Gone are the days of clocking out at 65 to enjoy a retirement of travel and leisure. Today’s older adults are staying in the workforce longer than ever. While some can’t afford to give up their income, others are motivated by a desire to stay busy and keep contributing.

That doesn’t mean aging adults are sticking with their 9-to-5 careers, however. In search of flexibility and driven by passion, older adults are pivoting into encore careers. More than 4.5 million Americans aged 50 to 70 are currently in a second career, where the primary focus is finding personal fulfillment, not maximizing their income.

For many 50+, that means working part-time to leave ample hours for family, travel, and hobbies. However, finding meaningful part-time work can be a challenge in a world that revolves around a 40-hour work week. Frustrated by the lack of options, older adults are carving out their own roles in the workforce.

These are just some of the part-time careers where older adults have found their place.

Consulting

Consulting in a previous line of work offers the easiest transition for adults seeking part-time employment in their 50s and beyond. Since you already possess the skill set, consulting can be as simple as tapping into your networkfor temporary work. A previous employer may even keep you on as a part-time contractor, or you can reach out to local businesses to offer services directly.

E-commerce

Today’s 50+ are more tech savvy than previous generations. That’s a skillset that works to your advantage, as many of the most flexible careers are found online. Take e-commerce as an example: Rather than opening a brick-and-mortar store, a risky venture requiring enormous amounts of start-up capital, older adults can launch an e-commerce store that uses dropshipping to fulfill orders. This drastically reduces the space and money needed for warehousing and fulfillment, allowing older adults, to run a lean e-commerce business from their home selling practically anything, whether it’s car parts or cosmetics.

Longevity economy services

Adults aged 65 and up are the fastest growing demographic, and businesses are popping up left and right to meet the needs of the aging baby boomer generation. As an older adult yourself, you’re uniquely positioned to understand and address the challenges of today’s older adults. Whether it’s starting a 50+ downsize consulting business, retrofitting homes for aging in place, or opening an Airbnb that caters to older travelers, there’s no shortage of opportunity in the silver economy.

Virtual assisting and bookkeeping

Former office managers seeking a flexible way to use their skills should consider virtual assistant and remote bookkeeping positions. Rather than clocking 40 hours per week in-house, these self-employed pros provide part-time services to small businesses who can’t afford permanent staff.

Pet services

Americans spent $72.56 billion on their pets in 2018, continuing the trend of increased pet care spending. For entrepreneurial pet lovers, this represents a big business opportunity. Pet grooming, doggy daycare, artisan pet treats, and in-home pet sitting are just a few of the pet services businesses 50+ can start for highly flexible and highly rewarding work. There is one drawback older adults should consider before starting a pet sitting business: Since most people need pet sitting services while traveling, this business’s busy season could collide with your own holiday and summer vacation plans.

You may be a few years off from leaving your career, but it’s never too soon to think about what you’ll do next. Start examining how your skills apply to a new career and filling the gaps in your training and education. With the right planning, you can seamlessly transition from your 9-to-5 to a fulfilling part-time career.

Image via Pexels

By Sharon Wagner

Everyone wants long term success. But it is elusive for most.

Long term success is dependent on knowing where you are now and where you are headed. Then closing the gap. Frequently. Continuously.  Whether it’s your business, your career or your life at home., it’s easy to get off track, lose touch or get buried under. Without a true sense of where you are in the moment, it is impossible to realize your dreams or be a leader in your field.

Re-calibrate your profound knowledge

The only way we can take 100% responsibility for sustaining our success is to keep re-calibrating-in every aspect of our lives and organizations.

Key to successful recalibration is to acquire what my dear departed mentor, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, coined as Profound Knowledge. This umbrella phrase emphasizes understanding change and how to measure it, being aware of emerging trends and shifts, and learning how to apply this knowledge to leading and sustaining long term success.

Bottom line: If we don’t acquire Profound Knowledge we cannot know how to prepare for and leverage coming change, thus how to sustain our success long term.

Understanding change means understanding shifts in our personal world as well as tracking trends that capsize us, overtake us, or cause us to flounder.

Learning the Hard Way

Unfortunately one of my Gen X male clients learned this the hard way. A rising star in his field and recently married, he was planning far a great future for his kids, tons of time for fun and all the trappings of success. As if out of the blue, the rug got pulled out from under him. His “Happy Homemaker” wife fled, saying I’m out of here!

Somewhere along the way there was a breakdown or perhaps many small fissures below the surface. Had they been recalibrating an checking in with each other, communicating the truth of what was so for each of them…perhaps they could have saved their marriage…or at least ended it with love, grace, and forgiveness.

Even in the most secure relationships, unexpected change happens to ruffle our plans. A recently returned to work mother of teenage kids reported that her new career is now going gangbusters and she no longer worries about the empty-nest . But, the new ripple in her life is that her once very successful husband, in his late 40’s, now faces an unknown future. Surprised by the shifts in his industry, “suddenly” he and his business partner are facing the probability of closing their doors. What once appeared to be the sure path to their dreams, is no crumbling beneath them.

Change is inevitable. If you can learn what Profound Knowledge is and apply it you can avoid these same pitfalls and NOT LEARN THE HARD WAY!

What steps are you going to take to future cast your long term success?

Midlife crisis. It is a term bandied about, which can conjure images of sports car purchases, new gym memberships, flirtations/affairs/divorces, botox and bikinis. Midlife is, for many, a time of transition, including whether or how to retire. It can be a time of more questions than answers, a time in which you feel less steady as you review and revise who and what you find most meaningful, valuable, and worthwhile. Some changes are desired and welcome, while others feel forced or unavoidable.

I believe, as I share in my upcoming book, The Ageless Way, that  “Those of us who are entering, in the midst of or, like me, leaving our rich middle years, are well poised to use such times of transition as opportunities to tap more deeply into our reservoir of innate soulful greatness – what I refer to as our Signature Greatness DNA. As history has shown, change makers and world shakers always deepen their culture and leave a legacy for future generations by confronting the difficulties of such times with invention, insight, and transcendent understanding.”

It is at these times that many people choose, whether out of desire or necessity, to begin a second (or third, or fourth…) career, which is often referred to as an encore career. There are different reasons people choose to pursue an encore career, such as: financial security; personal fulfillment and meaning; the desire to give back to the local/national/global community; flexibility; work/life balance; learning new skills and utilizing those that have been acquired over decades; sustaining social connections; pursuing a long-held dream…

Regardless of the reason(s) for selecting an encore career, those in their middle and later years have garnered personal and professional experience and wisdom which they can offer to employers and clients. In addition, Boomers and Matures (members of “The Silent Generation”) grew up in eras which inspired active, organized involvement in response to diverse current events, such as WWII, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the fights for civil and women’s rights. As a result, these workers are often valued for their efficiency, sense of responsibility, loyalty, hopeful attitude and strong work ethic.

The trend toward an increasingly older and diverse workforce creates multiple opportunities for building successful intergenerational office environments. Encore career professionals offer a variety of abilities and knowledge to enhance the capabilities of the younger generations and benefit, in return, from their colleagues’ perspectives and talents with new work aspects like technology. Such mutually supportive business cultures ensure a more solid future for everyone, from those engaged in encore careers to the generations yet to come.

There is even a movement afoot to support those choosing or hiring for encore careers. Encore.org’s mission is “building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world.” It seeks to engage the vitality, wisdom and talents of those in the third and fourth stages of life while emphasizing social purpose. Seeing an aging society as a solution to, rather than creator of, problems, Encore.org connects generations in diverse ways, including hosting an annual conference and offering The Purpose Prize for people over 60 who integrate their passion and experience for the betterment of society. Created in 2005, the prize aims to “showcase the value of experience and disprove notions that innovation is the sole province of the young. It’s for those with the passion to make change and the experience to know how to do it.”

I mentioned the term encore career in a blog posted earlier this week, “Second Time Around” , in which I wrote about Barbara Beskind who is now in her third year of work as an inventor, a lifelong dream she achieved just shy of her ninth decade. Additionally, I have met/worked with diverse women and men who have chosen (are choosing) to embark on an encore career. One 51-year-old woman hot shot media executive left her job to pursue what she always wanted to do as a teenager — she went back to school to become a social worker. Another high flying 62-year-old woman left an intense demanding sales executive post to return to the beloved art career of her youth. A 63-year-old retired teacher became a published author. In her January 16, 2015 New York Times article, Older Job Seekers Find Ways to Avoid Age Bias, Kerry Hannon shares the story of a 66-year-old man who was laid off from a high-powered position. After undergoing the unease of transition, questioning his purpose and averting age discrimination encountered in interviews, he ultimately ended up teaching part-time, making money, and feeling valued. And I am one among many who have found fulfillment in an encore career by creating their own business.

Encore.org and the AARP  are just two of the organizations offering programs, resources and information for those embarking on an encore career. In the short term, this transition may require additional investment of education and retraining (including working with a certified professional career coaching and strategy-creation coach). The rewards, however, can be infinite. Following your passion while giving to others can be stimulating, enlivening and offer adventures which demonstrate that, despite pleasurable memories, the best is still yet to come.

When musicians are called by an audience to perform an encore, a demand for more, it is surely a sign of success. Whether you choose an encore career out of need or want, in honoring and utilizing your skills and knowledge you are the one whose success is to be celebrated. Bravo!!

What’s your encore career story?  Please share your experience below.

We expect retirement to bring various freedoms, like the financial freedom to do everything you had to put aside raising children and working all those years. But, do our expectations always paint a clear picture of reality?

Depending on your freedom of time and financial planning, retiring can be an enjoyable and fulfilling time of your life, but for many people it is filled with financial uncertainty along with feeling purposeless and lost.

What are the Pros to Retiring?

As mentioned above, retiring can be a wonderful time in your life. You need to make sure that you plan for years in advance. Neglecting your long-term financial status could leave you in a tough spot when it comes time to retire.

If you’re married, this can be a great opportunity to grow with your spouse. Being able to reconnect with your spouse and invest in your relationship in a way that was not always possible when you were busy working.

Retirement can also be a time to develop a sense of purpose. You can invest time in things you had long wanted to. Whether that is taking up a new hobby, writing that book you always wanted to write, or learning a new skill. For many people retiring can be a new chapter in life to learn and explore yourself.

What are the Cons of Retiring?

For some, retirement can be filled with grief and lack of purpose. Many adults feel retirement marks the beginning of old age and redundancy. This can lead to feelings of stagnation and depression.

You are susceptible to loss of drive and motivation for productivity. This lack of productivity can lead to boredom or restlessness. People who are used to having a fast-paced job and lifestyle can feel frustrated at the slow pace of retirement, making it difficult to relax.

Dealing with a Lack of Purpose During Retirement

It can be tough to navigate life once retirement comes around. You may start feeling uneasy and don’t know what to do with yourself. There are many options that can help people figure out what to do with their retirement.

This could mean joining a painting class or going to a book club. It is important to stay active and to engage your brain by doing things that require you to be creative and problem solve.

Some options for staying active could include tennis, yoga, swimming, or daily walks. If you’re prone to restlessness and need to relax, meditation is an excellent option that also engaging your brain.

Retirement is an adjustment, but if viewed with the right attitude it can be a great chapter in your life. You may even find yourself being more productive than when you were working full time.

A Guest Post by Alexis Schaffer

Alexis Schaffer is a former ballet instructor and aspiring nurse. In her free time she teaches yoga and writes for various online publications. She’s also the proud dog mom of a beagle named Dobby.

Perhaps we should drop the label “senior” or redefine it. Clearly this term has helped to embed ageist stereotypes into our societal psyche. It used to be, as David Wolfe, author of the pioneering books Serving the Ageless Market (1990) and Ageless Marketing (2003), wrote,

“Senior is not an inherently negative term…Being a senior used to connote a superior standing in every context but aging.”

Sure, many don’t mind enjoying the “senior” discounts. And for those who do retire—fully or partially—the advantages of having more free time, fewer demands, and less stress overall are additional perks.

But of course we don’t have to wait until we retire to create this kind of lifestyle. We don’t have to retire at all.

In fact, many characteristics of the stereotypical senior citizen don’t really have much to do with age at all. Or at least they don’t have to be related to age, even if we as a society have somewhat arbitrarily decided they

One of the most important tasks we have together, all generations, is to change the story we tell one another and ourselves about aging.

These characteristics can include retirement, volunteer work, adapting our lifestyle to physical changes, having more control over our time and environment. All of these are choices we might make at any age.

So if we strip away other people’s definitions of what it means to age, what it means to be over 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100…where does that leave us? How do we define ourselves as protagonists in our own aging story?

We all have different comfort levels with various terms. Some shy away from “elderly” but don’t mind being seen as an “Elder.” Some don’t mind being called “older” but feel uncomfortable being called simply “old.” Yet another person might get fed up with euphemisms and actually demand to be called “old,” dammit!

I’ve always relished the term “Crone,” the idea of taking back its original meaning of wise old woman. Some, including those who have chosen not to have children, prefer to be seen as grandmother. In ancient times, the Crone was valued and revered as a wise and prophetic goddess in her own right. Traced back to pre-history, societies that are thought to have been the first “partnerships” between women and men lasted for about 20,000 years. Then as Riane Eisler describes in her underground classic, The Chalice and the Blade (1988), these early societies “veered off on ‘a bloody 5,000-year detour’ of male domination.” Along with these partnership societies, the Crone and all images of the positive feminine were devalued, leaving only the Divine Feminine (e.g., Mother Mary) as the preferred universal Mother image to survive intact into our modern day.

Fortunately, today’s twenty-first century women are resuscitating the whole panoply of feminine archetypal goddesses, like those we have buried way below our consciousness carrying the powerful energy of the Black Madonna, the flip side of Mother Mary (e.g., Mary Magdalene, Sophia, Kali Ma, Kuan Yin, and more), so that we can reclaim our fullness by embodying the whole range of our womanhood.

I’ll tell you a secret. Every time I write—for my blog, for a workshop or keynote, for a book or article—I have to stop yet again and consider this issue: What do we call ourselves? Elders? Do I avoid the word “old” or use it unabashedly? Do I refer to us as aging or stick to euphemisms or numbers, like post-50? Maybe the over-sixties? But what about including 40-plus? Boomers…and older? Matures? How do we distinguish between the early and late Boomers, who are as different as the Brat Pack is from the Beatles? At what point do generational labels lose their usefulness?

Amazon #1 Best Seller Author of 11 books including The Ageless Way, Gray is the New Green, Visionaries Have Wrinkles, The Greatness Challenge and more.

You may know that you want to start a business, for example, but you’re unsure of what kind of business exactly. You may only vaguely know that you want to do something purposeful, but you aren’t sure if this means volunteering or work or some combination, or what exactly you would be doing.

If you have not yet decided on what you want to be when you grow up :), consider the opportunities inherent in our most precious resource—time.

For all the time-saving technology we gain each year, we somehow seem to have less and less time available to us. Busy working parents don’t have as much time to volunteer in schools or spend as much time with their children as they’d like. Even kids don’t have as much time for free play with all their activities, sports, and school-related commitments. In an increasingly urban society, some kids have the time for free play but no safe spaces to do so, and their parents don’t have time to take them to safe spaces.

Many areas of traditional volunteer work, such as visiting with the sick and infirm, feeding the homeless, helping care for animals in shelters, and so forth, are lacking in volunteers because people simply do not have the time.

One answer, of course, is to simply step up and be a volunteer. But consider looking at this from a different perspective. How can you or your business save people time in ways that specifically allow them to have more meaningful time? With their children? Their parents? Volunteering themselves?

If you run (or plan to run) a business with employees, this could be a part of how you set up your workforce, using job sharing, flexible hours, work-at-home days, and so forth to enable your employees to balance their lives. Or your business could be the meaningful work that you (with or without employees) want the time to do.

If you are still with a company, planning your own eventual exit, now is the time to research and develop alternate scenarios that could serve you, your colleagues, and the business, such as a consultant relationship or part-time substitute situation that enables everyone to take Meaning Days along with the traditional vacation time and sick time.

Any business that brings extended families and communities together to help each other out and save time is bound to hit a ready market. What if busy parents only worried about cooking dinner once or twice a week? How about a service that brings young kids to meet with parents over lunch near or at their work?

How about a program for companies to buy into that sends groups of employees to volunteer with their families in the name of the company?

The possibilities are endless—as are the potential profits—when you consider what is truly meaningful to you and to others. Contrary to the trope about the later years of life, time really is on our side.

Download a FREE mini-book, “The Origins of the New HERstory of Our AGE“ based on The Ageless Way

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Sound financial planning is an obvious answer, but it’s also an ideal-world answer. In the real world, the effects of the recession, the costs of caring for parents and children, and the denial of the eventual effects of aging on our health are just a few factors that can make financial planning not enough to secure the future.

For many, the solution is to work past retirement age, some by necessity but many others out of desire to keep working. Individuals and companies are catching on to the idea of flexible working options, particularly those that allow telecommuting, job sharing, and shorter work weeks. These are benefits not just for Boomers but for the younger working generations as well.

Most age-friendly ideas for the workplace (and indeed for our homes and communities) are beneficial to all ages and stages. The sooner organizations and governments recognize this (and the more we emphasize it), the more prosperous and secure we will all be, in the workplace and as a nation.

In fact, longevity has been shown to have a positive effect on the economy. A 2005 study, “The Value of Health and Longevity,” by Robert Topel and Kevin Murphy, of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, demonstrates massive economic benefit to living longer and healthier than in the past:

Over the 20th century, cumulative gains in life expectancy were worth over $1.2 million per person for both men and women. Between 1970 and 2000 increased longevity added about $3.2 trillion per year to national wealth, an uncounted value equal to about half of average annual GDP over the period. Reduced mortality from heart disease alone has increased the value of life by about $1.5 trillion per year since 1970. The potential gains from future innovations in health care are also extremely large. Even a modest 1 percent reduction in cancer mortality would be worth nearly $500 billion

Therein lies the paradox: Longevity is undeniably good for the economy as a whole while presenting economic challenges for the individual. How do we bring the economic benefits to the individual?

This question is crucial not only for Boomers but also for future generations, especially the equally massive Millennial generation. We need more than short-term fixes. We need lasting changes in the workplace as well as changes in how we—at the individual, organizational, and governmental level—ensure a financial safety net that is adequate for the longer lives many of us will live.

What changes would you like to see in the workplace and in government policy to ensure longevity is a boon for all of us?

Download a FREE mini-book, “The Origins of the New HERstory of Our AGE“ based on The Ageless Way

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You will have the opportunity to examine the hottest topic on the minds of leading CSAs and newbies alike.

Join me to kick-start a unique conversation on how to turn what keeps CSAs like you up at night into assets for the Longevity Economy.

Insights gained will become the foundation for developing and implementing effective, innovative – yes, even visionary, new approaches.

Leading GeroFuturist best-selling author, firecracker speaker, game changer, and thought leader on the Longevity Economy, 40+ market, the business of aging, and ageless aging. A world-class trusted advisor, Master Certified Coach and expert authority, Karen boldly advocates for the new story of our age.  Karen guides go-getter entrepreneurs, trailblazers, and visionary leaders to their niche in the global business of aging while evolving their role in response to this new narrative. Karen is an in-demand speaker known for dynamic presentations and a remarkable gift for captivating any audience!

Contact Information: http://www.karensands.com/ | 203-266-1100 | Karen@KarenSands.com| https://www.linkedin.com/in/karensands/

Books:http://www.karensands.com/store/
The Ageless Way
The Ageless Way – A Companion Journal/Workbook
The Greatness Challenge
Gray is the New Green
Visionaries Have Wrinkles
Visionaries Have Wrinkles Reflections Journal
Visionaries Have Wrinkles Reflections Card Deck
Ageless Reinvention (Releasing 2018-2019)
Mastering Reinvention for Midlife & Beyond – (Re-releasing 2018-2019)

Articles about the higher rate of divorce among people post-50 seem to appear with some regularity. For example, I came across another one, “Gray divorces rising as more baby boomers opt to end marriages,” with nothing particularly surprising in it, of course. (I doubt it was intended to be a shocking story.)

Most of the reasons for divorce among Boomers are similar to those of people divorcing at any age, such as growing apart or one person falling in love—or just in bed—with someone else. For Boomers, additional factors come into play:

• After the kids leave home or after one or both persons are home more often, couples often see their relationship in a new light, one that can reveal weaknesses or complete disintegration.
• Women are more financially independent than in the past, so they are not tied to a marriage for security.
• Boomers in general value independence and personal development, so it makes sense to many that they shouldn’t stay married if they are unhappy.
• The combination of facing mortality as well as facing a longer, healthier life ahead compared with past generations, people realize they don’t want to spend the time they have left with each other.

One quote in the article stood out to me in particular, from a family lawyer, Lynne Gold-Bikin, who noted that a third person is often the catalyst for someone to end a relationship. “They may need that push to get them out, what I call the springer. You need somebody to spring you from the marriage.”

For some, this “springer” was the third person in an affair, something that usually occurs long after the marriage has started to fall apart. Giving ourselves permission to break commitments made in good faith before reaching this point could save a lot of pain and heartache.

If more couples could end an unhappy marriage by reaching loving closure, before reaching the point of finding someone else, both could move on without carrying the painful baggage with them. The would-be cheater avoids the spiral of collusion and betrayal. The person who would be cheated on is saved the hurt and deceit. Both avoid falling into the martyred victim role, giving up power over their life choices by blaming the other (for cheating, for driving the other away, etc.). This is all easier said than done, of course!

Another type of “springer” is a more positive, encouraging influence. This idea of being sprung from a trap, and needing a third person to help you do so, even if you know you are trapped before that person comes along, is a recurring theme in life post-50 that goes beyond relationships for many.

• Feeling trapped in a job you no longer or never did love, just putting in your time until you can retire.
• Feeling trapped by the very idea of retirement when you want to keep working, leading, contributing, making a difference.
• The Sandwich Generation feeling trapped by the needs of their kids and their parents, wondering when they’ll have time to pursue their own visions.
• Feeling trapped in our bodies, which no longer look or work quite as they used to, and the fear of these changes accelerating down the road.

This list could go on and on, as we all know, but what I am getting at is this idea that sometimes we need another person to spring us. How many of us have knowingly stayed trapped because we have deer-in-the-headlights syndrome or we simply do not know which steps to take next?

A third party (or several people) can be just the catalyst, support, and guidance we need, depending on the situation. For example:

• A mentor or coach to guide us to redefining our careers or retirement
• A caretaker with new ideas or simply hands-on support for Sandwich situations
• A women’s group to share our personal, visceral experiences as well as solutions for the trapped feeling (if not solutions for some of the changes in our bodies, particularly those related to health)

I do not think we should wait around for this person to find us, however. If you know you are trapped, start reaching out. Even if you do not feel trapped, reaching out may open doors you didn’t even know existed and could provide the support and guidance you could need down the road.

In the midst of a situation that seems to be all about breaking away and dividing, we can take away a valuable lesson about coming together by reaching out—and up.

In what areas of your life and work could you use a catalyst to spur you toward change?

Amazon #1 Best Seller Author of 11 books including The Ageless Way, Gray is the New Green, Visionaries Have Wrinkles, The Greatness Challenge and more.

However, from the vibrating heart of our dissipating structures comes the promise of our true greatness: a greatness of awareness and action that will change the world. From the midst of the evolving Great Transition, we leave the Great Recession and the uplifting Obama era behind us as we enter an unknown, unchartered new cycle of populism and extreme radicalism ripping our valued democratic tenets to shreds and putting each of us on the line.  This Great Shift demands that we each unlock our potential for greatness which lives in each of us, and we are being called to make a difference. That is the premise of The Greatness Challenge, in which I offer a template for embracing and embodying our unique Signature Greatness DNA^SM to unleash our personal and collective greatness.

The Greatness Challenge is a manifesto for the growing wave of us who want to add value in all we do and who are being called to personal and collective evolution—from dentists to doctors, executives to engineers, artists to teachers and visionary leaders and futurists who are looking to redesign their lives so that every moment counts . . . for those of you who seek work that not only fills your bank accounts but your “values” bank as you yearn to do well doing good . . . for leaders who seek a pathway to visionary leadership, so the impact you have is of the greatest benefit for all.

To be one of the first to hear about The Greatness Challenge when it releases join us in the Secret Facebook Group here.