Newsletter

Less than 100 years ago, a revolutionary new social program went in to effect to protect older people. Social Security offered monetary benefits to those who reached the age of 65 so they could stop working. It wasn’t an arbitrary number, given that life expectancy for men was only 58 years, with the average for …

Midlife is having a moment, finally. Other than stereotypes about erratic middle-aged behavior and the myth of the midlife crisis, people over the age of 50 are usually just beginning to be ignored by advertisers and shunned by employers. But that’s changing. With the size and wealth of the Baby Boomer generation combined with longer, …

If you’re going to be addicted to something, you can do much worse than exercise. And while a consistent focus on enhancing your fitness is the key to healthy aging, it can become an obsession if you let it. The last year-and-a-half has been my most consistent period of fitness ever, and I can say …

Plenty of things have changed during our lifetimes. But the most relevant change may be the tremendous redefinition of being “middle-aged” just as we got there. Psychologist Daniel Levinson defines middle age as when “one is no longer young and yet not quite old.” And what used to be a stage of life between the …

When I took my midlife gap year at 51, it made me realize what I wanted to do going forward. Rather than upgrading to another home in Boulder, my wife and I decided we would spend our lives exploring the world outside of the United States. I had the location-independent income down, so we just …

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. On one hand, people are living longer lives. And with just some basic attention to healthy aging principles, Generation X could live much longer than expected. This means we have to work longer. That’s a fair tradeoff… assuming we’re able to do work …

I write about longevity quite a bit, both here and with other projects. Combine that with the fact that I lift weights and focus on fitness at 56, and I invariably get someone asking: What, you one of those people trying to live forever? No, actually. No matter how fit I am, I could still …

Your attitude about aging makes all the difference. Research by psychologist Becca Levy shows that people with the most positive views about aging live seven and a half years longer compared to those with the most negative beliefs. Newer research adds a twist. People who believe they look younger than others their age are more …

It’s no longer news that a large chunk of Generation X won’t retire at the conventional age. And for some of us, that’s by design. The message is now shifting from “Gen X can’t retire” to “Gen X is going to work longer.” Okay, makes sense… so let’s look at the options. We’ve already explored …

Travel is an activity that’s practically guaranteed to change your life for the better. In fact, research establishes that Mark Twain was right when he said “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Spending time in diverse locations really does broaden the mind and increase your acceptance of others. Now, I’m not talking about …

At a time that used to be about ramping down to retirement, people over the age of 50 have different ideas. And that often involves starting a business. More than half (54%) of America’s small business owners are over 50. Specifically, 33% of U.S. small business owners are between 50 and 59 years old; 17% …

The life of a Gen Xer can best be defined as a series of major curve balls that we’ve had to adapt to. And we’ve apparently been pretty well-qualified at handling those. Well, you didn’t think we’d make it to “retirement age” without another wicked curve ball coming our way, did you? A Pew Research …