The social and economic paradigms are changing so much for baby boomers that a new way of looking at the landscape has developed.
Economist Chris Farrell calls this “unretirement” and believes that it has important implications for thinking about the retirement years. This was the perspective that Farrell offered as the keynote presenter for “Baby Boomers: What’s Next for You?”— a conference recently held at NSU and co-sponsored by the Town of Davie, Boomer Breakthrough, and the university.
Farrell dismissed conflict between generations, and noted that the biggest impact from the unretirement movement will be on younger generations. He is the author of “Unretirement: How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Working, Community and the Good Life.”
The conference was the brainchild of NSU professors Kimberly Durham, Ph.D., Jacki Browne, Ph.D., and Bob Preziosi, Ph.D., as well as Boomer Breakthrough Founder Kitty Preziosi and the Town of Davie, represented by Councilwoman Susan Starkey.
Following Farrell’s keynote there were 4 concurrent sessions:
1.) Dr. Barry Nierenberg, associate professor, College of Psychology, on steps to improve wellbeing.
2.) Dr. Robert Oller, NSU’s chief medical advisor for Clinical Operations, on health challenges facing boomers.
3.) Dr. Albert Williams, associate professor of finance and economics, Huizenga College of Business, on boomer entrepreneurship, and
4.) Anne Goldberg, of Savvy Senior Services, on the art of living longer.
What else you missed…
Conference attendees were able to visit booths from 14 organizations, including Firewall Centers, Hope Outreach, Elias Dermatology and NSU’s Lifelong Learning Institute. Throughout the conference, participants were able to talk about how boomers could utilize their lifetime’s toolkits of skills and experiences to build something to benefit their community that would have meaning and purpose. They also interacted with members of the Boomer Breakthrough team, sharing their enthusiasm for continuing the local Encore movement, Boomer Breakthrough.
The closing session was highlighted by Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship alumnus, Dr. Rita Smith. She spoke on “From Awareness to Action: Powerful Next Steps.” She called attention to the fact that only 5% of boomers have a life plan for retirement. She introduced a five-step process for designing a roadmap to reinvent boomer retirement which starts with readiness reality check to explore transition strengths and challenges. It concludes with making it happen with the creation of a powerful plan of action. Dr. Smith is the author of the forthcoming book, “Empty Nest, Empty Desk, What’s Next?”