GRAND Magazine - January/February 2019 - 12

the future of aging

What older people will be like in a decade's time

BY KEN DYCHWALD

n 10 years, the typical older
person will be even more
youthful, active, hip and
financially strapped than today's
elder. Demographically speaking, they will also be better educated, more open-minded, more
at ease with new tech and will
be more female, Hispanic, black,
Asian and gay. From a social point
of view, tomorrow's older men
and women will have somewhat
rolled back today's pervasive
ageism-and will be more honored as mentors, leaders, role
models and elders. And they'll be
the beneficiaries of an emerging
longevity-focused marketplace of
cool and/or helpful products and
services.
We can be sure that the
Boomers will have mainstreamed
a new paradigm for work, learning
and leisure/retirement throughout
one's life. Previous generations
lived what I call a "linear life." You learned, then you worked like
crazy for 40 years, and then if you had a little bit of longevity, you
had some retirement time. What you will see mainstreamed (and
younger people will like this model, too) is a more cyclic model
of how to live one's life, like going back to school at age 65 and
learning a new career. A collateral result will be a more balanced
life across the entire life course.

12 GRAND

JANUARY FEBRUARY 2019

"I am hopeful that tomorrow's
older men and women will
mainstream a potent new
purpose of maturity."

their parents' resources, they'll be living large. The
middle third will need to work a few extra years and
live more frugally or communally. But a full third of
the Boomers haven't been able to save anything
for retirement and their future will be fraught with
struggles.
I am hopeful that tomorrow's older men and
women will mainstream a potent new purpose of
maturity. That in the near future, purposeful volunteerism will increasingly have a meaningful place in
people's lives-rather than retirees spending 49 hours
each week watching television, as they currently do.
Much of that contribution will be aimed at coaching,
helping and befriending younger people in need. And
that's a good thing-the older and younger generations have a lot to share with each other.

One of the biggest changes will be the accelerated ascent of
female power and influence. Women are biologically superior and
outlive men, and over the past decades, they have also outpaced
men in all sorts of things, such as education and earnings growth.
As we become an increasingly elder society, our political and
social lives will become increasingly controlled by women.
I also see more financial hardship. Since about a third of the
Boomers have saved responsibly and actively or are the heirs of

Over the past 35+ years, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has
emerged as North America's foremost visionary and
original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health
care, and workforce implications of the age wave. Since
1986, Ken has been the founding President and CEO
of Age Wave, a firm created to guide companies and
government groups in product/service development for
boomers and mature adults

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GRAND Magazine - January/February 2019

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