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.

The weight of political fealty now burdens every public action, or, in this case, tragedy, in the United States. The center absolutely does not hold and might never again. Casualties include truth, reason, facts and common sense, the trusted accompaniment to reason.

We are struggling and spinning in wildly different and unwanted directions.

According to the Trump administration, Renee Nicole Good, 37, shot to death during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis, was a domestic terrorist who weaponized her vehicle with the intention to mow down an ICE agent.

According to Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz, Good was the victim of Gestapo enforcement tactics used to cleanse the country of cleaners, chefs, parking lot attendants and gardeners.

Where that leaves Good is very dead, shot multiple times, either legitimately or not, depending not on facts, but on fealty.

Whether by design or happenstance, Good found herself in the middle of an ICE swoop. She was asked to get out of her car. She refused. She was told to leave. She then turned her wheels to the right, the path of leaving. She was leaving. An ICE agent, standing off her front left headlight, appeared to get out of her way and then leaned forward into the car to take his shots. The ICE agent then walked away — he did not appear at all injured — and was taken from the scene, reportedly to a hospital.

Good was dead.

The cellphone videos were plentiful. There was no suspicion of AI or trickery of any kind. The shooting could be seen from multiple angles. It wasn’t a matter of suspecting the motives of a so-called citizen journalist. It was video. It was real.

Frey and Walz minced no words expressing their disgust. Cooler heads, when the center held, might not have encouraged their constituents to hold ICE in contempt. In fact, and precisely because of their particular allegiance, they vowed to not allow local law enforcement to help ICE, save with traffic behavior. Upon Good’s death, Frey — virally, it turns out — told ICE to get the f— out of our town.

The Trump administration sent U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to town. She said, “it is very clear this individual was harassing and impeding law enforcement operations.”

Noem was asking me to disbelieve my own eyes.

Moments later at the same press conference, Noem said, “we’re following the standard protocol procedures we do in situations like this. When there is an officer-involved shooting, we make sure that we get all the facts and that we’re getting the statements of everyone involved and make sure investigators are handling the decisions.”

But wait a minute. You said previously that Good was harassing and impeding law enforcement. Maybe those were the facts Noem was confident she would learn based on her fealty to the Trump administration.

If the country had sustained a center and not fallen into warring camps, here is what would have happened in the last year.

ICE would not be a theatrical gumshoe operation. Select ICE teams would target serious criminals here illegally — we’re not going to get rid of every house cleaner and gardener — and quietly get dispatched to whatever city to make their arrests.

Frey and Walz, acting in concert, would have made local law enforcement available to ICE.

Noem would not be putting carts in front of horses.

Residents would not be in the streets protesting because they wouldn’t know anything was going on.

Renee Nicole Good would be alive.

But we don’t have a center, a moral and ethical high ground. We are adrift, with a foul, indescribably difficult president at the helm and, locally, a government that we would be foolish to trust.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.

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Kids ‘n Kinship provides friendships and positive role models to children and youth ages 5-16 who are in need of an additional supportive relationship with an adult. Here’s one of the youth waiting for a mentor:

First name: Nate

Age: 13

Interests: Nate loves football- watching it and playing it. He is a big gamer and his favorite game is Madden.

Personality/Characteristics: Nate has a tough exterior. He can be skeptical and incredibly witty. He loves to debate and has a great memory. Get him talking about something he is interested in, and you’ll learn a lot. At school, he is often the class clown!

Goals/dreams:  If he had 3 wishes it would be 1) For school not to exist. 2) To have infinite money. And 3) To play in the NFL. His guardian hopes a mentor can break through his tough exterior and open up his sensitive side. She hopes a male mentor will help to get out of the house, off of video games and open him up to new fun experiences! He’s faced a lot of disappointment in his life so someone who will stick with him is important.

For more information: Nate is waiting for a mentor through Kids n’ Kinship in Dakota County. To learn more about this youth mentoring program and the 39+ youth waiting for a mentor, sign up for an Information Session, visit www.kidsnkinship.org or email programs@kidsnkinship.org. For more information about mentoring in the Twin Cities outside of Dakota County, contact MENTOR MN at mentor@mentormn.org or fill out a brief form at www.mentoring.org/take-action/become-a-mentor/#search.

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Today is Saturday, Jan. 10, the 10th day of 2026. There are 355 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 10, 2013, a series of bomb blasts in Pakistan killed more than 100 people, including dozens who died in a sectarian attack in the southwest city of Quetta. Hundreds of others were injured.

Also on this date:

In 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, “Common Sense,” which argued for American independence from British rule.

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In 1860, the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, collapsed and caught fire, killing as many as 145 people.

In 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union prior to the Civil War.

In 1863, the London Underground was born when the Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened to the public with service between Paddington and Farringdon Street.

In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY’) went into effect.

In 1946, the United Nations convened its first General Assembly session in London with 51 nations represented. The proceedings defined the scope and purpose of the world body.

In 1982, San Francisco 49ers receiver Dwight Clark caught a touchdown pass from Joe Montana with 58 seconds left in the NFC Championship Game; one of the most famous plays in NFL history, “The Catch” led the 49ers to a 28-27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys and a berth in Super Bowl XVI, where they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals for their first Super Bowl victory.

In 2017, President Barack Obama delivered his farewell address in Chicago, in which the two-term Democrat urged national unity and highlighted achievements of his presidency including the Affordable Care Act. Republican Donald Trump took office days later after a 2016 election in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Today’s birthdays:

Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bill Toomey is 87.
Singer Rod Stewart is 81.
Rock singer-musician Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) is 78.
Singer Pat Benatar is 73.
Hall of Fame racing driver and team owner Bobby Rahal is 73.
Actor-comedian Jemaine Clement is 52.
Actor Sarah Shahi is 46.
Business owner Jared Kushner is 45.
Actor and singer Reneé Rapp is 26.