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Number of Those Working Past 65 Is at a Record High – NYTimes.com.
Hardly surprising – and Canadian trends are similar, as I point out in Beyond Age Rage. Combine the fact that Boomers and seniors need to fund a longer life span (if you’ve made it to 65, you’re looking at living well into your 80s) and have very inadequate levels of savings, the “traditional” retirement age of 65 looks less and less realistic. (And that’s without factoring in the extra cash they need to help support their will-they-ever-get-launched millennial children and grandchildren.)
ROBERT REICH TO NEW COLLEGE GRADS: ‘You’re F*cked’ – Business Insider.
Robert Reich served as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, and is now Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. So he definitely brings a lot of knowledge and experience to this topic. He adds strong evidence (as if more were needed) to the argument that the millennials coming out of university will have to delay many of the traditional milestones of adulthood. And this delay will, in turn, have serious impact on boomers and seniors (who are, as I show in my new book, Beyond Age Rage, picking up much of the tab).
I have been writing about the higher education bubble — most visible in the USA right now — because it has obvious implications for boomers and seniors who are (a) paying most of the tuition fees and (b) coping with the needs of the millennials who are unable to get jobs even with those hugely expensive degrees behind their names. As I have tried to show in Beyond Age Rage, what’s happening on the university scene matters very much. That’s why this article is so interesting. PJ Lifestyle » This Is The Way The Higher Education Bubble Ends….
I find the implications very exciting, because it will open up all kinds of exciting new opportunities – not just for the previously under-appreciated adjunct professors, but for Boomers and seniors who may be able to leverage their own education and (more importantly) life experiences into new careers as providers of digital content to the virtual universities of the future. I will continue to keep an eye on this topic – I anticipate a steady stream of new developments that will upset all of our thinking about what universities are, what they teach — and who does the teaching.
A couple of weeks ago, I was privileged to be one of the featured speakers at the Nielsen Consumer 360 conference in Toronto. This conference brings together over 300 of Nielsen’s clients and associates, to hear the latest buzz on what’s hot in the world of consumer marketing. Nielsen is, of course, one of the preeminent marketing and research companies in the world, and their client list is a who’s who of Canada’s biggest and most important organizations in consumer packaged goods and retailing. So it was an important forum – for me, and for ZoomerMedia. And it was gratifying to see so much interest in the Zoomers (the 45+ population) as a market. It’s been a while coming…but it looks like the momentum is starting to build. It makes perfect sense, of course – the 45+ population are the largest and wealthiest consumer market segment, and account for about 60 cents out of every dollar of consumer spending (and in some categories, like health and wellness, much more). But it’s taken marketers and ad agencies a long time to get over their obsession with the “youth” market as being the main target. Now the attention is shifting to where the dollars really are.
There was a lot of interest, too, in the longer-term marketing implications of the apparent “war of the generations” that I discuss in my new book, Beyond Age Rage. Two issues jumped out:
- If millennials really are significantly delaying some of the traditional milestones of adulthood – marriage, first job, first kids, first home – then this throws into disarray the “consumer life cycle” model on which so much of traditional mass marketing is based.
- If multi-generational families, or “grandfamilies,” are an important emerging niche, then this, too, throws into disarray the traditional model of which consumers make the key buying decisions at which stages of life. All of a sudden, grandparents may become important purchasing influences over kid’s products, for example. I covered this in my presentation, and had a lot of interesting dialogue with conference participants afterward.
I hope you enjoy the video – and welcome comments and questions.
I’ve had a lot of positive response to Beyond Age Rage so far, and one of the most interesting and constructive ideas came from Toronto real estate broker Marilyn Rothman. Here is what she wrote:
“As a parent and mom of a university-educated son who has job, I see many young people university-educated without the determination and excitement that a lot of us had when we started working fresh out of school. I really think as a group we have to help the young, not by giving them financial aid, but by helping with the tools to succeed.
“Many of us have built solid companies; and many have few to continue the companies’ legacy. I say let’s take an active interest in an internship or mentoring program to bridge the gap. As business people, let’s try to find new ways of showing how it’s done. I know this is a different world: many of the characteristics like determination, enthusiasm and hope and ambition seem to be falling – not for all kids, but for many who are out there. Let’s take a collective interest. Start a network with different industries; talk to our alumni department at the university in a hands-on way for those who are interested in getting the help. Another idea would be implementing some practical education at the primary and secondary school level in preparation.”
Marilyn is certainly qualified to offer such mentorship. She is Broker of Record and President of Marilyn Rothman Real Estate Broker Ltd. Her company has assisted many executive tenants and investors in the marketing or leasing of luxury home and condominium residences in upscale Toronto neighborhoods. Marilyn is also an instructor in real estate related topics, and participates in Ontario’s Learning Partnership Employer Registry. Through that program, she often speaks to junior and senior high school students about choosing a career in real estate. So she’s already walking the talk when it comes to reaching out to, and helping, the younger generations.
Check out her website here.
I like Marilyn’s ideas and I encourage you to comment and/or volunteer. Perhaps this blog could serve as a kind of clearing-house for people who want to get involved in pursuing some of the ideas Marilyn has advanced. Who knows – we might be able to build a little network of people who want to do more than just comment on the problems that are out there – but actually try to fix some of them.
Let me know what you think!
