Wearing dual hats as motivational marketer and demographic champion, I regularly lead retreats in which boomer women share their deepest dreams and concerns. And so it was that I noticed a sea change at a retreat of leading-edge boomer women in Napa this weekend—one that not only worries me, but for which I feel partially responsible.
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In brief, it wasn’t that long ago when women gathered together in qualitative research circles to complain about feeling marginalized and invisible: powerless. Then suddenly, at this most recent retreat, a substantial number of the twenty women at the retreat started reporting that they are either contemplating or in the throes of selling their houses to follow some variation of a dream.
These were well-educated, urban women in their late 50’s/early 60’s who were walking away from their steady incomes, willing to exploit their assets and savings, cutting back or completely shutting themselves out from health insurance costs. Some had plans, such as “start my own website”. Others were simply walking away to “think about what to do next.”
Empowered? I’ll say. Foolhardy? Well, let’s just say that I am not used to playing the role of the conservative in the group.
As recently as several years ago, I wrote a blog in the self-help genre: “Hippies, Yuppies and Re-Uppies”:
“At an age where expectations that our generation pull back, instead of re-tiring we are re-upping for another tour of duty in life. We are changing careers, finally getting around to taking risks with our dreams, advancing into new psychological and spiritual terrain, not only new to us as individuals, but for society as a whole. We are, in fact, Re-uppies.”
Along with many others, a movement was afoot to empower women in the face of the challenges and opportunities of aging. With our upbeat attitude, we were readying the ground, indeed, for messages like that conveyed by the bestselling book “The Secret”, which argues that if we think positively about what we want (the “law of attraction”) nothing can stop us.
Now, I am personally more sober and less inclined to believe in my own invulnerability. And so I, along with many statisticians who are doing the math on this generation’s financial future, worry.
May the law of attraction attract good sense to all those 50 plus who are making plans to jump without a net. And may our generation of women’s new dream at least include a top-notch financial planner.
Carol Orsborn