Engage Your Brain

Engage Your Brain
[25 July 2006 - AARP Lifelong Learning] ... Your brain's ability to change and reorganize itself in response to learning and experience affords you a great opportunity: You can choose to follow a lifestyle that maximizes your "brain power," which will keep the engine of learning revved up as you age. Brain experts are convinced that engaging in active learning throughout life will help maintain brain health in our later years. "The brain wants to learn," says Michael Merzenich, PhD, a neurobiologist at University of California, San Francisco. "It wants to be engaged as a learning machine." ... Large, well-designed studies of older adults have clearly shown that a lifestyle that includes stimulating mental activity—especially in terms of social interaction—is associated with successful aging. The largest controlled clinical trial to date, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that cognitive (mental) "training sessions" improved memory, concentration and problem-solving skills in healthy adults ages 65 and older. The effects were powerful and long lasting. More

Think you're old? It may show in memory test

Think You're Old? It May Show in Memory Test
[19 July 2006 - International Herald Tribune / New York Times] Resigning yourself to old age may produce the very mental lapses that most people fear will strike them in their golden years. In a paper appearing in the current issue of the journal Social Cognition, psychologists report that men and women in late middle age underperformed on a standard memory test when told they were part of a study including people over age 70. Inclusion with an older group - an indirect reminder of the link between age and memory slippage - was enough to affect their scores, especially for those who were most concerned about getting older, the authors concluded. Read more

AARP Releases Survey on "Significance of Sixty" to Boomers
[5 July 2006 - AARP] AARP released a survey of more than 800 sixty year old baby boomers on the “significance of sixty.” The research posed questions on the significance of sixty, personal goals, longevity and the perfect gift. Sixty-year old boomers surveyed reported:
* Turning 60 was a “more significant” event in their lives than turning 50 (40%);
* The perfect gifts ranged from winning the lottery to spending time with family/friends to better health to a new car;
* Only 1 percent see age as a barrier to achieving their goals;
* Virtually all want to make a substantial life change;
* Nearly half (46%) are AARP members, compared to 30% of all eligible boomers;
* Work still plays a major role in their lives, with those currently working reporting higher satisfaction than their counterparts who are not currently working (81 % vs. 60%);
* One in five 60-year-olds want to live to be 100; and
* Nearly 80 percent are satisfied with their lives overall.
Read the summary and download the full report (PDF).

Employer Attitudes towards Older Workers: Survey Results
[July 2006 - The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College] Today men on average retire at 63 and women at 62, and they can expect to spend 20 years in retirement. But if Americans continue to retire as early as they do today, many will not have adequate income once they stop working. Social Security will provide less relative to pre-retirement earnings as the normal retirement age rises from 65 to 67 and those lucky enough to have a 401(k) plan are likely to find their balances inadequate. One solution to the retirement security challenge is for people to work longer. Working longer directly increases a person’s current income; it avoids the actuarial reduction in Social Security benefits; it allows people to contribute more to their 401(k) plans; it allows their assets more time to accumulate investment earnings; and it shortens the period over which people have to support themselves with their retirement assets. So it stands to reason that workers would choose to extend their careers. But will they find employment? This brief presents the results of a new Center survey of attitudes towards older workers. Key findings are:
* Although older workers are seen as costing more, they are also viewed as more productive than younger workers.
* On balance, over 80 percent of employers said older workers were “as attractive” or “more attractive” than a younger employee.
Read the summary or download the full report (PDF).

More retirees opting to launch startups: Baby boomers aren't just heading to the links - they are starting new businesses in record numbers
[5 July 2006 - Business 2.0 Magazine] Terry Alderete and Leonard Liu don't seem to have much in common. She's the owner of a special events firm in Newark, Calif., and he's chairman and chief executive of a software development company split between Silicon Valley and Shanghai. But Alderete, 61, and Liu, 65, are both part of a booming demographic: retirement-age entrepreneurs. For the past 10 years, adults ages 55 to 64 have been the group most likely to start a new business, according to a study released in May by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship. And now that baby boomers are reaching retirement age, the trend is only going to grow. More

Aging Populations Shy Away From Entrepreneurship
[10 July 2006 - Babson College] Countries where aging populations are increasing faster than younger people may also see  a decline in entrepreneurial business activity according to new research from Babson College Professor Maria Minniti, Research Director of The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) which annually measures entrepreneurial activity worldwide. Minniti and colleague Moren Levesque, University of Waterloo, Canada, found that individuals select career paths according to the dynamic interplay of age, risk, and wealth.  Older workers in waged-labor have less incentive to start a new business because their current income is likely to increase over time with experience and seniority.  Younger workers are free to take risks….they can afford to wait for economic security, expect to live longer, and have fewer responsibilities -- family, mortgages, etc. -- to hold them down. Their research entitled, The Effect of Aging on Entrepreneurial Behavior, was published in the Journal of Business Venturing 2006. "The study," according to Minniti, “has important policy implications because it suggests that, unless things change, countries with aging populations—like most European countries—may expect a decline in entrepreneurial activity and possibly growth.” Minniti says that the United States has never experienced this problem because of its historical embrace of new immigrants.  “Immigrants tend to be younger and have more children to help build new businesses,” says Minniti.  “Obviously, our research can impact and contribute to the recent US debate on immigration.” ...

Asia's Population is Graying
[11 July 2006 - Voice of America - Hong Kong] As the United Nations observes World Population Day, most Asian countries are grappling with an aging society. Asia is home to the planet's two most populous countries - China and India - and more than half the world's six and a half billion people. And statistics show the Asian population is aging - presenting challenges on how a smaller, younger generation will care for a much larger, older generation. The United Nations projects the number of Asians aged 65 and older will increase more than 300 percent between the years 2000 and 2050 - from 207 million to 857 million. ...