Over-50

Transitions - I Would Have Preferred to Pass Up the Growth

Brilliantly, Nicole and Charles play out the dynamics of transition.

That's in "Marriage Story," which is really a film about divorce. 

The meme is that, yes, everything is working nicely until it stops working. Then, human beings get plunged into the pain and possibilities of adjustment and building a platform for what is next.

Currently, both in relationships and professional life, transition is the new normal. That's among the reasons "Marriage Story" resonates with so many.

The need to let go of what had been so very okay begins - how we all remember - when we graduate from college. Even if we are continuing formal education that will be in the more serious, emotionally sterile, highly competitive corridors of law school or graduate degree programs.

The bonds of college cannot hold. Adulthood seems all too hard.

What Baby Boomers didn't expect was that the transitions would continue right into semi-retirement/retirement/reverse retirement.

In the 1980s, we got knocked out of the corporate box through downsizing and technology.

The self-employment option was one we likely never anticipated taking.

Then there were the economic downturns following 9/11 and the worldwide financial crash.

Recovery wasn't evenly spread around in an America that favored youth and digital natives.

Then retirement? Maybe not for long. The Federal Reserve documents one-third of those who left the workforce have bounced back in. That even has a title: reverse retirement.

Of course, the generations following the Baby Boomers all had and are having their own kinds of transitions. And, for all it seems to be a bitch. Consider the epidemics of clinical depression, substance abuse, and suicide. 

The rah-rah crowd clucks about the growth achieved through transition. "Marriage Story" questions that kind of extreme optimism.

How some of us yearn for the whatever it takes to live the lifestyle of real-life character Christopher Knight. It was essentially transition-free.

In "The Stranger in the Woods," Michael Finkel captures the tale of 27 years living in the woods of Maine, without job, any human companionship, and sophisticated technology. In the single-minded focus on survival, Knight encountered few transitions. And even those few could be anticipated, such as the summer crowd leaving and that source of the food he would pillage cut off.   

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Side Hustle with Wag: Could Be Solid Platform for Next

The pet-service enterprise Wag is well-organized. 

For example, it makes it easy for clients - that is, pet parents - and its contract employees to facilitate the common service of the dog walk. A lock box is attached to the door. 

As Recode reports, though, Wag, as it typical of many startups, aimed to grow too quickly. That got it into trouble and now sources say it is in talks to sell itself. Interestingly, just like fast-growth failure WeWork, Wag is backed by SoftBank. You bet, the SoftBank brand is taking a beating.

But, Wag's troubles shouldn't stand in the way of older folks looking for work trying out walking dogs. In my former Youngstown, Ohio neighborhood, several over-50 Wag dog walkers told me that the gig helped them connect the dot about how to start earning some serious money. 

According to them, Wag bills the client about $14. They get around $9, plus a tip. Since pet parents want their four-leggers treated well they are likely to also tip well.

One 56-year-old teacher who anticipated she would be forced out (she was) found dog walking in the evening and weekends showed her how much growth there was in the pet niche. She began developing a portfolio of articles published in third-party media about pet issues. When she is ready she will launch her own pet-care brand. 

The rub on that, of course, is that it requires supreme belief in one's ability to go from point A to Point B, then Point C in struggling to make a living when aging. Here, free to click open, is my book which can get that mindset started Download Outwitting ageism

The reality is the more than one-half of the over-50 will be forced out of their jobs. If they land on their feet and are able to get another job, only one out 10 will make comparable money.

In 2003, after my business collapsed, I did a holiday gig job in Sephora as a security guard. That led to a full-time job in loss prevention, including health benefits, with then Allied Barton Protective Services. Soon enough I regained the confidence to launch another enterprise. Actually that turned into two: both communications and career coaching. 

Takeaway: Working at a paid something, anything, brings more and better paid work.

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on aging.

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

Season's Greetings Filled with Warnings Not to Burden Our Loved Ones When We Die

Soon enough the Halloween pop-up stores will disappear. 

And, the holiday season will begin.

That means tons of email wishing us a joyful and safe whatever.

Those sending them will range from SEO experts eager to put us on the first page of Google to insurance representatives who want to prevent us from burdening our loved ones when we die. 

Some will not stop there.

They will leverage the now-familiar marketing tactic of asking us why we hadn't responded as yet to their email. The tone will be puzzled - as if we have been in a regular communications loop. A few even take on a haughty tone: How dare we not give them feedback on the proposal they sent. 

Sure, we can block them on gmail. But that's after the fact. 

Then there will be those who attempt to enhance branding and develop new business by publishing on third-party media supposedly uplifting seasonal messages.

Among them could be public affairs player Bob Dilenschneider.

He tends to do that on the O'Dwyer Public Relations platform.

In addition, this year Dilenschneider could be pitching his book, coming out at the end of December, on decision-making. However, since all my bad decisions got me to the inner peace I now have, I have decided to pass on that book. Thank you, I embrace my myopia as a sign of my humanity.

For the activists among us there can be organizing a boycott against the worst of those reaching out during the best time of the year. Alert the world through social networks to steer clear of SEO vendor X and insurance company Y.

We can also establish a Leave Us Alone Club.  Of course, we will lobby our elected officials in Congress to make relevant laws about that. 

But, that's work. And in these times of overwhelm few are open for any more work. 

The future could be better.

If we time travel we might find ourselves in a state of civilization in which there will be no email, no third-party media, no books. We will be able to just be, with no special holiday seasons, no unsolicited marketing targeted at us, no spiritual cheerleaders. If we want or need something we can signal that through the wiring in our own brains. 

You bet, it will be "A Wonderful Life." 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Aging & Minimalism - We Don't Need Much

Minimalism - or the much more of less - has been catching on among the aging.

Can it be the new cool? Even making us feel youthful, again?

Maybe.

MarketWatch, for example, just reprinted an article on its benefits. Those include not only saving money and time. The much more of less can also rewire the nervous system. 

Way back in 2010, in a memoir of how he and his wife dealt with their daughter's unexpected death, Roger Rosenblatt observed that as we get older we don't need much. What he was referring to were creature comforts and material possessions.

The book "Making Toast" recounts how he and his wife made do with basic living conditions when they pitched in and tried to help their three young grandchildren adjust to motherlessness. Their son-in-law, that is the children's father, had been preoccupied with his own grieving process.

Going minimalist was the physical and emotional platform Rosenblatt operated from.

Four years after reflecting on "Making Toast," I was able to detach from the typical nesting phenomenon on the affluent Gold Coast of Connecticut.

The hardest part was letting go of the 14 boxes of books I had lugged from graduate school in Ann Arbor, Michigan to all the locations I felt I needed to go in order to learn my trade and make a good living. 

It took about two months to pare down decades of living to what would fit in a sedan.

My four-legged son LOV and I build a new life in a less expensive part of the nation.

Finally, the clinical depression which had stalked me since age 11 began to abate.

I got out of debt, totally.

I was ready to start investing again, after losing so much in the two stock market crashes in the 21st century.

This week I donated that sedan to Kars4Kids. It was time.

From the get-go, that saves me at least $300 a month. According to Nerd Wallet, the figure is more like $706 a month. Maybe it would have been if the repairs I feared would be needed in the future were allowed to happen. 

Carlessness forces me to figure out fresh ways to navigate my and LOV's little worlds. No, I'm not there.

The AH-HAs may include moving downtown where there is more public transportation. Plan A was purchasing a bicycle. Funny, how a a sense of balance can wither with age. Plan B is mastering the bus schedule, as limited as it is where I am currently based. 

This new cool is usually born not from an emerging passion for simplification. Instead, it tends to become part of the healing process after extreme adversity. Minimalism is a multi-dimensional tool for exiting what had been and opening to what could be. For me, the 21st century has been both the worst and best of times. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Over-300 Dow Plunge, 2nd Day in Row - We Seniors Have to Protect Ourselves, Especially from Ourselves

Things don't look good.

For the second day in a row, the Dow Jones has plunged more than 300 points. Now it's down almost 500 points.

The triggers range from a lousy report about manufacturing in the U.S. to the Impeachment-related uncertainty.

Meanwhile the tensions in world trade remind us of the dark tales our parents and grandparents told us about making it through The Great Depression. Some experts attribute that financial catastrophe to protectionism. And, that's the current policy, isn't it.

And, despite low interest rates, the housing market in a number of locations is sluggish. That means difficulty in cashing out the house at the price you want to start on the retirement journey.

What's obvious is that we have to protect ourselves. Mostly that will be from ourselves.

No quick actions to flee equities. Have a calm discussion with your financial planner. 

No becoming anxious on the job, fearing a layoff. Those signs of insecurity put an even bigger bullseye on your back. Face it, your high compensation and age already have made you a target. Even if you get the boot, there are myriad other ways to make a good living. Here, free to download, is my book on landing, holding, and moving on to better work, no matter your age Download Outwitting ageism.

No pessimism about the sale of the house at the right price. That might not be meant to be. More home-owners are opting for co-living. That's the aging analogue to the counterculture commune. Residents are selected based on their ability to maintain the household. For example, those with a landscaping background would make the ideal tenant.

It seems like an eye-roller. But it is useful to recall the iconic words of FDR: The greatest fear is fear itself. As one Manhattan psychotherapist observed, most of his aging clients shoot themselves in the foot. They cave to the monsters in their minds. Here, also free to download, is a book on those demons.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Social Security COLA Increase for 2020 - Expect 1.6% (not the 2.8% of 2019)

2019 had been a very good year for recipients of Social Security.

The COLA (cost of living) increase had been 2.8%. That was near the traditional 3% COLA boost which took place between 2000 and 2009.

But, reports MarketWatch, 2020 may be disappointing.

Those in the know predict only a 1.6% increase. That would mean that the average recipient who is getting $1,460 currently can expect only $23 more a month. 

The implications are huge. Retirees might find they can no longer afford to age in-place. Consequently they will find themselves financially forced to sell the family home and even relocate from where they have spent most of their lives and did their careers.

Emigrating abroad to lower-cost nations like Ecuador and Costa Rica? More and more possible.

Meanwhile, many who aren't doing part-time or gig work or operating their own enterprise during retirement should consider returning to the labor market. Here, free to click open, is my book on landing, holding, and moving on to better work, at any age Download Outwitting ageism 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Sitting in the Past, Only Then Moving on to Fully Embrace the Present

The memes all hammer escaping the past. Only then, goes the party line, will the aging be able to live fully in the present.

Those may be wrong, at least for some of us.

There is a wise adage: You have to sit in the past to be able to go on and live in the present.

Finally, I have a hunch that I have connected the dots on that. In 2014, in retrospect, I regretted reaching back to the past. Actually, the process generated a new kind of trauma in me. Here is that nightmare saga. In 2016, I relocated a 90-minute drive from where my emotional development probably became arrested. Here is that saga about the return of the native. 

However, now, those regrets are gone. For me, it was imperative to sit in my past. That might have been the only way I could get myself unstuck.

Of course, the journey backwards was full of shame. How could I have allowed those people to "get in?" Had I been more emotionally well put together I would have erected a moat filled with alligators and pulled down the drawbridge. No one deemed a bad fit for my needs would have dared even attempted to enter. 

Not that I am 100% in the present. Recently I had two setbacks. One was a car accident judged to be my fault. No one was hurt but my confidence in driving had been. The other was a repeat of the same old story. My gut told me not to accept a certain assignment. I did. The process took too much out of me.

The good news on those was that I bounced back faster than I had in the past which for too long had kept me 18 years old.  

Sitting in the past isn't for everyone. There are a growing number of other strategies for finding release. Here, for example, folks can download free of charge my book on navigating out of comfort zones. 

The tough part of being the pioneer generation in aging is that there are no absolute right answers. Only experiments to try out. But what I know now is that there is such an entity as a Late Bloomers.  I am among them.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Aging W/O Family, Like My Sister Anne Murga-Ring - Hey, That's Totally Doable, Frees Up Holidays for Travel

In November 2003, my younger sister Anne Murga-Ring and I became estranged. I was 58, at the time: young old. 

But even then I got it: I was w/o family, at least the nuclear kind. Parents and older sister had died. Relationships with cousins and their children, always frayed, had split their seams. I felt unhinged. After all, the ethnic ethos in America is All in the Family.

Now, experts on aging confirm that my distress was appropriate. They warn that navigating aging can be more difficult w/o family. Increasingly, more of us are winding up just that way: flying solo and often flying blind.

What's coming up is the 16th anniversary of that estrangement. In my thinking and in how I conduct my personal and professional affairs plenty has changed since then. 

Let's cut to the chase. What I have discovered is that a satisfying secure life can be put together while getting older w/o any family members. 

This is what I know:

• Actress Betty White, who has become advocate for older Americans, has hammered that aging isn't for sissies. This stage of a life represents as challenging a rite of passage as transitioning from formal education to the world of work. Therefore, I had to and continually still have t0 invest time and attention in figuring out what are the obstacles and opportunities in no longer being young. The number-one problem was denial. The major advantage was breaking open to forms of satisfaction beyond a career.
• Estate planning doesn't mean creating an inheritance for siblings. My beneficiary is an animal cause.
• Lawyers can be contracted to handle every detail. That ranges from whether to pull the plug to closing down all matters after I die. Sure, there's a fee. But there is also always a kind of fee in the complex maze of family relationships. 
• Holidays can represent startups. Mine has been to use them to see the USA in my Chevrolet. That need not be expensive. Discount Motel 6 takes dogs free. LOV, my four-legged son, enjoys the holidays as much as I do.
• Developing a small circle of trusted allies is mandatory. They provide early warning systems of what is going wrong. During the past two years that network has included a millennial. She flagged me that I had to end my preoccupation with money. I had "enough." And enough is enough. In the book "Making Toast," Roger Rosenblatt pointed out how little we really need later in life. 
• For those of us still determined to keep working, an executive coach is useful. From mine I "needed permission" to turn down assignments I didn't sense were a fit. Sure, I have down cold the Pareto Rule (80% of revenue comes for 20% of clients). But the residual insecure parts of me still required permission.

Not that getting older has been a wonderful "growth" experience. However, the process took on the quality of an adventure when I got the hang of transcending my own comfort zones. Here, free to download, is my book on all that. 

As my communications clients were observing how I was mastering aging, w/o family, they asked me to assist them. Where they especially found guidance useful was the professional identity piece. They wondered: How could they play better the cards they still held and how could they manage to get different ones? Yes, it's possible to be a Late Bloomer. Look at Betty White, Clint Eastwood, et al.

I have added over-50 coaching to the menu of services I offer.

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on aging.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Aging - Sensing You're No Longer Who You Used to Be Professionally

Professionals over-50 come to me for career coaching or ghostwriting a book for them primarily for this cluster of reasons.

They sense they're no longer at the top of their game.

They fear others also perceive them that way.

And they observe that their competitors are younger than they are and armed with tools, such as technical wizardry, they don't have.

After listening to them, I usually have to agree that their professional identity is in transition.

Probably everything has changed and continues to change. And they may never recapture the extreme mastery they had of their former game.

In addition, there is the reality, especially since The Great Recession, of cost-efficiency in organizations. They are at a high salary. The organization decision-makers could determine that is too high. Soon a much lower-paid millennial replaces them.

The irony is that once they embrace those developments, they find the insight and drive to play better the cards they hold and to figure out how to get some better cards.

One professional in a prestigious public relations firm, for example, knew she was losing ground. While her brand still had some clout, she conducted a stealth search for a leadership communications job in a nonprofit. That's where she is now.

A hair salon owner, whose customer base was shrinking, sold the shop when it was still marketable. He didn't get what he had hoped for but it was enough to fund an entrepreneurial effort in selling online specialty hair products. It looks like he could reach the breakeven point within another year.

A nonequity partner in a law firm saw the handwriting on the wall. He was no longer able to bring in enough new business. Unfortunately, he didn't put together a career transition before he was let go in a stealth layoff. But he has been receiving interviews for a variety of positions in which he can leverage his legal background.

Of course, there are the professionals whose careers aren't impacted by the combination of industry change and aging.

But if you're not among them, you can still enjoy a fulfilling professional life. Only it may be different from what you had mapped out in your mind. Here, free to download, is my book on finding your way out of your comfort zone. 

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on aging.

 For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Post-Successful Career: Failing Retirement

The toughest rite of passage among successful professionals is moving on to retirement. 

In her book "Retirement reinvention," Robin Ryan discusses how many are failing at that. That is, they can't put together a meaningful lifestyle after their career ends. Signs of the failure range from boredom to a sense of being irrelevant. 

Given the combination of the need for extreme cost efficiency and age bias, what we traditionally classify as a "career," is ending sooner and often abruptly. Jobs are quitting the older professional versus the professional deciding to hang it up. In denial of that reality, many simply haven't prepared for the transition.

The rawness of being thrown up against The Next is nothing new. As Don Draper from "Mad Men" brought out in his iconic Kodak slide show, teenagers mourn the loss of the identity of being a child. Few ever emerge from the years of formal education and glide smoothly into the very different context of work. 

Yet, the expectation is that the passage into a post-career part of a life should be almost an instinctual process. 

Instead it is being put out there for what could be 30 or 40 years without any guidance from the past. Today's retirees are generational pioneers. 

Some, after suffering greatly, are finding a path toward meaning - as well as the added income to make ends meet. The Federal Reserve documents that one-third of those who rode into the sunset have headed back into the workplace. The amazing thing is that they can accept the lower compensation and status of those jobs. 

Another experiment is radical relocation. It's not simply the move from pricey Manhattan to less expensive North Carolina. It's the willingness to start over again in Mexico or Ecuador. They are fleeing the "Cheers" phenomenon of everyone knowing their name. 

A third is training for another line of work. That can range from becoming certified as a substance abuse counselor to long-distance truck driver. Unlike the academic degree route, this way is fast and relatively cheap. 

And, a fourth is wild experimentation. In total openness, former comfort zones are fled. The introvert does the online dating. The extrovert takes a seminar in listening. Everything becomes possible.

The major obstacle to mastering this rite of passage is usually the aging themselves. They tend to shoot themselves in the foot. Here, free to download, is my book on taming the dark forces which keep human beings over-50 from grabbing out for a new kind of satisfaction.

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.