What's New
... a selection of articles, some original and others taken from newspapers, magazines, and online resources that focus on civic engagement and issues of interest to boomers and others 50+. If you would like to comment on any of the articles, please click here to go to the message board.
Seven Tips for Boomers Turning 65
This year the oldest boomers are turning 65 years of age and more than 10,000 will become 65 every day for the next 19 years! Better go out and buy those "happy 65th birthday" cards now!
Turning 65 is an important milestone. At 16 you went down to the DMV to get a learner's permit. At 18 you signed up with the Selective Service. At 65 there are some important things to do, too.
This article from US News and World Report provides a helpful "to do" list for anyone turning 65 this year. For example, you want to:
- Sign up for Medicare within 7 months of your birthday.
- Develop a retirement spending strategy. (You are required to start spending down your 401(k) or IRA at age 70.5.)
- Make yourself invaluable at work (And, perhaps, negotiate a new work schedule.)
- Make a plan for the next stage of your life. (Coming of Age's Explore Your Future can help.)
Free Online Book from Coming of Age
Books that influence us, according to E.M. Forster, are those for which "we are ready and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves." If you are 50+, The Age for Change can be such a book.
Produced by the national office of Coming of Age and written by a team of published authors, The Age for Change explores the promise and challenges of life over 50. Its nine chapters explore topics such as adult children, work, loss, love and creating community. Sure to spark conversation, the book is ideal for book clubs, adult religious education groups or senior centers. You can also read it on your own and share your thoughts with others online.
Interested in using the book with your organization? Let us know. We may be able to help.
Aging On Film: Strangers in Good Company
"Strangers in Good Company" is a film about eight women, one young and seven elderly, who are stranded in the Canadian countryside when their bus breaks down on a scenic outing. As they await rescue, the women take shelter in an abandoned farmhouse, forage for food and slowly begin sharing their life stories.
While the situation is fictional, the women's sharing is very real. None of the them were professional actresses, they were encouraged to ad-lib their own dialogue and each played herself, not some made-up character.
We meet some unforgettable women in the film: a resourceful Mohawk Indian, a wise lesbian, a take-charge Catholic nun, and a joyous heart attack survivor.
"Watching this film," as one reviewer put it, "we are challenged to think about the stories of our own lives and our times in the country of the long-lived."
Changing the World, $5 at a Time
Anna McDonnell, age 51, is passionately concerned about at-risk girls. "I just believe," she says, "that gender inequality is probably the greatest single cause of the imbalances on our planet." So, she created a social networking site called "5 for Fairness" where for a donation as little as $5 you can help to give a leg up to girls both here and abroad.
Here's how the site works. Once you give your $5 you join a team of other site members championing an organization you think deserves a grant. Once the donations account reaches $5,000, members vote where to send the grant, choosing from among the five teams with the most member support.
The site costs very little to run. It uses NING, a free, web hosting service and Pay Pal charges only a small fee for processing donations. The charity has already funded three projects serving at-risk girls in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Los Angeles.
Rediscover Your Spouse!
When Al and Tipper Gore announced their divorce earlier this year after 40 years of marriage a new term was born - gray divorce. It appears that breaking up after 20 or more years in a long-term partnership or marriage is on the rise, particularly among boomers. And the most common reason, according to a recent survey, is no longer sharing common interests.
Is gray divorce a natural consequence of our changing times or can we learn to avoid it? In a recent article in The Positive Aging Newsletter authors Kenneth and Mary Gergen suggest that rediscovering our partner or spouse is a positive aging skill we all need to cultivate and they offer the following suggestions on how to get started:
- Seek out new contexts of relating: travel, sports, hiking, theater
- Explore new relational activities: massage, cooking, gardening,
- Expand personal hobbies to include the other: golf, bridge, fishing
- Re-explore the past together, with particular sensitivity to possible re-ignitions of old feelings of joy and togetherness
- Explore the activities you once liked to do together, but which were abandoned for lack of time
- Allow one’s partner time and space for individual development and exploration, the results of which can later be shared
- Be on the lookout for contexts in which you can pleasantly surprise the other. If readers would like to share their own skills of re-discovery we would be happy to pass them on in future issues of the newsletter.
Your Boomer Gift Buying Guide
Jane Fonda is Back and She's Coming after You!
Wal-Mart Drug Plan May Not be Best for Everyone 50+
"Save an average of $450 a year", claims the website of the new Humana/Wal-Mart - Preferred Rx Plan. With the lowest monthly premium in the country ($14.80) and co-pays as low as $2.00 for generics filled at preferred pharmacies, the new Medicare prescription plan closing December 31st is getting a lot of attention. Why is it so cheap? One reason, experts say, is the plan's limited pharmacy network. If you don't live near a Wal-Mart or other preferred pharmacy and dislike mail order services you might want to do some homework before signing on. Read this article from Yahoo News for more guidance.
Delaware's Volunteering Report Card Out
The annual report card, "Volunteering in America", compiled from statistics gathered by the U.S. Census, is now available. There's good news for the nation as a whole. Volunteering increased from 2008 to 2009 and now stands at 26.8%. Utah (44.2%) once again has the highest rate of volunteering followed by Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Alaska.
Delaware ranks 35th out of the states in volunteering with a rate of 25.3%. There are an estimated 172,200 volunteers in the First State whose contributions are valued at $469.3 million. According to the report, 27.7% of boomers (45-64) and 25.1% of older adults (65+) volunteer in Delaware.
Are Dogs Filling the Grandkid Gap?
"I know I sound like a wacko," says Rozlynn Hood, age 55, "but...it's an epidemic; everyone I talk to over 45 is going through this. We want grandchildren, but we got granddogs instead."
And Rozlynn is not alone. High divorce rates, the boomers' low birth rates and people choosing to remain single without procreating or adopting has created a "grandchildren gap." So Grandparents are buying gifts, babysitting and spoiling their children's dogs instead!
I'm really not making this up. Read the entire Newsweek article for yourself here!
