According to James Gambione, author of Refirement—A Boomer’s Guide To Life After 50, a key value of the maturing and soon-to-enter- retirement baby boomer is giving something back. Many are reawak- ening a social consciousness that may have been sidetracked during the years of work and material acquisition. Along with the leading edge of the baby boomers entering retirement are the current third- agers (those born before 1946), who comprise a growing population of older Americans willing and able to invest themselves in redeem- ing many of the ills in our society.
Marc Freedman, author of Prime Time—How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, is challenging our coun- try to create and publicize meaningful activities for our older citizens—
not simply giving them busy work like stuffing envelopes. “Most of the opportunities available to senior citizens were designed for a for- mer generation of older adults, to get them out of the rocking chair.
But this is not the retirement of their parents. We need activities that capture people’s imagination, use their skills, and give them a sense of purpose,” says Freedman.
Freedman gives the following as examples of groups that have mobilized retirees with a sense of purpose.
• Experience Corps. This group provides schools and other youth organizations with older adults who help improve academic performance.
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• National Senior Service Corps. This group operates the Foster Grandparent Program, the Senior Companion Program, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program.
• Care-a-vanners. These are retirees who travel in Winnebagos building houses for Habitat for Humanity in projects that in- volve teenagers whom they mentor.
Many more benevolent, educational, mentoring, and altruistic causes will result as future retirees rise to the challenge of meeting the many specialized needs in our society and environment. Freed- man tells the story of Marv Welt of Portland, Oregon, who, upon re- tiring from management consulting, decided to build a legacy by following his passion—fishing.
Unlike many retirees who simply sit on the dock trying out new lures, Mr. Welt, in his early 70s, decided to parlay his passion for fish- ing into an environmental experience for children in poor neigh- borhoods. The resulting program, the WaterWorld Program, is now operating in a number of public schools. When it started, Welt sim- ply taught kids from the projects how to fish.
At the same time, Welt went back to school himself to take biol- ogy courses. As a result, he now takes groups of kids on field trips and gives them lessons on the environment. Welt’s feelings about spend- ing his retirement years in this way characterize the importance of living with a sense of purpose in later years. “Before I started I had no idea I would be doing any of this. But it gives a purpose to life that I think everybody needs. Sitting out in your RV contemplating your navel is, to me, a total waste.”
This is a time in life where people can rethink how they want to invest their lives. Michael Stein wrote, “It’s a time in life where peo- ple switch the primary focus of their lives from earning a living to chasing their dreams.” For many of those retirees and future retirees, their dreams do not necessarily revolve around the old retirement image of self-absorption.
A good barometer of a shifting paradigm within any demographic group is the content of advertising from the financial services com- munity. These companies spend enormous amounts of money re- searching the emotional “triggers” of the marketplace through focus groups and studies. It is interesting to note the evolution of advertis- ing in the last five years as it has moved its scope from self-absorption to meaningful living.
For example, in the mid-1990s, there was a TV ad from ITT/
Hartford that showed a well-dressed, 60-something couple dancing on the deck of a boat, kicking up their heels, and acting like adoles- cents. The caption underneath read, “One day you’ll get to act like a kid again but for now let’s discuss your allowance.” Within just a few years, however, a new, more significant theme was evolving in finan- cial services advertising. This change is typified by an American Ex- press ad that depicts three attractive people in their 60s wearing hard hats and jeans huddled together with wide grins as they discuss some aspect of a Habitat for Humanity project. The tag line on this partic- ular advertisement is, “Do more.” This is the satisfaction that future generations of retirees will want—to know they have done something.
People like former president Jimmy Carter have been trailblazers in setting an example and in writing about how people can best in- vest their lives once their careers are over. The need for meaningful pursuits does not dissipate in an individual’s psyche once sufficient assets to retire are acquired. In fact, the financial freedom that lib- erates one to engage in leisure on a full-time basis only serves to in- tensify the deep longing to build some sort of meaningful legacy.
This longing is amplified again by the ever-growing consciousness of one’s own mortality, which intensifies as we grow older.
Marc Freedman wrote about retirees who were attempting to do more in a cause called the Work Connection. “In many ways The Work Connection offered [the volunteers] a second chance every bit as much as it did for the kids—the chance to redeem themselves from past failings, to be the father they hadn’t been before, to reaffirm the value of their own life experience. It was an opportunity for finding new pur- pose, for leaving the land and the world a little better than they found it. They were doing something that mattered to themselves and to the community. In short, the success of The Work Connection pro- gram wasn’t dependent on the shaky soil of idealism but rather was anchored in the much sturdier ground of enlightened self-interest.”
Enlightened self-interest is Freedman’s view of the rallying cry of new retirees. Rather than engaging in generic charity busywork, the next generation will want to play out the vision of a better world and society that resonates in their souls, and the solutions they imagine and create will be as unique as each individual. Today’s advisors would do well to help their clients discover and articulate how they want to invest their lives in this way and to help create the financial tools necessary to fulfill this pursuit of enlightened self-interest. Mil- 15 / Leaving a Legacy 157
lions of financially liberated retirees will find that their greatest joy will come through benefiting others. Many are ready now for the conversation that helps them determine how to build a legacy through the purposeful investment of their time, knowledge, energy, and fi- nancial assets.