The Rise of Unretirement

The shift toward older people working longer and rejecting retirement is not new, but it's gaining steam as we rapidly approach the longevity economy tipping point.

Hello there and welcome to Longevity Gains!

This week you’ll see that the indications are getting stronger that the “invisible market” of people over the age of 50 is making itself known. I can understand the impulse to think that a demographic shift of this magnitude is still “in the future,” but the truth is it’s been coming for decades.

With that said, I hope you’ll join us in Longevity Gains Premium. The lessons I’m delivering there reflect everything I’ve learned over the last 5 years of researching and serving older consumers, plus the unique techniques I’ve used to succeed with content-driven businesses over my 25-year career.

If you’re interested, now's the time to do it. The introductory pricing for Premium will end on Friday, October 6, 2023 at 6:00 pm Pacific. Everyone who’s signed up before then will keep the lower rate, which will never go up for the life of your subscription. Join us today and lock in the savings.

Now let’s move on to this week’s podcast episode, because it’s another good one.

It’s one thing to talk to experts who have made the longevity economy their life’s work. It’s another thing to talk to someone who’s both doing the work and actually experiencing life and business as an older worker who has chosen the “unretirement” route.

Unretirement is when older people (in this case, Baby Boomers) return to work due to a loss of meaning and purpose without work, plus the desire to generate income. The term has gained a lot of traction post-pandemic, but the trend was first documented back in 2014 in a book by journalist Chris Farrell.

Richard Eisenberg is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in issues related to aging and personal finance. Instead of fully retiring at 65, he shifted to freelance so he can continue doing the writing work he loves without the management aspects of his former career.

Across Richard’s long and distinguished career, he’s been the managing editor of Next Avenue (the PBS web project for folks who are 50 and older), the executive editor of Money magazine, and written two books. He also hosts a couple of podcasts and teaches a class at New York University.

Listen here:

Web  |  Apple  |  Spotify

Who Do You Think You’re Talking to?

Here’s a timely piece from Jeanette Leardi that perfectly mirrors what we talk about here at Longevity Gains. She’s covering the common misfires that happen when businesses and salespeople communicate with older people without understanding who they are and what they want.

Leardi nails it when decrying the inadequacy tactics and manufactured insecurity marketers think is appropriate when communicating with older consumers. It’s all based on the misinformation and stereotypes that we cover here, specifically in the Longevity Economy Fundamentals ebook.

The economic consequences of not understanding how to communicate with older people are devastating to all involved:

In general, older adults whose viability and quality of life are significantly affected either externally or internally by ageism work less, earn less, save less, and—are you listening, marketers?—spend less .… Simply put, the long-term effect of current fear-based advertising is the loss of future customers and thus profits. Not a smart move.

And then there’s the call to arms that you’ll see become much more common as we move forward:

Let’s boycott companies that portray us in negative ways and support companies that embrace pro-aging messages.

As we’ve covered before, older people are not happy with companies that ignore and talk down to them, and they can be vindictive about it. Whether the boycott thing happens or not, I can tell you that older consumers will absolutely support companies that embrace pro-aging messages. 

More than that, older consumers will react positively to messages that speak to them as the people they are and aspire to be, regardless of age. This is exactly what we’re exploring in depth with our Premium lessons.

‘Who Do They Think We Are?’ (Generations)

Empowering the Aging Process

The New York Times continues its remarkable recent run of covering issues that you might have been introduced to by Longevity Gains for the first time just a few months ago. This time it’s about how your attitudes toward aging affect your health and actual lifespan.

This very real phenomenon is at the heart of an empowerment marketing approach to communicating with older people (as opposed to the status quo inadequacy approach covered above). It’s a potent example of how marketers and entrepreneurs can have true influence on bettering people’s lives beyond just tapping into a massive market.

“People can strengthen their positive age beliefs at any age,” Dr. Levy said. In one 2014 study, 100 adults — with an average age of 81 — who were exposed to positive images of aging showed both improved perceptions of aging and improved physical function.

Despite the recent increase in mainstream media coverage of issues related to the longevity economy, it’s marketers and entrepreneurs who need to start taking action for the change to truly begin. Fortunately, it looks like people are waking up to the opportunity.

Research by Age of Majority reveals that “four out of five marketers (84%) reported they want to target consumers 50+ more effectively than they do today and almost as many (79%) agree that consumers 50 and older are a growth priority for their businesses.” This in turn should fuel increased demand for savvy freelance writers, other content creators, and marketing consultants who truly understand older consumers.

How to Change Your Mind-Set About Aging (New York Times)

Spinning the Longevity Economy Flywheel

The number of older workers is projected to grow significantly over the next decade. Outside of entrepreneurship and the gig economy, this requires employers to hire and retain older people.

Many longevity economy experts say we’re in a perpetual labor shortage that will persist for years to come and open the door to extended workspans for older people, which in turn will fuel large amounts of untapped consumer spending. Other experts aren’t so sure. A new report from the Wall Street Journal comes out strongly in favor of the former scenario:

The U.S. economy has been running, improbably, with an unemployment rate under 4% for nearly two years. 

That isn’t just a holdover from pandemic bottlenecks, when employers let millions of people go and then struggled to find workers when demand roared back, economists and business leaders say. It is a storm that has been brewing for decades….

Work experts have warned for years that the combination of baby boomer retirements, low birthrates, shifting immigration policies and changing worker preferences is leaving U.S. employers with too few workers to fill job openings. While the labor market is softening, none of those factors are expected to change dramatically in the coming years.

Despite the unretirement trend, it’s likely that the majority of Baby Boomers will continue exiting the workforce because they generally have enough retirement savings to do so. This again suggests that it will be Generation X that will resist retirement in larger numbers while being embraced and retained by talent-hungry employers.

Why America Has a Long-Term Labor Crisis (Wall Street Journal)

That’s all for now. See you on Thursday with this week’s Premium lesson.

Keep going-

Brian

P.S. In case you missed it up top, Premium pricing is going up next week. Join us now to save.