The language around the wave of retiring boomers seems to become ever more alarmist. I’ve written before about the ‘silver tsunami’ and I won’t be surprised if we are soon described as hordes rather than as the particular age cohort we happen to be.

A recent spate of news stories talks about the fact that there will be fewer young people in the work force as more boomers retire, because of course there are fewer of them. I can see there might be a concern on the part of governments that their tax base is shrinking.

What I can’t stomach is the fact that this is being touted as though these young folks are going to be solely responsible for paying the tab for their aging elders.

What? Did we never pay taxes? As a cohort did we not pay monumental amounts of taxes into government coffers for 40 or more years? Is all that tax money gone?

Did nobody think that the boomer cohort was an anomaly due to a particular set of historic circumstances and that once we left the work force the tax base would shrink to a more realistic size? Does nobody think ahead?

To now constantly put before already overburdened young folk the supposed fact that they will be ‘paying’ for their elders is a disastrous recipe for generational conflict. It’s not true in the first place. In the second place, in whose interest is it to keep pounding away at this false story. What is each generation being set up for?

I don’t have any answers to these questions that I like the look of.

It is something we all need to discuss–to make the facts clear and make certain we do not fall into the trap of generational conflict, because then we’ll all lose.

Recently I was asked how I was enjoying retirement. I looked at the woman asking the question like she had two heads. What? Me? Retired? No way. I’m not nearly ready to retire, nor, in my head am I old enough.

And then there’s: what do I retire from? Can I retire from underemployment or unemployment? Does that qualify?

I have never had retirement as a goal. The things I do that are not job related are things I have no intention of retiring from. Why would I retire from reading? Or spinning wool, or cooking, or knitting baby gifts? Shall I retire from going for coffee with friends? From being a summer tourist in several charming local towns?

I see the concept of retirement as one where a wage slave is finally released from the daily grind after 40 some years of relentless work. Retirement means in that context that you are now able to do all the things you wished you’d had time or energy to do during your working life.

My working life is creative and includes writing, speaking gigs, artisan weaver, spinner, knitter and watercolour painter. These are not the sort of things one needs to retire from. I have rarely been a wage slave, and also true, I’ve earned very little money over the course of my adult life.  If anything, I’m retiring to–to a guaranteed annual income, however tiny it will be.

One of things I natter on to older adults about is that we all need to have things to retire to–it doesn’t matter what that is as long as you are passionate about it. I strongly recommend that it involve handwork of some sort.

Don’t wait until you are 70 to engage in a new interest or handcraft–start well before you retire from. You may need to buy tools and supplies while you are still working. I bought a spinning wheel in my fifties and have a lovely fleece stash. There’s the last of my looms waiting and a not so shabby knitting yarn stash as well as a nice supply of watercolour papers.

So, what will you retire to?

I have always known that there is a difference between my life work and a job. At times I have been very fortunate to have jobs which nurtured my life work.

I am now at a life stage where it appears that jobs are not available to me because I’m too old (and I’m only 64). That is never the stated reason, but is too often the fact. Older adults are not wanted because we don’t fit the image of the business–that requires an eighteen year old perky young person. We certainly aren’t wanted for our knowledge, life experience, work ethic, or dare I say it ‘wisdom’.

I’m tired of fighting this nonsense. I have other work to do. Life work.

For me, life work means writing, and creating in watercolour and fiber. I’ve wasted too much time trying to fit into a contemporary job market that seems too willing to dismiss what I have to offer because the package has aged.  I don’t mind ageing. I do mind being dismissed, being made redundant because of it. Enough already!

Writing is my work and it has long been neglected as I searched for a job. Enough already. I may not have a job, but I definitely have work to do. Important work.  Time to get on with it.

What exactly does the phrase “golden moments” refer to? What is golden about poverty, housing insecurity and the depression that surely follows?

We have a huge disconnect between how as a society our elder age lives are visualized and romanticized and how in fact this life stage is lived day to day.

On the one hand we are seen as dottie grandparents in tv commercials who must be humoured at least if not laughed at.  On the other hand if we pass a frail elder in the grocery store we haven’t a clue how she or he manages daily life. Neither image seems to me to reflect a ‘golden moments’ lifestyle.

But the golden moments image means that we can take comfort that of course the elderfolk are okay and there’s nothing to worry about. They have all that pension income and their boomer hoarded wealth, so hey, they’re better off than the younger folk.

Reality, dear reader, is vastly different.

The percentage of elders who do not have enough to live on, and no available means to earn more income is alarming, and growing. Once locked into a government pension, any earnings (should you be capable of earning) that would take you to at least the poverty level income (say $18,000) a year for a single person, will be clawed back dollar for dollar•.  When the rent goes up, you buy fewer groceries. When taxi fares go up, you stop going out, when depression advances because you aren’t eating well or enough and you have become socially isolated, well that’s just old age, isn’t it? Living those golden moments, anyone?

There must be ways we can do better than this, but unless we share our thoughts on it, and engage with the issues, chances are things will stay the same or get infinitely worse.

What are your thoughts? What strategies do you have to stay sane and healthy and vibrant in elder age? Please share in the comments.

•In Canada my understanding is you can earn about $3500 annually without losing benefits; this would take the average single person pension to about $13,000 a year. Try living on that!

Wendy, in a recent comment suggests that sharing accommodation as we age might help us stay safe and independent.  What would that sort of housing look like I wonder?

There are co-op housing options in several cities in Canada that I know about, but if we are going to have that sort of housing available to ageing boomers we’d best get on with creating it.  I’m not talking about the senior mega-plexes that cost $4,000 plus a month.  Few of us could afford even half that.  So what alternatives are there? In any case those lux seniors homes are still not what I envision for my elderhood.  It would feel too much like being warehoused and segregated, even if the digs came with a recreation director and a so-called ‘craft room’.

What I want, is a place to live where I can get help when I need it, and which would allow me enough space to continue to work on my own creative projects.  A place that would respect the fact that I’m a professional artist and writer, not in need of someone to organize kiddie glue-gun crafts and bingo to entertain me.

This housing would have a combination of private and shared space.  I do believe that is called ‘community’.  The helpers in such a community would participate in it, would have accommodation for themselves and and their families.

What I don’t want, once I need help in my daily life, is a different ‘worker’ every week who neither knows me or cares because the organization she (usually a woman) works for believes it is un-necessary for her to see me as a human being since that interferes with her getting her job done in the least possible time.  Dogs in a shelter get better care and attention than that!

Neither do I want a state-controlled apartment the size of a closet in which I can barely turn around; because really, since I’m over 65 all I deserve is 500 square feet of space–just enough for a bed and a television for what other possible needs do I have now?  The common room only requires a couple of card tables and maybe another television.  Anything else would just make a mess.  I imagine jail cells, while smaller, have pretty much the same amenities.

There is much to think about in where we live as we get older.  I don’t think I’ll find what I want and it begins to look more like I’ll have to find like-minded others to help build it.  Is anyone building something on the co-op model for elders?  Does anyone have insights? Successful projects?

What are your thoughts? Ideas?

One of the hazards of getting older is the fact that a fall comes at a greater price than it might once have done.  And the damndest things can send you sprawling.  Recently I slipped on wet leaves and took a nasty tumble, though thankfully I didn’t do much but acquire bruises and a sprained ankle.

That got me thinking.  How do I get help when the ground comes up to meet me and I’ve no immediate neighbours to call on for help? No one would even notice I was down, because I can’t be seen in my side or back yard. I’m light-years too young for an alert monitor, but still if I fell in winter and couldn’t get up, what would I do?

So today I’m thinking strategies.  It would help a lot to have a hand rail on the back porch (where I fall all too regularly) and perhaps a whistle in easy reach.  A friend suggests I never go out without my cellphone in a pocket.  It never occurred to me I’d need a cellphone in reach when I hung out the laundry or took a few steps to the woodpile.

I’m not that great at accepting any of the realities of ageing I find annoying.  Who is? If I just ignore them, they’ll not be a bother, right?  Apparently not.  Face-plants in wet leaves or snow with no way to get up is not something that it is safe to deny or dismiss.

Meanwhile I’ll make another appointment with the chiropractor and cosy up to the ice pack once again.

Do you have thoughts on this? Strategies to share in the comments?

One of the down sides of contract work is that one works like a mad fool for several months and then there’s suddenly a focus vacuum. Gone is the discipline to be AT work by 8:30 focused on getting a range of tasks done.

Now what?

As an older worker, I need some recovery time. My last contract was great fun, but required a lot of physical and emotional energy. Essentially I’m burned out, flat, with nothing to give to anything or anyone.  Hate that, but it isn’t unexpected, I have been here before.  And because the contract was just under five months I know I won’t have to endure this state for long.

Which doesn’t mean I either enjoy it or am patient with myself during the recovery time. I’m frustrated by my lack of energy and motivation, but I learned long ago that if I push in this state, I just make things worse.

I always hoped that by my sixties I’d have a lot more in the way of patience for these things, the go with the flow sort of patience. I’m beginning to wonder if that was a younger person’s assumption.  If anything, I have less patience when something I can’t control is between me and what I want to do.  Not a good strategy, I realize, to be going on with.

There are so many projects I want to work on.  When I don’t have the energy to tackle them I’m intensely frustrated.

What do I do then?

• re-evaluate – do all these projects still need to be done? Can some fall off the list now?
• prioritize – what’s creatively urgent, or financially urgent?
• clean house – good for thinking about the previous two points
• take time off – relearn how to relax
• re-connect with friends – my absolute favourite way to recharge inner batteries
• write – that’s where I’ll find focus, energy and motivation–eventually

This is, in no particular order, is my short list.

What works for you?

In the 21st century, we don’t get jobs, we get contracts.  I have a new contract for about 5 months of work. Contracts mean that the employer gets to use my skills, but doesn’t have to keep me on retainer or find me things to do when they aren’t really busy enough to have an employee. I’d much rather be busy while I’m at work, as that feels much more useful.

I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but I like having a contract job.  I know when it will end and when I can get back to my preferred lifestyle of quiet mornings to muse with pen in hand.

I can handle getting up at dark o’clock for five months, knowing that by late summer I’ll be done that for a while.  I rarely get contracts back to back.

What’s funny to me is that people I haven’t seen for a while ask me if I’m enjoying retirement.  What?  No, I’m not retired, just hanging on until the next contract or the pension cheque arrives, which ever comes first.  Right now it is a contract.  Pension (what there is of it) is still 18 months away.

I’ve been practicing waking to the alarm clock.  I’m NOT a morning person, or really an early morning person.  You want to talk to me? After 10am is good.  This preference doesn’t work when there is contract work and I have to be at the office and functional for 8:30.

During my previous office job there were many meetings and it was a standing joke that I preferred meetings I had to travel to, to begin after lunch.  Apparently I am in the minority there.  Who is the bright light who thought up breakfast meetings or 9:00am meetings when I need to travel  an hour and a half to get there?

So contract means I have money, but no time. Why do I never seem to have money and time? That’s such a nice healthy combination. I aspire to it, always have. In the having money situation I have no time to work on writing projects, the blogs are neglected, writing projects languish, and my kitchen is a major disaster.

I’m more than half way through the contract now, and of course beginning to worry about money again–that roller coaster never seems to stop.

I’ll see you here again soon…. Meanwhile, there’s a payday looming in a few days–how nice is that?

If you’re anything like me, 60ish, under-employed, you ask yourself this question often.  Unfortunately the answer doesn’t follow as quickly as we’d like and this most puzzling of questions remains.

I’ve been asking myself this question for decades and there were brief moments of clarity when I was involved in some major work/life project. Now that I’m approaching elder, the question seems to be more urgent because however I look at my life, the fact is there’s less time before me than there once was.  So why does it now seem so difficult to gain perspective?

I’m not even sure how I’d define purpose. Is it passion? Or some underlying sense of doing what you know somehow you are meant to do with your life? Does everyone need that or is the quest to discover purpose something only the introverted self-reflective, gotta-figure-it-out types among us struggle to understand?

You’d think with all the life experience I’ve accumulated it would be much easier to define a purpose for my days.  That doesn’t seem to be the case for some reason. When I was younger and believed in the life purpose of the time, I probably didn’t look much beyond the surface of things.  No doubt that was appropriate or reasonable then.

Now there seems to be so much more at stake.  What must I do that I have left undone until now? How can I bring together my need to be physically and emotionally healthy and still accept challenges and take risks?

Is there some big big purpose for my life that I still need to discover and how might I go about that?  What do I lose if I don’t get there and what do I gain if I do? On my deathbed, will I give a damn, one way or the other?

What are your thoughts on purpose in your life?

The internet makes it so darn easy to access stuff about food. I follow a number of my favourite chefs on Twitter and when they let me know about something they are preparing or have recently prepared I will leap tall buildings (in metaphor, never in reality) to read and um, drool over food ideas.

That’s a lot cheaper than having to pay mega bucks for all the cable packages between me and the Food Network.

I need food inspiration because I get bored cooking alone and for one. Once I have an idea, it will become a mission and I’m good to go.  I love cooking, and am passionate about eating, but some days, finding inspiration requires a bit of help.

Here’s a short list of some of my favourite foodie websites.  Enjoy!
101 Cookbooks

Gremolata

Food Network