February 17, 2012
Why Boomers Will Delay Retirement
The US retirement age is rising. Following a steady decline in the retirement age after WW II, the new Census shows that the average retirement age has been increasing since the mid-1990s – from 62 to 64 for men and from 60 to 62 for women. According to an analysis of these data by Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and by BooterNation.com several factors account for the new trends toward later retirement, including:
Improved public health and longevity which means individual performers are more likely to stay at the top of their game for an extended period into later life, many of whom want to stay engaged in their work or profession;
An information economy that values the knowledge, connections and...
December 12, 2011
Steve Jobs/Apple Commercial-Here's to the Crazy Ones
November 29, 2011
A Later-life Morality Tale
An old prospector shuffled into the town of El Indio , Texas, leading an old tired mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town, to clear his parched throat. He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail.
As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?"
The old man looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No, I never did dance ... Never really wanted to."
A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and...
November 7, 2011
Billy Graham has written his valedictory. He calls it, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well (Thomas Nelson, released October 15, 2011). I was prompted to read it as I watched an interview with his son, Franklin Graham. Graham the younger reported that his father, now 93 years old, said that he was taught how to live, and he was taught how to die – but no one ever taught him how to grow old.
In a Huffington Post/Religion commentary on November 1, 2011, Billy Graham himself wrote "…no one ever taught me how I ought to live my latter years."
It is noteworthy that one of the most anchored and reflective human beings on the planet has been struggling with the challenges of later life. For that reason alone it...
October 15, 2011
Psychologist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl wrote persuasively about life's meaning, suggesting that living a life that matters depends on what we give to the world (work, deeds, creative activities), what we take from the world (e.g., in terms of relationships or experiencing things – both artifacts and the natural world) and how we struggle with the inevitable stresses and tragedies of life.
That Steve Jobs gave a lot is widely understood and appreciated. That he prized the world, including artifacts of man, is beyond dispute. But perhaps the most important indicator of Steve Jobs' life of meaning is to be found in how he dealt the stresses and tragedies of his own life…turning nearly every one of his own life's tensions and...
October 14, 2011
The positive and game-changing impact of Steve Jobs' life on how we live, work, play, learn, move around and even govern is truly inspiring. Most of the comments following his untimely death tend to focus on his vision and his machines…as they should. Both were and are unequaled.
Yet, some of the most interesting insights to Jobs the person are found in his highly-regarded commencement address to Stanford graduates on June 12, 2005. It was there that Jobs told three stories – each the story of an unexpected journey and how Steve Jobs, at each stage of his life, responded. These included (1) dropping out of Reed College before he was 20; (2) getting fired, at age 30, from Apple, the company he founded; and, less than 20 years later, (3) receiving a...
September 25, 2011
Welcome to BooterNation.com, the web site for Reboot! What to do when your career is over but your life isn’t.
BooterNation.com is a destination for individuals who want to keep up with the latest facts and data describing changing trends, habits, and practices of later-life Americans, especially booters who continue to work as a way to improve quality of life for themselves and their families.
To advance this objective, BooterNation.com will curate interesting and compelling stories of booters who choose to work in some capacity – paid, in-kind, volunteer, Samaritan or enrichment work – during their post-career years. We will spotlight those who choose a path that involves work, to help others and repair the world – rather than the conventional path of "...