3 Reasons to Retire Early and 3 Reasons Not To…
Many contemplate retirement at different places in their lives. Sometimes there are pros and sometimes there are cons. This is a fairly elementary description, but it’s important to think at an elementary level at times. There are some links embedded in this post on the Motley Fool by Kailey Hagen that can help people as they are considering some of the ideas around retiring early or later.
Admittedly, if you are in good health, my personal opinion is that you should consider working as long as possible, but that “working” is a relative term. You don’t have to “work” in the same job (unless you need the income), but you can always take a pay cut, or do volunteering in a way to fill a day with social needs AND purpose. Retiring is more than just a financial decision.
Intergenerational Technology
Teeniors seems awesome (https://www.teeniors.com/)! Like the seniors in Albuquerque, NM mentioned in this piece, more and more seniors are looking to incorporate technology in their lives and at many of the events we run, this is a topic that people frequently request. My hesitation has been the idea of how an interaction like this would be valuable as a point in time event (since most technology questions are not solved only in a point in time session). I came across this article today on mashviral.com and followed it to NPR.
In the article they talk about an interesting stat: “The Pew study found that 4 out of 10 seniors own smartphones, but often lack confidence in learning and using them.” I have seen this with many in my own congregation and Generation Bridge events. The willingness to learn is there, but the confidence and desire to ask for help can often be lacking. There is a need - but what that format of help needs to be is the question. Personal opinion is that there needs to be a “steady” presence rather than a point in time (because we need constant reinforcement when learning new things). But this group seems to accomplish this as a service provider. This post highlights a great concept that puts seniors in touch with tech savvy youth / younger people to address some of their main concerns when adjusting to new tech. Next generation of this is combining tech savvy seniors with the tech savvy youth who have unique approaches that work in teaching those who need the service.
Alabama Startup Matches Caregivers and Seniors
Dwell at Home (https://dwellathome.com/) is an Alabama startup that seeks to match quality caregivers with seniors needing care. As the population of seniors continues to grow because we age longer, then the business community needs to adjust to different needs. Getting people quality care will be one of those things - imagine that you have a loved one who needs occasional visits or more skilled nursing care - how will we be able to match trustworthy, background checked individuals who will love our loved one like “we” would if we were able to provide the care ourselves.
As we live further away from loved ones, etc. Tools like this Dwell at Home tool will become more common place. It will be interesting to see if this grows out of Alabama or if competition begins to increase in the space.
