The Gift of 20 More Years of Life

What will you do with the gift of an additional 20-30 years in average life expectancy? Will you waste those years or will you connect with your reason to get out of bed each morning, or ikigai, to give those years meaning and make them what could be the best years of your life?

Like so many things, our thinking about retirement—that time after we finish our primary careers—is changing in substantive ways. Previously, it was believed that the first 22 years of life were for education, the next 45 years were to be productive both in raising families and in advancing careers leaving the last years for leisure.

But thanks to advances in medicine, public health, housing and food security, we have an additional 20-30 years in average life expectancy.

On Friday, October 4, 2024, more than 100 people gathered in person with 50 online to participate in the Ninth Annual Abundant Aging Symposium at the Nationwide Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. The theme was Meaning, Purpose & Redefining Retirement.

Why Talk About Retirement?

Financial planner Tony Hixon kicked off the event with the “why” we need to talk about our post-primary careers. Hixon, the co-founder and CEO of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management of Findlay, Ohio. He shared the story of his mother who retired after working as a director of hospice care at a facility. She had a heart for helping others, but the daily wear and tear of agency bureaucracy and changing regulations was becoming a challenge.

Six months after retiring, she took her own life, believing retirement was a road to financial and emotional ruin. That tragic event changed Tony’s approach to how he advises his clients, believing people need to go beyond looking at numbers. He has seen firsthand the effects of not having a plan to live a goals and values-based life after one’s primary career.

He talked about his four pillars for living such a life:

• Rediscover your uniqueness, answering the “Who am I?” question.
• Reorient & Repurpose answering “Where am I going?”.
• Social connections, “How will I get there?”
• Leave a Legacy, “Why is this important?”

Planning for Post-Primary Career

Richard Eisenberg, an “Unretired” journalist and podcaster talked about Planning for Post-Primary Career. Richard writes for MarketWatch (“The View From Unretirement”], on Next Avenue [about personal finances, work, retirement and aging] and on Fortune.com [about Medicare]. His podcast is “Friends Talk Money”.

Richard defines unretirement as being “retired from a full-time job, not retired from life”. He gave his five keys to a successful retirement.

• Know what you will retire “to”.
• Know your finances before you leave your full-time job.
• Don’t be afraid to say “no”. he says, “just because you can do something in unretirement, doesn’t mean you should.”
• Make a schedule, Fill up the calendar as much as you want but not more than you want.
• Be like Marie Kondo and keep in your life the things that bring you joy trying to keep out the things that don’t.

Why Hire Older Workers

The morning concluded with Janine Vanderburg, CEO of Encore Roadmap, shared the business case for age inclusion for organization’s workforce. She talked about the attributes of older workers, saying research shows older workers want to learn, are motivated to exceed expectations, and have better communications and soft skills as they age. Older workers stay calmer, and have increasing crystallized intelligence that includes pattern recognition–the ability to respond to something new by connecting it with something stored in memory. She also talked about the benefits of age-inclusive teams and the outcomes from the Alive Ventures Insights report that says older adults want to see (in advertisements) older adults having fun instead of being made fun of, falling in love rather than falling down, and starting new endeavors rather than starting to decline.

Finding Your Purpose and Meaning

Anna Hall, Founder of The Purpose Equation and Chief Culture Office, Front Porch Communities, spoke about finding one’s purpose and meaning.

She defined purpose as “Giving and getting meaning and joy every single day.” She went on to say it is not a role or a goal. Joy is important because it positively impacts your immune and cardiovascular systems, reducing stress and building resilience, which supports longevity.

Hall asked participants to consider who they are BEing: teacher, creator, innovator, partner, connector, learner, leader, initiator, implementor. She quoted Brene Brown who said, “True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” Hall concluded by saying that defining your purpose shows you the possibilities of endless opportunities.

Aging Well

Helen Dennis talked about a new model for retirement for career women she outlined in her book Renewment that brings women together in community to discuss topics of concern including resilience, ageism, uncertainty, self-care and changing priorities.

What are the characteristics of those who age well? Donna Kastner, Managing Director of Age Well Dayton addressed this question listing longing for belonging, forward leaning, confident plus humble, engaged (being both like-minded and different-minded), self-aware and striving, and agile + adaptive.

Questions to Consider Before Retiring

Rev. Beth Long-Higgins, the director of the Parker Center for Abundant Aging, closed out the event talking about spirituality—the way we seek and express meaning and experience and the way we experience our connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature and to the significant or sacred.

She asked participants consider five threshold questions for post-primary career:

1. What do I do with my (limited) time?
2. Who am I?
3. Who is my community?
4. Where is my place in creation?
5. Where do I find purpose/fulfillment?

She quoted Barbara Orsborn who said, “We have the opportunity not to grow old, but to grow whole.”

Long-Higgins asked two spiritual questions around your perspective. She suggests that as people age, they develop a Beginner Mind asking What would I like to begin? Additionally,, she suggests we benefit by continuing to use out mastery and ask, How can I continue to do that which I already do well?

The event closed with Richard Eisenberg being awarded the Annual Symposium Award in honor of Ruth Frost Parker for Richard’s contributions to transforming the way we think about aging—particularly retirement.