Over-50

It's Possible & Probable: Hustling for a Buck at 100+

There's that great cultural divide.

One group is the over-65 who have stopped working for income. 

Then there are those of us who are determined to continue hustling for a buck until the wiring in our brain starts misfiring.

The tensions between the two are palpable. Retirees fill with joy when the grandchildren are visiting. My emotional high is landing a new client account. Obviously our lives are very different. I shut down Facebook friends who had posted way too many grandchildren photos.

Well, there is now a new wrinkle in that narrative.

Some of both groups will be among the 82,000 who are currently centenarians - that is, 100 or older.

Here is Clare Ansberry's article in The Wall Street Journal about the growth in the number of people living lives they like at 100 and beyond. The article does note, though, that according to a Harris survey, 59% who aren't there yet don't welcome that possibility.

What the WSJ analysis does is this, at least for us hustlers. We get it that yesyesyes we can go on with working for decades more. Until I reflected on Ansberry's coverage I had assumed I would shut down my two enterprises at age 80. Then I would travel.

That was then. 

Now I realize this: The only way I would welcome reaching 100+ is if I remained a worker bee. 

Of course, that will accelerate the current uneasy relationships with retirees.

Already it's been very hard.

I had to learn not to take on a glaze-over look when they talked about using four boards at bingo or learning to talk digitally with their grandchildren.

My mind is on if I should research an article on whether lawyers should use PPC (pay per click) and how I can get more litigation communications assignments. That kind of preoccupation is always there. And it always serves to alienate retirees. 

The analogy for this is how the world bifurcated in the late 1970s when some of us idealists went off to work for Corporate America. Those who remained in the trenches of non-profit, especially academia, frequently distanced themselves from us. A former fiancée who was teaching in college reprimanded me for "selling out."

Meanwhile, on both sides of this cultural divide, we struggle to make new close friends. That's a challenge as we age. The number-one mistake is to search for that kind of intimacy on the wrong side of the cultural divide. Believe me, that can trigger festering feuds.

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

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.

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.

 

How Not to Sound "Old"

A fundamental of communications is to keep references today - and cool.

Otherwise the speaker, tweeter, or establishment media player comes across as, yes, "old."

Donald Trump, a baby boomer, has made the error of reaching too far back into the past for a way to discredit Pete Buttigieg. 

As the Daily Mail reports, the president compares Mayor Pete to Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman. 

The post-war generation had a lot of fun with Neuman when in high school.

That was before they went off to become the first group of Americans to attend college en masse.

Then they had to get serious about what to major in and how to get into law school or land an entry level job. That made cartoonish Neuman character yesterday.

Also, marriage was the norm. So, another developmental task had been to find and become engaged to soulmate.

That was then. A very far-away then.

In the fast time of a digital world there is declining interest in history. That is perceived as TMI (too much information).

A negative reference which is appropriate for this time might be to hapless Stan on the current popular Sunday night television show "Good Girls." 

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.

 

We Baby Boomer Women Vividly Remember the Anti-Mother Bias at Work, Sometimes Subtle, More Often Blatant

On the popular new series "A Million Little Things," Katherine decides to turn down partnership in her law firm.

When invited to become partner she makes a simple request: She can go home to have dinner with her son nightly, then return to the office."

The firm perceives that as a sign of a lack of full commitment. Katherine decides not to go along with the firms' terms and conditions. She turns down the partnership. 

Back in the days when we Baby Boomer females were beginning to land well-paying jobs with big titles, we knew motherhood was not a plus. The mothers among us kept their lips zipped about the joys of family life when at work. Those anecdotes could and would be held against them. 

Katherine' situation a fictional play-out of the lack of accommodation some parts of the legal sector are willing to provide mothers.

In the class action lawsuit "Doe v. Morrision & Forester" there is the allegation of an even more serious kind of unfairness toward women.

Here is the coverage of the amended complaint, when a seventh associate joined the litigation.

And, here is a copy of that amended lawsuit.

The powerhouse in employment bias - Sanford Heisler Sharp - is representing the plaintiffs. 

In that class action, the contention is that pregnancy and maternity leave constitute a form of career suicide. When the new mothers return, they claim it was obvious that they had been sidelined. 

There is plenty more to the disconnect between the practice of law and the reality that some women opt to be mothers. Some of it is subtle. Some blatant. 

Of course, the legal sector is not alone in seemingly being tilted against mothers.

It still can be an advantage in corporate careers to be childless but part of a power couple. Upward mobility is enhanced by the ability to entertain and power couples versus a single woman provide the perfect formula.

Down the food chain, motherhood becomes financially impossible unless there is family in the area to provide childcare. Otherwise the commercial service is too expensive and often iffy in safety. 

It is no surprise the fertility rate in down, not only in the U.S. but most developed nations. Motherhood is too hard to manage, along with the demands of the new workplace.

In the recent book "Dying for a Paycheck," business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer documents the long hours and extreme emotional stress in workplaces around the world. Here it can ordered from Amazon. 

Ironically, the low fertility rate could bite those developed economies in the butt. For example, about 70% of America's GDP comes from consumer activity. When there are fewer consumers fewer houses, cars and bags of chips will be purchased. 

This Mother's Day the leadership in the legal and other sectors should rethink what message they are sending to women about having children. Currently the meme seems to be: You'll be not only on your own, you will put at risk your ability to earn a good living. 

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

The New Aging - Yes, We Can Continue Building Wealth into Our 60s, 70s, 80s, and Beyond

Beware all that supposed  "sane" advice about investing when aging.

That category includes those of us who are employed, self-employed, semi-retired, retired, or returning back to working after retirement.

Regarding the latter, the Federal Reserve documents that 30% of those who happily rode away from the workplace into the sunset bounce back to full-time and part-time jobs, gig assignments, and entrepreneurship. There's even a term for it: reverse retirement. Some employers call those rejoining the workforce boomerangers.

We over-60 are the targets for that unsolicited  sane advice.

Those pestering us assume they have our best interests at hard. But, as AARP's financial expert Allan Roth explains, most of that sane guidance is insane. Here is that analysis. 

Among the myths is that we can't build wealth once we are in our 60s and beyond. The game is over, except for the 1% whose buddies operated hedge funds in Greenwich, Connecticut. 

Classic example of the intrusiveness: Members of all generations, from Silent to iGen. rolled their eyes when I went in search of a financial planner in my late 60s.

Their meme: Spend your money. Enjoy yourself. Travel. Buy the RV. The implication was that soon enough I would be six feet under. However, longevity goes on and on and on. Betty White is going strong in her 90s. Clint Eastwood, Warren Buffett, and Rupert Murdoch are into new things. 

Here's where I was back then when I began my search for a financial planner.

I had paid off all debt.

I had lowered the monthly nut by relocating out of the pricey New York Metro area.

I had rebuild my communications and coaching boutiques for primarily global telecommuting assignments.

My objective was to increase my passive income and financial assets so that I would be free to only accept work which paid well and increased my marketability. The official term for the approach in business is the Pareto Rule. 

Like so many in my age category, my assets had been wiped out in the economic downturn post-9/11 and The Great Recession. I did luck out, though, in selling my house at a big profit before the real estate market had crashed. That was one bit of traditional personal finance advice which did pay off.

The myth, however, was that someone "my age" couldn't start over in investing.

The tide of public opinion was against me but I continued my search for an investment advisor. Michael J. Hernan , ChFC, CLU, in Lake Forest, California has turned out to be the right fit. His firm is Edward Jones.

Hernan listened. That's the number-on quality we aging need in partnering with a financial planner.

I explained that I was determined to simultaneously hold onto to what I had and build wealth. I had no intention to retire, ever. 

Hernan set up a general account and a Roth IRA with moderate risk. As things change, he readjusts that portfolio. 

The best birthday present I have ever received has been this week on my 74th.

Despite my conservative approach my portfolio has generated a nice return. I locked that in.

What gains weren't in the Roth IRA  but in the general account I will have to pay taxes on. But how sweet that is. I have a hunch the tax preparer's eyes in the west, where I am relocating for business purposes,will bug for two reasons:

•  I am still working.
•  I am building wealth.

The New Aging entails that we ignore the platitudes about what we should do.

That means that every day we approach our lives with a startup mindset.

If we position and package ourselves that way, the pests out there will probably hold the advice.

An entrepreneur among us can manufacture and market Leave Us Alone paraphernalia. I would buy a sign for that to replace the Welcome one on my office door. 

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

 

The New Aging - The New Ways Of Getting Stuck

The Baby Boomer generation might be the last one in the U.S. for whom professional success and personal bonding were easy.

We were given a rigid belief system: Go to college and the more education the better, find a soulmate by senior year in college, approach work strategically, apply the scientific method to solving problems, and be grateful.

With some exceptions, that MO panned out. That is, until the 1980s. Globalization, technology, and aging created upheaval in our professional lives. Those of us in middle management were targeted. Divorce became acceptable.

Here in the 21st century, the forces of disruption in our lives keep accelerating. Yet, often the way we try to get our heads and hearts around earning a living and emotional intimacy dates back to your youth.

Yes, we are evolving into the stuck generation. 

At the top of the list is recognizing our income is declining or fixed. That makes us prey for every financial planning huckster.

Not enough get it: Hey, maybe retirement was something our parents did. We can't. We have to continue to work at something, anything. Here, free to download, is my book on that how to land, hold, and move on to better work at any age Download Outwitting ageism.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution which guarantees we can stop working at X or Y age.

Next is the challenge of inflation. The cost of living in the locations in which we had most of our careers keeps going up. Yet, our income is stagnant or declining. We have to relocate to where it's more affordable.

But where? In Arizona? Not so fast, with all the folks from California migrating there to escape the impossible cost of living, everything is going up in parts of AZ such as Tucson. What about becoming an expat in Belize or Spain? Not so easy to adjust to the culture.

From about age 55 we should be spending our vacations sampling locations in which we could make our next home. Try out a variety of places.

If we don't do that, we get stuck in New York Metro area (where we had worked on Wall Street) or even Ann Arbor, Michigan (where we taught at the university). Our neighbors perceive us as "poor." To younger generations we are irrelevant. 

Then there is the matter of having at least one or two friends. Those in our circle die, move away, or just change. How we are stuck is being a closed system. Instead of going through the brutal process of reaching out to new social possibilities we reach back to the past. I did that, with traumatic results. Here is what had been an unnecessary tragedy. 

How we we begin becoming unstuck?

It isn't rocket science to pick up that we are being left behind.

In our social groups such as the coffee after the church service we are treated as invisible.

We embrace that reality. It's that iconic moment of clarity.

Then we make a list of what's not moving us forward in our lives, not any more.

Frequently, the stuckness is being created by being trapped in our old stories. We keep recounting how our jobs ended when there was a massive layoff at Corporation ABC. Or our significant other died.

It's simple: Stop telling those stories. Find new topics to talk about.

The bulletproof door-opener for both fresh professional and personal success to to re-learn how to listen. All of us did that back in high school. Then somehow some career expert socialized us to become the loudest voice in the room.

To exit hardened narcissism it could be useful to take a listening course. Among them are the Dale Carnegie introductory ones. Another method is regular meditation. That catapults us into the now. The how-to of meditation is available free all over the internet. 

Most recently my triumph in getting unstuck was letting go of the assumption that plans have to work out. The reality is that most don't. For three years I struggled to make living in the low-cost midwest a fit. The trick in letting go is not apologizing to anyone for arriving at a crossroads and taking the wrong turn. 

A useful read is "Necessary Endings." It's by executive coach Henry Cloud. Here it can be ordered by Amazon. 

Reflection: It's possible to be a Late Bloomer.

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