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Millennials And Seniors Become Roommates

By on July 29, 2018 in Demograhics, Lifestyle, Real Estate, Retirement
Photo Credit: Linkmedia 360

Photo Credit: Linkmedia 360

I see an emerging Canadian real estate trend mirroring that of the U.S. – millennials and seniors, the most unlikely roommates, are now increasingly sharing a home together. The Globe and Mail recently reported that with the rise of Canada’s rents while the vacancy rate shrinks, a growing number of seniors are living in homes too big, while young Canadians squeeze into apartments too expensive. The concept of home sharing – where the homeowner, usually a senior, offers reduced rent for a room in their home in exchange for small chores and companionship – is getting attention in small towns and cities across the country, including a new pilot project in Toronto this summer.

The publication reported that this month, Boston expanded the use of a new housing app called Nesterly – co-developed by a MIT-grad and billed as a socially-conscious solution to both loneliness and soaring housing costs – which creates home-sharing matches between seniors and cash-strapped university students. Sometimes, it’s not only students who are in a financial bind. In January this year, The New York Times reported that many older Americans, who discovered that their savings had dwindled, were looking for millennials to share their homes and split the utilities and the rent equally. For many baby boomers entering retirement, financial security is also increasingly hard to come by. Many North Americans have not saved enough to maintain their pre-retirement living standards. Increased life expectancy and lower interest rates only exacerbate the situation.

In addition to apps like Nesterly, non-profit organizations, such as the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, have been operating a home-sharing service since 1981, matching people who have space in their homes with those in need of affordable housing. It is one of a number of similar programs that have emerged across the country as the population of older Americans grows, as a way to help people stay in their homes.

Similarly, across Canada, affordable-housing advocates have proposed home sharing as a creative option for communities trying to balance a rapidly aging population and a shortage of affordable, long-term rental properties. The most successful home-sharing programs involve a step-by-step process that carefully matches homeowners and tenants, requiring funding for trained facilitators. Whether we like it or not, many Canadian trends follow those of our southern neighbours. A lot of these new projects are modelling themselves after a non-profit organization in Vermont, now more than 30 years old, where matched candidates meet, have trial stays and, if both agree, sign a clear contract that outlines expectations and rules while they live together.

Nesterly, which started as a pilot with the city of Boston last year, focused on university students and expanded in July to include the entire city population, works like a dating app, allowing potential tenants to post confidential profiles that can be matched to homeowners. The team at the Boston app also conducts criminal-record checks and follows up on references, then allows homeowners to choose from a number of matches. In its pilot year, the program made 10 matches – there are now another 50 active “hosts” on the platforms with thousands of home seekers to choose from.

Nesterly staff also help facilitate interviews and finalize detailed home-sharing contracts and even collect the rent on behalf of the homeowner, while taking a small percentage, and a fee for offering continuing support. Millennials chosen by seniors homeowners often help with snow shovelling, walking the dog, gardening, the occasional shelf-hanging, or chatting to the seniors about any topics of shared interest.

For the older homeowners, having younger company is also potentially a lifesaver. Seniors have a tendency to fall at home and could be assisted by their younger roommates or tenants when such accidents occur. In return for the physical labour provided by the millennials, some older homeowners leave homemade meals for them on the table by the front door.

According to a 2017 study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis, Ontario alone has five million spare bedrooms and three-quarters of the province’s seniors live in houses too large for their needs. Home sharing may not solve Canada’s housing woes, but advocates say it’s an example of how more solutions should go beyond windows and walls.

I’m also glad to see that a provincially-funded pilot project for Toronto will begin this summer – an initiative undertaken by the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly at the University of Toronto. Tonya Salomans, a social worker who is coordinating this project, sees home sharing as an option for generations to mingle and learn from one another, to improve the health of isolated seniors, while helping young people cover rent. The goal is to match 20 seniors with university students and then follow how well the living arrangements work.

Outside Ontario, this fall, a group of housing advocates in Nova Scotia plan to tour communities promoting options such as home sharing. The Globe also reported that a Burlington entrepreneur has started the Homeshare Alliance, a business that matches people and guides them through the contract stage for a fee.

Of course, home sharing is not for everyone. Seniors have to be flexible (a rare quality to have when you’re aging), enjoy people and set clear rules from the beginning. For those who are willing to give this creative solution a try, home sharing may be the best way to integrate the young and old in society.

 

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Rebranding and Redesigning Retirement Communities

By on December 17, 2017 in Architecture and Design, Branding, Real Estate, Retirement
Photo Courtesy: Forrec

Photo Courtesy: Forrec

The real estate sector has been gradually capitalizing on the opportunity presented by the greying population in North America. The New York Times today reported how Long Island witnesses the growth of country-club-style living in communities for people 55 and older. Resort-like active adult lifestyle communities are increasingly becoming popular. Developer Beechwood Homes is building the largest resort-like community, Country Pointe Plainview, on Long Island featuring an 80-acre property that includes an adjacent shopping centre, an amenity-laden clubhouse, two heated pools, tennis courts and a walking trail. According to the company’s Founder and Chief Executive Michael Dubb, just don’t call it a retirement community. “People are going there to feel young and act young,” he said. The 750 age-restricted condo flats and townhomes  all have first-floor master bedrooms.

With many boomers now in their 60s and 70s, the surge in senior housing is happening everywhere as many older adults and empty nesters move from single-family houses into multifamily developments and condos. They are healthy enough not to need assisted living yet, and they thrive in a community with a lot of social interaction and plenty to do – indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness centre, a billiard room and space for card games, fitness and yoga and other activities.

According to the U.S. National Association of Home Builders, by 2019, households headed by someone 55 or older will constitute more than 45 percent of all American households. Developers nationwide hope to appeal to those greying boomers as they downsize.

The same trend in real estate is also taking place in Canada. As reported by Canadian Business last year, the 114-acre site of St. Elizabeth Village, Hamilton, is a successful independent-living retirement living complex with 900 residents actively participating in classes, social events and recreational activities everyday. The developer, NovaCore Communities Corp., recently announced an $800-million renovation that will transform the site into a themed lifestyle community with a population increase to 3,000. They’ve hired Toronto-based Forrec which is best known for designing and building theme parks in 30 countries outside Canada, including Germany’s Legoland, Universal Studios Florida, and a massive water park in Beijing, China. Forrec has also designed a retirement community in the U.S. similar to the vision planned for St. Elizabeth Village – The Villages in Sumter Landing, Florida – which offers daily entertainment, sports and other activities for its population of 160,000. The U.S. Census ranked The Villages as the fastest growing American city two years in a row.

“We don’t like to call it a retirement community,” says Gordon Donett, Forrec’s CEO. “As soon as you say that, you think it’s a bunch of old people sitting on couches watching TV. And that’s the exact opposite of what we’re working on.” Forrec will remake St. Elizabeth into a pastoral mill town, complete with a spinning water wheel and old-time windmill, and carry the aesthetic throughout the development. The company says the theme will imbue St. Elizabeth with a sense of history, strengthen community ties and emphasize that the site is a real town, not merely a collection of homes for people living out their final years. The entire expansion plan for St. Elizabeth will take approximately a decade to finish.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, by 2051, retirees are expected to represent a quarter of Canada’s entire population and by 2030, roughly 80 percent of new housing demand will come from people entering retirement. There are nearly 300 independent-living, adult-lifestyle communities in Ontario alone. Branding and differentiation are key in marketing retirement living. Forrec focuses on creative themes and storytelling and tries to debunk the myth of aging – it’s not necessarily true that older people will withdraw in their twilight years. Instead of the usual gated retirement communities, St. Elizabeth, with its town square and retailers, could actually entice outsiders to visit. In that way, it’s much more integrated with surrounding towns, encouraging socialization and preventing residents from feeling isolated.

Only time will tell whether the success of The Villages in Florida can be replicated here in Hamilton. I certainly want to see more of such developments in Toronto as well. Retirement homes and communities have been around for a long time, but until now, there had not been a focus on creating a lifestyle for baby boomers. As I’ve mentioned many times before, we boomers defy the ageing process – it’s high time that developers understand our mentality and create age-restricted housing that is unique and caters to our needs.

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Aging Population A Blessing Instead Of A Burden

By on July 25, 2017 in Demograhics, Finance, Marketing Campaigns, Media, Retirement, Travel, Workplace

retirement-travel-destination-ideas

It’s encouraging to see that The Economist has been focusing more on the positive aspects of aging populations in the last few years. As recently as three years ago in April 2014, the publication has dedicated a cover story to “A Billion Shades of Grey,” advocating changes in government policies to help accommodate the aging population. But the tone of that cover issue was more doom and gloom than positive – the concern about economic stagnation caused by the huge wave of baby boomers’ retirement was loud and clear in that story.

Then, in the April 9, 2016 edition of The Economist, the tone has become more positive with the article titled, “Older Consumers Will Reshape The Business Landscape.” The article advocated that companies should speed up in targeting this expanding “grey” market and cited examples of businesses around the world with innovative ideas appealing to older consumers. I’ve also echoed this view with my blog post last year titled, “Marketers Gradually Understand Potential Of Boomers.”

So I read with great delight the Special Report on The Economics Of Longevity in the July 8-14, 2017 issue of The Economist again. The report has basically argued that “if employers, businesses and financial services adapt to make far more of such people (the older population), big economic benefits for everyone could follow.” Employers need to change their attitudes towards older employees – ageist recruitment practices need to be discarded and corporate cultures have to change. Instead of reducing productivity and, therefore, hurting the economy, academics have found that older people in multi-generation teams tend to boost the productivity of those around them, and such mixed teams perform better than younger, single-generation ones.

The publication also argued that the second thing that needs to happen is for the benefits of longer, healthier lives to be spread much more equitably. There is currently too much of a gap between the rich and the poor among the older generation, and the best way to resolve this issue is for governments to invest in public health, offer universal access to healthcare and provide high-quality education for everyone. Although the report cited Canada as a good example of a country that manages to attach great importance to such matters, we see and read Canadian media reports everyday that lament how the older generation has not saved enough and cannot afford to retire.

I believe there is a third thing that needs to change: the marketing community and the media need to direct their energy and attention to the greying population. Over the last decade, there has been lacklustre progress in marketing to older people because this is not perceived as sexy. Young people continue to dominate marketing departments and think that the best place for the old is out of sight, out of mind. Although change is in the air, it is not happening fast enough. From aging rockers such as The Rolling Stones who can still fill huge concert arenas; to recent retirees who take on second careers as giggers and entrepreneurs; to older consumers who display young and active tastes in adventure travel and dating websites, “the new old” is defying old age and refusing to disappear into their sunset years.

In fact, The Economist is asking for a new branding of those over 65 but not yet elderly. The youngest Canadian boomers turn 51 and the oldest turn 70 this year. I used to call those people aged 65-70 “leading-edge boomers” and the younger ones “trailing-edge boomers”. But, perhaps, the marketing community can put their heads together and start coining a sexier term. Don’t call this group seniors although they are technically senior citizens. Baby boomers are starting to retire in large numbers in better health and with more money to spend than any previous generations. We feel much younger than our parents did at their age, and most of us have no intention of quietly disappearing from the world. The sooner the market can respond to this huge opportunity, the better our economy will be.

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Women Need To Better Prepare For Retirement

By on March 13, 2017 in Demograhics, Finance, Retirement

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Just on the heels of International Women’s Day, a report from the U.S. National Institute on Retirement Security indicated that across all age groups, women have considerably less income in retirement than men. For women aged 65 and above, their income is typically 25 percent lower than that of men. As men and women age, the gap widens to 44 percent by age 80. As a result, women were 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older, while women aged 75 to 79 were three times more likely to fall below the poverty level than men the same age.

This finding is neither surprising nor difficult to understand. In the U.S., working women, on average, earn less than their male counterparts, so they have less money to save for retirement. According to the Economic Policy Institute, American women’s media wage is 80 percent of men’s. Many women also take time off to raise children or care for an aging relative, which gives them fewer years to contribute to a retirement plan.

Canada’s situation is no better. According to new data from Statistics Canada released last week to mark International Women’s Day, Canadian women earned 87 cents an hour for every dollar made by men in 2015. The data, which reflects the hourly earnings of Canadians aged 25 to 54, shows the gender wage gap has shrunk by 10 cents since 1981, when female workers earned 77 cents for each dollar earned by men.

According to Statistics Canada, the ratio has improved, in part, due to rising educational attainment by women. In 2015, 35.1 percent of Canadian women had university degrees, compared to 13.7 percent in 1990. But even education does not completely erase that earnings gap. “Even when they had a university degree above the bachelor’s level, women earned an average of 90 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2015,” wrote Statistics Canada analyst Melissa Moyser in her report. “Women are overrepresented in low-paying occupations and underrepresented in high-paying ones.”

Like their U.S. counterparts, Canadian women are also more likely to work part time (18.9 percent for women and 5.5 percent for men), often because they are caring for their children. When measured by annual wages, Canadian women earned 74 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2015.

According to the U.S. Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, known as Wiser, a non-profit organization dedicated to women’s financial education and advocacy, financial problems in retirement and senior debt arise with insufficient income as a result of lower lifetime earnings and less in savings, costs of family caregiving and divorce. Moreover, women often choose to save for a child’s education over their own retirement, for example, or work in a family business for no pay. Women also live longer than men (81.2 years vs 76.4 years) according to statistics from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. In Canada, women have an average life expectancy of 84 years vs 79 years of men in 2012, according to a report on the Health Status of Canadians 2016 by the Chief Public Health Officer. Living longer and needing more money for the extra years for health care, medical expenses and long-term care needs creates serious problems for women. Running out of money in retirement and managing the rising costs of health insurance remain the top worries for women, according to a new study, “Women, Money and Power,” from the Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America.

The Allianz study also found that many women reported uncertainty about their financial decisions. Sixty-one percent of women wished they had more confidence in their financial decision making, and 63 percent wished they knew more about financial planning and investing.

For older women, the good news in terms of financial well-being is that a large fraction of women are working in full-time jobs past their 60s and even into their 70s, according to a study, “Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations,” by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Harvard University economists. The New York Times reported that the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the end of this decade, about 20 percent of women over 65 will be in the labour force.

The same pattern is appearing in Canada as well. According to research released on March 9 by RBC Economics, the labour force participation rates of older Canadian women have increased, with a record 32 percent of women aged 55 and older taking part in the labour force in 2016.

Working longer makes it possible to enhance their retirement accounts and avoid tapping into them for living expenses. Employer-based health insurance also provides a security blanket for women who are working beyond retirement years. The extra years of earnings at an older age also mean that they could eventually retire with a bigger Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) amount.

For financial planners and marketers of financial institutions, the opportunity obviously lies in targeting more women clients and helping them make strategic financial decisions and better prepare for retirement. Women are often the CFO of the household. It’s about time that they take care of their own financial needs and security now.

 

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Fifth Anniversary of Act II

By on November 29, 2016 in Retirement

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This month marks the fifth anniversary of my retirement and I thought this would be a good milestone to take a pulse on how my second act in life has been evolving.

In my blog post titled “Practising What I Preach” on November 14, 2011, I’ve listed several retirement goals focusing on some of my greatest passions in life such as short-haul travel, theatre and blogging. A check mark against all three although I went on more long-haul trips than I liked – Milan, Paris, Rome, the Greek islands, Ephesus, Madrid, Istanbul, London, Prague and Vienna in addition to North American sojourns such as Quebec City, Montreal, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and, of course, Naples, Florida. In addition to being a continued staunch supporter of The Stratford Festival, I’ve also made it occasionally to a couple of plays produced by The Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage and Soulpepper. It also went without saying that all my trips to London and New York included a West End or Broadway performance respectively.

I could only claim half a check mark for blogging because I managed to continue with this blog regularly without fail, but could not find time to continue with my other two. Since 2007, I’ve been sharing my insights on marketing to baby boomers via www.boomerwatch.ca. Throughout the years, business associates and friends from my previous life have renewed their acquaintances with me after accidentally discovering my blog on the Internet. Whether they were compliments or criticisms, I’ve always enjoyed their feedback. Funny enough, I’ve also had a few chuckles whenever I received news releases from public relations firms touting their clients’ services and products. Now that I’m on the other side as part of the social media, I can see what information is relevant and which efforts are plain “marketing speak.” Mainstream media, too, continue to be intrigued by boomers and when they decide to dedicate a special report on this demographic, they very often come to me as a resource and I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts with them via telephone or email interviews.

Check marks also against my learning and snowbird goals. I didn’t end up studying “Love and Relationships in Shakespeare” because the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies eventually cancelled the course due to lacklustre response. Instead, I spent two years learning a new language – after attending classes at both The Spanish Centre and the University of Toronto, I now have an intermediate level of comprehension in Spanish.

Although I’ve spent every other January in Naples, Florida, my enthusiasm as a snowbird has been gradually waning. The impact of global warming has made Florida a less desirable place for winter vacation – last January, for instance, was the wettest winter month ever in South West Florida and we were hit by three tornadoes!

Apart from continuing as a Liturgical Minister at my local parish, I also took pride in helping two very dear American friends with their respective marketing and web projects. However, volunteering and giving back to the community are never enough and it is my intention to aim higher with my efforts in the coming years.

Upon retirement five years ago, I said that nothing would give me greater satisfaction than mentoring the younger generation. In addition to offering advice when sought by former colleagues, I’ve also conducted a number of career information sessions for a few millennials. It’s always rewarding to see many of my former proteges, many of whom continue to seek my advice, moving on and achieving great success. I believe that you are always remembered not by what you’ve accomplished, but by what you’re leaving behind.

The greatest joy that retirement brings is the boundless freedom to do anything I like – the freedom of time with preferably no more alarm clocks to set in the morning, setting the pace of each day to my own liking with no more time sheets to complete; the freedom of choice to embark on any activities and hang out with whomever I like without the necessity to network or “shoot the breeze” anymore; and the freedom to pursue personal passions such as travelling to overseas destinations in off-peak seasons and going to movie theatres on weekdays to beat the crowds. The challenge of having so much freedom all of a sudden is that I have to constantly ask myself to slow down. When every day could be treated as a weekend, I try to savor every moment I have to enjoy life – eat well, exercise regularly, appreciate the arts and enjoy the company of quality friends – and only focus on one thing at a time. No more multi-tasking, stress, deadlines and multiple appointments!

What surprises me most after five years of retirement is my continued hunger to learn. I’ve always been an avid reader throughout my life, but ever since retirement, I’ve read even more books than before. From classics to biographies to economic and foreign policy books, I’ve become a voracious reader with my Kindle! If there is one goal that I’m adamant to keep throughout my retirement years is my determination not only to remain relevant but, as much as possible, to be ahead of time. So, not only do I read both The Globe and Mail and The New York Times (via my Kindle subscription) from cover to cover on a daily basis, but I also watch most of the newscasts from all major networks whenever possible. I prefer in-depth analyses and op-ed pieces to quick updates from web-based media such as The Huffington Post. I’m proud to say that there is hardly any new pop culture or business phenomenon that I’m not familiar with. Simply put, I’ve got the insatiable desire and curiosity to learn at middle age which is a typical characteristic of baby boomers.

So when fellow boomers ask me about how to happily retire, my response is usually short and simple: assuming that everybody has achieved financial independence when they retire, one should have a variety of friends and lots of personal interests in order to enjoy retirement life. It’s not about how to kill time, but rather how to make time work for you so that you can enjoy the most out of every single activity you embark on every day without stress and obligations. Just remember: retirement is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter in life!

 

 

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