Posted By 
By Kollin Lore, Hub Staff
We are edging nearer to 2031, the year when all Baby Boomers will be age 65 and above, and most will at least be contemplating some form of Retirement or Semi-Retirement.
It will also be a time when the millennials will have pretty much all grown up and taken over the workforce.
Next month Jonathan Chevreau and Mike Drak’s Victory Lap Retirement will be published, a perfect time considering the age we are headed towards. However, though the book concerns the older generation, there is much to learn for millennials too.
Earlier in July, Chevreau discussed his upcoming book on Digital Citizen’s ThatChannel with creative director, Norman Evans, Laura Tyson, and host, Hugh Reilly. Click on the highlighted link to access the YouTube video: Get Ready to Earn Your “Playcheque.”
“The Boomers have reinvented every stage in life they have gone through,” said Chevreau. “Now they are going to reinvent retirement, by starting with the word ‘retirement’ because they are not ready to stop … That’s why Mike and I created the phrase Victory Lap.”
This titular ‘Victory Lap’ concerns finding that balance between stress and boredom following retirement. It means staying active and can include anything from travelling the world, to part time jobs, to volunteering to more time with family.
Of the many activities in which to partake during the Victory Lap, volunteering is an especially valuable past time to consider.
“The benefit of doing something passionate you enjoy, it’s really good for your self-esteem, you feel good and you’re going to stay healthy,” said Laura Tyson, who participated in Ride to Conquer Cancer earlier this summer.
Tyson is on a team called The Power of Bill. The man the team is named after is an 88-year-old gentleman who had triple bypass surgery and who is blind. This past year was his eighth year riding.
This is all very important for millennials because the generation needs to understand that active lifestyles post age 65 will be their lives in the future, but with much more urgency.
Having grown up during the recession and set back earlier in their careers by student debt, working past age 65 will be as much a necessity for them as for any other generation.
It is widely believed that millennials will still need to support themselves financially when they are older, retirement savings or not.
The question then is how do individuals stay motivated in their senior years? How can one continue to work past age 65 and feel good about it?
The Baby Boomers have all the answers
“There ‘s never been a better time for Boomers because we have our offices in our pocket now,” said Norman Evans. “We can do anything, we can be anywhere, we just have to own the fact that we are the invisible people; we have another dimension it’s called experience and we have knowledge to share, it’s a very exciting time to be a Boomer.”
The ultimate lesson to take away from it all is it is important for millennials entering the workforce to remember to care for themselves emotionally too. Making it a habit early can better prepare themselves for their life beyond age 65.
Learning from the Baby Boomers, communicating with them and understanding how they enjoy their victory lap is a great resource to begin learning how.
To start, in the words of Laura Tyson on ThatChannel, “anything you do in life keep doing it and have fun!”
See also the just-posted third instalment of the Digital Citizen Show, where Jonathan interviews Millennial financial fitness coach Chantal Chapman and the Hub’s Millennial finance blogger Helen Chevreau: Millennials and Boomers and Fintech with Chantal Chapman.
Kollin Lore is a freelance writer specializing in all things entertainment and arts. He is also a student of PR and Advertising. Currently, Kollin is doing PR and social media for Creative Marketing Network and non-profit organization, Music Can Heal.
Twitter: @kayell100; Website: www.kollinlore.com
