BouncingBabyBoomer.com

The Boomer Mascot Muddle and Our DIY Nominees

What kinds of symbols say "Boomer" to you?  Springsteen? Dylan? Beatles? Barak or either one of the Clintons? A flower pointed at a gun? A burning bra or an angry student or Dennis Hopper on his cycle? (The pic at left is adapted from a wikimedia clip of Janis Joplin's Porsche.) When it comes to icons and emblems, we cover a lot of turf and it's really hard to peg one, isn't it?

Starving Our Seed Corn With Cuts in School Funding

A pal of mine on staff at UC Berkeley has been watching heads hit the ground around her for months. My friends who are teachers are fretting about cutbacks in budgets that had already been slashed to the bone. From other educators, I know that from pre-K to post-docs, school funding has slowed to a drip of a trickle. In a thought-provoking recent NYT piece, "The Uneducated American," Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wonders why we permit starving our seed corn like this.

Mother Nature's Facebook Page

As your friends grow fat and happy (or not), so do your own odds of each increase, says a fascinating new study. This might seem to be restating the obvious, but we rarely see it quantified or illustrated this dynamically.

How the study evolved is also a fascinating story involving two enterprising researchers who produced new renditions of unused data found in dusty old records from the Framingham Heart Study, one of the largest long-term efforts to track thousands of participants for cardiac risk starting in 1948.

All of it is highly relevant to we of the almost-aging. Today we get, as they didn't back then, that these very same cardiac risks factor out far beyond the heart to sustaining healthy bodies and brains as we age. Today we know (or some of us do) that lifestyle change can hugely reduce our risk for other unhappy endings such as Alzheimer's too. And today we are really beginning to see how often healthy habits can even trump our genes. If you had any doubt about any of that, data like this will help you believe it.

But in particular, this latest finding from Framingham adds a vivid picture of how fast and how pervasively health habits propagate between people. It's almost as if Mother Nature was using Twitter and Facebook unseen. Read the whole story and see its great graphics (from Wired magazine) here.

Pitch Points That Work (and Not) for Boomer Consumers

As both a journalist and a marketing vet, I spend some time watching sales pitches lobbed at people my age. At the same time, I am watching our evolving sense of identity as the gray on our heads grows more dense.

 

A recent piece aimed at ad pros by Robin Raff at MediaPost explores selling health care to Boomers. I found this angle a bit ironic since the larger question in Boomer health today is how the almost-aging can access decent service at decent rates, not what it takes to make us want it. But it was interesting to see what she thinks will be motivational, since ad types still seem conflicted about how to sell into the Boomer niche.

Below is my own rendition of some of the"pitch points" on which she and I agree along with some added thoughts from me:

• Self-Reliance
  Boomers may like hearing advice, but they don't want to be told what to do, Robin and her sources suggest.

This gets a "bingo" from me. Boomers don't like to feel like sheep, even when they appear to be moving in herds.

Cost and Convenience
Show Boomers how you will save them time and/or money, the author offers next.

As both a journalist and a marketing vet, I spend some time watching sales pitches lobbed at people my age. At the same time, I am watching our evolving sense of identity as the gray on our heads grows more dense.

 

A recent piece aimed at ad pros by Robin Raff at MediaPost explores selling health care to Boomers. I found this angle a bit ironic since the larger question in Boomer health today is how the almost-aging can access decent service at decent rates, not what it takes to make us want it. But it was interesting to see what she thinks will be motivational, since ad types still seem conflicted about how to sell into the Boomer niche.

Below is my own rendition of some of the"pitch points" on which she and I agree along with some added thoughts from me:

• Self-Reliance
  Boomers may like hearing advice, but they don't want to be told what to do, Robin and her sources suggest.

This gets a "bingo" from me. Boomers don't like to feel like sheep, even when they appear to be moving in herds.

As both a journalist and a marketing vet, I spend some time watching sales pitches lobbed at people my age. At the same time, I am watching our evolving sense of identity as the gray on our heads grows more dense.

 

A recent piece aimed at ad pros by Robin Raff at MediaPost explores selling health care to Boomers. I found this angle a bit ironic since the larger question in Boomer health today is how the almost-aging can access decent service at decent rates, not what it takes to make us want it. But it was interesting to see what she thinks will be motivational, since ad types still seem conflicted about how to sell into the Boomer niche.

Below is my own rendition of some of the"pitch points" on which she and I agree along with some added thoughts from me:

• Self-Reliance
  Boomers may like hearing advice, but they don't want to be told what to do, Robin and her sources suggest.

This gets a "bingo" from me. Boomers don't like to feel like sheep, even when they appear to be moving in herds.

That also gets a big "aye" from me. Most Boomers love a good bargain, especially today.

But note to any merchant tempted to bait and switch: We will take the time to verify the bargain is real. (See also next item.)

On becoming an "Encore" worker

My hub and I have just become "micro" workers at a large university. I say "micro" since we are each committing small amounts of time for what amounts to micro pay. In his case, it is a 1/4 time position at a pay grade miles below his last full-time salary. In brief, he will be netting less than 1/10th of his former pay to give them 1/4 of his time during the coming year -- all of course with no benefits.

But hey, it's a job. A nice job, in fact, doing something he finds truly neat, bringing business world methods to academic R&D. So it will keep his resume current while doing some good on both sides.

In my case, the pay is more psychic. I have a nice title, a tiny stipend, and a lot of leeway to shape my flex-time role in a campus lab doing brain science. Technically, I am not a real employee; I have a time-limited fellowship sponsored by an outside entity. In business, we would call me a consultant. But "senior fellow" will sound nice on my resume too; and like the hub, I have a smalll quixotic hope it might aid in some way with some real pay some day. If not, at least I will learn some interesting things about current-day research while helping them to communicate.

That may be as win-win as it gets in this frozen economy.

 

We each got our gigs on the same campus at the same time via different routes. He was recruited after his second year judging in a national science fair that put him on the radar at the School of Engineering. I applied for my mine in response to a flyer found on a table after a lecture, and wound up being one of four people picked for a cross-disciplinary program in Psych.

That our offers came around the same time seemed completely coincidental. We did not know when we accepted these posts that we were joining a movement with a name. But, in fact, we are part of a new wave of "Encore" workers filled with Boomers extending careers with new kinds of employment. 

A new kind of Boomer housing "bubble"?

Have you been curious about the impact that retiring Boomers are likely to have on the market for real estate? Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning at USC, was curious too. With funding from the Fannie Mae Foundation, he recently completed a meaty study -- Aging Boomers and The Generational Housing Bubble -- that can be downloaded from a link at his web site. His"takeaway" message is that Boomer retirement "could signal the end of the postwar era" for land use planning and "reverse several longstanding trends." (Warning: Depressing news to follow.)

Myers opens by noting the ratio of seniors to working-age homeowners is expected to grow quite abruptly, rising by more than 30% in each of the next two decades. As a result, the study predicts, there will be a glut of resales in existing neighborhoods with more sellers than buyers for quite awhile, forcing a major shift in real estate trends.

Among the trends he and his colleagues foresee: an increasing decline in impacted neighborhoods, decreasing gentrification in older areas, less demand for low density housing, and an increasing emphasis on compact development.

I'd agree with the professor's take on higher density in new construction if only to make it more affordable for our offspring who may be less affluent due to the shifting economy. But since we will also have a huge existing inventory of bigger homes on larger lots, I suspect there might be increasing interest in older neighborhoods once nostalgia kicks in and real yards with trees start to seem rare.

Of course, my take begs the question of how many in the Next Gen will be able to afford to buy Daddy's house, or whether Daddy can cut his asking price below his mortgage balance. So Meyers may be correct to suggest that a long-term glut of unsold homes lies ahead, no matter how much the buyers and sellers might wish to seal a deal.

Click here to read more about it. (And thanks to Mike Miller and his "Retirement Revised" blog for leading me to it.)

The "Bad Restaurant" List

One of my favorite eat-healthy gurus is David Zinczenko, author of "Eat This and Not That" and a regular Today Show contributor. In his column over at Yahoo, Dave recently published a"bad restaurant" list for those who are watching the trend lines on their waistlines and their cholesterol.

Dave's whole schtick is showing how to eat healthy even in places where health is not at the top of the menu. He often makes his points quite graphically by showing functional equivalents, such as one serving of the such-and-such salad has as much fat as a whole plate of fries. Click here to see the best and worst things to eat at popular places like Mikey D. and Chili's, along with some less sinful alternatives. And while you are there, look at Dave's list of the Best and Worst Brain Foods, some of which may surprise you.  And last but not least, here is the link to Dave's new web site. Bon Appetit!

Study Says Many Red Meat Eaters Die Sooner

If you didn't catch Jane Brody this week (NYT), she details the just-released long-term large-scale study of American mortality as a function of meats in the diet:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/health/28brod.html

The thumbnail image above previews the bottom line while the article gives several specifics (such as how much of what may be too much). If you'd also like the link to the original study, keep reading.

Future Boomer Centenarians

Have you noticed how often health experts are speaking to us today as if our entire Gen will be full of centenarians? First I heard Mike (RealAge) Roizen on a PBS pledge special last week (links below). Then today, on Today, Terri Trespico from the magazine Body+Soul did a meaty, yet concise, segment with her Top 10 tips for healthy aging. None of it depends on radical regimens, either; all are saying that a few simple lifestyle shifts can radically improve the odds of our own lively longevity.

Spoiler alert: I am going to summarize Terri's top ten tips below, but it's still worth clicking through on the links at the end to watch or read the whole segment from the show.

 

1. Punch up the potassium
The first suggestion was for bananas, papayas, potatoes, and all those great leafy greens like kale. Potassium eaters over 65 kept 3.6% more lean muscle mass in old age.

2. Keep smiling
An upbeat attitude not only makes daily life more pleasant, statistics show it also adds years to the lifespan due to less damage from stress hormones such as cortisol.

3. Breathe deeply and often
Exercise is inversely related to age at death. Aim for 20-30 minutes of brisk activity 5 days per week. Meanwhile learn to breathe deeply several times a day (make your navel rise while inhaling, says Roizen). It oxygenates deep organs and tissues.

4. Swallow a few good bugs
Probiotics, such as found in yogurt or capsules, improve immunity and decrease risk of colon cancer. Other fermented foods such as tempeh are excellent too. (See article link below for more detailed suggestions).

A 40 Second Aging Test

This is the first time I have shared a piece of email hot out of the InBox (with an anonymous author to boot) as forwarded by a longtime friend. But it made me grin enough to just jump in and re-post.

Reasons why to follow.

----- begin snippet/ ----------

Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009

Subject: 40 Second Aging Test  

The following was developed as a mental age assessment by the School of Psychiatry at Harvard University {yahsureyoubetcha she interjects}.

Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud without a mistake. The average person over 40 years of age doesn't get it! {beware of the early or frequent mis-use of exclamation points}...

Points of Light in the Clouds

It's fascinating to watch a whole culture re-compile on the fly, and if I want some encouragement during these downer times, it helps me to look at how good we Americans are at re-inventing ourselves while re-shaping our environments. For that kind of encouragement, I can already find many points of light in the blogosphere where new forms of creativity are blooming left and right. Below some recent examples:

1. Creative Perspective
This week I stumbled on a wonderful visualization site, WallStats.com, the creative overflow stack of graphic artist, Jess Bachman. At left is a thumbnail corner of the vivid graphic that first put him on my own radar -- a diagram of what the bailout might mean to you and me, Jane and Joe Taxpayer. If you go there, click around. He has a number of interesting messages and data sets that show his point as much as tell it. If we can't fix this mess anytime soon, perhaps it's a bit of comfort to gain more perspective.

2. Creative Frugality
Have you begun to wonder yet how extended hard times might effect younger Boomers and their sibs who grew up accustomed to "living large" in better times? A number of younger bloggers are thinking about that too, and what you might call "creative frugality" is already gaining buzz among the Twittering and Thumb-texting set who are joining the ranks of the newly unemployed (see also item 3 below). One example is the "Nate's Cents" blog on making the switch to living lean without giving up all pleasure. We oldsters may smile to see so many of our own former life themes re-framed, but hey, at least the kids were listening. Perhaps we can tune into them ourselves and learn a few new things. Meanwhile, since I am not so far past parenting teens, I got a good grin from this post which gives a sense of how some 20-somethings might coach each other when they think the 'rents aren't listening.