A Pittsburgh native, and the primary particular person to graduate from faculty in his household, Mr. Clinton migrated to New York at 22 and by no means left. Dressed neatly in a crisp sky-blue Oxford shirt, blue vest and grey slacks, he not too long ago sat for an interview concerning the retirement evolution. The interview has been edited and condensed.
Why are we having a “new retirement” dialogue?
After I was in my 50s, the position fashions of individuals of their 70s was bleak. These individuals, who are actually of their 90s, live conventional, post-retirement years. We’ve develop into the brand new position fashions. Persons are realizing they’re residing considerably longer than they thought. They need to reinvent and reimagine their lives, not wind down. The chance to have a second profession and an even bigger life have develop into a actuality.
Why are child boomers spearheading this motion?
Boomers had been the unique activists who believed in change. They’re the challengers. It’s a part of their DNA. They challenged the battle, intercourse, created Earth Day and had been a part of the homosexual motion. They’re now difficult what it means to age and dwell longer. A generational angle has met the longer life phenomena and is creating this zeitgeist second. The brand new longevity is the social motion of our instances that may have an effect on everybody transferring ahead, which is able to profit Gen Xers and millennials.
Does conventional retirement nonetheless exist?
Sure, that retirement assemble nonetheless exists. Some individuals need to depart their job at 65 and transfer to a sunny state to hang around with their buddies. That assemble has by no means been disrupted or challenged till now. Re-imagineers, people who find themselves reinventing a dynamic second half of life, have advocated for abandoning that outdated idea and have created a brand new model that occurs later in life. The brand new retirement is a rewire to their subsequent profession. Many have centered on individualized entrepreneurialism, going again to high school, following their earlier passions and constructing an even bigger life for themselves. They’re driving the brand new longevity economic system.
What’s the reasoning behind the fanciful, artistic vocabulary you and the Roar group use?
What we’re doing is difficult the established order and the illustration of individuals over 50 in language and pictures. Utilizing phrases like re-imagineers, life-layering, the brand new longevity, second lifers, helps shift notion. It’s to alter our considering. These phrases and vocabulary, together with imaging, affect how we predict. The self-imposed ageism pictures matter by way of how we mirror what we appear to be and the place we see ourselves in promoting and leisure. When you don’t change the language, when you don’t change the pictures, you’ll be able to’t change the cultural assemble.