Boomers: Exploring New Activities, Meanings, and Opportunities

The following is an excerpt What Retirees Want A Holistic View of Lifeamp8217s Third Ageamp160 a book representing the culmination of a long collaboration between authors Ken Dychtwald and Robert Morison who have conducted awardwinning research based on national and international surveys into the evolution of retirement in the 21st century In this book Ken and Robert provide readers with unparalleled insights into the minds and hearts of the retired and nearly retired population In past decades marketers and entrepreneurs have focused on younger generations mostly ignoring retirees Retirement was often viewed as a time of gradual decline and financial contraction But thanks to increased lifespans and better health care today39s retireesamp8212particularly Baby Boomersamp8212are experiencing a distinct and rewarding phase of life ready to explore new activities new meanings and new opportunities Given that this demographic also controls the largest concentration of personal wealth businesses are missing out if they continue to ignore this large and growing marketThe Longevity Bonus The Upside of AgingThe influx of Boomer retirees holds the potential to take giving and volunteering to new heights The Boomers have always been a causeoriented changetheworld generation Now that they have far more free time in retirement we envision a revolution in giving and volunteering for decades to come And Boomers want to contribute not just with time and labor but with their talents and experience They want their giving to have impact in causes global and local that matter a lot And they are ready to use technology and social media to determine where to give and to band together for greater impactSurveys by Gallup and the Charities Aid Foundation find the United States to be one of the most generous nations in the world based on rates of giving volunteering and helping others America39s retirees are especially generous Twothirds of them say that retirement is the best time of life for giving back and they overwhelmingly define success in retirement as being generous 85 rather than being wealthy 15 Retirement gives people the opportunity to expand their generosity amp8211 with more time more savings to donate and more accumulated skills and experienceCharitable giving has been steadily increasing for the last quarter century with only brief dips in times of recession and over threequarters of that giving comes from individuals and families amp8211 not foundations and corporations as people often think Older Americans are especially generous as charitable contributions tend to increase as people grow older Figure 101 In 2018 Boomers contributed the most in aggregate averaging over 1000 each and accounting for 41 of all individual donationsAmericans also contribute nearly seven billion hours of time annually through volunteering worth an estimated 167 billion in economic value assuming a modest 23 per hour In 2018 the Baby Boomer generation accounted for the most volunteer time a cumulative 22 billion hours with an estimated value of 543 billion That will only grow with the number of retirees and their desire to give with impactRetirement transforms how and how much people can give Retirees often view giving in a new light as one explained quotI never really thought about giving and what it meant to me I just did it And now in retirement it means a great deal to me There are clues that I didn39t really recognize and in some ways I feel like I39m paying myself when I39m givingquotRetirees have the key ingredients They have more time No longer working fulltime means dramatically more discretionary time amp8211 an average of over 70 hours per week for those 65 and older That39s time available for volunteering and purposeful charitable giving They have more wealth Older Americans hold more savings and other assets than younger age groups do That accumulated wealth funds their retirement years but part may be available for charitable causes And they have more skills and experience Retirees bring a lifetime of experience to their volunteer work and their decisions to donate Eightyfour percent say that enables them to give more in retirement than they could when younger As Nancy Henkin Senior Fellow at Generations United puts it quotVolunteering is not just coming in and serving soup It might be that if you have some executive skills maybe you organize a recruitment campaign or maybe you take care of marketing or maybe you manage other volunteersquotHow large is the potential for retirees to give back As the ranks of Boomer retirees swell and they enjoy lengthier retirements their aggregate capacity for giving time and money over the next two decades totals nearly 9 trillion in value Figure 102 in the United States alone We anticipate enormous growth in financial donations amp8211 an estimated total of 72 trillion over that time Then add in an estimated 63 billion hours of volunteering which translates into about 16 trillion worth of services We call that enormous opportunity to do social good quotAmerica39s Longevity Bonusquot When we imagine this as a global phenomenon the World39s Longevity Bonus might approach 100 trillion over the next two decadesEconomic conditions may grow or shrink the bonus The economy has a direct effect on donations but can have an inverse effect on volunteering When generous people have less money to donate they often compensate by increasing their volunteer work But we see enormous potential for the amount of volunteering to exceed our estimates regardless of economic conditions Generous though they may be older Americans spend only a small fraction amp8211 under 4 amp8211 of their discretionary time as volunteers Charitable and community organizations need to crack the code of better engaging retiree volunteersYou can now order Ken Dychtwald39s and Robert Morison39s longawaited new bookWhat Retirees Want A Holistic View of Life39s Third Ageamp160Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Boomers: Exploring New Activities, Meanings, and Opportunities

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Ken Dychtwald

We Are the Outliers - By Jack Myers

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Boomers: Exploring New Activities, Meanings, and Opportunities

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Ken Dychtwald

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