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A recent article talks about when should a Boomer retire? It provides views from experts in the field. The background to this discussion is that many Baby Boomers do not have enough saved to substitute for their main source of income. This means they either keep working longer OR reduce their standard of living. If you have enough saved to support you for the next 3-4 decades in retirement, then you can retire when you want to. For those that do not have enough saved, Alicia Munnell, Director of the Center for Retirement Research at the Boston College recommends people to work until they are 66 years. Others think this is very conservative. For example, Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of think tank, Civic Ventures suggests that people work until they are 70 years of age to make sure they can finance their lifestyles for the rest of their lives.

When the talk about retirement age comes up, invariably I think about the definition of retirement. You know, in the traditional sense, retirement is where you give up working, just stick around the house, may be volunteer a bit or travel and just spend the remaining years in solitude. There is debate whether this was ever the case, but never the less, this is the common perception of debate.

 Considering the health and active lifestyles people in their 60’s and even 70’s in many cases lead, there is a new saying these days that 60 is the new 40. For example read this article about an Australian Rider, Laurie Lever, who at age 60 is taking part in the Beijing Olympics. Although Laurie Lever began riding when he was 10 and has been a showjumper by profession, he says it took him this long to find a real ‘winner’ horse. Though he hasn’t won yet, Laurie you are a real champion. 

Coming back to our discussion, a retirement now means more like I might still work, but it will be on my terms, when I want to and how I want to. As opposed to working for someone or working long hours day in and day out. I can afford to take this approach only when I have the financial wherewithal to support myself and my family to live, enjoy and give. The more disciplined we are in our financial matters, the sooner this time will be.

So take that next step to your own financial freedom and build on and grow your discipline.

By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Guest Blogger

Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Mehmet Oz, professor of surgery at Columbia University, teamed up yesterday to present a great show, “Dr. Oz on Aging: How to Turn Back Time.”

One hundred audience members were preselected to take an aging test. They filled out a quiz at home and had a physical exam, which included push-ups and sit-ups.

The results weren’t good. The 100 people were ranked as follows:

• 1 – outstanding

• 0 – aging well

• 18 – average

• 81 – not aging well

The woman with the outstanding score said she runs, lifts weights, swims, cooks most of what she eats, and has a happy home life. The woman with the lowest score said she smokes, drinks, eats poorly, and doesn’t exercise.

People in America are making subtle mistakes in lifestyle choices, Oz told Winfrey’s audience.

Oz said his book, “You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty (You),” with co-author Michael F. Roizen, offers information on how to make changes that will give you vitality as you age.

The brain begins to shift and think about the world differently in 14 days, he said.

In three months, people can start to affect their life expectancy. In three years, nearly any negative past behavior can be reversed, Oz added. “Remember you can’t get rid of your bad habits. You’ve got to replace them with good ones.”

The No. 1 major ager is stress, he said.

Ways to reduce stress include:

• Breathing deeply and practicing meditation, yoga, and chi-gong, which is a method of working with energy within the body.

• Licking the lips then sucking in air with the lips slightly open.

• Placing a cork vertically between your teeth.

Other major agers are a diet high in fat and sugar, not getting enough exercise, lack of sleep, and too much exposure to sun.

On what to eat, Oz said whole grains, beets, and raisins contain magnesium and are major antioxidants that help to reduce stress. Oranges, grapefruit, bananas, avocados, and yogurt help lower blood pressure. Tomatoes, blueberries, carrots, and broccoli can boost your immune system.

Click on Major Agers on Oz’s Web page “Health: You Staying Young” for details on what ages you.

Oz and Winfrey discussed telomeres, which I’d never heard of before. They’re like shoelaces at the tip of the chromosomes, Oz said. When the caps of telomeres begin to wear off, due to stress and other factors, the telomeres become frayed and cells can’t be replaced.

The telomeres in people who are old and frail have worn off, he said, adding all organs can be replaced if telomeres aren’t damaged.

“Aging is about replacing what’s broken,” Oz told Winfrey’s audience.

If you can’t walk a quarter of a mile in six minutes, it’s an indication you’re not aging well, he said.

A cutting-edge blood test – the Biophysical250 – also gives a health assessment on how you’re aging. It costs $1,500 to $3,400.

Other options, Oz said, are to use the 14-day plan in his book and ask your doctor for certain tests. The tests are blood pressure, blood sugar, thyroid, and red blood cell count.

Good sex – meaning in a loving, committed relationship – helps keep you young, and it adds three years to your life, he said.

On brain health, Oz offered a Brain Test worksheet to the audience. If you can cross out the Hs in 40 seconds, you have good brain agility.

However, he told the audience they didn’t need to worry if they missed too many Hs. The aging process can be turned around.

See Oz’s 15 Ways to Maintain Your Memory slide show.

Winfrey offers a series of 16 short Web pages on the show on her Web site. It’s worth looking through if you’re a boomer consumer interested in living a vital life for years to come.

For more information for boomer consumers, see my blog The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

We all know that we have two parts to our brains. Our left brain that is analytical in nature and our right brain is the source of our creative juices. Some are more left brained while some others are more right brained. But how much do we know or realize the capabilities that our brain gifts us with? How much do we understand the capabilities of each of these parts?

I can almost hear you say, why should I care?

Yes, Why should you care?

If learning about this helped you live your life more holistically, if learning about this helps you relieve some of your stress-points, if learning about this changes who you are for the better that you always wanted to become, wouldn’t you care?

Judith Auslander of Wise Heart Coaching (commercial break: Judith has joined the privileged group of Boomer411 trustees. So watch for her web site/article recommendations on Boomer411) shared this insightful video, titled ‘My Stroke of Insight’.

Click here to watch the video, titled ‘My Stroke of Insight’.

In this video, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, neural anatomist shares her own experience in an engaging, gripping conversation with us. To keep the element of surprise, I am not revealing her experience. But I am very positive that it will touch you and stimulate you to look at your life differently; it sure touched me. Be sure to sit down, relax and watch the video with a calm and open mind for maximum learning.

As you watch this, think about how annoyingly left-brain oriented, as a society, we have become. What a wonderful gift it would be to our lives to find that Nirvana, that inner joy to resonate throughout our lives?

After you watch the video, scroll down and answer this question…

Who has the power or control to let that life force, that inner joy to resonate throughout our lives or not?

Do post your comments/thoughts on the same.

GM is coming out with vehicles that are more adaptive to older eyes, older bodies. And other automakers are thinking to follow suit. As Baby Boomers get older and reach retirement age, along with it come the health related issues and reduced eyesight. This is hightime for automobile makers to take notice and redesign the cars to accommodate this changing needs of Baby Boomers. Make no mistake. For those manufacturers that sieze this opportunity, it is big business. Apparently, GM is coming out with vehicles equipped with high-tech gadgets that help with blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warnings and so on.

Chuck Nyren of the Advertising to Baby Boomers blog has posted the following nice post covering the recent Business Week article on the subject, ‘The coming Boom in Boomer Friendly Transport‘, as well as his own prediction on the topic much earlier. This articles also talks about the need for the roads, road signs themselves to change to be more convenient on the aging bodies. Click on the links above for further reading on this topic.

There has been a new surge of brain fitness software and retirement communities competing to offer brain fitness gyms, equipped with such computer programs. While the benefits of such activities on the aging minds is valuable in itself, one has to take a more holistic approach towards one’s overall health. With this perspective, such activities to keep the brain alert are to be used in addition to physical activities; but not as a substitute to physical activities. Mark Miller of RetirementRevised has a great post here on this topic.  Here are some examples of the latest trend in engaging elders using Wii enabled games.

In his post, Mark quotes Merz Nordstrom, the author of the book, ‘Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years’ and a director for the ElderHostel and highlights the importance of Lifelong Learning and education in keeping one’s brain and mind active and engaged. No doubt, this is a great post on the topic I have seen around so far.  

But I think both viewpoints have their place in senior health. While Boomers and their seniors in their 60’s and 70’s would be able to engage in travel and continuing education and thus could keep themselves more engaged, active and fit; their parents that may be in their 90’s can hardly think of extended travel or any kind of serious physical activity. When their life is constrained to the limited world of their retirement community and the limited number of people they routinely interact with, such brain fitness software exercises or the Wii enabled games such as Wii Bowling, etc enable them to extend their activity and benefit their health. There are two broad ways this can benefit elders, first, as they engage in such activity and exercise their brains, their brains work harder to stay engaged, active and healthy. The second benefit is that it helps them recollect and relive their good times in the past and enable them to step out of their present physical limitations; it helps them to engage in something more fun, more interesting than their normal daily problems; it gives them something to look forward to in those mostly solitary years. But as Mark points out, a good balance is a must. One must strive to mix the mental exercising with as much physical activity as possible, but not as a substitute to physical activity.