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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
The caregiving crisis: An overlooked $600 billion problem in retirement planning
Listen and subscribe to Decoding Retirement on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. A perfect storm in American retirement planning is brewing. As the population rapidly ages, unpaid family caregivers are already providing 20 to 25 hours per week caring for older loved ones — a hidden burden that MIT AgeLab director Joe Coughlin calls a '$600 billion problem.' In a recent episode of the Decoding Retirement podcast, Coughlin discussed how caregiving is consuming more time and money than most families anticipate. Highlighting the need, 1 in 4 families spends the equivalent of a part‑time job caring for an older adult, he said, and these hours don't include caring for children or family members with disabilities. While emerging technologies — from AI-powered smart homes to household robots — promise to reshape how Americans age, families today face immediate emotional, financial, and logistical pressures. 'Caregiving is ... an issue in the shadows that is right now a personal problem but should become a public issue,' Coughlin said. This embedded content is not available in your region. The 'leaky pipe' effect Retirement planning is often treated as a purely financial exercise, but Coughlin warns that approach may be too narrow. While financial resources are essential, they are only half the equation. 'Financial security is just part of it,' Coughlin said. 'You also need to know who you trust to walk into your mother's home when she's 80‑something and care for her when you can't be there.' When asked who will provide care, most adults assume their spouse or partner will become their primary caregiver, followed by an adult child, usually a daughter, Coughlin said. But these caregiving arrangements can put emotional, physical, and financial strain on families. Spouses will eventually need their own care. Adult children may live far away or juggle their own careers and families. And hands‑on support, such as adult day programs and home health aides, is often needed for tasks big and small, from administering medication to cooking meals or taking out the trash. Furthermore, caregiving rarely begins with a single event; it creeps into family life slowly, often long before families feel prepared. This can have financial ramifications too. Research shows financial decline often begins before a dementia diagnosis due to missed bills, unwise spending, or vulnerability to scams. One 2023 study found that families lost half their wealth in the eight years before a dementia diagnosis. Coughlin calls this the 'leaky pipe' effect. 'Years before the diagnosis of dementia, bad decisions start to happen ... and we see that money leak out of that euphemistic pipeline,' Coughlin said. 'This is profoundly emotional. When do you have the courage and the opportunity to tell a spouse or a parent, 'Dad, you're not quite OK, and I need to step in?'" Read more: How to protect aging parents from banking scams Transportation: The overlooked essential Coughlin also highlighted transportation as one of the most overlooked aspects of retirement — something many people take for granted until it becomes an issue. He noted that 70% of Americans over 50 live in suburban or rural areas where public transit is either nonexistent or too difficult to use. Meanwhile, the top three expenses for couples over 65 remain the same: housing first, transportation second, and healthcare third. 'We also forget that transportation is not just about getting you where you need to be,' Coughlin said. 'It is a vital part of quality of life. It's about getting to the things you want, the things that make you smile.' Even if you get your needs taken care of — going to the doctor's office or getting food delivered — what about the small joys? Coughlin illustrated the point with a simple story. 'Will you get an ice cream cone?' he asked. 'Will you get the thing on a hot summer night that makes you smile, that you don't need? You don't want to bother your adult daughter or a neighbor that you don't talk to on a regular basis saying, 'Hey, will you take me out to Dairy Queen for a soft serve?' That's not going to happen. But those little things are the things that make quality of life in older adulthood possible.' 'Transportation, frankly, is one of the great missing links to a quality retirement plan — and frankly, in many of our communities,' he added. So what's the actionable advice for people who may soon face the reality of giving up driving? Coughlin advised starting with a location assessment and exploring any public transit options you might have ignored. 'If you've not used the local subway or bus system — I know it's difficult to say that if you haven't used it in 40 years — give it a go,' Coughlin said. Experiment with home delivery services, from food and groceries to telemedicine, to help bridge transportation gaps. Coughlin also pointed to ridesharing services as a key tool for maintaining mobility. 'As we found during COVID, ridesharing services are now ubiquitous,' he said. 'They're no longer just in the city or near suburbs — they're out, frankly, where I live, out in the middle of nowhere. If you haven't tried one of those services, try them, try them often. That way it becomes a transition, and not hitting a wall when driving is no longer either comfortable or capable.' He emphasized that the ability to drive safely is about health and well-being, not just age. Still, he urged older adults to plan ahead for the day when driving may no longer be comfortable or possible. Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide The role of AI and robots in caregiving Coughlin also addressed how evolving technology, smart homes, and even robots are poised to help tackle some of the nation's toughest caregiving challenges. Artificial intelligence "is definitely going to be ubiquitous in your retirement," Coughlin said, explaining that the technology may become 'seamless' in the home — similar to the kind of technology Arthur C. Clarke famously described as 'indistinguishable from magic.' In practice, AI may handle small but critical tasks, such as reminding retirees to take medications and monitoring sleep patterns. More importantly, it could give caregivers — both family members and professionals — the ability to intervene before problems become emergencies. Rather than waiting for a home alert to declare, 'Help, he's fallen, he can't get up,' AI may be able to serve as an early‑warning system, acting as a 'caregiver's aid' and what Coughlin called 'augmented intelligence to age well.' 'It'll enable your caregiver — formal and family — to be able to intervene, to be proactive before there's an issue, such as your gait has changed, your walk is a little different, you're likely to fall,' he said. Coughlin said robots will likely be part of this ecosystem too. Companies are already envisioning robots capable of folding laundry, cleaning your house, or even performing a social function by talking to you or playing a game with you. Part of his optimism about embracing technology comes from the reality of the coming 'care gap.' With families busier, smaller, or living farther apart, technology will become essential to support aging at home. 'If we want to stay in the homes we love — so‑called aging in place, where our mortgage and our memories are — technology is going to be a helping hand to make that happen,' he said. However, he added one practical caveat for retirees: This tech support will come with a price tag. 'We should start preparing for that being a new cost in retirement,' he said. 'We've never thought about it before, but suddenly start thinking of ... your cell service, your speakers, your smart devices, and all the subscriptions you signed up for, for your refrigerator to talk to your toaster, to talk to your car, to have the food delivered. That's an invisible thing on your credit card that now needs a line item in your retirement plan.'Got questions about retirement? Email Robert Powell at yfpodcast@ and we'll do our best to answer it in a future episode of Decoding Retirement. Each Tuesday, retirement expert and financial educator Robert Powell gives you the tools to plan for your future on Decoding Retirement. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Caregiving is the $600 billion crisis hiding in plain sight
With a rapidly aging workforce, budgeting time and money for caregiving has become even more crucial for the average American. On this episode of Decoding Retirement, host Robert "Bob" Powell speaks with MIT AgeLab director Joe Coughlin, who shares his unique perspective on the advancements and challenges that await retirees. Coughlin also discusses the impact of unpaid caregiving on family finances, maintaining cash flow after retirement, and the financial benefits of residing in livable communities. Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement is hosted by Robert Powell. Find more episodes of Decoding Retirement at Because there is that coming care gap, whether our families are too busy or living at a distance, we're going to need that assistance. Technology is going to be a helping hand to make that happen. So while there are all kinds of science fiction things to creep us out, I am very optimistic that technology is going to enable us to live longer, better, healthier lives. The world is rapidly aging and given that the effects on caregiving, on transportation, on housing, on your retirement plan, they're changing rapidly as well. And here to talk with me about that is Doctor Joe Coughlin, he's the director of the MIT AIDS lab. Joe, welcome. Hey, it's great to be here, Bob. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's a pleasure. So, so two things, Joe. Our goal with with decoding retirement is to make this a person's first and last stop in their search for knowledge about retirement planning. So thank you for being here because you're going to help us accomplish that, that mission. Appreciate it. You're always a delight to work with and you know more than even most of the experts, so great totalk to you. Well, no one knows as much as you, and I want to start here, um, with caregiving and well-being. Um, it has been described at times as a $600 billion problem, especially when you think about all the unpaid caregivers in this country. Uh, you study caregiving, uh, lots to talk about there, right? Yep, no, absolutely. I mean, I want you to imagine this, Bob, in the United States or North America alone, 1 in 4 American families is providing upwards of 20 to 25 hours per week to care for an older loved one. That doesn't count children or people with special needs. So caregiving is, shall we say, a, a in the shadows, that is a right now a personal problem, but should become a public issue. what advice do you have for either people who are caregivers or perhaps even recipients of care? No, absolutely, you know, this is one of the things that retirement planning has, I don't wanna say it's completely dropped the ball, but it has defined it profoundly as only a financial if you are planning for your own retirement uh individually or as a couple, yes, absolutely, you're gonna need the financial wherewithal, the financial security to provide the care you need, even if your loved one is going to provide it. You know, the number one caregiver is typically your spouse, and sadly for you and I are more likely, Bob, sadly for our wives, it is more likely the wife caring for the husband. But after her is the adult so while both those caregivers, the, the spouse and the adult daughter would certainly appreciate and need a sort of robust financial uh plan and and and uh bank account, that's only part of it. In fact, I would even suggest it's only 50% of have to start planning out who's going to be providing the hands-on care. More likely than not, your spouse is going to need her own care, and your adult daughter, typically, even if you have adult sons, are going to be busy or distant or whatever it might be. So how are you?Going to fill in the gaps, everything from adult daycare to healthcare to home care, who's gonna do the little things? Perhaps as it advances to get you dressed to have feed, uh, you know, of food on the table or frankly, just to take out the trash on the simple yeah, financial security is part of it, but identifying, here's a scenario, Bob, identifying the person or service that you would trust to go into your mother's home when you're not there. Mom is 80 something years old, she's not cognitively as sharp as she once was. Physically may not be as well. Who do you trust to go in there to care for her?So it's not just a matter of having a bank account, it's a matter for having the actual service or the face that you would trust to do that. Yeah, um, you, you mentioned, uh, this, uh, notion of it's not a financial matter, but you've written recently, I think that families lose half their wealth in the eight years before a dementia diagnosis. Uh, obviously, so now it's twofold, right? It is financial and all the things that you just mentioned. Yeah, no, uh, some really good work done by my colleagues at the MIT Asia Lab, Luo Quinto, and folks at the AARP, Doctor Julie Miller, uh, came up with this metaphor of the leaky pipe, and years before the diagnosis of dementia, bad happen. Uh, you know, maybe bills are not paid, maybe, uh, crazy things are purchased, if you will, that are well without outside the budget. Sadly, maybe we become more susceptible to scams and seeing that money leak out, shall we say of that euphemistic so as we start to see caregiving as an issue, it starts far earlier than than we think. And it's not just a matter of like, oh, there's an issue, let's intervene. This is profoundly emotional. When do you have the, the, the courage and the opportunity to tell a spouse or a parent that, Dad, you're not quite OK, I need to step know, we fought for our independence as teenagers. We fight even more, shall we say, passionately as we are older. And so that's, it's a very hard spot where families find themselves in the crosshairs of emotional, physical, and financial stress. Yeah, I, I'm often fond of saying that as we age, right, our parents become our children and, and the children become the parents and uh someone needs to take charge of some of these decisions and, and maybe, uh,And, and maybe the places to do that in a family meeting perhaps. Yeah,in family meetings, but I have to tell you, Bob, I don't wanna uh get our, our viewers depressed, but I, I stumbled on some data that that really did depress estimates suggest that one quarter of families out there are estranged from their adult children. So as we talk about caregiving, one of the things that we've done at the labs, we've done research on, uh, who do you think is gonna take care of you? And without question, it's, well, my partner, my spouse, or my adult children. Well, by the way, only of the vast majority who said are going to care for them. Less than 30% actually had the conversation that that person knows they're going to care for them. But imagine where 1 in 4 or maybe even a little bit more than 1 in 4 are estranged, not talking, living at a distance from their loved ones. That means that we have a coming care gap in the United States that is going to make the current issue look, shall we say, like the norm, but the will be not just financial, it will be a profound public problem as well. Joe, I, I, I wanna, uh, let you know that my wife used to ask me how my day was, and she stopped doing that because I would quote something depressing news like you just said to us. And she said, I've had invitedto parties, right? I've had it with your depressing news. Um, talk a little bit about as we think about the future of homes and smart homes and perhaps social robots. Are, are we, are we on the verge of technology helping solve some of the problems here? You know, absolutely. My, my colleague Dr. Chai Wu Lee leads a whole program at the Asia Lab called Home Logistics or Home as Service. What you imagine now your home no longer simply a place to keep the rain off or a place to live, but frankly a platform of services. We found during COVID that all those little services that they crazy kids, the Gen Z younger millennials were doing life by app, became effectively a virtual assisted living for rides, for food delivery, telemedicine, pharma delivery, and the like. So with respect to robots and other technologies, so the so-called internet of things where shall we say,Everything begins to watch and everything begins to talk to itself. Yes, they are already here in small amounts. I would ask everyone listening to ask yourself how many strangers are in your house right now? I, you know, as you mentioned certain names, speakers may light up or that constant familiar face that knocks on your door and drops off a these services are already evolving, and I would suggest to you, Bob, that this is a new cost in retirement that no one is thinking about. It's not in anyone's line item, but yet it is part of the run rate of you mentioned robots, which is one of my favorite topics, because these technologies are shall we say, getting between cool and creepy. So yes, there will be robots out there that will be, uh, keeping you abreast of your favorite recipe, your favorite program, but also reminding you of your medication. Also maybe reminding you that in my case, Joe, you know, put the ice cream away, you might want to try a watermelon dessert also the social robots, some that will engage you in a game or to talk and can tell by the timbre of your voice. Are you well? Are you happy enough?But the part that's going to be coming soon, and I guess I would say soon is in a decade, maybe even less by some estimates, are going to be robots that actually do work around the house. So whether it's the, you know, the usual names like Figu or Tesla and others that are out there, they're envisioning robots probably for the cost of a medium sized car, medium sized will fold the laundry, clean the house, may even down the road be able to prepare your meal. And when I say it's the price of a car, I'm sure a lot of people are shuddering going, where the heck am I gonna get that amount of money? Well, think about the following. When people retire, one of the most, shall we say, popular retirement gifts, it's not just the the new car? I could see in about a decade or so people go, well, I got the car and now I've got the robot, or frankly, I think a lot of this will be by subscription. You may not own any of it, but you'll be paying on a monthly rate, which also has profound implications for your cash flow inretirement. Yeah. So, Joe, speaking of technology in the home, uh, we can't avoid talking about AI, artificial intelligence. Yeah, no, AI these days is the topic everywhere and about everything. It is definitely going to be ubiquitous in your retirement. Now we were talking about technology in the home, so AI is going to be, shall we say, seamless and as Arthur C. Clarke said, the best technology is that which is invisible and seemingly works like magic. Well, AI will be there to remind you of your meds. It'll be there to monitor. Are you sleeping late because you were out partying the night before, or you're not?Sleeping very well. Are you having your coffee later than usual? It'll enable your caregiver and a formal and family, if you will, to be able to intervene, to be proactive before there's an issue such as your gait has changed, your walk is a little different, you're likely to fall rather than having a house that says, oh my gosh, help, he's falling, he can't get once you're on the floor, we frankly have other issues. So AI is gonna be there to, shall we say, be a, a caregiver's aide, and augmented intelligence to age well. And of course, robots, when we talk about robots, most people think about the the physical nature of robots, but behind that physical thing of whatever they're doing is AI. Yeah. Uh, Joe, I, it, it would probably fair to say that you don't fear the future of technology. Uh, should average people, us mere mortals, fear this notion of a robot telling us to take our meds and whatnot, or should we relish this opportunity? I, I, I think, I think we should relish it on a number of fronts. One,Technology moves quickly for a few, but by the time it gets to most of us, many of the bugs have gotten out. Most of the time it's gotten more affordable, not always affordable, but more affordable. But the other issue is is that because there is that coming care gap, whetherOur families are too busy or living at a distance, we're going to need that assistance. If we want to stay in the homes where we that we love, you know, so-called the aging in place where our marriage, our mortgage and our memories are, technology is gonna be a helping hand to make that while there are all kinds of science fiction things to creep us out, I am very optimistic that technology is going to enable us to live longer, better, healthier lives. One thing, Bob, as a footnote though, we should start preparing for that being a new cost in we've never thought about it before, but suddenly start thinking of your subscriptions, your cell service, your speakers, your smart devices, and all the subscriptions you've signed up for for your refrigerator to talk to your toaster, to talk to your car, to have the food delivered. That's an invisible thing on your credit card that now needs a line item in your retirement plan. we're gonna take a short break and when we come back, we'll talk more about retirement planning, longevity planning, and transportation and livable communities. Don't go back to Decoding Retirement. I'm talking to Doctor Joe Coughlin. He's the director of the MIT AIDS lab and one of my favorite people in the world, because among other things, Joe, you get to see the future in ways that most people don't, so it's always a pleasure to talk to you about what we can expect and what we should be doing, you spend a lot of time thinking about transportation. I've had an opportunity to go to the MIT AI lab and drive Miss Daisy, although poorly, I must admit, I think I had a number of, uh, animated children as their balls went into the road. But, uh, transportation is a big issue. I, I think I might have mentioned in the past that I'm the, I'm the chair of our local senior center and, uh, by golly, it is, I think our number one issue is getting people to medical appointments or hairdressers or the grocery store and whatnot. So,What can we expect in the future as it pertains to transportation? Now, transportation, as you know, Bob, is one of my favorite topics. In fact, it is the very topic that got me into aging and retirement in the first place. I, uh, became a, shall we say, a sex in older drivers, an issue, uh, trapped somewhere between humor and horror in many transportation is one of those overlooked issues that people simply take for granted. Let's give us some context. Do you know that 70% of Americans over the age of 50 live either in suburban or rural areas where alternatives to driving either do not exist or they're just too difficult to use?Here's another little factory that few people think about, and by the way, even financial advisors get this wrong. What are the top three costs for a couple over 65? And immediately people yell out healthcare and housing. Well, they're not incorrect, but they are incomplete. Number 1 cost is housing, number 3 cost is health care, number 2 is so one of the things we also forget is that transportation is not just about getting you where you need to be, it is a vital part of quality of life. It's about getting to the things you want, the things that make you smile. You will get to the doctor's office. You will somehow get food delivered or you will get to the grocery as you know, Bob, one of my favorite uh uh stories I like to tell us, will you get an ice cream cone? Will you get the thing on a hot summer night that makes you smile that you don't need, you don't want to bother your adult daughter or a neighbor that you don't talk to on a regular basis, saying, hey, will you take me out to Dairy Queen for a saucer? That's not going to happen. But those little things are the things that make quality of life in older adulthood possible and so is one of the great missing links to a quality retirement plan and frankly in many of our communities. Yeah. Uh, so I want to turn my attention to, uh, my favorite topic, retirement and longevity planning, and obviously you spend as much time thinking about this as the other topics, so, uh, give us the brain dump. Well, I, I, I, this is gonna sound a lot to the audience like a word game, but I, I, I think if you think about it, you realize that it is not. There are many examples of very wealthy people out there who have not done very well in retirement. That is, they've not done very well in terms of caregiving or social connection or their, their health uh uh did not fare very they had a really strong bank account. What I'd like people to start thinking about is not simply retirement planning, but retirement preparation. So absolutely maintain that dedication and that discipline, if you will, to saving enough for financial security and advisors, employers and whatnot can help you with what that secret number might the difference between planning and preparing to make it always relate, in my case, Bob, as you know, always back to food, is kind of like grow is writing a shopping list. A shopping list is a until that food is in my cart, in my cabinet, or frankly on the stove, I'm not eating. So I would ask people to start connecting the money to what they're going to need. So if it's transportation, have you identified what those alternatives are going to be, who they're going, where those services are going to be, and how much they're going to cost? If you think about caregiving, having a long-term care plan or self annuitizing long term care makes infinite now that you got the checkbook, who's going to do it? What kind of services will you need? Do you even know what a geriatric care manager is to be able to integrate those things together to make it possible? So the difference between planning is the shopping list and having a checkbook. The preparation is actually having everything ready at the time of need, long before you need it. in retirement, Joe, and I think you've written recently about this topic about how to pivot when your retirement doesn't go as planned as as you've prepared for it. What, what do folks need to do? I mean, I look at retirement and I thinkUm, it's sort of like flying a plane, right? You just don't go from one point to another without making adjustments along the way. So whether it's an adjustment because of something that happened that was unplanned or something that happened that, uh, you just need to make adjustments for, but it's the unplanned things, the unexpected things that people really needed to prepare themselves for, right? Like yesterday won't be the same as tomorrow, uh, per se, right?Or tomorrow won't be the same as yesterday. You know, what's really funny, Bob, is if you think about the whole area of people that are entering it soon or already in there are frankly uh uh on a new frontier of retirement. Our parents, our grandparents, uh, not only had different financial strategies either uh because they, you know, they had uh defined benefits or or the like, frankly, they didn't live as long either. So this next generation is going to be living a much longer period with shall we say, relatively more uncertainty in that time that they're living, they're gonna have many different changes. We have, we have, uh, marketed a falsehood that retirement is somewhere between cruises and crutches. But in between, there's going to be so much more. There will be health events, there will be births of grandchildren. They'll be the desire and the demand to have to move. I would suggest that there will be more changes than all the previous life stages before challenge will be is that you may not be physically, emotionally, or maybe even cognitively uh is capable to, shall we say, be able to manage and pivot in those moments. So part of being prepared for retirement is having lots of plan B's and plan C's, which will also include having conversations with your partner, your spouse, your family, so they have a general idea of what, what is it that you would like or be on the, shall we say on standby for when you want to make the moves that you need to do. Yeah, you and I have talked a lot in the past about livable communities, about the age-friendly, uh, sort of, uh, uh, notion of having the eight domains all in place, whether it's housing or economic security or uh or uh community etc. Tell us, should people think about moving to communities that are quote unquote livable versus not so livable? Absolutely they they shouldn't, you know, the, the home is very important, but like the real estate mantra it says, it's about location, location, livable communities basically is not just is it have transportation alternatives, access to health care, cultural amenities, and the like, is it a place that will support you as you age? And there are tools out there. Yes, there's the designations of livable communities, but AARP also has a great website where you can punch in a zip code and it will give you scores out of fronts as to how livable or how age friendly a community might be. At the end of the day, it's up to you if you uh and your partner or if you're living solo to weigh which of those variables you think are the most important and how you'll be able to manage for transportation, housing, access to work. Frankly, don't ever forget the F word, access to fund matters. And access to a Dairy Queen with soft serve perhaps as well, huh? Got it. All right, Joe, uh, we've run out of time. We can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us. It's greatly appreciated. We'll have you back on a future episode for sure. Great. Thanks so much, Bob. Great being here. So that wraps up this episode of Decoding Retirement. We hope we provided you with some actionable advice to plan for or live better in don't forget, if you've got questions about retirement, you can email me at yfpodcast@yahoo and we'll do our best to answer your question in a future episode. And lastly, remember you can listen to Decoding Retirement on all your favorite podcast platforms. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. 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Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
I am 96 and the picture of longevity. These are my tips for living longer and better.
As I was leaving my doctor's office one of the nurses commented, 'You're looking great. I look forward to your 100th birthday party.' Startled, I realized, at 96, that wasn't so far off. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans ages 100 and older is projected to quadruple over the next three decades, from an estimated 101,000 in 2024 to about 422,000 in 2054. It is exciting to read about the surge of millions living into their eighties, nineties, and early hundreds. The Atlantic labels it 'The Longevity Revolution.' Dr. Laura Cartensen, the Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, describes it as "a long bright future," in her book "A Long Bright Future: An Action Plan for a Lifetime of Happiness, Health, and Financial Security.'' Meanwhile, Couglin, CEO of MIT's Age Lab, has written the book "The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market." Regardless of labels, this is undeniably a period with opportunities to create new products, housing alternatives, policies, and services to meet the needs of the changing demographic. Longevity sounds great in theory, but what does this 'long bright future' mean in practice for you and me?At 90, I was raring to go. But then I was hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia and expected to die. By 95, my energy level had plummeted. How was I going to continue being the me I had been for years—energetic, engaged, and optimistic? I found myself wondering, if I can no longer walk the way I did, give speeches with confidence, and consult with organizations the way I once did, then what can I do and how should I do it? Even with limitations, I still want to make a difference in the world. I'm not alone in these questions. Gregg Kaplan, age 72, has retired several times. His first career, right after college, was exploratory, resulting in purchasing one store in an airport. That experience led him to buy the entire franchise. After 25 years he sold his franchise and retired. Eventually he decided to return to his hobby, carpentry, and started designing and building kitchens. Once again he was extremely successful, even meeting his current wife on one of his jobs. After another 15 years, he realized it was really time to retire, but he kept putting it off. He is afraid he will no longer 'matter'—that his purpose will disappear. More: Should you choose a Roth IRA over a 401(k) for retirement savings? The longer you live, the more transitions you will confront. Therefore, to continue living well, we need to focus on how we can manage the many unexpected transitions ahead in order to take the mystery out of change. Viewing Kaplan's life through the transition lens provides a framework for understanding and coping with any transition at any time in life for anyone. Your ability to handle them depends on: Where you are in the transition process. As you exit your job or relationship and begin to move to something else, you will experience what anthropologists label a period of liminality (an ambiguous time in between major life phases) followed eventually by establishing a new life—a new set of roles, relationships, routines and assumptions. Right now, Kaplan, newly retired, knows he will not have another career but is a bit at sea. Golf is important but as he says, 'Is that all there is?' The degree to which the transition changes your life. The more a transition changes your life, the more stressful it can be. Kaplan's most recent transition (retirement) changes his role from worker to retiree, his relationships with colleagues and family, routines from work to golf, and assumptions from being relevant to not feeling he matters. The strength of your coping resources. We all approach transitions with potential resources - what I call the '4 S System': your situation (is your life in general good or stressful?), self (are you an optimist or a pessimist, are you resilient?), supports (do you have personal and institutional support that you can count on?), and strategies (do you use lots of strategies flexibly?) If your resources are strong you have a better chance of handling your transition. More: Social Security cost-of-living adjustment may be 2.5% in 2026, new estimate shows Don Bunch, former food and beverage director at the Sarasota Bay Club, a retirement community for over 300 residents, retired himself a few years ago. After a year of traveling he and his wife settled down. He had no hobbies and found himself sitting around the house, watching tv, totally bored. His old job opened up and he went back to work. After two years he decided it was really time to retire. His answer to my question about what makes this retirement better than the last one was clear: 'This time I have a new purpose. We are moving to a small midwestern town, I will be refurbishing a home, and I plan to get involved in community activities. I now know I need to matter and feel relevant.'' The late sociologist Morris Rosenberg coined the idea of "mattering" to describe a universal, and overlooked motivation. He pointed out how critical it is to believe that we make a difference in other people's lives. But how do you gain that confidence? First get involved and stay engaged. Dr. Carmi Schooler, a researcher at the National Institutes of Mental Health with others, studied the benefits of participating in challenging work and leisure activities. In a series of studies, they witnessed the increase in 'intellectual functioning' of those individuals exposed to 'substantively complex' environments, which they define as those that require self-direction and decision making. Playing bridge, writing a grant proposal, doing the crossword puzzle, or figuring out how to initiate a project are all examples of substantively complex activities. Studies in 1974 of 883 men and their wives engaged in work, and subsequent studies in 1994 of 315 men and 320 women pursuing leisure activities proved the point 'use it or lose it.' Also take advantage of ideas given to you. One retired pilot was at loose ends. His ex-wife told him about an ad for someone to deliver flowers. He jumped at the chance to make people happy each time he delivered live flowers. Aging leads to new careers, relationships and opportunities Longevity influences how we love, learn, work, and play as we continue aging. We will discover that life is a never-ending series of transitions--new careers, new relationships, new ways to enjoy leisure, new work and volunteer possibilities, and new opportunities to learn new skills. However, we need to keep in mind that longevity will also be filled with unexpected twists and turns. We will be forced to improvise as we deal with the unknown. I am often reminded of my friend Jeanne Hansel, who was forced to stop working as a therapist as her health declined. She decided to consciously use her remaining time to chart a new path. And not-so-coincidently, her spiritual path emerged after reading There Are No Accidents: Synchronicity and the Stories of Our lives written by Robert Hopke. Her later years reflected what may seem incompatible—physical decline coupled with personal growth. It can happen. One just has to be open to it. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As Americans live longer, these are my tips for making the most of it
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
New Harman Tech Aims To Monitor, Reduce Driver Distraction
Images from Harman's Ready VISION QVUE and Ready Vision AR Solution, which project information on a ... More vehicle's windshield to keep the driver's eyes on the road. Without having to look away from the road, a driver is presented with information and images ranging from road hazards to navigation cues to approaching pedestrians. Another system uses the vehicle's connectivity to assist drivers anticipate road hazards, and still one more monitors whether a driver is actually paying attention to the road and even monitors the driver's heartbeat to detect his or her stress level. They're all innovations from Harman, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., LTD, aimed at the ongoing issue of improving safety by reducing driver distraction and increasing awareness of road conditions. Between the use of smartphones, operating infotainment systems and just conversing with other occupants, a driver's attention to the road is constantly being challenged. 'When we think about distraction, I hate the dirty word,' declared Bryan Reimer, founder, co-director advanced vehicle technologies consortium MIT AgeLab, during a briefing on research conducted with Toyota Motor Co.'s Collaborative Safety Research Center, last week. 'The reason I hate the dirty word is because we are 100% of the time distracted, whether you're listening to somebody, whether you're fidgeting and writing. We as humans, if our attention isn't devoted some places are continually, either externally, visibly or internally, thinking about something else, distracted by something.' Automakers and suppliers are not distracted from tackling this issue. Automated driving systems such as General Motor Co.'s Super Cruise and Ford Motor Co.'s BlueCruise monitor driver attentiveness and sound warnings, give haptic feedback and even disengage if the driver is detected not paying attention to the road. At a recent technology showcase at its Novi Experience Center in suburban Detroit, Harman demonstrated its suite of 'Ready' solutions for improving driver attentiveness. Ready Vision QVUE and Ready Vision AR Solution uses a combination of very high definition modules tucked below the windshield, augmented reality and hands-free operation to provide drivers information and feedback without the need to look away from the road. 'The information is meant to be not distracting, but information that you need while you're on your ride,' said delivery manager Natalie Saline. 'When you have this, you don't need a cluster in your vehicle that's usually hidden behind your steering wheel a little hard to see. We're putting it within the field of view of the driver on the windshield,'' explained Luis Sagastume, senior manager, product development, during a demonstration. See the video below. Harman's Ready Care system uses cameras, radar and even heart rate monitoring to track whether or not a driver is paying attention to the road. 'Sometimes your heart is beating faster, sometimes slower, and that's a good indicator that you're actually relaxed, like a stressed heart will be not a flat line here, but it will be a very steady line,' said product manager Marcus Futterlieb. 'So we're not just looking whether your eyes are on the road, but also if your mind is on the road.' Harman Ready Care in-cabin monitoring system tracks driver distraction, drowsiness and stress ... More levels. Using a vehicle's existing connectivity with, say, the 5G network, Harman's Ready Aware technology aims to improve a driver's situational awareness without requiring additional hardware such as sensors. 'It provides up to 15 type of alerts,' explained Amine Taleb, responsible for connectivity innovation. 'What we mean by alerts is what the driver is going to see in the dashboard. We call them event based alerts, like a disabled vehicle on the road.' To show how all the Ready systems work in concert, they were installed in what the company calls its Auto One Car, demonstrated in the video below by senior marketing manager Ben Chung. Most of Harman's technology is in some vehicles now, or will be soon. Even with driver assistance technology and innovations aimed at reducing driver distraction to improve safety, MIT's Reimer admitted the battle to win drivers' complete attention is tough. 'Comparisons of non-driving related tasks between vehicles suggest that there is complex interplays with driver management system that aren't cohesively understood. They're not trivial. They're nuanced,' said Reimer. 'We've got to be thinking about, how do we manage what people want to do anyway, more effectively?'
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Do clients trust you? Depends on who they — and you — are
No two clients are the same when it comes to financial advising, but certain demographics can play a significant role in how investors view their relationships with financial advisors. Factors like age, gender and race can influence how clients view their advisor's role and their preferred methods of communication, according to new research from the TIAA Institute and the MIT AgeLab. Advisors looking to expand their practices should add more emphasis on client demographics in their approaches, the researchers wrote. "While traditional advice remains essential, we're seeing clear signals that the future of financial advice must be more personalized, demographically focused and accessible across multiple channels," Pam Feldstein, executive vice president at TIAA Advice Solutions, wrote in the study. "As an industry, our opportunity lies in bridging proven advisory expertise with evolving client preferences to create more meaningful and impactful financial relationships." The study, which surveyed over 1,000 individuals about their advice-seeking behavior and views of financial advisors, found that just 40% of people are satisfied with the financial advice they receive, pointing to a crucial gap between the advice given and client expectations. Across demographics, clients primarily seek out financial advice for retirement planning and saving. But researchers found that the timeline for that behavior can vary significantly between men and women. "Women prioritize retirement savings advice at career start and near retirement, while experiencing a concerning decline in advice-seeking during peak earning years (ages 25–54). This stage often aligns with caregiving and sandwich generation roles that present new financial challenges and a deeper need for advice," the researchers wrote. "Men, conversely, consistently seek investment and tax planning advice at higher rates than women, though both genders equally pursue debt management guidance." READ MORE: Fiduciary standard drives client trust in advisors: Cerulli research Demographics can also shape the attributes that matter most to a client when looking for a financial advisor. Women consistently rate factors like professional expertise, reputation and years of experience more highly than men when describing what they value in an advisor. Men, meanwhile, place more importance on advisor relatability than women. Race can also play a role in what clients look for in a potential advisor. Black clients place a higher priority on cost considerations than any other group in the survey. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as Hispanics, place slightly less importance on cost considerations compared to Black clients, while white clients place the least importance on advisor costs. Demographics are especially impactful when it comes to client communication, advisors say. "We tend to see our younger clients as ones that really crave financial education as we have a natural emphasis on Generation X and millennial clients," said Thomas Van Spankeren, a principal and financial advisor at RISE Investment Management in Chicago. "Their communication style is often digital, but one would be surprised to learn that they also enjoy a hand-written letter." READ MORE: Women face unique retirement challenges — but advisors can help Across generations, 62% of people surveyed said they prefer to communicate over a phone call with an advisor, according to TIAA and MIT research. That preference increases with age. Just 50% of clients aged 18 to 34 said they prefer talking to an advisor over a phone call, with that figure jumping to over 70% for clients 55 and up. "Most of the clients I have that are 60-plus and local like to visit my office in person and do face to face as much as possible, whereas clients that I have that are in their 30s or early 40s, also nearby, will almost always do a Zoom or a virtual [meeting]. It's just the way people communicate," said Ross Dugas, founder of Scientific Financial in Houston. Advisors looking to attract clients of all ages should take a "hybrid approach" to communication, mindful of differing preferences between different age groups, the researchers wrote in their study. The importance of identity can go both ways, Dugas said. A client looking for a financial advisor is often looking for someone who they feel can understand their situation. Sometimes that comes down to things like gender and age, but it can also include more specific experiences that an advisor shares with a client. Dugas, who worked as an engineer for over a decade, said that many of his clients gravitate toward his practice because of their shared background in engineering and science. READ MORE: 5 lessons for advisors working with high net worth clients "I have a lot of scientists and technical folks that feel comfortable with me, just because … I understand where they're coming from, and we kind of have that common basis of just the way that we think," he said. "We're looking at a trust and an identity factor, and [when] you're going to get into someone's financial information, that's very, very sensitive, and it's important that you develop that trust." Researchers at TIAA and MIT agree. "The need for trust is universal," the researchers wrote. "The fundamental elements of trust — expertise, reputation and the ability to explain complex concepts clearly — remain consistently valued in advisory relationships and are universal across all demographics and income levels." 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