Amy Lindgren
Second Sunday Series – This is the fifth of 12 columns on career planning post-60, which will appear the second Sunday of each month from September through August.
It may be mostly symbolic, but the new year is an excellent time for new initiatives, such as career planning for your post-60 years.
Whether you’re already a working senior — or is that golden ager? Third-ager? Elder worker? Mature worker? Just plain senior citizen? — anyway, whether you’re in the 60+ group now, or simply looking ahead, planning is the name of the game for this stage of life.
One of the best planning tools for this purpose is the humble timeline. You have a lot of life ahead of you, and a timeline can help you organize it. How much time? According to actuarial tables, today’s 65-year-old has even odds of living to 85 — and perhaps half of those 85-year-olds will live into their 90s.
And if you’re only 50 now? You could literally have more working years ahead than behind you. Now is the time to groan if this is not an appealing prospect. Keep in mind, these numbers are generalized and may not apply to you. But what if they do?
(If you want a better handle on your personal life expectancy, several online calculators, including LivingTo100.com, can provide an estimated age at death based on your answers to lifestyle and health questions.)
For the moment, a helpful mindset might be one of opportunity. As in, anticipated longevity offers the opportunity to plan for a satisfying and adequately financed life. Whereas being surprised by longevity when it’s actually unfolding could be something of a disaster.
If you’re ready to grasp this opportunity, get yourself something to write on, and with. I favor pencil and blank (unlined) paper, but even the back of an envelope will do. Here are the steps for roughing out your lifeline.
• 1. Draw a straight-ish line across the paper, leaving room above and below for populating the timeline. Anchor both ends by writing your current age just below the line on the far left and your estimated age of demise below the line on the far right.
We’ll use Kerry as an example, a 65-year-old worker who expects to live until 90. That’s 25 years, which is a solid chunk of time.
• 2. Now mark the age at which you believe you will stop working entirely. For our example, we’ll say 85. That leaves 20 years for Kerry’s career, as well as five years post-work.
In your case, if you know your plans for after you completely retire, make a note above the timeline in that area.
• 3. Going back to the front of the timeline, is there an age at which you would plan / hope to switch from full-time to part-time work, if you haven’t already?
For our example, 65-year-old Kerry plans to work full-time until age 70 and then collect maximum Social Security while switching to part-time work. This means Kerry has five more years of full-time work, followed by 15 years part-time before stopping altogether.
Sticking with Kerry’s planning, there are questions that need to be pondered, then firmed up before the timeline can become a career blueprint. For example,
• Is Kerry’s current work satisfying and sustainable, or should a switch be considered now, ahead of the five-year window for full-time employment? If so, would training be advisable, to smooth the path to the new work?
• Would Kerry’s current work (or the potential new career) fit well for part-time employment later? Would it accommodate a flexible schedule if Kerry’s health or family duties were to require that?
• What are Kerry’s ideas for the post-work period, or for “extra” hours while working part-time? If they involve a special interest, or a new location, what steps should be taken early on? How might career choices support those plans?
As you can imagine, this is only a starter list of questions that Kerry might consider. And of course, your own information will differ. In your own timeline, you’ll want to make room — perhaps a second timeline, or a different color — for family events, major trips, anticipated surgeries, potential changes in your finances or housing, or other items that could impact your thinking. If you have a partner, that person’s working plans may also land on your timeline.
It’s a lot to corral in one place but luckily things don’t have to be precise at this stage. If you can capture the main ideas in terms of how long you plan to work and in what way (full- or part-time, etc.), then you’ll have the core of what’s needed to build your career plan.
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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.
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