Remember “the golden years”? The time of life when you shed your job and the shackles of time schedules for the free-flying freedom of retirement?
How quaint.
These days, more and more Americans are nixing the notion of retirement in their 50s, 60s or even 70s.
One of them is Marc Freedman of Berkeley, whose latest book, “The Big Shift,” paints a bold picture of the new paradigm.
Many people are working well into their senior years because a) they need the money, b) they’re living longer, healthier lives, and c) they like being productive and don’t want to be idle.
Freedman, who at 53 is far from retiring, opens his book with his own quasi-midlife crisis, when he turned 50 “and decided to take a break.” The author, speaker and social entrepreneur had spearheaded creation of the Experience Corps, a national service program for volunteers age 55 and up, and founded Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, and he was feeling burned out.
He began to plan a three-month sabbatical, starting with a stay in Australia with his wife and two young sons. Then reality set in: the cost, the shlepping, the time away from home and work. So he scaled things down drastically, taking the family on a two-week road trip up the coast to Oregon.
All was not lost, though, Freedman now says. “The [process of writing the] book ended up being the sabbatical. It was a chance to really step back and think more broadly about the issues we were working on” at Civic Ventures.
“I felt rejuvenated, and had a chance to look more deeply at the purpose of this work, and to put things in a historical context. That produced a real sense of renewal and excitement for me.”
Freedman will pose the question “Are you ready for the big shift?” in an April 26 talk at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
His book, subtitled “Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife,” builds on Freedman’s previous books — “Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life” and “Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America.”
He contends that as people carve out these “encore careers” — which ideally combine one’s expertise and interests with socially conscious endeavors — they benefit themselves as well as greater society.
He gives plenty of examples of those who’ve successfully forged second careers, including several in the Bay Area, such as Bill Schwartz, a physician who founded Samaritan House Free Medical Clinic in San Mateo, and Gary Maxworthy, who used 30 years’ experience in the food distribution business to launch Farm to Family at the San Francisco Food Bank, which in 2010 distributed 100 million pounds of fresh food to needy families in California.
“Giving back” is a theme that runs through Freedman’s book, and his own life as well. He grew up in Philadelphia, where his father taught Hebrew school and the family belonged to one of the oldest Ashkenazi congregations in the country, Freedman notes. Tikkun olam (repairing the world) was “very much” a part of his life, Freedman says. “There was a real sense of Jewish idealism … that permeated my upbringing and Jewish education.”
He speaks at JCCs across the country — from the 92nd Street Y in New York City to a recent Mensch Society talk at the JCC of the East Bay in Berkeley (where “my kids go,” adds Freedman, now the father of three — ages 2, 4 and 6).
Freedman — called “a leading voice in discussions nationwide about the changing face of retirement” by the Wall Street Journal — has taken his message to Capitol Hill, as well.
Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee at a 2010 hearing on “Choosing to Work During Retirement and the Impact on Society Security,” he made the case that boomers can actually help bolster the system by working well into their senior years.
Freedman says he got a positive, bipartisan reception. “It was amusing,” he adds. “Every single member was over the age of 60. I felt the response was as personal as it was policy-based.”
In a chapter of his book called “Ten Steps Toward a New Stage,” Freedman lays out policy changes — from reforming Social Security to creating Individual Purpose Accounts (like IRAs) — that could help people transition into encore careers.
He calls it a “wish list. I wanted to put an agenda out there in a way to start a conversation.”
Getting to that encore career isn’t simple, Freedman acknowledges. To that end, Civic Ventures pulls together various resources at encore.org, for those interested in transitioning to careers in the nonprofit world and public sector.
Some seek assistance out of sheer necessity after being laid off; others have burned out on their old jobs and seek redirection.
Freedman is the first to admit that many encore jobs pay only nominally. “It’s really a formidable challenge to figure out how to finance this,” he says. “People haven’t really been saving for it.
“I think it is very difficult for people to do, but that doesn’t mean they won’t ever make the transition. … I tried to be realistic in the book about how hard it is.”
In the hopper is a “companion book” to Freedman’s, by Civic Ventures vice president Marci Alboher. Her book will provide “practical advice on how to do the transition,” he says.
“As an organization, we’re trying to make a ‘new norm’ in society. We’re really trying to build this movement of people who want to make real meaning and social impact the hallmark of their 50s, 60s and 70s,” he says.
“We want to tell stories of those who’ve taken the path, and to create pathways” for others.
“The Big Shift” by Marc Freedman (244 pages, PublicAffairs, $24.99)
Marc Freedman speaks April 26 at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market St., S.F. 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program. $7-$20. In association with the Transition Network, San Francisco Village, Civic Ventures and Coming of Age: Bay Area