Calling All Boomers!

It's been eight weeks since our television program began airing nationally and our website has been accessable to all the world. With each passing week we hear from more and more viewers and visitors. It's been so amazing to read the stories of how Boomers from all over are "redefining life after fifty" in their own unique way. Which led to our decision to begin a "Boomer of the Week" feature right here on our blog beginning on March 3, 2006.

Each week we'll present a brief profile of a Boomer who is dealing with transition, taking on new challenges, or re-evaluating life in new and interesting ways. We'll need your assistance in making this feature fun and engaging. Feel free to submit your own "Boomer of the Week" candidates (and, yes, you can nominate yourself!) to us. We've all got a story to tell, so let the telling commence!

Searching for Community

by Nancy Mills

Last night, Mark and I moderated a panel discucssion called The Possibilities of Place: Housing Options for the Next Life Stage. About 150 people gathered at the Newton Free Library in Newton, Massachusetts to hear from a panel of three experts in housing, sponsored by Discovering What's Next. It was clear from the discussion that we Boomers and the trailblazing generation before us are searching for new ways to define home and to design the places we want to live.

Panelist and Community Consultant Jean LeVaux has worked for many years to help create co-housing communities. She said the biggest motivation for people is the prevention of "nuclear isolation" - going from home to work to home again and never seeing or speaking to our neighbors! Sound familiar? LeVaux has been involved with Oaktree Green, pioneers in communal housing that focus on design quality in urban multifamily housing. Jean described ways different generations support each other in a 41 unit complex in Cambridge...neighbors who care for each other when there's an illness, sitting with a new baby or just sharing meals.

There are roadblocks to overcome to create these communities, especially in high cost cities. It's not cheap to buy and then renovate urban spaces. Another issue - suburban zoning laws. Newton, for example, says no more than four unrelated adults can live under the same roof. If a group of Boomers wanted to buy, renovate and then share an old rambling Victorian home there, city regulations would have to be changed.

Panelist Andrea Cohen , CEO of HouseWorks, runs a company dedicated to helping seniors live independently. She said Beacon Hill Village in Boston is a national model for people who want to "age in place." Andrea listed several things people say they want close to them in later life: friends, culture, green space and learning opportunities. She said they want to control their own destiny, have shopping and services within walking distance and have "lifestyle continuity."

Professor Charles Harris, a panelist who is about to turn 80, is exploring the creation of a new intergenerational "lifespan" residential community near Harvard Square. He thinks virtual communities that share services and link neighbors should include a Business Center, office space that would get people out of home offices and into shared space with career and social supports.

Behind all of the discussion last night, it seemed to me, was a real desire for community and the fear of aging in isolation. We Boomers are constantly being told that we are going to live longer lives than we might have imagined or planned for. But a long life alone doesn't sound very attractive. That's why we should all be thinking now about new, creative options for housing in our next stage of life.

You Are What You Eat - or Not

by Nancy Mills

Now we know for sure that a low-fat diet doesn't do us any good...right? Somehow, I don't believe that the study just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association is really going to be the last word. But it is going to confuse a lot of people and no doubt help improve business at fast food restaurants. (Where, by the way, most frying is now being done in vegetable oil, not in lard as in the bad old days! So even the fats used to cook all those fries aren't as bad as they once were.)

The study by the Women's Health Initiative of the National Institutes of Health concluded that a low-fat diet had no effect on the risk of getting cancer or heart disease. It followed about 49,000 women aged 50-79 for eight years.

I've never gone for the diet crazes. I don't follow a low-fat meal plan. But I am aware of the kinds of fat I consume. I use olive oil instead of animal fats...it tastes so good and all those healthy older people in Sicily couldn't be wrong! I've substituted frozen yogurt for ice cream (most of the time) and veggie burgers for beef (all of the time). Bascially, I believe in balance and variety and a little dark chocolate every day. I also love fresh fruit, salads and whole grain breads and cereal. Eating this way might not prevent cancer or heart disease, but for me, it prevents "dis - ease" - it's easier to digest and makes me feel better.

No one has done a $ 415 million, eight-year federal study on the Mediterranean diet yet. But maybe someday they will - and prove that the food I love also prevents illness. Until then, I'll continue to enjoy meals with family and friends and to feel grateful that I have access to such an abundance of wonderful food every day!

Bush and the Boomers

By Mark Mills, CFP

In his State of the Union speech this week Boomer-in-Chief George Bush raised the subject of federal spending on entitlements by noting that both he and former President Bill Clinton turn 60 this year.

President Bush said, “By 2030, spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone will be almost 60 percent of the entire federal budget. And that will present future Congresses with impossible choices -- staggering tax increases, immense deficits, or deep cuts in every category of spending.”

Bush got a rousing mock cheer from the Democrats when he said, “Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security.” It was not meant as an applause line; he finished the sentence by saying, “yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away.”

He is right. We need to do something. In calling for a bipartisan commission to examine the full impact of baby boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid the President pretty much tossed in the towel on his “ownership society” vision for social security. It will take another approach to build a consensus.

I wrote a blog critical of Bush’s private account plan last year (Feb. 27, 2005). I said that so much risk, burden, and responsibility are already being shifted from institutions to individuals that the country needs to preserve a system that lives up to its name: social security.

We just may not be able to enjoy the generous level of benefits that the system now provides. I could stomach a cutback. But the sooner we face the problem the less drastic the solutions will have to be. And the more time people will have to adjust to a new reality.

Let’s find the ways to fix Social Security. From adjusting how benefits are calculated to raising the ceiling on wages that are subject to the payroll tax, many alternatives are available to put Social Security on a sound footing for generations to come.

One trend that may help: if Boomers keep working past age 65, as many plan to, the government will collect huge sums in payroll taxes that it is not expecting.

Medicare and Medicaid are an even bigger black hole for the budget. And the misery of those two programs has plenty of company: the entire health care system. We need to make some major overhauls in providing and financing health care for people of all ages.

So, come on Washington. It’s time to work up the guts, determination, and creativity to solve these problems. I don’t want to go to war with my children’s generation over a depleted federal treasury. We should reduce our national debt, invest for our grandchildren, and provide an adequate level of security for Boomers as they age gracefully.

“And one year from now I will convene the leaders of Congress to craft historic, bipartisan legislation to achieve a landmark for our generation -- a Social Security system that is strong in the 21st century,” said the President. President Bill Clinton, that is, in his State of the Union speech on January 27, 1998. I guess we’re about due for another commission.


White House photo of President Bush leaving the House Chamber
after his 2006 State of the Union speech