and directed to the drug counter twenty steps away. Aside from Amazon, is it a coincidence that the other three are dominant players in the retail pharmacy world?

Pills – the other, and incredibly profitable, side of this mess – riding on the backs of its brokenness.

Costs are going to continue to go up, service and availability will decline.

Physicians are burning out and retiring out. Medical school enrollments are down.

So are the nurses. Fewer young people are made of the stuff that it takes to be a nurse and fewer are showing interest in the profession.

We’ve built monoliths (see picture at the top) that can’t sustain in the long run.

You and I are suckers if we don’t get smarter about our lifestyles.

The mission? Simple – stay out of the doctor’s office. Be proactive about your health, not reactive. Avoid this broken system.

Let your 24×7, 35 trillion-cell immune system do its thing. Give it what it needs to keep you out of this busted system. Our bodies and minds are incredibly resilient with amazing recuperative powers, but they need our help to provide the raw materials.

  1. Eliminate UPFs (ultra-processed foods) and sugar.
  2. Increase fiber intake.
  3. Increase weekly exercise to 300 minutes, including some rigorous strength training.
  4. Challenge your brain – learn to dance, learn another language, join a chess club, take up the guitar
  5. Expand your social network, including hanging out with younger people.
  6. Infuse your longevity bonus with something purposeful.

Set your sails to take advantage of the emerging longevity revolution and design a longevity lifestyle that keeps you out of this system.

Take charge – be the CEO of your health.

 

 

 

 

 

Are You a “Modern Elder?” Take This Test and Find Out.

By now, you know I’m a big fan of Chip Conley, author, entrepreneur, and founder of the Modern Elder Academy. 

His book “Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder” was a top read for me in 2019 and led me to write about the Modern Elder concept a few times:

Chip has a daily newsletter that I follow. He recently sent out a “quiz” to test how we stack up against the Modern Elder criteria. I’m sharing it here so you can take it and test yourself to see where you fall.

Straight from his weekly newsletter:

Here are 10 affirmative statements. Rate yourself as a 0 if the statement doesn’t resonate with you. Give yourself a half-point if it feels right to you, but it’s not an enthusiastic “yes.” And give yourself 1 point per statement if you feel a full-body yes. 
  1. Outside of my family, I am often in environments where I am the oldest or one of the oldest, and I don’t hide my age.
  2. I am both a lifelong learner and a “long-life learner,” someone who wants to live a life that’s as deep and meaningful as it is long.
  3. I enjoy growing older, and I believe my best work and life are ahead of me.
  4. I feel like my ego is no longer my primary operating system, and I have a growing stirring in my soul. 
  5. I have developed an active practice of cultivating and harvesting wisdom based on metabolizing my life experiences, and I can teach others to do the same.
  6. I love becoming a new beginner at something and am endlessly curious.
  7. I believe my emotional intelligence has grown, and I’m less reactive than I was ten years ago. 
  8. I have moved from the accumulation stage of my life to the editing stage. I am good at ending projects, relationships, mindsets, and distractions that don’t feel nourishing or allow me to serve others effectively. 
  9. People tell me that I’m a great mentor and a conduit for wisdom. I would be honored to be called a “wisdom worker” instead of a “knowledge worker.” 
  10. I no longer define myself based on my achievements, image, status, or power, as I’m more focused on my purpose and legacy. The sentence “I am what survives me” defines my life today. 
Of course, depending on the day, your answers may differ. Your tabulated score will run from 0 to 10. 
If you scored from 0 to 5, you’re probably not a modern elder yet, so you might focus on those statements in which you scored yourself a 0 and ask, “How might I develop habits or practices that allow me to feel more affirmative about this characteristic?” 
If you scored above a 5 and below an 8, you’re a budding modern elder, and you might find MEA’s programming perfectly timed for where you are in your life as a prep school for modern elderhood.
If you scored an 8 or above, who knows, you might be teaching at MEA someday. If you haven’t experienced our in-person or online programs, start with that and begin documenting the ways you’re developing your curiosity and wisdom. 

I gave myself a 9. Not sure my roommate would agree, but I felt pretty good with it.

How did you rate yourself? What areas do you feel strongest about? Where do you need the most work? Let us know with a comment below.

 

How Does Age Affect Multitasking Ability? You’ll learn it doesn’t work!

Photo by Rodnae Productions on Pexels

The ability of humans to multitask is largely a myth. Neuroscience tells us that our ability to multitask is virtually non-existent.

The term multitask came from the computer world. It’s what a computer does well with multiple processors moving quickly back and forth across functions at great speed. Still, the individual functions are being done linearly.

We can’t truly multitask since we only have one processor. We can’t do it. Yes, we can chew gum and walk but those are autonomous functions we’ve done so often that the brain doesn’t have to think about doing them.

Trying to do two non-autonomous functions at once doesn’t work. To sit at your desk trying to do multiple things is a waste of time. People who claim to be multitaskers may have the ability to jump from one task to another and back without losing track, but it takes a lot of effort, wastes a lot of time, and sacrifices productivity.

In his best-selling book “The One Thing”, author and entrepreneur Gary Keller points out that:

“- multitasking is a lie” and that “the truth is multitasking is neither efficient nor effective. In the world of results, it will fail you every time.”

Or, as author Steve Uzzell states:

“Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time..”

So, if we accept that we can’t truly multitask, then it would seem to come down to the question of whether or not age affects our ability to move from one task to the next efficiently and not lose track of where we’ve been.

I accepted long ago that multitasking doesn’t work.  At 80, I will attest to some deterioration in my ability to not lose track when I have multiple projects cooking.

Since I’m not retired, by choice, and choose to continue to work at what I love to do, I’ve had to rely more on calendars and other tools to avoid losing track and rely less on my mind to keep track of everything.

I’ve also improved at prioritizing and narrowing down the things that need attention.

I think some deterioration in areas like this should be expected. Staying mentally active can help slow that deterioration.

Mobile Meditation

There is one autonomous multitasking activity that works for me.

Walking and thinking.

Yes, I can still move my feet and legs without thinking about it – for that, I’m grateful.

I rarely miss a day without a walk of 20-30 minutes. Lately, I’ve been using that time as a form of meditation, letting my subconscious work on whatever problem or challenge is at hand.

I’ve tried the immobile version of meditation. The mobile version works better for me. It gets my heart rate up so it’s kinda like an autonomous twofer, I guess.

The Deep Work Solution

If you are mildly ADHD, as I am, trying to multitask is the devil incarnate. Not a lot gets done on a long list of things if I allow myself to get into that trap.

I’ve benefitted greatly from the work that Georgetown University professor and author, Cal Newport, has done in researching and publishing his best-selling book “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success In a Distracted World.”

Deep work isn’t easy, even for someone without the “shiny object syndrome” that I suffer from. But it works.

Heads down, uninterrupted, undistracted focus on “one thing” for 1–2 hours, as proposed by Newport, takes you out of multitasking mode and can prove to be incredibly productive.

When you read about people who seem to achieve staggering amounts of production in the same 168 hours that we all have, you can rest assured that they are not multi-tasking but more likely doing two things: (1) time-blocked deep work and (2) prioritizing and delegating where possible.

Neither of those capabilities needs to give way to aging.

What’s your opinion on multitasking? What works for you to improve your use of time. Share your thoughts with a comment below. And thanks for reading. If you haven’t joined our mailing to receive our weekly articles, trip on over the www.makeagingwork.com and join the tribe.