Over-50

What's Being Called "Food Insecurity" Affects 1 in 12 of Us 60 or Older

It's a sexy media story: Covering entrepreneurs on the brink of producing a game-changer who eat ramen noodles - or simply go without food. 

It's a soul-wrenching story when the poorly nourished or hungry are children.

But what hasn't shown up much in the headlines, until recently, is this: 1 in 12 of those of us 60 years of age or older are eating poorly, not enough, or not often enough. The term for that is "food insecurity." 

The chilling aspect of food insecurity among the aging is that most are not below the poverty level.

So, why does The New Aging include hunger?

Here are some of the reasons provided by MarketWatch:

High cost of health care, housing, utilities, and transportation. This is supposed to be an era of relatively low inflation. But the cost of just about everything is going up.

Stagnant wages. We know all about that. Less coming in means less for buying food.

Student loans. What might be surprising is that the elderly owe about $8 billion in student loan debt. If they are late in ponying up the payments their Social Security and employment checks get docked. 

The good news is that there is an awareness of this gap in a growing number of communities.

For example, businesses in the New Haven, Connecticut area frequently donate food, including produce, to the subsidized residential complex Bella Vista. That provides lower-cost housing the aging and disabled. 

The senior citizen center in Austintown, Ohio sponsors low-cost meals. 

Fry's supermarket in Tucson, Arizona is among the grocery chains which set aside a fixed day or days every month for senior discounts. 

However, often businesses don't promote senior discounts. The aging have to be proactive and ask if they exist.

Also, the aging might consider organizing their own food co-ops. That's what we students in Ann Arbor, Michigan did during the early 1970s. In exchange for a few hours volunteer work we had access to no-cost or very low cost food. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

No Longer Time-Bound (at least most of the time)

A realistic guide on how to manage aging is "Getting Real About Getting Older."

The authors Linda K. Stroh and Karen Brees, themselves both in their 70s, interviewed lots of older people. 

Among what they found out was that so many of us rejoiced that we were freed from the tyranny of time.

Yes, we had been the generation who grew up with platitude: The early bird gets the worm.

Parents gave us wrist watchers for our birthday instead of our own television. 

Being late for anything indicated a lack of character.

Now, most of us no longer had to set alarms.

There were no rigid schedules.

We binge watch shows late into the night.

We could get up whenever.

We wised up about our perfect right to select medical doctors, dentists, car mechanics, and grocers who conducted business on our time.  

Even most of us who were still working full-time were established enough to operate our tasks and client meetings around our own timing.

A night-owl since college, when I was struggling to establish financial security, I had to be available early in the morning.

That began with full time jobs.

It continued when I hung out a shingle.

After I relocated from the ultra expensive New York Metro area, then I could "afford" to choose accounts which allowed me to work until about 4 A.M., then be there "on duty" about 11 A.M.

As Roger Rosenblatt hammered in his book "Making Toast," we emotionally need less money as we age. So, yesyesyes, I could finally ignore the capitalist fundamental that I had to max the revenue from running an enterprise.

Other findings from "Getting Real About Getting Older" are:

• Universal shock that we were older. No one anticipated that.
• We all experienced being treated as "invisible."
• The inevitable identity crisis. We know who we were. But it will require conscious effort to put together a new identity.
• The worst of the aging process can be retarded by acquiring new interests and pushing ourselves to meet new people. 
• Yes, we have slowed down. But, since we are no longer tyrannized by time, that shouldn't matter. If it matters to other people, duck those types.

Coaching about landing, holding, and moving on to better work, no matter what our age. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. After that, sliding scale fees.

Here, free to click open, is my guide on all that Download Outwitting ageism.

Entrepreneur or Employee? - Big Difference

They build something that disrupts the media industry. 

The innovation works.

The experience is totally heady, with great influence. After all, it's said that media - not government, business or even technology - is the most powerful force in civilization. 

Then they sell that media outlet or simply move on to try out another role. What could play out next could be labeled The Media Innovator's Dilemma. 

For creator of 24/7 cable television news - Ted Turner - there was no next after he sold CNN.  He became just another businessperson whose former outsized presence went poof. Publicly, he indicated he regretted the sale. From then on, Turner seemed in mourning. And for a while, CNN's ratings plummeted. 

In the niche - legal media - the innovator had been creator of Abovehthelaw (ATL) David Lat. That began in 2006.

Officially he has left that role and become what is really a salesperson's job at headhunting firm Lateral Link. Its playing field is the legal sector.

Of course, that also constitutes a shift from being the boss to being an employee.

So far, Lat seems not to be able to totally let go of the legacy. He posts on ATL. It's in connection with his current headhunting  role, leveraging the aura of the innovation in hopes of developing new business. But, still, a clean break might have signaled amazing confidence in what is next.

As an employee, Lat won't be in charge. Instead he had to get the hang of fitting in to someone else's organizational culture. That's challenging.

In more rigid times in business, corporate employers hesitated hiring former entrepreneurs. They were wary that the transition might be impossible. That was the time of the Organizational Man (and Woman).

Since then, of course, careers paths have become less linear. More founders are parachuting into organizational functions. 

At best Lat could become a thought leader in the world of career strategies in the legal industry.

That's different than being a presence in media.

In his current role, his success depends on body count: How many placements he can make. Yeah, it's business, not mission of changing how news and commentary are positioned and packaged. The organization measures success in terms of that business metric. Either you make the sale or you don't make the sale. The game is binary. 

Lat could succeed at being a headhunter. He could adjust to employee status. He could also make more money than he had in media. But gone with his choice to give up ATL is the unique influence he had.

Media is the loudest voice in just about every context. That "loudest voice" is how journalist Gabriel Sherman summed up Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Here that book can be ordered from Amazon. According to some reports, after being ousted from Fox, Ailes was conferring with deep pockets such as Peter Thiel, who funded "Hogan v. Gawker," to fund launching a competitor to Fox. No, Ailes didn't plan to get a job in someone else's media outlet. 

Also, there is the issue if ATL, like CNN, will shift into a downward trajectory after the founder leaves. Part of the innovator's genius is a good head for the business of media. Are those business smarts embedded in ATL? The ATL DNA was Lat's genetic engineering. 

My hunch is that Lat could have moderate success in the headhunting space. But it's the media innovator's dilemma not to be able to make peace with the decline in influence.

Meanwhile, it would be shrewd reputation management for Lat to let go of ATL, in rebranding himself as a leader in executive search. Turner seemed incapable of that kind of reimagining his professional identity.

As for ATL, the niche of legal media seems ripe for another innovation. It could or could not come from the folks at ATL. A severe downturn can create demand for a fresh kind of analysis and presentation of issues. 

Full Disclosure: Since the late 1980s, I have been an entrepreneur. There I found extreme success versus organizational life. Recently I had a negative experience with Lateral Link. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Come to Story Time

In business news, such as The Wall Street Journal, there is the pile on of speculation by experts what could trigger The Whopper.

For instance, here is WSJ coverage of how 2/3rds of chief financial officers predict the end is near and that many corporations aren't adequately prepared.

The fear is palpable.

Yet the numbers are supposed to be telling a story of job growth, low unemployment, a sustained bull stock market, and even an uptick in stagnant wages.

There may be an explanation for the disconnect. 

Axios reports:

"Bankers say they have increasing concern about future economic growth, despite continued U.S. labor market strength and solid fundamentals. The data banks are seeing runs contrary to the overall narrative of a strong U.S. economy."

The dots banks are connecting create a narrative of financial over-extension and the inability to pony up the payments when due. The key number is that during Q1 of 2019, credit card delinquencies were at their highest point since 2012. 

The red flag in that is that the trend of taking on too much debt has been adopted by the 18 to 29 demographic.

They have embraced the American way of debt which impeded recovery from The Great Recession. No longer are young people debt-averse. That had been a value of iGen the media had chronicled right after the worldwide economic crash. They bore witness to their parents and relatives losing jobs. Unlike Baby Boomers, they grew up in hard times.

That was then.

There is now a psychic shift. Entrepreneurs are feeding that. The probable personal finance disaster starts off with the decision of youth to start their careers in an urban area with a high cost of living. No, they can't afford New York City, San Francisco, or Chicago. No, they shouldn't be there.

But come they do.

To finance the security deposit and first few months rent, reports The Wall Street Journal, they can easily turn to lenders such as Domuso and Till. The annual interest rate ranges from 20% to 700%. Some assess this as a more refined version of the payday lender.

Not only do members of the younger generations get caught up in being over-extended. They can develop the habit of approaching financial challenges through debt. Instead of picking up side hustles, in addition to the day job, they charge more on credit cards. 

Will all this come crashing down?

That is the angst.

The way to minimize damage to one's business and personal finances is to anticipate negative developments. That isn't only paying off debt and cutting back. It also entails simultaneously figuring out growth strategies for both an enterprise and the funds coming into a household. 

Prediction: Surge of activity in getting, holding, and moving on to better gig assignments. Here, free to click on, is my book on making a buck, no matter what our age Download Outwitting ageism

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

When All Else Fails, Surrender

It's 10.31 AM New York Time. The Dow is down 551.01 points.

And the question is: How bad will it get? That is, the entire interconnected global economy.

Many of us have had it with the supposed experts. Finally, we got it that there are too many intersecting variables to predict anything with certainty.

Instead more of us are embracing the uncertainty. Or, the mindset of zen.

In the New Haven, Connecticut zen center, near the Yale University campus, the mantra is: Clear Thinking, Don't Know. 

Those who get a hang of that open themselves to their own best analysis and problem-solving. 

Sure, we can get the guidance of our individual financial planners. I did that several weeks ago. But it was my decision to pull out most of the most stock investments, take the gains, and be willing to pony up the taxes. I made it clear, especially to myself, that I was willing pass on possible future gains.

Ironically, financial security can come from not knowing.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Older & Very Nervous about Money - Continuing to Work Seems Necessary

It's not a new story.

The New York Post reports that the aging are jittery about outliving their money. Simultaneously they are concerned that their monthly Social Security check will be cut back. 

So, it's no surprise that more than half of the elderly surveyed by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies stated they were still working for the income. No, it wasn't to keep busy.

The growing solution to the angst about running out of money before years on planet earth is to work.

According to the Federal Reserve, about a third of those retired have un-retired. They have returned to the workforce. There is even a term for that phenomenon: reverse retirement. 

Here, free to click on, is my book on how to land, hold, and move on to better work, no matter your age Download Outwitting ageism

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Pop Culture Featured Hallmark Childhoods for Us Baby Boomers - Did Anyone You Know Experience That?

Supposedly timely for Mother's Day, USA Today provides a feature on outsourcing parenting. The tasks farmed out range from potty training to childproofing the residence. None of that comes cheap.

However, outsourcing parenting is nothing new in the history of civilization.

The most warm and fuzzy symbol of performing that important duty in society is nanny Mary Poppins.

From the days of Old Manhattan, anyone who cruised by the parks in Manhattan spotted benches filled with outsourced labor chatting among themselves as they keep a watchful eye on what was going on in the elegant prams.

Let's face it, childcare has always been a time-consuming tedious undertaking. Those with the resources to farm out most or all of that out usually did.

For example, in the 2019 book by Tracy Borman on Henry VIII, what's discussed as totally normal was housing royal offspring away from the family. That went on until the child could provide a useful function in court. The chronicle is "Henry VIII: And the Men Who Made Him" and here it can be ordered from Amazon.

But wealth and power are not required in that particular kind of outsourcing.

Extended families usually took on the role automatically. Given the necessity of searching, finding, and holding onto work, children usually were a bad fit. As infants through their teenage years, they were placed in the full-time or part-time care of grandparents, aunts, and even other young children.

That's practically the norm in parts of China as the economy changes. Parents flock from rural areas to the cities to work and live. 

Essentially that was a commonplace dynamic in the immigrant tenements of downtown Jersey City, New Jersey during the 50s. Sometimes a risk-taker would go out to California to escape factory work or cleaning offices. The offspring were left behind, usually for years. Neighbors who were scheduled for the night shift had the children sleep in the apartments of other neighbors. That's the way it was.

Of course, just as now, there also was plenty of total inability to care for children. Probably I never had children, always preferring rescuing and caring for dogs and cats, because my younger sister's care was outsourced to me.

My mother had been mentally ill. My father had two jobs, mostly to steer clear of the domestic tragedy unfolding. As an infant and toddler I was cared for by my grandmother and aunt.

From the get-go, the majority of my colleagues and clients had live-in nannies. They had to. With such a hyper competitive work world they couldn't risk not sleeping through the night. That would have been career suicide.

Meanwhile, with farming out childcare so expensive in major metro areas, it's no surprise fertility rates are plunging. Right now it's at a 30-year low. Also, in some sectors being a mother is perceived as a negative. One current lawsuit dealing with that alleged brutal reality in the field of law is "Doe v. Morrison & Foerster."

And those into pop culture will recall that Katherine on television series "A Million Little Things" felt forced to turn down the invitation to be partner. The terms and conditions wouldn't allow her to run home to have dinner with her son every night. She indicated that after dinner she would return to the office. That, the partners responded, would be a lack of commitment to the firm.

Soon enough, upscale neighborhoods in the United States will be overrun with dogs. There will be few or no children.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Dow Plunge - Of Course, Retired/Semi-Retired/Considering Retiring Are in High Angst

The question is: Is "it" over? 

The "it" is the bull market. And how severe could be the pull back?

Those under-55 have time for their portfolios to rebuild. Those who are retired, semi-retired, or considering retiring don't.

So the opening of the market with a nearly 300 point plunge shifts us into high angst. 

About 10 days ago I had my financial planner pull me out of many of the equities. But my investments still contain enough of them for me to reflect on how long I will have to keep working.  Have to is different from want to.

Nostalgia is a waste of time. But some of us recall when, with some exceptions, some investments were solid. We bought the house and could bet on its funding a chunk of our retirement. We knew we would be okay with GE stock. CDs were a smart place to park money until we figured out where to put it.

Now it's sustained uncertainty. Any expert who pontificates about how we can protect ourselves should be tarred, feathered, and driven out of tow.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.  

 

Reimagining Capitalism - Can Best and Brightest Pull That Off?

"Citing crushing student debt, punishing hours and 'toxic' work environments, more than half - 58 percent - of beginning Florida lawyers believe their careers are becoming less desirable, according to the latest Young Lawyers Division study." In "YLD Study Tracks The Concerns Of Florida's Young Lawyers," in Florida Bar, April 30, 2019. Here is the article.

One might have expected this kind of rapid disenchantment in the pressure-cooker Northeast legal world. But, not in the sunshine state.

For newbie lawyers, Florida is turning out to be Paradise Lost. According to that same survey, 41 percent are considering a career change or had considered it. 

YLD president Christian George says this means at least one thing: The Florida bar is on the right track in focusing on health and wellness as a major priority.

Of those surveyed, 39 percent noted that they had experienced stress symptoms ranging from panic attacks to flashbacks. 

Those who feel they have a handle on the stress attribute that to one or more of the following:

Therapy

Giving service

Yoga

Exercise

Meditation

Journaling

Twelve step programs

Religion.

However, the young lawyers in Florida are hardly alone in being overwhelmed emotionally and physically by the work they do.

Stanford Graduate Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer documented that this is a global phenomenon.

His book "Dying for a Paycheck" provides details of how those in all kinds of jobs, from leadership to lower rankings on the food chain, suffer intensely.

That can literally kill. Either the worker dies of something related to the stress/long hours or commits suicide. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon.

Given the pervasiveness of the negative impacts of work worldwide one wonders if employers are truly sincere when they introduce health and wellness initiatives. Or, are they simultaneously sending a message that the work must still get done on time and on budget, no matter how all that is pushing human beings beyond their ability to cope.

Activists in myriad nations are reviewing the fundamentals of capitalism. Harvard Business School has an elective - Reimagining Capitalism. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Ageism, Not Skills, Prevents Over-55 From Landing and/or Holding High-Paid Jobs

It's documented.

The BusinessInsider article on the older workforce confirms that it's ageism, not skills, which is standing between the over-55 and high-paying jobs.

Either the aging are not hired for or they're forced out from positions which pay a living wage. So, progressive businesses and government can develop all kinds of reskilling programs for the over-55. However, the odds are those won't change things much, if at all.

Yet, according to the Department of Labor, by 2024, one in four workers will be 55 or older. 

Currently, too many of them are employed in minimum wage jobs or in gigs that don't pay much better. Here in Austintown, Ohio, on the one hand, it's nice to see at Marc's grocery that a number of check-out clerks are in their 60s and beyond. On the other hand, given that they are good workers, it's sad to know the wage scale at Marc's. 

What I have observed is that once an older worker is forced out of the "good job" it is unusually difficult to figure out a way back in. The only real option is self-employment. 

There are exceptions, of course.

A 60-something colleague in communications who lost his position at Credit Swiss landed another good job within seven months. In the new job, though, he didn't feel valued. In fact, he sensed he was on short time and made it known on his network that he was open to options. A former boss hired him in a much better job. But that saga is highly atypical.

What can reduce the impact of age bias is relocating from careerist metro areas flooded with Millennials.

In 2014, I took the I-95 ramp out of the New York Metro area. Out west in a smaller city my communications boutique scaled. Also, I was hired for three part-time jobs. My objective was to learn software packages "on the company." In Connecticut I had been in debt. In Arizona I paid off all debt and had enough of a surplus to begin investing again.

Takeaway: We can't depend on third parties such as trade associations, government, and well-intentioned businesses to help us continue to earn income. We are on our own. Here, free to download, is my book on how to land, hold, and move on to better work, no matter what our age Download Outwitting ageism.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.