After 65 a new stage

BOB Dylan was a powerful voice of change with his anti-war and protest songs of the 1960s.

But you know that the times they are a-changin when you realise Bob Dylan turned 65 this year.

But just as he has challenged a lot of stereotypes throughout his career, he is also, along with a few other ageing rock stars, doing his bit to redefine the notion of getting old.

Sixty five is such a symbolic birthday — the official end of many people’s working life — that you expect people to start scaling back and taking it a little easier even if they do not pack up the house and head off around Australia in the caravan.

Bob Dylan is celebrating his 65th year by completing a new album, Modern Times, due for release late next month and is still clocking up more than 100 shows a year with his aptly named “Never-ending Tour”.

This year he also turned his hand to being a DJ by hosting a weekly radio show.

In the business world Lee Iacocca, the man who resurrected the US car company Chrysler, is another example of someone who is rewriting the notion of what older people can, rather than should, do.

Iacocca is now 81 years old and describes himself as someone “who flunked retirement” and he puts a lot of effort into work for a diabetes foundation and is writing another book.

You may be thinking that that is all very well for exceptionally talented musicians or iconic business leaders but how relevant is that for you?

The answer is that just as baby boomers have changed every facet of life as they reached the next stage so they will rewrite the notion of retirement.

We are already hearing new ways of describing the years after the full-time job like “downshifting” or “seachange”.

But a leading US psychologist Ken Dychtwald has coined the phrase “power years” for his book that discusses strategies for people to really take advantage of the time they have when their primary career ends.

For some people it may simply be enough to continue working part-time, for others it might be the chance to do charity or community work.

But Dychtwald takes it back to the basic question of why work at all?

For a lot of people financial necessity will be a key part of the answer but even for people who are financially self-sufficient, Dychtwald argues the need for work is real for our personal feelings of self-esteem and well-being.

He refers to the work of Abraham Maslow and his work on the hierarchy of needs.

Maslow argued there are five fundamental human needs — survival, security, belonging, self-esteem and self-actualisation.

The first level is obvious.

The need for food and shelter but the fourth level is where self-esteem comes in and Dychtwald argues that work is the primary proving ground for that.

“People who do well at their jobs and then quit are prone to diminishing self-esteem in alter life,” Dychtwald argues.

We can all probably think of people who have retired and then almost inexplicably deteriorated quickly physically and mentally where other people have found a new lease of life in something they really enjoy.

The message here is basic: when planning for your retirement look beyond the pure financial.

The most encouraging thing for baby boomers heading up to retirement age is that there will be no shortage of opportunities for either career shifts, part-time work or the chance to reinvent yourself.

Perhaps the baby boomer’s final legacy will be that we stop thinking about having one career and begin working to a life cycle plan.

As Dylan says, the times they are a-changin’.

Robin Bowerman is head of retail at index fund manager Vanguard Investments Australia.