Aging-in-place options most popular with baby boomers

‘Aging-in-place’ features for the home gain higher profile as baby boomers get older

At 72 and 65, Tom and Susie McSweeny love to ballroom dance. “Tom does a mean samba,” Susie says. Still, Tom has arthritis. So, despite their active lifestyle, when the McSweenys built their Edgewater, Md., house in 2013, they asked their architect to incorporate “aging-in-place” features — including an elevator, wide doorways to accommodate a wheelchair and a flat, no-step entryway — into the design. “You have to be realistic,” says Susie, who has a background in nursing. You don’t know what health issues you may develop as you get older, but “you try to plan for it so that you can enjoy your later years.” The McSweenys said they wanted to prepare their home now so that those accessibility features would be ready and waiting. Aging-in-place design choices are gaining a higher profile as baby boomers become a larger and larger segment of the population. According to AARP, the majority of older Americans want to stay in their homes permanently and live independently. This demographic change translates into demand for residential designs that anticipate changes in health, vision or mobility, and ensures that homes stay safe, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. Related to aging in place is “universal design,” which emphasizes accessibility for all, with no sacrifice in style. Components may be as simple as abundant lighting, lever-style door handles, well-located storage, chair-height toilets, slip-resistant flooring and open plans with plenty of circulation space. The most visible result of aging-in-place design is living space that simply “feels roomier and more open,” says Russ Glickman, whose North Potomac company, Glickman Design/Build, specializes in accessible multi-generational and universal design homes. The McSweenys asked Annapolis architect Cathy Purple Cherry to design a safe, satisfying and stylish new home on a small, waterfront lot. The three-story 4,750-square-foot house, constructed by Apter Remodeling/Craftsman of Annapolis, captures expansive Chesapeake Bay views from every level. An elevator alongside the staircase makes the entire house accessible. The elevator cost $30,000 to buy and install. But “if you are going to invest in a custom home for aging in place,” says Cherry, “limiting access by wheelchair into and around the house doesn’t make any sense.” Either an elevator or a first floor that can be adapted for one-story living is a must, she says. The McSweenys’ ground-floor elevator door is just inside the no-step entry to a two-car garage. The McSweenys appreciate the garage, which shields them from the elements when they come and go. The garage and elevator combo already is a real convenience for toting in groceries and for bringing in their arthritic dog after walks. The ground floor features a family room/guest quarters. It also has a full bathroom and a large storage room that is drywalled, painted and ready to be repurposed as a room for a caregiver if the need arises. On the first floor, Cherry included not only the main living spaces — living room, dining room, kitchen and deck — but also the laundry and study. Thus, fewer steps are required to carry out daily living activities. The kitchen is inviting and stylish, while loaded with accessibility features. Cherry incorporated four feet of circulation space around the central island for easy access to food prep areas, the eating bar between the kitchen and living room, and all appliances. The appliances include two ovens — one under the range and the other stacked in easy reach between a lower pot drawer and an upper, wall-mounted microwave. In the adjacent laundry room, the washer and dryer also perch atop storage pedestals to alleviate the need for bending and reaching. Kitchen storage is plentiful; the McSweenys worked with their cabinetmaker, NVS Kitchen & Bath in Manassas, to plan cabinet placement and pull-out inserts for ease of use. D-shaped door and drawer handles offer a comfortable grip. Kitchen trash bins occupy cabinets in two locations, to cut down on walking. Electrical outlets are conveniently located. Sealed wood flooring and complimentary wood countertops contrast with the white cabinets for aesthetics and offer visual cues to edges and surfaces. Cherry placed a sizable pantry close to the kitchen and elevator. A motion sensor light illuminates the space even when arms are loaded with groceries. Halls and doorways throughout the house are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. Windows are big and plentiful to soak in light as well as views. Ambient and task lighting ensure good visibility. A master bedroom and bathroom suite on the top floor offers spaciousness, comfort and ease of use. The bedroom is big and bright, with room for a second bed by the window if ever needed. The master bathroom includes a large shower with bench seating, hand-held spray and blocking to support grab bars that might be installed; a free-standing bathtub with ample room for entry; a chair-height toilet (like all the commodes in the house) with surrounding space for grab bars and wheelchair transfer; twin sinks that could accommodate under-counter legroom; and abundant, easy-to-reach storage. The walk-in master closet is large enough for easy circulation and for a central bench. Pocket doors at the bathroom and closet conserve space while offering wide entry. One aspect of aging-in-place design is low-maintenance — to minimize the effort and expense of home upkeep. The McSweenys selected durable, easy-to-clean carpeting for the master bedroom and basement, and easy-care, non-slip matte-finish hardwood floors for the rest of the house. Fiber-cement siding, vinyl trim and composite decking form a largely maintenance-free exterior. Tom says the McSweenys opted for clad aluminum windows that are treated to filter out almost all ultraviolet light and to resist soil buildup on the outside. Even the plantings around the house were chosen with ease of care in mind. “There’s very little lawn,” Tom adds. The McSweenys invested in a large generator to ensure that they would retain power for medical equipment and other uses in case of bad storms. They have two energy-efficient furnaces — one for the top floor and one for the rest of the house — to facilitate zoning. The house is wired for remote access so that the homeowners can use their phone to control heat, lights and the security alarm from wherever they are. At Cherry’s insistence, says Tom, connections between all the first-floor living spaces are “wide open.” Circulation areas between rooms are large, and big cutouts in interior walls link spaces even more fully. The result is flexibility, enabling the McSweenys to entertain small or large groups. “It maximizes the ability to expand,” Cherry says. Perhaps the most important aspect of the openness, though, has to do with why most homeowners choose aging-in-place design in the first place. “Older homeowners have finished rearing their children, and now they want to equip their homes to be together,” Cherry says. “With connectivity of spaces, they can be doing different things but still have verbal and visual contact.” Though aging-in-place design involves anticipating needs, Glickman says, “some people are aging but are in somewhat denial about what that may mean.” They simply may not plan ahead, or they may resist doing so because they think aging-in-place accommodations will look ugly or institutional. Glickman, who is designated by the National Association of Home Builders as a certified aging-in-place specialist, encourages his remodeling and new home clients to include some accessibility features anyway. Despite homeowners’ fears, most of these features are “invisible” because they blend into the design of the home. Not only that, but it costs far less to include most aging-in-place components during a construction project than to go back and add them later. Installing supportive blocking for grab bars while the bathroom walls are open, for instance, adds almost nothing to construction costs; adding them later means cutting into the wall. Another example is prepping for future installation of a residential elevator. With an elevator, people who have trouble negotiating stairs can continue living safely in their multi-story homes. Glickman says it may cost $3,000 extra to stack first-, second- and third-floor closets and rough in an elevator shaft in that space, including a basement-floor cutout for elevator equipment and an extension of electrical and phone lines to the elevator area. But this advance work can save $150,000 or more by eliminating the need for major remodeling later to carve out elevator space. Architect Bob Wilkoff, owner of Archaeon Architects in Cabin John, Md., is also a universal design and aging-in-place expert. He says incorporating basic aging-in-place features into new home design can have “very little cost effect.” Depending on what’s included, he says, aging in place may add 5 to 10 percent to the project cost. “It’s almost more a matter of space allocation than of equipment cost,” he says. “It’s just logical planning.” Wilkoff incorporates basic, must-have accessibility features into his home designs, such as blocking for grab bars; corridors and doorways that are wide enough for wheelchairs; and, if possible, inclusion of a first-floor master bedroom (or room that could become one) to enable homeowners to live on one floor now or later. Glickman routinely includes selected barrier-free features in his designs, too, such as larger bathrooms with roomy, curbless showers; kitchen cabinet inserts that pull stored items into easy reach; and sidewalks that rise up gentle grades to no-step entrances — essentially “invisible” ramps. Wilkoff has clients ranging in age from their early 40s to mid-60s who are requesting aging-in-place features. Even the younger, 40-something homeowners know that, with these design elements, they will have bright, airy homes that are flexible and adaptable. “There’s no negative effect” to good aging-in-place planning or universal design, Wilkoff says. After putting money into an extensive remodel or custom home, “you won’t ever have to leave — and moving is expensive,” he says. Especially around here, adds Glickman, aging in place is a wise real-estate investment. By and large, he says, “D.C. area homes are not suitable for the aging population. With the population shift, demand for accessible homes has to go up, and the supply is not going to keep up with the demand. In 10 to 15 years, there will be a huge demand. Accessible houses will command higher prices, especially if the accommodations are done in a way that does not look institutional or ‘handicapped.’ ” Some home improvements made to accommodate a resident can be deducted from federal taxes as medical expenses; these may include widening doorways and halls, adding railings and grab bars, lowering or modifying kitchen cabinets, and more. Depending on where you live, you may qualify for a tax credit for accessibility components that are incorporated into your remodeled or new home. Virginia has a state Livable Home Tax Credit Program, and at least two Maryland counties — Howard and Montgomery — offer tax credits for accessibility features. ****

Baby boomers had better embrace change

_William H. Frey is a demographer and senior fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. He is co-author of “America by the Numbers” and author of the forthcoming “Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America.”_ Long associated in the popular mind with social and political change, the baby boomers are about to confront the biggest change in the American fabric in their lifetimes: our country’s new demographics. And they’re not ready. Recent census numbers show that white babies are, for the first time, a minority of all births, putting an exclamation point on a trend that has been building for decades. A glance around schoolyards and community centers shows that children are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse than ever. It is this diverse youth population that the largely white baby boomers will rely upon in their retirement years to keep paying into Social Security and Medicare. Yet a Pew Research Center survey published in November showed only 23 percent of baby boomers regard the country’s growing population of immigrants as a change for the better. Forty-three percent saw it as a change for the worse. Almost half of white boomers said the growing number of newcomers from other countries represented a threat to traditional U.S. customs and values. Older whites in general tend to be less favorable to more government programs, except Social Security, a significant change from their views in the late 1980s. Nowadays, younger minorities hold the views that boomers used to have, supporting government programs they see as important for their upward mobility. What’s emerging is a cultural gap between the largest generation and the youngest. That divide is created by the size and cultural dominance of the 78-million- member baby-boom generation. A generation that once expressed distrust for anyone older than 30 is now itself isolated from a younger, far more diverse America. Boomers were born to parents whose upward mobility was aided by sweeping public programs such as the GI Bill. They benefitted from a wide array of programs supporting higher education and became a highly educated generation. Still, this generation — which will swell the ranks of senior citizens in the coming years — seems to be having trouble letting go, showing more than a little antipathy toward today’s diverse, younger Americans. Why is this happening? Part of the reason is that boomers grew up in an era when immigration was at its nadir. From 1946 to 1964, the share of immigrants was at the lowest level in the 20th century, and most of the immigrants were white Europeans. So boomers had minimal involvement with people other countries. Today, immigrants are 13 percent of our population, and they are far more diverse. That created an isolation that persists. Among Americans older than 50, 76 percent are white, and the black population, at 10 percent, is the largest minority. Among those younger than 30, 55 percent are whites. Hispanics, Asians and other nonblack minorities account for 31 percent of that age group. Younger people are much more likely to be first- and second-generation Americans of non-European ancestry and able to speak English and other languages. Yet, no matter the disconnect, the youngest and the oldest generations are inextricably linked. The 2010 Census told us we would have faced an absolute decade-long decline in our under-18 population, had it not been for the gain of 5.5 million Hispanic and Asian youths. Between now and 2030, there will be an absolute decline of 10 million (mostly baby-boom) whites from the ranks of our working-age population. Those ranks can be replenished only by the growing minority youth population. Much of this growth will occur because of births, regardless of immigration trends. The contributions these people make will depend heavily on the opportunities they receive, particularly through education. Barriers are especially challenging for many minority children with talent and high aspirations, who continue to attend segregated, underfunded school systems. Currently, high school dropout rates for Hispanics are more than twice as high as those of non-Hispanic whites. More than a third of Hispanic and black children live in poverty. Advancement of our young people into middle-class jobs at all skill levels is essential to future economic growth. That growth is, in turn, essential to our country’s ability to provide opportunities and social supports. Absent these investments, we are looking at a society whose members will be fighting over pieces of a shrinking pie. Because of their numbers and clout, the voices of baby boomers will be heard. Let’s hope they, in turn, hear the message that their future, as well as the nation’s, is tied to the well-being of today’s diverse, striving younger Americans. **Read more on this debate:** Maggie Severns: Why better educations are critical for minority children Eli Hager: Racial injustice in Mississippi schools The Post’s View: America’s changing demographics

As America grays, businesses help seniors age in place

Eileen Morrissey has always been independent. But at 91, she can no longer drive, which has made it hard for her to get to the grocery store. At least once a week, she calls SilverRide, a San Francisco transportation service that takes elderly clients on errands of their choosing. “When I went to do my Christmas shopping, they carried my packages to the car,” Morrissey said. “They’re easy to talk to and they keep you in conversation.” Morrissey is among those seniors who are eschewing nursing homes in favor of independent living. In an October poll conducted by the Associated Press and the baby-boomer site LifeGoesStrong.   com, more than half of respondents older than 65 said it was “very” or “extremely” likely that they would remain in their homes throughout retirement. The demographic has inspired new businesses that cater to the health needs and social lives of those who prefer to “age in place,” as it’s called. “Technologies for aging in place is a $2 billion market now, but I project that it will grow to $20 billion by 2020,” said Laurie Orlov, head of a market research firm that studies such technology. Because of longer life spans, the rising cost of nursing homes and the difficulty of selling homes, only about 3.1 percent of Americans older than 65 lived in nursing homes in 2010, down from 5 percent in 1990, according to census figures. And the older population is surging; 10,000 people will turn 65 every day for the next 18 years, according to the Pew Research Center. Jon Pynoos, a professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California, said although $20 billion may be optimistic, “it’s not an unreasonable estimate.” “We’re going to see more technology built into houses, and we’re going to see more portable devices,” he said. “The number of people in the old-age category will increase dramatically, and those peoples’ homes are not well-equipped in terms of addressing the needs they have.” At-home devices for seniors have come a long way since Life Alert, the classic emergency-response system with its token tag line, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” Although fall prevention is still a big part of the senior market — tumbles are a leading cause of injury among older Americans — the newest devices are more discreet. Researchers at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia are developing a fall-prevention device that can be worn as a piece of jewelry. It measures changes in gait or stability over time. “If a person decreases their walking velocity or is more prone to instability, we can use that information to identify health conditions and how that can influence the likelihood of falls,” says Thurmon Lockhart, Virginia Tech engineering professor. The innovations go beyond preventing falls. Inspired by studies showing that music can help with depression, Alzheimer’s and other ailments, entrepreneur David Schofman grew determined to make music therapy available to the masses. After more than a year of working with the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California at Davis, Schofman’s team found that music played at specific volumes in a certain order could reduce adverse mental-health symptoms. The company, Coro Health, is essentially Pandora for the aging. For $9.95 a month, a customer can order playlists geared toward specific conditions — each with a tailor-made mix of beats per minute, vocalization ranges and volume. “Every person’s music prescription is different. If you don’t have memory issues, you wouldn’t listen to same songs over and over,” Schofman said. “And no country music for the depressed.” There are also countless low-tech solutions. Kathi Sitek of Macomb, Mich., was a caregiver for her parents. To better manage her mother’s complex medication schedule, she taped the pills to a strip of cardboard and labeled them. “It’s mind-boggling when you start having to manage medication,” she says. Thinking she was on to something, she manufactured a version using blue plastic and dubbed it the Pill Pouch. The Pouch’s left side has clear pockets, and the right side has room to write the name and dosage. She has a patent pending and sells the pouch for $10 online and at retailers. Jeff Maltz was thinking about starting a business in 2006 when a friend asked him to volunteer as a driver for seniors. The woman he helped, an amputee, told him that the volunteer drivers were “the only people I ever see.” “These people want to get out and socialize,” Maltz said, “but sometimes they just don’t want to impose on their families.” The experience got him thinking about a taxi-type service that could take seniors on outings led by caring workers who share their interests. With 70,000 trips so far, clients have ordered SilverRide to go to the grocery store, to visit the opera, even to go on a one-Walgreens-after-another search for discounted Elmer’s glue (to each his own). The price is tailored to the nature and length of each trip. The service has proved so popular that Maltz is expanding nationally. “Demography is destiny,” he said, “and we have a massive older population.” These entrepreneurs have run into hurdles, such as navigating the complex insurance requirements associated with providing care for seniors. “We had to work our procedures and insurance correctly so we could administer first aid, for example,” Maltz said. The purchase of an in-home health product can bring up some uncomfortable emotions, says Maria Lipani, a social worker who runs a geriatric care management blog. After all, getting an iPad won’t make someone feel unduly supervised, but getting a fall detector might. “There are a lot of existential transitions that people go through,” Lipani said. “And the big one is needing help.” **3.1 percent** of Americans older than 65 lived in nursing homes in 2010. In 1990, the figure was 5 percent. **57 percent** ****of Americans older than 65 polled by the Associated Press and the Web site LifeGoesStrong.com said they were “very” or “extremely” likely to remain in their current homes throughout their retirement. ****

Five myths about baby boomers

_Sally Abrahms is a freelance writer on baby boomers and aging._ There are 75.4 million baby boomers in the United States, people from 51 to 69 years old. They are the largest generation in American history, raised during the economic prosperity that followed World War II. Media and marketers have treated the generation as one enormous, monolithic group since their youth. But larger than the entire population of France, America’s baby boomers are a far more diverse demographic than any of their many stereotypes convey. The oldest boomer, born in 1946, was 18 years old when the youngest was just entering the world. It’s time to debunk some generalizations about the original Me Generation. _1. Boomers are wealthy._ Rather than downsizing, many empty nesters are snapping up second homes or moving into bigger quarters, seeking more prestige and space for friends and relatives to visit. For instance, the Lake Weir Preserve retirement community in central Florida offers custom homes with garages as huge as 3,000 square feet, to fit RVs, boats and classic-car collections. Increasingly, “retirement isn’t all about being practical,” Ken Dychtwald, founder and chief executive of the consulting firm Age Wave, told U.S. News & World Report this year. Such stories of big spending have dominated popular perceptions of boomers in their later years. But many boomers couldn’t be further from living that dream. While some benefit from multiple income streams, members of this sandwich generation often are saddled simultaneously with their children’s eye-popping college tuition payments and health expenses for their aging parents. Some have to leave their jobs to be full-time caregivers. A 2013 AARP study found that about 1 in 5 workers between ages 45 and 74 had either taken leave or quit a job to care for an adult family member in the past five years. That amounted to an average $303,880 in lost income (including pension and Social Security benefits) per caregiver, according to a MetLife estimate. On top of that, there’s a mounting number of “gray divorce” couples who, in their 50s and 60s, suddenly have to divide assets they had counted on. Given boomers’ longer life expectancy, that translates into a lot more bills for many more years. Savings aren’t helping them much. A Wells Fargo study released last month shows that working Americans age 60 or older have median savings of just $50,000, about $250,000 short of their goal. And plans to keep their jobs longer might not work. In the same study, 49 percent of retired respondents said they left the workforce earlier than expected, frequently because of health problems or an employer’s decision. Boomers know that their financial situation is more precarious than others think. “When I talk to audiences around the country, I hear this palpable fear that boomers will outlive their money,” says personal finance expert Kerry Hannon, author of “Getting the Job You Want After 50.” _2. Boomers are healthier than their parents._ Baby boomers have the longest life expectancy in history. The average 65-year- old today can expect to live to 84.3 — nearly three years longer than a 65-year-old in 1980. New tests to screen for health issues, along with greater public awareness about the dangers of smoking, sitting and obesity, give boomers health advantages that their parents never had. Statins to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease weren’t even introduced until 1987. Boomers are tracking their fitness, tallying their steps and counting their calories. It’s natural to assume they are healthier than the previous generation. But the data doesn’t agree. “We have all these medical advances, fitness and technology. There’s this belief that with so many more tools available that boomers have to be doing better, but it’s a misperception,” says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013 showed that boomers were in worse health than their parents at about the same age. They had more disabilities and higher rates of chronic diseases. Just 13 percent of the studied boomers said they were in excellent health, compared with 32 percent of people from the previous generation. Boomers were more likely to be obese, exercised less, and had higher rates of hypertension and high cholesterol. _3. Boomers are selfish._ If you want to see how unpopular the cohort unfortunately nicknamed the Me Generation has become, just Google “baby boomers selfish.” My search returned 147,000 results, including headlines declaring them “The Worst Generation Ever.” Detractors complain that boomers stay too long at their jobs and in their homes, not making room for the next generation, spending their children’s inheritances and running up debt. Elsewhere in this issue, Jim Tankersley writes, “the generation that was born into some of the strongest job growth in the history of America, gobbled up the best parts, and left its children and grandchildren with some bones to pick through and a big bill to pay.” Not so fast. Boomers have been far more generous with their money than they’re given credit for, a benevolence that will continue after their deaths. The generation is poised to lead the largest wealth transfer in U.S. history. Researchers at Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy estimated that between 2007 and 2061, heirs will receive $36 trillion from deceased relatives, and $20.6 trillion will be given to charity. A new Merrill Lynch report credits boomers for an upcoming surge in charitable giving: Over the next 20 years, retirees will donate money and time worth $8 trillion. The generation has also solidified the concept of the “encore career,” with retirees parlaying their experience and skills into volunteer roles or paid “second act” jobs that have a positive social impact. The San Francisco-based nonprofit Encore.org launched in 1997 to place skilled retirees in health- care, human services, environmental and educational fields. Encore.org’s research shows that more than 4.5 million Americans ages 50 to 70 are already in encore careers and an additional 21 million plan to pursue them. As founder and chief executive Marc Freedman told me, “The so-called ‘Me Generation’ is being shown to be the ‘We Generation.’ ” _4. Boomers are technology-challenged._ It stands to reason that people who weren’t exposed to personal computers until adulthood would have a harder time learning digital skills than those who have been using them since childhood. The personal computer didn’t even exist until the oldest boomers were a decade out of high school. The youngest were in their late 20s when the public Internet was born. In 2001, educator Marc Prensky coined the term “digital immigrant” for those born before 1980 who can find technology foreign. It’s assumed that older adults are slower to grasp new skills and that computers, digital gadgets and social media are too complicated for them to use. But boomers, like younger generations, have integrated digital technology into almost every facet of their lives — from banking and shopping to following news and watching videos. A 2010 Pew Research Center study found that 84 percent of Americans between ages 57 and 65 owned a cellphone, about the average for adults of all ages. They were nearly as likely as Gen Xers to own a desktop computer — 64 percent compared with 69 percent (though Gen Xers were more likely to have a laptop). And among younger boomers, 42 percent owned an iPod or MP3 player, while 38 percent owned a game console. They’re also far from social-media-shy. Users over age 55 are Facebook’s fastest-growing segment; 7 out of 10 boomers already have an account. They have no problem logging on for love, either. Several dating sites, including OurTime.com and SilverSingles.com, cater to the 50-plus set, who now make up 20 percent of all online daters. _5. Boomers don’t have sex._ On that note, boomers also have challenged the notion that our sex lives collapse as we age. A culture that glorifies youth and glamorizes taut bodies has grimaced at the idea of grandparents as sexual beings. Older actresses are sidelined as romantic leads in movies, and the sex lives of married couples are the butt of jokes on TV shows. Society’s discomfort with older-adult sexuality makes Viagra and Cialis ads seem almost ghoulish. But even 48 years after the Summer of Love, people in this generation haven’t let their love lives die. In the 2010 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior  , 38 percent of married men ages 50 to 59 said they had sex “a few times a month to weekly,” and 35.4 percent of 60- to 69-year-olds concurred. They didn’t trail too far behind young men in their sexual prime; among those in the 25-to-29 set, 46 percent said they had sex that frequently. It’s not all good news, though. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexually transmitted diseases are hitting boomers hard. STD rates doubled among 50- to 90-year-olds between 2000 and 2010. Specifically, the rate of chlamydia soared about 32 percent, and the incidence of syphilis rose about 52 percent among boomers. **_Twitter: @sallyabrahms_ ** Correction: This post originally stated that those born in 1946 voted in the 1964 presidential election, when they were 18 years old. The minimum age to vote legally at that time was 21. Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook: Quiz: Match the generalization with the generation Baby boomers are what’s wrong with America’s economy Baby boomer nostalgia is oppressive. It’s about to get worse. How “baby boomers” took over the world Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Technology helping more baby-boomer grandparents stay plugged in to grandkids

Like a lot of grandmothers, Sheri Williams doesn’t get to visit her grandchildren as often as she’d like. In part, that’s because she has a full-time job and nine grandchildren spread across several time zones. The youngest one lives in Arlington, Va.; the oldest lives in Hawaii. “I can’t just drive down the street,” she says. Instead, Williams, a 63-year-old medical administrator in Springfield, Ill., relies on technology to get a virtual dose of kisses, hugs and updates. She checks Facebook for the latest photos and family news, and shares milestones (and endures tantrums) with her 14-month-old grandson in Arlington, via Skype. For her, the interaction is almost as good as it is in person. “I get to say, ‘Hey, buddy,’ and see him break out in a smile,” she says. Although most grandparents still communicate with their grandchildren by phone, evidence suggests that a growing number of them — baby boomers, especially — are turning to online tools to connect. Given the constraints of distance and time — a majority of boomer grandparents are still working and many of them live hundreds of miles from their grandchildren — technology is often the only way to stay connected to family, and they are increasingly comfortable using it. Sure, most people are using more technology these days. But grandparents have a special incentive to adapt to technology, says Amy Goyer, a family expert at AARP, because they want to “stay in touch with their families.” A recent survey by the organization showed that 20 percent of grandparents interviewed used technology to communicate with their grandchildren at least once a week. A 2012 MetLife report found that almost one-third of grandparents e-mail with their grandchildren, and almost a quarter communicate via Facebook. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that in 2014, 65 percent of adults ages 50 to 64 use social-networking sites, up from about 24 percent in 2009. “Staying in touch with family members is one of the main motivations for using social media,” says Mary Madden, a senior researcher at Pew, “and that’s especially true for adults aged 50 to 64.” Another reason for increased tech use among older Americans is that many of them become grandparents when they are relatively young — about 50. Also, about two-thirds of boomer grandparents are still in the workforce, said Wendy D. Manning, director of the Center for Family and Demographic Research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. That may make them more familiar with technology than the grandparents of a generation or two ago. Bill Ferris, 69, a professor of management at Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., says he started using Skype about four years ago when he taught a class from London. He then began video chatting with his grandchildren, who live in Chicago and South Hadley, Mass. “It’s more fun than the phone,” says Ferris, who also uses video technology to talk to his 85-year-old mother-in-law, who lives in Belize, and his 95-year- old father, who lives in another part of Massachusetts. Linda Drake, 60, was a social worker in Denver when she first started texting. “It was a valuable tool” to stay in touch with teenagers she was working with on the job, she says, “and it made me seem cooler.” When she retired four years ago, she was glad to have her smartphone. Teenagers don’t like to talk on the phone or e-mail, but they do text. Drake now texts regularly with her six grandchildren, who range in age from 10 to 15 and are scattered from Virginia to Colorado. She also uses Instagram — sharing photos of her dog, vacations and other activities — which she likes because it allows her to stay close to her grandchildren without seeming intrusive. When using the app, she says, “I use the name Denverdogz, not Grandmalinda.” When her 15-year-old grandson posted a picture of himself hugging a girl, “I may have ‘liked’ it,” she says, but she knew better than to leave a comment. Instagram is a better way to communicate as her grandchildren get older, she notes. “I want [them] to know that I love them, and I want them to know a little about me,” she says. Expressing this in person is challenging not only because of distance and work schedules, but because of the gap that develops as the kids grow older. Teenagers are more likely to respond to a text from Grandma than talk to her on the phone. “The immediacy of texting and Instagram, and the way that each of us feels from those fleeting interactions, keeps the relationship more vibrant,” Drake says. Her 12-year-old granddaughter, Colleen, who lives Arlington, showed her how to download emoticons, “which I love,” Drake says. Now “Colleen and I will go back and forth with emoticons” — smiles, applause, winks. Colleen says she loves texting with her grandmother. “It’s fun because I don’t get to see her much,” she says. She likes telling her grandmother about meals she has eaten or asking her for help with a family recipe via Facetime. Communicating by Facetime is “so easy and so pleasant, ” says Elizabeth Amin, 69, a retired radiologist in Louisville who uses the app to visit with her toddler granddaughter in Washington, D.C. — “and I’m not a techie by any stretch of the imagination.” Amin says video chatting has strengthened her connection with her granddaughter, whom she sees in person just a few times a year. “I say, ‘Give me a kiss,’ and she will come toward the phone or iPad and will kiss that instead,” she says. “I don’t know what her little brain tells her,” Amin says, “but she knows us in whatever form we are.” Indeed, says Mary-Leslie Holland, a 66-year-old grandmother of five who works at a university lab in Upstate New York, “it’s so nice for the little kids to see us on-screen so they sort of know who we are when we show up instead of thinking, ‘Who is this very old lady?’ ” Holland, whose grandchildren live in Boston and suburban Maryland., laughs about the time, eager for feedback on a new haircut, she took a selfie, and with the help of her stylist, put it on Facebook awaiting her family’s response: “They liked it!” Still, many boomer grandparents concede that technology is no substitute for actually being there. Drake says that her fondest memory of this past summer was decidedly low-tech: “Laughing uproariously at the dining room table, for over an hour, playing a card game.” Which is another issue many boomer grandparents bring up: Technology may be helping to improve relationships made difficult by challenges of time and distance, but it is also something of a tease. As nice as it is to see her grandson smiling at her onscreen, Williams says, “It breaks my heart. You don’t get to sit there and hold him.” Other boomers, especially those who still work, say they’ve had enough screen time on the job and just want to talk face-to-face. “Technology has become necessary and very important for the type of work I do,” says Joan Teemer, 63, a book sales representative based in Ohio. But when it comes to spending time with her seven grandchildren, she says, “it is nice to put it away and breathe.” Some also say that even as they enjoy the benefits of being able to “see” their grandkids online, they are wistful for the days of care packages and handwritten letters. It used to be that at the end of one’s life you suddenly had this great stash of letters your mother saved,” Holland says. “That will be no more.” There’s also the matter of the third party in this triangle: the child’s parents. Typically, they are the ones setting up the iPad for their kids or parents. Some parents may be too busy or simply unwilling — after all, even Grandma on screen is yet another thing on screen. More often, though, families increasingly consider technology — video chatting especially — a savior. It allows them to share moments — first steps, first words, art projects, gymnastics routines, new outfits and haircuts — without the expense and time involved with doing it in person. (“I’m sure there are lip marks on [my son’s] iPhone,” Amin says.) Some parents even use grandparents as on-screen babysitters, entertaining the kids on a tablet while Mom or Dad is making dinner. Technology, Drake says, helps keep “those wonderful connected feelings alive between generations, when our immediate and individual foci are elsewhere and are admittedly out of sync.” It helps us “remember that we remain connected.”

It’s not that hard to have fun, once you retire

It turns out that concerns about having all that time on your hands after you retire may be a bit overstated. A Merrill Lynch retirement survey, conducted with Age Wave and released last week, indicates that retirees are enjoying their time away from work just fine. “Retirees are experiencing a liberation from their hard-working and often workaholic pasts and report having more freedom, more fun, new beginnings and greater emotional well being than at any other point in their lives,” according to “Leisure in Retirement: Beyond the Bucket List.” “This is taking a popular perception and turning it on its head,”  said Andy Sieg, head of global wealth and retirement solutions at Merrill Lynch. Nearly 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day, and life expectancy is at an all-time high. Because we are living longer, we can now spend as long in retirement as we can in our careers. So instead of viewing retirement as the finish line, 9 of 10 of those interviewed see it as an opportunity for new beginnings, the survey says. And without the pressures and stress of a job, retirees say they are having more freedom, flexibility and fun. Only 7 percent said they are having less fun in retirement. The main reason for that was — you guessed it — financial. Social networks are important. As it turns out, pre-retirees say what they will miss most from work is that reliable paycheck. But retirees say what they ended up missing most was their social networks. And finally, as with anything in life, planning was key. “This study revealed that planning for retirement leisure can have a very positive impact,” Sieg said. “Those who have done some preparation are far more likely to say retirement is more fun, enjoyable and pleasurable. Yet, very few people actually plan for this important dimension of their retirement experience.”  Many of us would change something if we could go back and do it over again. If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently and why?  Despite all the best places to retire lists, most people prefer to stay where they are. Do you want to retire where you live, or would you prefer to go someplace else? For those already retired, why did you make the decision to stay or move?  My husband and I decided several years ago that we did not want to deal with the hustle and bustle of the D.C. area when we retired.  We purchased property on Lake Murray outside Columbia, S.C.  I was offered a transfer with my company shortly after, to my dream territory covering coastal S.C. and my husband now works from home. Several close friends from Northern VA have followed.  We have all the benefits of a large city, just on a smaller scale, with a lower cost of living, good health care and very minimal traffic.  People here have no idea what real traffic is.  We love it. Best move ever!  My May 8 column, which asked whether should you pay off your mortgage before you retire, generated quite a bit of email traffic and comments. Several readers thought I should have included strategies to pay off your mortgage before retirement.  One thing I wish you would have mentioned in your article is that it may still be a good idea to accelerate your mortgage in retirement. Simply buying down the mortgage means you’ll pay on it for less time. Of course, people think the tax break makes the interest worth it (they are wrong!) so they probably don’t worry about it.  One thing you might have mentioned in your column on May 8, 2016, in The Washington Post is the strategy of paying extra on the principal. For example, if you have a 30-year mortgage, paying double the monthly payment at some point, if you can afford it, can easily remove 10 years from the term of the mortgage, resulting in timing that makes you free of mortgage debt by the time you retire.  But be sure your lender applies the extra solely to the principal, i.e., not including the interest. Anyway, I think this strategy might be worth discussing.

Aging in place concept has been oversold, professor argues

Aging-in-place may not be all it’s cracked up to be. That’s the view of a University of Florida professor of gerontology, who argues that the popular notion that older people are better off remaining in their homes may be simplistic — a view summed up by the sentiment, “I’d rather rot in my own home.” Yet professor Stephen M. Golant, whose academic career has balanced geography and aging, says in a new book that the concept of aging-in-place has become a mantra in recent years that might prevent older adults from seeking healthier, more holistic alternatives. “It’s not an all-or-nothing situation, obviously,” Golant said in an interview about aging-in-place. “But I just wanted to point out the imperfections, and the weaknesses in some of the arguments. . .I want to point out that sometimes there’s too much hype.” It’s the sort of hype that has surrounded what he calls the New Gerontology, a longrunning trend that sometimes seems to imply that if people follow certain regimens of diet, physical exercise, social activity and cognitive training, they might avoid aging altogether. But other experts in geriatrics suggest he’s going against the tide when it comes to aging-in-place. “Every survey we have says that’s what people prefer to do,” said Susan C. Reinhard, senior vice president at AARP and director of its Public Policy Institute. “That’s not to say it’s the right choice for everybody. And I don’t think AARP has ever said that.’’    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Reinhard said the move toward aging-in-place was itself a reaction to the assumption that older adults should spend their remaining years in nursing homes and other institutions. Surveys and data, such as Medicaid funding for in-home services, have shown that the number of people who choose aging-in- place has increased by about 1 to 2 percent a year for the past two decades or so. In recent years, the “village” model has sprung up in cities and suburbs as a way of providing extra community support to older people who want to remain in their homes and neighborhoods as they grow old.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico In “Aging in the Right Place,” Golant argues that that aging-in-place model has been oversold, particularly by home health-care providers, builders eager to capitalize on renovating homes for older people, and financial institutions who have popularized reverse mortgages. AARP, the media and other stakeholders have also pushed the idea too hard, Golant said. Aging-in-place, he argues, could really be nothing more than “residential inertia.”    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico “The inevitable conclusion is that proponents of aging in place groupthink are doing a great disservice to millions of older Americans now occupying inappropriate residential environments,” Golant writes. Blinded by emotional factors such as the memories that attach to a beloved home, older people may hunker down in a house that is no longer physically easy to navigate, expensive to maintain, and inconveniently located to meet a person’s daily needs such as grocery shopping or doctors. The neighbors and friends who once made it an attractive home may also have moved away or died, leaving them isolated. They can feel incompetent and out-of-control – outside their “residential mastery zones,” Golant writes. These folks, he argues, might be better off moving someplace else. “When older people express their strong preferences for aging in place to pollsters, they have not contemplated spending almost all their time in the confines of their dwelling,” Golant writes. “They do not envision scenarios in which they lack the energy or motivation to perform their most basic subsistence or homemaking tasks. They do not foresee a day when they cannot accomplish their everyday shopping activities or imagine they will be sick, alone, and with no one to call.” The financial costs of aging-in-place also tend to be underestimated, he writes. In part, that’s because of trends that large numbers of older Americans today, unlike previous generations, are still paying off the mortgages on their homes. Above all, he argues that aging-in-place often assumes that a family member will be on call nearby to serve as a caregiver. That assumption hides the toll on financial and emotional toll on caregivers, who in most cases tend to be women.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico “There are many downsides to the aging-in-place experience for older people,” Golant said. “Obviously there’s a good side. I’d be irresponsible to say there are not a lot of positives. . . But older people are a really diverse lot. Their ability to count on family members is very variable. Their ability to cope with their declines and their losses in health and people is very variable. So to suggest indiscriminately that aging in place is good for everyone is also an irresponsible position to take.” Both sides would agree on one thing. “People need better choices,” said Rodney Harrell, a housing expert at AARP’s Public Policy Institute. Too many homes and communities were designed in ways that run counter to an older person’s needs, particularly in suburbs that were designed around the automobile, he said. People of every age would benefit if public planners focused more on designing communities that combine walk-ability, accessibility to employment, grocery shopping, health care and other needs, and adequate housing at all price levels. “We really need to work at meeting this wide range of needs,” Harrell said. Golant said the United States has so far failed to provide decent alternatives for older people to relocate. The middle class is especially affected, because they cannot qualify for assistance available for people with low incomes, such as Medicaid, and they can’t afford many retirement communities. “We know how to provide beautiful long-term care,” Golant said. “What we don’t know how to do is make that kind of product affordable to anyone but [those] in a higher income bracket.”

Retirement, deferred: Workers — and companies — grapple with a new reality

Meanwhile, one might assume “phased retirement” programs, which started 15 years ago or so to help employees gradually step away from their jobs, would be hotter than ever. The programs allow workers to keep working part-time or in alternate arrangements while helping companies hold on to workers with valuable skills.  “We haven’t seen a flood of large employers saying we want to have phased retirement programs lock stock and barrel,” said Roselyn Feinsod, a senior partner in Aon Hewitt's retirement practice. “We just haven't seen a huge prevalence.” However, that doesn't mean employers are being more stingy about a more gradual retirement. Human resources experts say that instead, companies are offering the option to near-retirees under the broader umbrella of flexible work arrangements — a development that could help older workers in some ways, but possibly hurt if they work for organizations where flexibility isn't as highly valued. “If there’s anything employers want, it's a committed employee,” said Jacquelyn James, co-director of the Center on Aging & Work at Boston College. “They don’t want a sign they’re one foot in and one out the door.” Phased retirement, human resources experts say, emerged in the early 2000s as companies grew concerned about a baby boomer exodus. The programs saw an uptick in popularity around the middle of that decade after regulatory changes helped address questions about how traditional pension benefits would be paid out, said Lenny Sanicola, a senior practice leader at WorldatWork, but then the benefit fell in popularity during the Great Recession, as so many workers felt they could no longer retire. The prevailing trend is to include the option in the part-time, job sharing and other flexible arrangements that the employer offers to all workers. “There's been a leveling off” in offering a distinct benefit, Sanicola said. “I think it's being done more on an informal basis.” One upside to this trend for older workers, James said, is that employees won't have to be as clear about their plans with their boss. “The phased retirement has a lot of complications to it,” she said. “It means you are signaling to the organization that you’re retiring,” even years out, when more promotions or big assignments could be in store. Another issue with more formal programs, she said, is that they often require employees to set a date when they plan to retire — a decision that could change over time. Still, she points out that people who work for bosses who frown upon flexible work arrangements more broadly could have a tougher time. “The downside will be if the organization has policies on the books but doesn’t really support them,” she said. “If you know the manager thinks that’s a whole bunch of gobbledygook from HR,” employees might not ask for them. “Supervisor support for these programs and policies is essential.” Renee McGowan, who leads Mercer's global retirement savings and financial wellness business, said there's also “absolutely” a risk that such approaches to flexibility won't help older workers if employers don't communicate them well, and they seem more oriented toward, say, parents of young children. “We're going to need a far more overt conversation around employers and employees about their retirement plans,” she said. In addition to the shift in flexibility programs for older workers, McGowan and others said the recognition that people aren't financially ready to retire has made “financial well-being” programs a popular new corporate benefit. Employers, she said, are “realizing that 'I can’t expect my employees will want or be able to retire at 65. How do I help?' That's been a huge impetus for the financial wellness programs,” she said.  The most sophisticated companies, McGowan said, are recognizing that this is a challenge that's here to stay, and trying to make the most of it, planning for a future where the skills and careers of over-65 workers are very much part of the workforce. “There is this large shift from a world where employers really wanted people to retire at 65,” she said, “to one where they realize that may not be a reality, either on the part of employers or employees.”

Baby boomers are the zombie invasion we’ve feared

It’s like the last twist in a horror movie. You think the baby boomers are dead, or at least easing into retirement, and then they thrust their claw up from the dirt, or lunge from the bathtub with a knife. Or take over a presidential election. Or decide to “liberate” your country from an economic partnership that is imperfect but deeply popular among younger generations whose vision is more kaleidoscopic than the color scheme of a national flag. “YOU STOLE OUR FUTURE FROM US,” said a blue banner hoisted by two young women in front of Big Ben after the United Kingdom voted to “Brexit” the European Union last week. The “YOU,” of course, are the olds. The pensioners and soon-to-be pensioners. Voter turnout among Brits over 55 years old was 82 percent, according to the BBC. Among Brits under 34, it was 47 percent. If at least 65 percent of British millennials had turned out, the outcome would probably have been different. A more accurate banner then: “WE LET YOU STEAL OUR FUTURE.” Whose future is it anyway? The politician who’s approaching his or her life expectancy? Or the first-time voter who might have another 70 years on the planet? Forget class warfare. There was generational warfare on Twitter after the Brexit vote.  Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were born at the very beginning of the baby boom, in those flush postwar years; they came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, as America lost its mind on the Perfume River, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, on the campus of Kent State. “Don’t trust anyone over 30” was a boomer mantra in the 1960s. They put it on buttons as they railed against the Man.  There may be multiple choices this November, but everyone will be voting old. Even third-party candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are boomers (and Johnson’s running mate William Weld is a year older than Trump).  With the exception of the 2000 and 2004 elections, Americans are used to picking between an older guy and a younger guy for president. The younger guy, if he prevails, is credited with pulling America into a new era. Barack Obama was born in 1961, at the tail end of the Baby Boom, on the cusp of Generation X, but his relative youth, background, and inexperience on the national stage gave him an aura of newness, of next-ness, of we’re-moving-beyond-all-this. John F. Kennedy, the first U.S. president born in the 20th century, was nearly 27 years younger than his predecessor Dwight D. Eisenhower; his mere arrival re-mythologized Washington as Camelot. At the time Bill Clinton picked Al Gore to be his running mate, they were 45 and 44 years old. Articles were written about how boomers were finally wresting power from the Greatest Generation, embodied by the vanquished George H.W. Bush, who was a pilot in World War II before Clinton was even born. “To other generations, Baby Boomers have become a plague on the rest of the country,” wrote The Post’s Dan Balz in April 1992, as Bill was fighting Jerry Brown for the Democratic nomination. The angst! The self-absorption! The paranoia and greed and psychic scar tissue from Vietnam! Bill’s campaign song was Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” a forward-looking anthem about tomorrow that was already 15 years old at the time. “Yesterday’s gone,” Lindsey Buckingham sang. “Yesterday’s gone.” Except it’s not, and never is. Fleetwood Mac is still touring; last year they were the sixth-highest-grossing concert act, a few spots behind the Rolling Stones and a few spots ahead of the Grateful Dead. And former Goldwater girl Hillary Clinton, 68, is leading the polls. It’s 2016, mind you. This was supposed to be the year of the Gen-X candidate. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan were born between January 1970 and May 1971, grew up in Reagan’s shining city on a hill, inherited the Pax Americana of the ’90s. But Boomers and Millennials have a way of sucking the oxygen out of the room, which gives Gen X another reason to feel disaffected.  “We’re happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time,” wrote the poet Taylor Swift, 26. “It’s miserable and magical.”  A lot of small marks can add up to a big one. One reason for the rise in the millennial population is immigration, which is precisely what triggered the Brexit referendum: a fear that what is will soon no longer be. Which sounds a lot like the fear of death. Strange, then, that the medium of the moment is Snapchat, which is all about making things that don’t last. The Clinton campaign is very good at using Snapchat. The campaign sends video and images that disappear in the hands of young people who probably won’t vote. It’s 2016, definitely. The soonest a millennial will be a major-party nominee is in 2028, if we’re going by precedent. The youngest boomers will then be cruising through their mid-60s. So perhaps this generational warfare will actually reach the ballot box that year, in the form of millennial candidate vs. boomer candidate. By then, at least, millennials should be old enough to want to vote.

The kids gone, aging Baby Boomers opt for city life

Robert Solymossy doesn’t remember when he last gassed up his one remaining car. His other two cars are blissfully consigned to memory, along with his lawn, his driveway and “a lifetime’s worth of furniture” accumulated over the 23 years he lived in a detached single-family house in a wooded part of Oakton. In 2005, Solymossy, now 67, and his wife Diana Sun Solymossy, 58, traded all that in to live in a condo in Clarendon with a gym, a rooftop pool and dozens of shops and restaurants right downstairs. They bought it unbuilt, choosing from a floor plan. “It was a leap of faith, to say the least, but the location was really good,” Solymossy said. “After we moved in, I realized that this is really, really great; this really rocks.” The Solymossys were front-runners of a mini-trend now taking root in some parts of the nation and particularly in the Washington metro area: baby boomers swapping out their single-family suburban homes for the bustle of urban life. Reversing the trajectory of the Eisenhower generation, which fled cities for the suburbs, these boomers are following a path that younger people have embraced in droves. Many are empty nesters, and freed of the need to factor in school districts and yard sizes, they are gravitating to dense urban cores near restaurants, shops, movie theaters and Metro stations. ###  City   %  Suburbs%  Cast your vote  Results from an unscientific survey of Washington Post readers Between 2000 and 2010, more than a million baby boomers moved out of areas 40 to 80 miles from city centers and a similar number moved to within five miles of city centers, according to an analysis of 50 large cities by the online real estate brokerage Redfin. While a 2010 AARP survey showed that 85 percent of people 50 to 64 prefer to stay in their current residences, the percentage decreases with income, a relevant detail in the Washington region where household income is double the national median. And those who move increasingly want to live where they can walk and bike to amenities. “The millennials and the boomers are looking for the same thing,” said Amy Levner, manager of AARP’s Livable Communities. Surveys of boomers’ preferences show that they are more interested in “smart growth” areas than in sprawl. And they are such a large generation that even if only a small percent of them embrace urban life, the effect could be dramatic, Levner said. “This is just the tip of it,” she said. Chris Leinberger, a professor at the George Washington University School of Business and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that while comprehensive data won’t be available for another decade, the shift toward urban living is “the largest social trend of the early 21st century.” Although boomers aren’t driving it, he said, some are jumping on. The boomers’ generation had forged a more extreme version of suburban life than their parents had — adding to the burdens of home and garden care and commuting, Leinberger said. “The baby boomers’ lots are much bigger and they moved further out,” he said. “They’re tired of mowing their lawn; it takes sweat equity, or you have to write a check to someone to do it.” Real estate agents around the metro area say they are noticing a change. Rick Bosl, an agent with Keller Williams Realty who specializes in the condo-rich Orange Line corridor in Arlington, said around a quarter of his clients are boomers. “They want a level living area; they’re tired of stairs,” he said. “And it’s close to the city.” To be sure, there are trade-offs. When Ricki and Lee Peltzman, both 64, left a single-family house in Bethesda to live in the District’s Chinatown, they whittled down their square footage by two-thirds, which meant giving up some treasured art and books. “My husband came down here kicking and screaming,” said Peltzman. But “he didn’t have to take care of the house. . . . I was tired of working all day, having a 45-minute commute and then coming home and taking care of the house. It was too much.” Now, the couple goes out two or three nights a week, walking across the street to go to dinner or the movies. A male-female split is common among urban migrant boomers, said Adam Ducker, managing director of RCLCO, a real estate advisory firm in Bethesda. “Women seem proportionally more interested in the move than men, with the woman saying, ‘I’m sick of this, I’m doing all the work and all the worry,’ ” he said. Another obstacle is cost, especially for boomers, who tend to prefer large condos with two or more bedrooms, which are more scarce than smaller ones. When they do find them, many face sticker shock: the median price nationally for a condo or co-op has risen 15.4 percent since last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Prices in the Washington-area suburbs have not risen as quickly as in its urban cores. Whereas two decades ago it cost more per square foot to move to the suburbs than to the city, that trend has now reversed, Leinberger said. Condos in some parts of Arlington and the District can sell for up to $1,000 a square foot, locking out many middle-class people. “When they do the math, it’s, ‘Gee, I thought I was moving down; I seem to be moving up,’ ” Ducker said. When Harold and Betsi Closter sold their four-bedroom Cape Cod in Annandale to move to a two-bedroom condo on Fourth Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW, “It was pretty much a wash, but this has allowed us to get rid of one of our cars and we feel good about having reduced our carbon footprint,” said Harold Closter, 63. The new location has also been good for their health and their social life; the couple walks regularly to Capitol Hill, U Street and Georgetown, and they have met people involved in the arts, local government and small businesses. “The spirit on the streets, there’s a kind of vitality, a regeneration,” Harold Closter said, adding that most people in their building are younger than they are. “We’ve made a lot of new friends, and we’ve found that it’s a lot easier for our friends to get to us, because we’re right on the Metro. . . . Our (adult) son and his friends think this is pretty cool as well.” For some, city life does not necessarily mean a sleek new condo. Marcia and David Hoexter initially moved to U Street NW after raising their kids in Vienna, but ultimately they decided on a 125-year-old rowhouse in Capitol Hill, in walking distance from restaurants and shops at Barracks Row, Eastern Market, and H Street. “We have more . . . living space than we did in the condo,” said Marcia Hoexter, 62. “We have a patio, and we can walk out the door and be in Lincoln Park.” Now, she said, the only time they drive is “when we go out to Virginia to visit our friends.” The Solymossys had to kick in some extra money to buy their condo, but they ended up liking it so much they bought another to rent out. Most of their neighbors in the 419-unit mid-rise are half Solymossy’s age, but not all. “When we first moved in, I didn’t see anybody who had gray hair; most were young kids,” he said. “But let’s fast forward — now I see guys my age in the gym. . . . I’m sure that a lot more people are starting to make such a move because I think people are fed up with the commutes.” Sitting on his terrace with his wife, the Washington Monument and Washington National Cathedral rising above the treeline in the distance, Solymossy grinned. “I don’t have to spend my time taking care of the house, replacing the gutter, sealing the driveway,” he said. “After you make the move, it’s like a big rock lifted off the back of your neck.”

If America’s messed up, blame it on the boomers

_Dana Milbank is a syndicated columnist with The Washington Post, author of three books and a Gen Xer._ The nation is hopelessly split between left and right, Democrats and Republicans, facts and alternative facts, reality and Sean Spicer. But there is one notion that could, and should, unify us, or at least all of us under the age of 53 or over the age of 76: Pretty much everything that has gone wrong is the baby boomers’ fault. Boomers took over the government in the early 1990s, when Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory installed them in the White House and Newt Gingrich’s Republican Revolution of 1994 gave the generation a majority in the House that persists to this day. And how has that worked out for them? Well, the Greatest Generation survived the Great Depression, won the Second World War, brought about the enormous postwar economic boom, outlasted the Soviet Union in the Cold War and established the United States as the sole superpower. Since then, the boomers — the Worst Generation, if you will — have squandered most of that. The United States, challenged all over the world, is receding and turning inward. The economy still hasn’t recovered fully from the financial collapse of 2008, the worst since the Great Depression. The federal debt is out of control, and inequality is worse. Boomers expanded entitlement programs that are wrecking the nation’s finances; they failed to act on global warming; they presided over declining faith in virtually all institutions, from religion to the Supreme Court; and their children may be the first generation with dim prospects of doing better than their parents did. And now they’ve given us a president who is the epitome of boomer excess: narcissistic, impulsive and uncompromising. This deterioration on the boomers’ watch was no accident. They grew up selfish and unyielding and have governed that way, creating the polarization that has paralyzed our politics and left us unable to solve the nation’s problems. Given my own Gen X grievances against the boomers, I was delighted to learn that another Xer, venture capitalist Bruce Cannon Gibney, shares my generational hostility. In “A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America,” Gibney delivers an unrelenting critique of the Worst Generation. Perhaps too unrelenting. He blames boomers for a lot of bad things that they did — and a lot more bad things that they didn’t do. The core of Gibney’s argument, that the boomers are guilty of “generational plunder,” is spot-on. He accuses them of “the mass, democratically-sanctioned transfer of wealth away from the young and toward the Boomers,” and he’s right. In addition to making a mess of Social Security and Medicare, Gibney notes, they dragged the national savings rate down to 5 percent between 1996 and 2016, from 10 percent between 1950 and 1985. But Gibney blames the boomers for everything: abortion, divorce, overeating, high inflation, taking deferments during Vietnam, failing to launch a mass movement calling for the rebuilding of Vietnam after the war, crime, poor educational standards, corporate tax rates, adjunct professors. At one point, he rails about “Pat Robertson fulminating about homosexuals, feminists, and praying for the deflection of hurricanes while his website minions opined on the afterlife of pets.” Robertson was born in 1930, a decade before the oldest boomer. Gibney also has words for “feckless non-entities like Marco Rubio.” Rubio, born in 1971, is nearly a decade younger than the youngest boomers. Gibney complains that “many young boomers leapt at the neo-Malthusian nonsense peddled in the 1960s and 1970s by a slightly older generation of writers.” So is this the fault of the young boomers or of the Silent Generation’s Paul Ehrlich (b. 1932), who wrote “The Population Bomb”? Even Earth-in-the-balance Al Gore is criticized as anti-environment, in “his original form as pork-barreling scenery wrecker.” Gibney is just a wee bit sweeping when he pronounces that “the story of the past forty years has been the substitution of sentiment for science” and that “the Boomers were the first modern generation to harbor really negative feelings about reality and science.” Surely we can give the boomers the blame they deserve for trashing the country while acknowledging that they have also been responsible for major advances in medicine and science, in arts and culture, in civil rights and the rights of women, disabled people and gay people. Can we at least give them some credit for rock-and-roll? I’m no more qualified than Gibney to give the generation a psychiatric diagnosis, though I think the boomers are more properly labeled a generation of narcissists than a generation of sociopaths. (Our own cynical generation has trended more toward the sociopathic.) Generational theory tells us that the boomers are “idealists.” They believe passionately in their view of the world, and they are unbending. The problem is there are two halves of the baby boom: the Woodstock counterculture types and their ideological opposites, those who created the modern religious right. These have been at war since the 1960s, and that war, continued in politics, is what has paralyzed the country for a generation. “As a group, the Boomers managed to be simultaneously for the war and against serving in it. Their responses to Vietnam were confused,” Gibney writes. But they weren’t confused. Gibney is conflating two entirely different groups of boomers. It isn’t ill intent, or sociopathic instincts, that caused boomers to make such a mess of America. It is the collision of two strongly idealistic cohorts within the same generation. Their shared selfishness led boomers on both sides of the divide to believe that only they had the right answers and that there was nothing to be gained by compromise. Liberals increased spending on government programs. Conservatives cut taxes. And both allowed the culture wars to rage — on abortion, religious liberties, gay rights, gun ownership, civil liberties and more. Neither side yielded. Now they’ve left the rest of us, Gen Xers and millennials alike, to clean up their mess. By Bruce Cannon Gibney Hachette. 430 pp. $27

Factories to baby boomers: Please keep working!

Minnesota-based Ultra Machining Co. has been around for more than 45 years and performs precision manufacturing and engineering services for the medical, aerospace, and other industries. Business is doing well but with growth comes challenges. Like many manufacturers around the country, this family-owned firm is challenged with finding experienced people to perform the kind of specialized work so valued by their customers.  According to the National Association of Manufacturers, the industry will need 3.5 million more factory workers over and above what exists today. Many of my clients worry about where they will all come from. For now, management at Ultra Machining’s strategy is simple, and growing in popularity: keep the older people working.  Although millennials (those aged 18-34) make up almost half of the U.S. workforce, most manufacturers are still very reliant on baby boomers. Research shows that 27 percent of manufacturing workers are over the age of 55. Keeping those baby boomers productive is becoming a big priority nowadays for manufacturers of all sizes and who can blame them?  Boomers have experience and knowledge. They tend to be loyal. Best of all, many want to work. And companies are happy to comply. About 19 percent of factory employers like Ultra Machining “float the idea” of phased-in retirements, according to the Society for Human Resources Management–an increase of six percent from just four years ago. To meet the needs of the older generation, manufacturers are offering flexible schedules, reduced work weeks, job sharing, mentoring or consulting. Some companies are even retrofitting their shop floors to move materials to more reachable places so that there’s less wear and tear on those geriatric knees and backs. A number of trucking firms have even made ergonomic changes to truck cabs so desperately needed drivers are comfortable and stick around, Jacquelyn James, a co-director at Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work, told the Star Tribune. Finding good people to help your company grow is a huge challenge this year. Like some manufacturers, maybe a few of those 78 million baby boomers nearing retirement could be your solution to that problem.

Baby boomers enhance the empty nest

The kids are grown. The mortgage is paid. The nest is feeling big and empty. The next logical step is to sell the family home and buy a smaller, less expensive house or condominium unit, right? Wrong. Many baby boomers, the generation born from 1946 to 1964, prefer to stay put and enhance their homes rather than relocate. “I don’t want to move,” says Bethesda homeowner Maureen O’Bryan, 59, a retired nurse. “I like our home’s proximity to grocery shopping, Metro and bus lines.” Rather than downsize, she and husband, Ray O’Bryan, 55, a trade association executive, decided to upsize their 1950s brick rambler. Part of the reason, they say, is the high price of real estate in the region, leaving little money left over for retirement or renovations after buying another home. “We looked around at other houses in the area, but they were so expensive,” Maureen O’Bryan says. “That’s when we decided to get everything we wanted in this house and stay in the neighborhood.” Research shows that most boomers are reluctant to move from their dwellings. Nearly seven in 10 of the 2,260 adults age 45 to 65 who participated in AARP’s 2011 Boomer Housing Survey said they want to age in place. More than eight in 10 said they want to stay in their homes because they like their communities. The O’Bryans added on to create “me” spaces, the kind of personal luxuries passed over while raising their three kids. They turned their attic into a second floor to accommodate a spacious master suite, his-and-her walk-in closets, a convenient laundry room and a home office. On the main floor, they expanded to create a family room opening to a new kitchen in what had been their daughter’s bedroom. The living room was turned into the dining room, and the basement remodeled to create a TV room and bedroom suite. “I love to cook and entertain, and the house wasn’t conducive for that before since the family room was in the basement and the kitchen was small,” Maureen O’Bryan says. “We frequently entertain five to six people for dinner and have more formal dinner parties of eight to 14. That has become so much easier in the new space.” In enlarging the home, Bethesda architect Jim Rill and builder David Clark of Woodhaven Contractors in Ijamsville, Md., created the look of a Craftsman bungalow with a spacious front porch and an outdoor stone fireplace at the rear. Aidan Design of Bethesda reworked the kitchen to incorporate top-of-the-line appliances, a breakfast bar, an island and a walk-in pantry. “Most boomers have been through a remodeling at least once, and they are very specific about what they want this time around — easy maintenance and organization above all. They don’t want froufrou,” says kitchen designer Nadia Subaran, co-owner of Aidan Design. “Aesthetically, they want a more modern look and are open to less traditional finishes.” Potomac boomers Marcia and Dave Gelfand reflect this embrace of contemporary decor in the upsizing of their family home. They bought their 1980s house in 2004 but didn’t remodel until their two sons had graduated from college. “Our house was getting to the age when the cabinets wouldn’t close and the windows were worn,” says Marcia Gelfand, 55. The couple found their two-story great room was expensive to heat and cool, and the noise from the space could be heard upstairs. “There was lot about the house that bugged us,” says Dave Gelfand, 54, a lawyer. In 2011, the homeowners considered downsizing to Georgetown, but instead decided to overhaul their Maryland home because their mortgage was paid and they liked their large back yard planted with roses and raspberry bushes. “Once we decided to stay,” Dave Gelfand says, “we tried to make it the perfect house.” The couple hired Carnemark, a design-build firm in Bethesda, to undertake a substantial renovation of their four-bedroom house that was completed in August. Inside the Gelfands’ brick home, the two-story family room was reduced to one story to make way for a home office on the second floor. An addition over the garage accommodates a new master suite and walk-in closets. On the ground floor, the family room and kitchen were joined to create an open space with a fireplace. The kitchen was expanded into the laundry, which was moved upstairs, to allow for a rear hallway with a pantry. “Boomers have worked hard all their lives and are willing to spend a lot on adding amenities to suit their lifestyles,” says the company’s president, Jonas Carnemark. “More than half of our clients are boomers, and they are all thinking about aging in place and creating their forever home rather than thinking about resale.” He says these boomer homeowners are willing to spend more than $100,000 for a master suite and $350,000 to $500,000 for an entire house renovation. In addition to renovating, the Gelfands hired D.C. interior designer Nestor Santa-Cruz to redecorate the ground-floor rooms in a restrained modern style. New oak floors were installed and hieroglyphic-like patterns painted on the floor of their two-story entrance foyer. “This was our time to make the house exactly the way that we wanted it,” Marcia Gelfand says. That wish drove Brian and Trish Oliver to upsize their 1990s home in Oak Hill, Va., with a master suite addition designed and built by Carnemark. “I’m not ready to downsize,” says Trish Oliver, 55. “We have already invested a lot in this house and want to continue to enjoy it.” In the years since they built the house, the Olivers added a swimming pool, a pool pavilion, a screened porch and a wine cellar, among other improvements. But they had sacrificed space in their master bedroom to carve out another bedroom on the second floor so their four children could each have their own room. In 2012, after their three daughters and son had left home, the homeowners decided it was time to build the master suite of their dreams. “It started as a facelift of our original bathroom but grew into a larger project, including new hardwood floors in the bedrooms,” says Brian Oliver, 57, a telecommunications company executive. Carnemark expanded and reconfigured the second level to accommodate a new master bathroom with heated floors, a glass-enclosed shower and his-and-her walk-in closets. The master bedroom was expanded into an adjacent bedroom and a closet and furnished with a contemporary bed, bench and nightstands. As for living with unused bedrooms now that their adult children have left, these homeowners say the extra space comes in handy for visits from the kids, relatives and guests. The beds, they say, aren’t empty for long. “Our kids enjoy coming home to the house they grew up in, frequently with their friends,” Brian Oliver says. “We plan to stay here as long as we still have enough pep in our step to enjoy this house.” Deborah K. Dietsch is a freelance writer.

10 ways to prepare your home for aging in place

Just 1 percent of homes are conducive to aging in place. So thinking long term about universal design and the ways it can help us remain at home across all life stages is beneficial. For instance, a zero-step entry offers the same benefits to parents with children in strollers as it does to grandparents using walkers. Other design features — from minor, quick fixes to full-scale renovations — can be implemented in millions of homes. The key is to be aware of best practices, take a long-term view and start to plan for the future now, regardless of your age.  Costs will vary depending on location and project, but designing for all ages fits a range of renovation budgets. Door handles and lighting fixtures are priced in the hundreds of dollars, sliding walls and kitchen countertops can run several thousand dollars, and the average cost to build a deck is $7,000 to $10,000.  Homeowners will inevitably deal with other maintenance issues along the way, so renovating one room at a time may be preferable. A whole-house renovation can cost more than $150,000.

Small business advice: How to survive rising health care costs

Small business owners have a lot to consider when it comes to employee benefits. Health care costs have been rising steadily, and with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many small firms may see a further increase in their premiums. Nevertheless, employers know that robust benefits packages are a huge draw for talented workers and a key component of employee retention. To prevent larger organizations from poaching their best people, small business owners are looking for more affordable ways to take care of their employees — and it isn’t all about health care. So how can small firms compete? The solution may lie in customization. **Employee needs vary by generation** These days, one-size-fits-all benefits packages simply don’t make sense, especially for small employers. Consider the multigenerational nature of most workforces, with each subsequent generation demanding different perks: _• Maturists (born before 1945):_ For this group, stability is key. A lifetime job, homeownership, and a comfortable retirement mean everything. They’re looking for a hefty retirement plan and solid financial counseling. _• Baby Boomers (born 1945-1960):_ Boomers want the job security that will allow them to live large, both before and after retirement. They want retirement plans, time off for vacations and hobbies, wellness programs, and long-term health insurance. _• Generation X (born 1961-1980):_ This generation is focused on achieving work/life balance, and a bigger paycheck will offset the loss of certain benefits. They enjoy companies that allow flextime and remote work and seek benefits that serve them outside the workplace, such as pet insurance or adoption cost benefits. _• Generation Y (born 1981-1995):_ The first digitally native generation craves freedom and flexibility. Most will not stay in their current jobs for the long haul, so they want benefits they can enjoy right now, such as tuition reimbursement, flexible attire and hours, and access to the latest technology. With such widely varying desires, the best way to draw the most talented employees from each generation is to create a flexible, customized package of perks that will meet their unique needs and still be affordable for a small business. An effective, customized benefits package typically takes into account the following areas: • Life benefits, including time off, child and elder care, and telecommuting offerings. • Health benefits, including insurance, wellness programs and gym memberships. • Work benefits, like career visibility, mentorship and professional memberships. • Financial benefits, like savings accounts, financial advice and retirement contributions. **Don’t be afraid to think small** Here are a few things to consider when creating a benefits package: • Not every benefit must be big or permanent. You can show appreciation in small, low-cost ways. The occasional pizza party, gift card, or even a few hours off on a Friday can go a long way toward building loyalty. • Give options. Different people value different things, so allow your employees to customize their benefits package if possible. • Don’t only think generationally. Your employees are more than their age. They may be motivated by money or something else, or they may seek time off for non-work-related activities or childcare. When building your benefits package, you should consider every aspect of your employees’ lives. • Benefits should reflect your company culture. This is where ad agencies often shine. Some agencies bring in masseuses, go on field trips to art museums, or engage in fun activities, such as building a miniature golf course. By taking these factors into account, you can build a nontraditional benefits package that will not only retain your best employees, but also save you money. A recent Harvard study found that instituting a workplace wellness program (massages, meditation, health coaching), for example, can yield an return on investment of more than 3-to-1 on health care cost reduction, as well as reducing absence-related costs over a period of three years. But creating an effective benefits package requires a well-rounded consideration of your employees and their unique needs. Ask yourself what you would want if you were young and adventurous, just starting a family, or approaching retirement. Because giving your employees what they need won’t just make your business a great place to work — it will also provide the greatest value in terms of employee retention, health, and happiness. _Drew McLellan ownsAgency Management Institute, which provides workshops, consulting, and owner peer groups for hundreds of small- to medium-sized advertising agencies that are focused on growing sustainable, profitable agencies._ _Follow andOn Small Business on Twitter._

New online service targets aging-in-place residents

The **National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC)** says the more than 90 percent of older adults would prefer to age in place rather than move to senior housing. But the group acknowledges that a gap exists between their desire and the reality of the modifications their home may require.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Now **HomeAdvisor** , an online marketplace for home repair, maintenance and renovation services, has partnered with NAIPC to launch an online resource center focused on the needs of individuals who want to age in place. The resource center provides articles and advice, project cost information and connects homeowners with prescreened local home professionals.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico _[Aging-in-place features for the home gain higher profile as baby boomers get older]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The top aging-in-place projects, according to a recent Aging-in-Place Report by HomeAdvisor, include adding grab bars, increasing the widths of doorways, moving a master bedroom to the main floor and adding a stair lift. For more information, click here. To read the Aging in Place Report, click here.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico _ **Michele Lerner** is a freelance writer. To pass on a tip or news item, contact us at _realestate@washpost.com_ and put “Town Square” in the subject line._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Medical-alert systems can be helpful, especially for older people living alone

You’ve probably seen the ads on TV and in magazines — especially that iconic “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up” commercial that, yes, is still running. The makers of medical-alert systems promise swift help in the event that you have a medical emergency while home alone, whether it’s a fall or a heart attack, stroke or seizure. The ads are reaching a receptive audience: Sales of med-alert services are growing and are expected to continue doing so as the baby boom generation ages. Should you consider buying one, for either yourself or an aging parent who spends time alone? Here’s a quick guide on what the systems offer and what to look for when you shop: Medical-alert systems were introduced in the 1970s as simple push-button devices worn around the neck. They summoned help by signaling a base station connected to a home phone line that would alert a call-center operator. Today’s systems are still wearable, but you can also mount help buttons throughout the home and install devices that allow for two-way voice communication with call centers. Some companies offer motion-sensitive pendants that can detect a fall and automatically place a call for help. Who needs one? Most buyers purchase a system for an aging parent who lives alone and might have difficulty getting help quickly. That person might be at a heightened risk for falls because of poor eyesight or memory changes, says Barbara Resnick, a professor of nursing at the University of Maryland and a past president of the American Geriatrics Society. The systems can also be useful in a non-emergency situation where a person doesn’t need an ambulance but does need help. The call center will alert a preselected relative or friend who can assist. If you’re in the market for a medical alert system (expect to pay around $30 a month for the basic service), the experts consulted by Consumer Reports said the best ones meet all or most of the following criteria: ● It works for a user’s specific disability. For example, a stroke survivor may need a device he or she can activate with one hand. ● It offers a choice of a wristband and/or neck pendant. Cords worn around the neck can pose a strangulation risk; wristbands might irritate people with skin conditions. ● It includes help buttons that can be wall-mounted near the floor in multiple rooms in case the user falls and isn’t wearing the pendant. ● It offers multiple choices for whom to contact if the user needs help, from emergency services to a friend or relative who lives nearby. ● It has a battery backup in case of a power failure. ● The base station can be contacted from anywhere on the user’s property — even in the yard or at the mailbox. ● The company has its own monitoring center, located in the United States, and employs its own trained emergency operators (rather than contracting that function out). ● The monitoring center has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a nonprofit safety and consulting company. Copyright 2014. Consumers Union of United States Inc. For further guidance, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/Health, where more detailed information, including CR’s ratings of prescription drugs, treatments, hospitals and healthy-living products, is available to subscribers.

Cities need to adapt as senior citizens’ housing needs change

You’re a retired senior. Your kids are grown and on their own. You are ready to give up climbing stairs, mowing lawns, fixing roofs and gutters, and worrying about the never-completed list of home maintenance items. It’s time to sell your suburban house, with more rooms — rooms to clean — than you need at this stage of life. But where will you live? Millions of older Americans, a large and rapidly growing segment of the nation’s population, will face that question. Most will look for an apartment, not another house, and many will prefer living in denser urban environments rather than in sprawling suburbs and exurbs. They will decide to own and drive only one car, or maybe no car. They will seek walkable neighborhoods with convenient access to transit, shopping, cultural activities and public parks. They will try to reside not too far from their adult children and grandchildren. And as they age, they will need access to increasing levels of professional health care and living assistance ranging from occasional to continuous. Yet, there is a big problem. Today, relatively few viable residential options for seniors exist within central cities or densely developed urban areas near city centers. Most senior housing is located instead in low-density suburbs or in small towns, where land is cheap and development costs are lower. At the same time, services for seniors in those areas are often dispersed and limited. Large numbers of rental and condominium units are being developed within cities. But with few exceptions, newly built apartments are small — two-bedroom units are rare — and expensive. Marketed primarily to younger, gainfully employed singles or couples, such apartments are suitable for only those seniors who can live independently, who have sufficient assets and income and who are willing to leave behind most of their furniture and collectibles. Governments, investors and developers wanting to build housing for seniors face challenges similar to those of affordable-housing advocates trying to provide homes for low- and moderate-income families. However, there is a significant difference. Many seniors will sell their suburban homes at prices reflecting greatly appreciated value and equity. Many also will enjoy stable annual incomes from pensions, annuities and investments. Consequently, unlike people in need of workforce housing, millions of seniors will have the financial means to rent or buy spacious, conveniently located apartments. But will such apartments — along with access to health-care assistance and resources — be available? Meeting the availability challenge will require new, aggressive public- and private-sector efforts. Cities must adopt land use, zoning and fiscal policies that encourage and support private-sector development or redevelopment specifically tailored to meet the housing and health-care needs of seniors. Such policies must address urban location considerations to ensure that the benefits of city living — for elderly residents and the city as a whole — are realized. At the same time, real estate developers, investors, lending institutions and health-care providers must expand their thinking about the evolving nature of the urban residential market. They must recognize that seniors who want to live in cities could represent a sizable and growing share of this increasingly diverse market. And many of those seniors will not depend on subsidized housing. Thus, cities will need residential complexes with larger apartments — two- and three-bedroom units — in addition to efficiencies and one-bedroom units. And motivated housing developers must collaborate and partner with health-care entities to provide medical service options when and where needed. Eventually, cities such as Washington could be populated by a richer mix of young, middle-age and older inhabitants. That would be a plus for retail, restaurant, recreational and cultural destinations; for nonprofit institutions needing volunteers, and, of course, for health-care providers. Other benefits would accrue. Seniors are a fiscal plus for cities, generating additional tax revenue but not additional public school students. Traffic congestion and parking demand could decrease as older and younger citizens opt to drive less, choosing instead to more frequently walk, bike and use transit. Of course, there always will be market demand for housing for the elderly and health-care facilities in U.S. suburbs. But a potentially large market for seniors who want to reside in cities has yet to be tapped. **Roger K. Lewis** is a practicing architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland. His cartoon drawn for the column may be seen at  _www.washingtonpost.com/realestate_ .

Some aging Baby Boomers will upsize, not downsize, if they move at all, poll finds

We’ve been warned that the multi-level homes with the sprawling lawns in the driving-dependent suburbs that are popular with baby boomers may not work so well for them as they age.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and the AARP told us so in a report released last month, which concluded that today’s homes generally lack the features that these aging boomers will need — such as extra-wide hallways and easy-to-reach light switches and door knobs.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Now, a survey by The Demand Institute suggests Baby Boomers simply don’t care.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The nonprofit group, run by the Conference Board and Nielsen, polled nearly 4,000 Baby Boomer households (ages 50 to 69) last year about their future housing plans. It found that this generation won’t “stick to the script.” Most of them don’t plan to move, and if they do, they don’t necessarily plan to downsize. As for mortgage debt, they’ve still got it and they still see no problem with taking out a mortgage to finance the next home. **** In fact, they’re confident they can qualify for a new one even though it’s still tough to get a mortgage these days.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico “This survey simply reflects what people are telling us their plans are,” said Jeremy Burbank, vice president at The Demand Institute. “In some cases, they’re planning ahead and being realistic, and in other cases, they’re not.” Here are some of the poll results, which were released Thursday. **Most Baby Boomers plan to age in place.** The majority of them have lived in their homes for at least a decade, and when they retire, they plan to stay put. Some will be forced to stay due to personal circumstances, such as financial hardship. But most prefer to age-in-place if given a choice.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **For those who plan to renovate, age-friendly features are not a top priority.** Three-quarters of the people polled suffered from a chronic condition or had experienced a major health problem. Yet 40 percent of boomers plan to tackle a major home renovation in the next three years, and they aren’t itching for handrails and such. Their wants are more closely aligned with those of the younger set.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Nearly half of Baby Boomers who plan move don’t want to downsize.** Only 37 percent of those polled said they want to move. But a good chunk of them don’t plan to scrimp on size or space. More than half of Baby Boomers (58 percent) said they want at least the same size home they have now, if not bigger, when they move. About 48 percent said they plan to spend the same amount or more when buying their next home.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **They want bigger and better.** Those who want pricier or larger homes are the “upsizers.” About 46 percent of Baby Boomers fall into that category. But they’re not necessarily the most affluent of the generation. Rather, they’re the people who put off buying their dream home when the economic downturn hit. Some of them rent, and now want to own. But when they make the jump, they’re not going to spend lavishly. The median price of their next home will be $180,000.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **The “downsizers” are the more affluent.** They are the Baby Boomers who’ve been there, done that. They’ve lived in pricey, large homes (about 2,000 square feet on average) and they want a smaller home or one that’s less expensive than the one they’re in. About 54 percent of Baby Boomers are identified as downsizers. The median price for the next home they purchase will be higher than for “upsizers” — about $200,000 versus $180,000. This is clearly the wealthier subset of the Boomer generation.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **City Life? Warmer climate? No way.** The Harvard/AARP study established that the vast majority of older adults live in single family homes in the suburbs. This survey found that Baby Boomers who plan to move won’t go far. “There’s no shift to or from the suburb or the city,” Burbank said. “You’ve heard that the suburbs are going to get greyer, and we see that reflected in our research.” Only one-third of the older adults polled plan to move out of state. More than half will move within 30 miles of their current home. Very few (one in five) see senior-related housing or active adult communities in their future.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **They still want to live in single-family homes, but also single-story.** This generation still resists condominium life. Most Baby Boomers want to own a single-family home, though they’d prefer it be one-story. “Single story is a practical decision, but they’re not sacrificing style or other aspirations,” like a yard or garden, Burbank said. More than two-thirds of them still want that.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **And the debt keeps piling up.** Citing data from a Federal Reserve survey, the Demand Institute said Baby Boomers are more laden with mortgage debt than earlier generations at the same stage of life. The median outstanding balance on their mortgages has shot up 142 percent since 1992. The Boomers watched their wealth grow until the recession hit. “Just as they were expecting their wealth to accelerate, that’s when things took a u-turn,” Burbank said. If all had stayed on the pre-2008 track, the net worth of the typical Boomer household would be about 2.5 times what it is today. Still, Boomers who plan to move will account for $1 of every $4 spent on buying or renting homes in the next five years, when most of them will be retired. Half their assets are tied up in their homes.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Aging doesn’t always come naturally. Classes are teaching boomers how.

Ann Zabaldo guided her graying students through the steps they’d need to take to reimagine the rest of their lives in the communal existence that has come to be known as “co-housing.” “Nobody is ever going to care for you the way people who know you are going to care for you,” Zabaldo told the class of about 45 students. “Affinity is the new amenity.” Then Zabaldo — who helped organize Takoma Village Cohousing and now works as a consultant helping other co-housing ventures get off the ground — plunged into the intricacies of finding suitable real estate in the pricey D.C. market, writing up policies on pets and shacking up with “Three Bettys and a Bob.” Senior co-housing, and all its complications and rewards, was one of the bigger draws at what amounts to a college on how to age successfully. The four- to eight-week courses, presented by nonprofit organization Iona, were designed especially with baby boomers in mind. Since 2011, a generation that has almost continually reinvented itself also has been hitting retirement age. But boomers tend to see themselves as forever young and have sometimes been reluctant to embrace the last stage of life with the same gusto as their youthful activism, said Lylie Fisher, director of community development at Iona. So Iona, which receives part of its funding from the District’s Office on Aging, launched Take Charge/Age Well Academy in September 2013. Its core class is “Take Charge of Your Aging 101.” There are now seven courses, ranging in cost from about $115 to $145, that focus on themes such as eating well, physical fitness and age-proofing the home. The faculty includes regular instructors and guests. “We want them to be making these core decisions about how to live into a ripe old age with a great aging plan — having all the practical decision-making things,” Fisher said. “Our biggest challenge is that younger older adults don’t want to have anything to do with us.” Mary Gerace, 70, who has attended courses such as “Age Well, Live Well 101,” “What Me Move?” and “Mindful Living,” said life experience motivated her to enter the classroom again. “I looked at the way some of my family aged, and at the age of 80, they started to decline,” she said. “And at 70, I have about 10 more years of productivity, and I wanted to figure out how to take advantage of that.” During one recent class, Jason Dring, a geriatric physical therapist with the Isabella Breckenridge Center, discussed the physical dynamics of aging, such as muscle atrophy and the ways to combat it. Then he demonstrated simple functional tests to monitor one’s physical capability and keep it in tune. One such exercise required the participants to see how many times in 30 seconds they could rise from a chair without using their hands and sit down again. “Thirty seconds is a really long time!” one woman said. Then he gave them their scores, noting that a 65-year-old woman should be able to do between 11 and   16 repetitions. That same day, Tori Goldhammer, of Living at Home Consultations, discussed age-proofing one’s house. About 20 attendees jotted notes as Goldhammer offered tips on the importance of good lighting and hand railings to avoid falls, as well as using special door hinges to widen entryways for wheelchairs. A larger group attended Zabaldo’s seminar on co-housing. The modern practice originated in Denmark in the late 1960s as some families closely organized their lives and homes around shared facilities in a kind of intentional community. Architects Charles Durett and Kathryn McCamant introduced the concept to the United States in the late 1970s after the couple, who are married, observed the Danish arrangement and wrote about it in a book. Senior co-housing evolved from the broader movement as communities aged, Zabaldo said. The latest trend is that in Washington and other pricey metro areas, the cost of real estate has forced the model of co-housing to evolve from private ownership of a home and some shared facilities to joint ownership of a home — an arrangement Zabaldo said has come to be known as “Three Bettys and a Bob.” Each person would have his or her private areas and there would be communal spaces, such as the kitchen and dining area. Today, there are about 130 completed co-housing communities in the United States, including Eastern Village Cohousing in the District, and about 11 of those are targeted to elders, Zabaldo said. Though Eastern Village is multigenerational, a smaller group of older residents who call themselves The Sages operates as a miniature version of a senior co-housing community, Zabaldo said. Such arrangements are better done with people you want to get to know, rather than friends, Zabaldo told the class. “We are young/old,” said H. Weston Morrison, 67, a retired associate producer at WRC (Channel 4) who signed up for the classes. “We are not old as our parents and grandparents [were], and part of that is we’re talking about aging. Our grandparents just aged.”

The real national embarrassment

However this election turns out, the 2016 campaign for the White House will undoubtedly be remembered for its vulgarity, mean-spiritedness and mendacity. It has been a national embarrassment. But a parallel failing is less noticed: the unwillingness of both candidates — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — to come to grips with national problems that are staring them in the face but involve unpopular political choices. I refer, of course, to an aging society and immigration. The most obvious is an aging society. In 1990, those 65 and over comprised 12.5 percent of the population; now, according to Census Bureau projections, that share is racing toward 16 percent in 2020 and 19 percent in 2030. That’s one in five Americans. Already, federal spending for older Americans (mainly Social Security, Medicare and nursing-home care under Medicaid) dominates the national budget. It’s crowding out spending on other programs, from defense to parks, and is the chief source of chronic budget deficits. Nor is that all. The economy’s slowdown reflects in part the retirement of millions of baby boomers, whose exit from work reduces labor force growth. The generational unfairness is palpable. Younger Americans are seeing more of their taxes diverted to care of the elderly, who often are in better financial shape than the young who are subsidizing them. What we need — it was obvious even before the Bill Clinton presidency — is a new social contract between generations, one that acknowledges longer life expectancy (justifying higher eligibility ages for Social Security and Medicare benefits) and greater wealth among millions of older Americans (justifying lower benefits for well-to-do retirees). Neither Clinton nor Trump is having any of this. Clinton promises higher Social Security benefits; Trump pledges not to cut benefits and implies that he might raise them. The reasons are obvious. Older people vote more than the young; they are also sympathetic characters. No one wants to harm Grandma. Why fight these political realities, no matter how strong the case for a new social contract? As a political issue, immigration is similar. What should be done is not popular enough to get done. In 2014, the 42 million foreign-born population comprised 13 percent of the U.S. total, the highest share since the early 20th century. Of these, about 11 million are undocumented immigrants, a number that has been relatively stable since 2009, according to the Pew Research Center. The United States has a long, though difficult, record of successfully absorbing new immigrants. To succeed, assimilation needs time. Immigrants need to conquer the language, learn new skills and adapt to U.S. habits. If there’s a large, constant influx of new immigrants — especially low-skilled immigrants — assimilation is harder for everyone. Competition for poorly paid jobs intensifies. So does the tendency of immigrants to remain in largely ethnic neighborhoods. All this suggests an obvious immigration agenda. First, we need to reduce illegal immigrants, both because illegality is bad in its own right and because the constant inflow frustrates assimilation. To further discourage illegal immigration, we should make E-Verify — a system for employers to check the immigration status of job applicants — mandatory for most businesses. We also need to legalize the vast majority of undocumented workers who have been here for years and don’t have a criminal record. Finally, we need to reform legal immigration so that it favors the entry of high-skilled workers, who aid the economy and assimilate more easily. What we know for a certainty is that these two great population trends — aging and immigration — will, to a large extent, shape the United States’ future. If elections are about the future and not the past, you would have expected much of the campaign to have been involved in a serious discussion of how to deal with them. You would, of course, have been wrong. On immigration, what we got from Trump was demagoguery that played to the basest fears of many Americans. He would deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, a cruel and impractical proposal that he modified repeatedly. He’d also build a wall along our southern border, a policy that — as part of a larger package legalizing most of today’s undocumented immigrants — may be worth a try. But Trump’s proposal was all one-sided. By contrast, Clinton favors “comprehensive immigration reform” but is vague on how she would reduce illegal entry. On aging, there was an unspoken consensus: Don’t go there. But as a society, we’re already there. The United States is getting older and will continue to do so. Immigration is changing the country ethnically and will continue to do so. The question is how much we control our future or how much it controls us. The inattention of Campaign 2016 to these fateful issues is the real national embarrassment. _Read more fromRobert Samuelson’s archive._ **Read more on this topic:** Robert J. Samuelson: Are aging and the economic slowdown linked? Jim Tankersley: Baby boomers are what’s wrong with America’s economy Robert J. Samuelson: Build the wall Robert J. Samuelson: Middle-aged capitalism Robert J. Samuelson: Our runaway spending on the elderly

Shaping the City | An organic way to meet the housing needs of older adults

Perhaps you know about “aging in place” and the community-based “village” movement organized to provide support for elderly people who want to remain in the old neighborhood rather than relocating to an assisted-living facility. Now there’s a relatively new term: “NORC,” for naturally occurring retirement community. A NORC is a community where aging in place occurs organically. These terms reflect the evolving character of residential neighborhoods affected by an increasingly significant demographic change: ever more senior citizens. _[The Washington area is seeing an explosion in the construction of “active adult" developments for people 55 and older, coming up in Saturday’s Real Estate section.]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Thanks to improved health care and better behavior, older Americans are living longer. Today’s younger Americans are likely to live even longer. Thus, America’s aging population is not only growing substantially but the aging are also staying put and increasingly reshaping urban and suburban development. NORC residents are aging in place despite owning a home larger than they need; despite the cost and inconvenience associated with continual home upkeep and maintenance they would just as soon avoid; and despite coping with winter weather year after year. What motivates this? Strong attachments to a community are among the most powerful incentives for aging residents to stay in a neighborhood and stick with what they know, like and love: family, friends, familiar places, known travel routes and favored destinations. Moving elsewhere means leaving all that behind and starting from scratch somewhere new and different. Some aging homeowners are strongly attached to a home because it’s beautiful to inhabit, use and look at. Particular aesthetic and functional qualities may seem difficult or impossible to replicate. The attachment may stem, in part, from a desire to maintain unoccupied bedrooms and sizable living spaces to accommodate periodic visitors, especially children and grandchildren, and for entertaining. Yards and gardens around a house, plus views and vistas from the house, may reinforce its enduring residential allure. Spend decades living in one home, and you are likely to have filled it with furniture, collectibles and other contents to which your attachment is strong. Moving elsewhere typically necessitates getting rid of stuff and always entails making painful choices about what to keep and what to sell or give away. Strong emotional attachments to a home and its contents translate into an unwillingness to downsize, no matter how practical and ultimately necessary downsizing may be. Resistance to downsizing keeps many aging homeowners from moving, as do the cost and hassle of moving. Like death and taxes, moving is at the top of the list of things people would rather not face. The challenge of selling a house at an acceptable price can also motivate aging in place. If the local real estate market is soft, if home values are static or falling, selling a mortgaged home can be problematic. Homeowners may decide, for financial reasons, not to sell and to age in place if selling would yield little or no equity, or result in a loss, after paying off the mortgage. Incentives for NORC formation intensify if aging homeowners are unable to find acceptable housing alternatives. In Washington, dwelling options — especially apartments — that satisfy the needs of many retirees are scarce. These older folks are dissatisfied because so many recently built apartments are too small, and prevailing condo prices and apartment rental rates are too high. The village movement, aging-in-place and NORC phenomena inevitably will affect American cities and suburbs. Ever more older residents in neighborhoods and communities will mean fewer school-age children and diminished school enrollment pressure. Retirees drive less or stop driving; many will walk more. This will reduce traffic and parking demand while upping the need for transit options and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. NORC residents will expect more pedestrian-accessible, convenience-shopping opportunities, especially in suburban areas where buying a quart of milk or a bottle of aspirin often requires driving several miles. All NORC housing, commercial and civic buildings, and public parks will need to be accessible to accommodate people with physical impairments. And demand for outpatient health-care facilities, especially clinics, will rise. In the Washington area, this demographic trend will pose economic and marketing challenges for housing developers who target younger, high-earners in urban areas and relatively affluent families in suburban areas. Especially difficult, whatever the area, will be making new housing affordable for aging retirees with limited assets and incomes. Suitably housing aging occupants in NORCs poses another challenge: retrofitting non-accessible urban and suburban homes built decades ago. To provide adequate comfort, safety and mobility, various elements of older homes — stairs, railings, hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, built-in cabinetry — usually require some modification. Fortunately, a longtime homeowner’s built-up equity can make financing retrofits relatively easy, especially costly ones such as kitchen and bathroom makeovers or stair-climbing elevators. And a multi-generational NORC can provide another benefit: a ready supply of babysitters for children whose parents and grandparents live in the same community. NORCs promise to become a communal, 21st-century version of the extended family. _ **Roger K. Lewis** is a practicing architect, a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland and a regular guest commentator on WAMU’s “The Kojo Nnamdi Show.”_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why?

Last spring, Frank Turkaly tried to kill himself. A retiree in a Pittsburgh suburb living on disability checks, he was estranged from friends and family, mired in credit card debt and taking medication for depression, cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure. It was not the life he had envisioned as a young man in the 1960s and ’70s, when “people were more in tune with each other, people were more prone to help each other,” said Turkaly, 63, who owned a camera shop and later worked at Sears. “There was not this big segregation between the poor and the rich. . . . I thought it was going to continue the same, I didn’t think it was going to change.” Turkaly said he regrets his attempt to overdose on tranquilizers, which he attributes to social isolation. But in one grim respect he is far from alone: He is part of an alarming trend among baby boomers, whose suicide rates shot up precipitously between 1999 and 2010. It has long held true that elderly people have higher suicide rates than the overall population. But numbers released in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a dramatic spike in suicides among middle-aged people, with the highest increases among men in their 50s, whose rate went up by nearly 50 percent to 30 per 100,000; and women in their early 60s, whose rate rose by nearly 60 percent (though it is still relatively low compared with men, at 7 in 100,000). The highest rates were among white and Native American and Alaskan men. In recent years, deaths by suicide has surpassed deaths by motor vehicle crashes. As youths, boomers had higher suicide rates than earlier generations; the confluence of that with the fact that they are now beginning to grow old, when the risk traditionally goes up, has experts worried. The findings suggest that more suicide research and prevention should “address the needs of middle-aged persons,” a CDC statement said. There are no large-scale studies yet fleshing out the reasons behind the increase in boomer suicides. Part of it is likely tied to the recent economic downturn — financial recessions are in general associated with an uptick in suicides. But the trend started a decade before the 2008 recession, and psychologists and academics say it likely stems from a complex matrix of issues particular to a generation that vowed not to trust anyone older than 30 and who rocked out to lyrics such as, “I hope I die before I get old.” “We’ve been a pretty youth-oriented generation,” said Bob Knight, professor of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern California, who is also a baby boomer. “We haven’t idealized growing up and getting mature in the same way that other cohorts have.” Even as they become grandparents and deal with normal signs of getting old, such as hearing and vision losses, many boomers are reluctant to accept the realities of aging, Knight said. To those growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, America seemed to promise a limitless array of possibilities. The Great Depression and World War II were over; medical innovations such as the polio vaccine and antibiotics appeared to wipe out disease and disability; the birth-control pill sparked a sexual revolution. The economy was thriving, and as they came of age, boomers embraced new ways of living — as civil rights activists, as hippies, as feminists, as war protesters. “There was a sense of rebelliousness, of ‘I don’t want to live the way my parents did or their parents did,’ ” said Patrick Arbore, director and founder of the Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention at San Francisco’s Institute on Aging. “There was a lot of movement to different parts of the country. With that came a lot of freedom, but there also came a loss of connections. It was not uncommon to see people married three or four times.” How did a generation that started out with so much going for it end up so despondent in midlife? It could be that those very advantages made it harder to cope with setbacks, said Barry Jacobs, director of behavioral sciences at the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program in Pennsylvania. “There was an illusion of choice — where people thought they’d be able to re-create themselves again and again,” he said. “These people feel a greater sense of disappointment because their expectations of leading glorious lives didn’t come to fruition.” Instead, compared with their parents’ generation, boomers have higher rates of obesity, prescription and illicit drug abuse, alcoholism, divorce, depression and mental disorders. As they age, many add to that list chronic illness, disabilities and the strains of caring for their parents and for adult children who still depend on them financially. Perhaps a little more adversity in youth could have helped prepare them for the inevitable indignities of aging, Knight suggested, adding that “the earlier-born cohorts are sort of tougher in the face of stress.” Despite the hardships of life in the first half of the 20th century, he said, older generations didn’t have the same kind of concept of being stressed out. Older generations also had clearer milestones for success. “They won the Great War, they saved the world,” said David Jobes, a professor of psychology at Catholic University and a clinician at the Washington Psychological Center in Friendship Heights. Baby boomers, on the other hand, have struggled more with existential questions of purpose and meaning. Growing up in a post-Freudian society, they were raised with a new vocabulary of emotional awareness and an emphasis on self-actualization. But that did not necessarily translate into an increased ability to cope with difficult emotions — especially among men. Women tend to be better connected socially and share their feelings more freely — protective factors when looking at their risk for suicide. And African Americans and Hispanics tend to have lower rates of suicide than whites, possibly because of stronger community connections, or because of different expectations. Combine high expectations with a faltering economy, and the risk goes up. “We know that what men want to do is work — that’s a very strong ethic for them,” Arbore said. “When their jobs are being threatened, they see themselves as still needing to be in that role; they feel ashamed when they’re not able to find another job, or when their home is being foreclosed on. . . . The idea that so many of us in this country have been brought up with — that you work hard, you get your house, you get your American dream, everything is rosy — it hasn’t worked out. A lot of these boomers aren’t going to earn as much money as their parents did. They aren’t going to be as secure as their parents were. And that’s quite troubling for the boomers.” Mike Murray of Rising Sun, Md., struggled with major depression for most of his adult years, even as he married, raised two children and owned a successful quarry maintenance and grass-mowing business. His wife, Becky Murray, who ran the business with him, describes him as a perfectionist. “He always did well in school, he was a straight-A student; anything he did, he did well,” she said. But in 2004 a back injury forced him to go on disability — and on powerful pain medications. In 2010 he made two attempts to overdose, and in early 2011, two days after his 49th birthday, he killed himself with a shotgun. “He was handsome, he was smart, people loved him,” Murray said, but added that he felt increasingly depressed. “The pain medication changes the chemicals in your brain, so he felt like there was less of him,” she said. “He probably felt, here I am, this smart, capable person, but I can’t conquer this thing in my mind.” And while he was grateful for his disability checks, she said, “It was very hard for him to accept this and to not contribute to his family.” Nor are women immune. When Liz Strand’s 53-year-old friend killed herself two years ago in California, her house was underwater and needed repairs, she had a painful ankle that was exacerbated by being overweight, and although she had tried to find a partner, she was unmarried, like one-third of baby boomers. “When everything started exploding on her it was too much for her,” Strand said, adding that as a boomer she herself recalls the shock of realizing that the good times were not eternal. “I just thought everything was going to continue to improve. I remember hearing at one point in a college class that, ‘No, it’s a pendulum.’ It was a real wake-up call.” Believers from an early age in the power of medicine, boomers are more likely than their elders to turn to drugs, alcohol or even plastic surgery to mask their problems. “Boomers do not want to suffer,” Arbore said. Exacerbating boomers’ anxiety is a sense that the world is more treacherous than when they were young, he said. Then, the communist threat and the atom bomb loomed large, but they were distant and abstract; attacks like the ones on the World Trade Center and the Boston Marathon have changed this paradigm. “These events used to happen 6,000 miles away; now they happen here,” Arbore said. It doesn’t help to live in a society that continues to worship the young. “We don’t venerate our elders as some cultures do,” Jobes said. It is unclear whether younger generations will follow or buck the boomer trend as they age, or if boomers will continue to kill themselves at such high rates as they move into retirement. “There are people who believe that this won’t hold true, that the baby boomers as they grow older will have some kind of protective effect,” said Yeates Conwell, professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. “They have strength in numbers, they have quite a lot of political clout and by and large the financial resources of the baby boomers are quite high.” For Turkaly, the Pittsburgh man, it helps to know that statistics show he is not the only guy his age having a hard time. “I guess it makes me feel better, ’cause I’m not quite as alone as I think I am,” he said. “It’s not just me; it’s just the way things happened.” **American Foundation for Suicide Prevention:** www.afsp.org **National Alliance on Mental Illness:** www.nami.org **National Suicide Prevention Hotline:** 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Baby boomers are taking on ageism — and losing

“Our generation was pretty spoiled,” says Kleber, 60. “We had it good. The economy was in a huge growth spurt. Some dips here and there, but nothing severe.” But a couple of years ago, Kleber hit a roadblock. He’d left the dairy group and started looking for another job; he and his wife didn’t have quite enough saved to retire comfortably. He didn’t think he’d have trouble finding work. Scores of applications later, with few callbacks and no offers, Kleber is close to admitting defeat — and admitting that age discrimination might be one of the biggest challenges his generation has faced. One job posting, from a medical device company called CareFusion , seemed to suggest Kleber’s lack of success wasn’t just due to a tough  job market: The ad called for a maximum of seven years of legal experience. He applied anyway and, after being passed over, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  alleging age discrimination. The case is in the **** discovery phase in  federal court in Illinois. “They expressed concerns with an older person being less likely to take supervision from someone that’s younger than they are,” Kleber says, paraphrasing the company’s response to his suit. “If I felt like I was going to be dissatisfied in the position, I wouldn’t be pursuing it.” That disagreement goes to the heart of the awkwardness that baby boomers are now feeling as they enter the last years of their working lives. Often needing to stay in jobs longer than they anticipated to shore up savings depleted during the Great Recession, or simply wanting to remain active further into their lengthening life spans, they’re coming up against a strong preference in America for youthful “energy” and “innovation.” That bias is so common we frequently don’t recognize it. Todd Nelson, a psychology professor at California State University at Stanislaus, has singled out birthday cards for portraying advancing age as something to be ashamed of, with a tone that would never be used with race or religion. (“ ‘Ha-ha-ha, too bad you’re Jewish’ ... wouldn’t go over so well,” he noted.) Internet memes like the “Scumbag Baby Boomer” and “Old Economy Steve,” which lambast boomers for transgressions from failing to adopt technology to causing the wars and recessions that millennials have weathered, channel resentment against an entire category of people in ways that might not be tolerated if they were members of another protected class. The whiteness and maleness of Silicon Valley and the tech industry have been the subject of numerous magazine cover stories, but with rare exceptions such as Dan Lyons’s hilarious 2016 memoir about being a 50-something at a Cambridge, Mass., start-up, its youth passes without comment. This cultural backdrop has horrifyingly real consequences for many on the wrong side of 40. Formal age discrimination cases like Kleber’s spiked during the **** most recent recession and haven’t fully subsided. Long-term unemployment, defined as being jobless for 27 weeks or longer , is markedly worse for workers over age 55 than for the general population. In contrast to the respect often accorded to the generation that fought World War II, their progeny are facing relative hostility in their senescence. At a time when conditions have vastly improved for women, gay people, disabled people and minorities in the workplace, prejudice against older workers remains among the most acceptable and pervasive “isms.” And it’s not clear that the next generations — ascendant Gen Xers and millennials — will be treated any better. In modern times, there are more formal protections: The advent of Social Security in the 1930s ensured older people wouldn’t be entirely penniless when they could no longer work. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ended some of the most egregious forms of prejudice, such as age limits for flight attendants and mandatory retirement ages for factory and mine workers. At the same time, structural, economic and demographic changes have created new types of ageism that are more subtle and widespread. One change is the presence of two large, culturally distinct generations — millennials and boomers, both about 75 million strong — that have found themselves in the workforce with less and less formal authority. Older workers have the misfortune of wanting to work longer just as a new generation is trying to get an economic foothold. In a weak economy, companies are sometimes all too happy to dump veteran employees, with their higher health-care costs and legacy pensions, for younger ones who expect neither. (And this isn’t just an American thing: Faster-aging societies with low birthrates in Asia and Europe face an even larger demographic “bulge” of older citizens who will have to be supported by fewer wage earners, feeding into an image of the elderly as a drain on society. A 2013 meta-analysis found East Asian countries had even more negative attitudes toward their older populations than some Western ones — grimly punctuated by climbing suicide rates in China, South Korea and Taiwan.) All of that underpins tensions in the workplace and has spawned a cottage industry of consultants who specialize in intergenerational relations. In a 2015 survey by the Harris Poll, for example, 65 percent of boomers rated themselves as being the “best problem-solvers/troubleshooters,” and only 5 percent of millennials agreed. Fifty-four percent of millennials thought boomers were the “biggest roadblocks.” Sometimes these perceptions come straight from the top: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once said “young people are just smarter.” Those attitudes apply not just to perceptions of “old” people, but also to expectations: A 2013 experiment found that young people looked more favorably upon older adults who “act their age” by listening to Frank Sinatra over the Black Eyed Peas, or by being more generous with their money. One of the researchers, Michael North, an assistant professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says younger people tend to resent it when older workers don’t “get out of the way” and retire. Yet human resource consultants and the media have often placed the onus on older workers to overcome these biases, which surface in job postings for “recent college graduates,” applicants who “enjoy the pressures of the job” and those who can “fit in with a young team.” Over-50 job seekers are advised to update their wardrobes and hairstyles, purge their résumés of positions held during the Reagan administration and, above all, “show enthusiasm.” Projecting “energy” is another common tip , as if lethargy kicks in only after 40. And what of the legal protections for older workers? Federal anti-age-discrimination laws haven’t proved to be an effective deterrent, says University of Houston professor emeritus Andrew Achenbaum. Proving you were passed over because of your age is devilishly difficult, and the EEOC has a large backlog of complaints that it hasn’t had the resources to deal with. “I wouldn’t mess around with [gender bias] if I were a university,” Achenbaum says. “But I’m willing to take my chances on age discrimination, because there are so many [cases] that are unsolved.” Margery Leveen Sher, 68, a former corporate consultant and nonprofit executive in the District, says she internalized the unspoken code of ageism long ago and was for many years a “closeted old person.” “I thought, Nobody is going to want to work with me to start up a nonprofit because they will think I will want to retire shortly,” she says. She never lied about her age; she just didn’t mention it. And “thanks to good genes, good health and a wad of money thrown regularly at my hair salon,” she could easily pass for a decade younger. Sher says only since she retired and started her own business, the Did Ya Notice? Project, writing and speaking about the importance of mindfulness, has she felt ready to “come out.” “I am not a trailblazing anti-ageism fighter. I have been a closeted coward,” she says. “But here goes: I am 68. I am full of energy and ideas, and I ain’t done yet.” Multiply that sentiment by 74.9 million and maybe something will finally give. Ashton Applewhite, creator of the blog Yo, Is This Ageist? , says the size of the boomer generation should be an advantage when shifting the discourse around aging. “Silicon Valley is finally getting some attention, and you know why? Educated, skilled, non-disabled white guys faced discrimination for the first time in their lives,” Applewhite says. “Baby boomers are starting to realize that we are actually going to have to get old. So there is this sudden awareness — we have an unusual sense of demographic weight.” Nobody knows this better than AARP, which has appropriated the language of Silicon Valley in its “Disrupt Aging” campaign. It takes aim at common stereotypes and features stories about older people living unconventional lives, like a 55-year-old YouTube entrepreneur and a 64-year-old record-breaking long-distance swimmer. But Applewhite thinks it’s more important to examine the source of ageist attitudes. “They come from corporate interests that want to medicalize aging so they can sell you s--- to cure it, or they want to treat it as a problem so they can sell you s--- to fix it,” she says. “Capitalism is a problem.” Capitalism has to be part of the solution too, says North, of the Stern School of Business. He contends successful companies will find ways to accommodate the needs of people nearing the end of their working lives, such as part-time schedules to help them transition rather than drop out. “Companies really should be taking stock of these demographic trends,” North says. “There’s tremendous value to be had there, and most companies aren’t doing that.” Lydia DePillis is a reporter for the Houston Chronicle and a former Post staff writer. E-mail us at wpmagazine@washpost.com. For more articles, as well as features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit The Washington Post Magazine. Follow the Magazine on Twitter. Like us on Facebook.

Best place to be born in 2013: Switzerland

Switzerland is the best country for a baby to be born in 2013, according to a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which is based on both subjective and objective quality of life factors. The variables include life expectancy, gender equality, political freedoms, and even climate, but because the study looks at where "to be born" not "where to live," some of the factors look at what life will be like in those countries in 2030, when children born in 2013 reach adulthood. Rounding out the top 10 are: 2. Australia 3. Norway 4. Sweden 5. Denmark 6. Singapore 7. New Zealand 8. Netherlands 9. Canada 10. Hong Kong It's not just the wealthy that rise to the top, and that might be why Costa Rica (#30) outranks the much wealthier Russia (#72) by so much. The report authors write: The United States didn't crack the top 10 this year, because American "babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation," the researchers write. In the 1988 survey, the United States came in first, followed closely by mostly European countries and several high-performing Asian ones, such as South Korea and Japan: Now, Japan and South Korea rank 25 and 19, respectively, perhaps because their economies have become more troubled in recent years. Europe has also slipped in the rankings because the ongoing euro-zone crisis there has caused severe unemployment and "eroded both family and community life," the authors write. And the bottom five -- Angola, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Kenya and Nigeria -- may come as no surprise, since they are usual suspects in perennial "worst countries" lists. Disagree with the list? The full methodology can be found here.

How ‘baby boomers’ took over the world

_Landon Y. Jones is a former managing editor of People magazine._ ‘What about calling it ‘The Baby Boomers’?” I asked my publisher. It was 1980, I’d just finished a book about Americans born between 1946 and 1964, and I needed a title. Most generations pick up labels based on when they come of age — think the Lost Generation, the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation or the millennials. What seemed most distinctive about this generation, though, was its overwhelming size, challenging every aspect of American life. “Oh, no,” came my publisher’s quick answer. “No one knows what that means. It will confuse booksellers. They will shelve it under Child Care.” So I titled the book “Great Expectations” (Dickens be damned), tucking “the baby boom generation” into the subtitle. I learned from an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary that “baby boomers” actually first appeared in The Washington Post’s Outlook section, in a 1977 essay about the future of the world economy. Since then, of course, it has taken hold, sticking longer than any other term — Rock and Roll Generation, Generation Jones — for the people born between the end of World War II and the early ’60s. The words have a playful, alliterative rhythm to them. They are bouncy iambic duometers. “Baby boomers” has migrated to many other countries, often with the English intact, though it is not always directly related to a bulge in births. The Germans use the single word “babyboomers” to refer people born in the 1960s. Germany saw an uptick in births between 1954 and 1969, with a peak in 1964. But baby boomers are also the children born in those prosperous times, during a “boom” economy. Similarly, in the Netherlands, “de babyboomers” are considered to be the lucky beneficiaries of the economic prosperity of the 1960s and 1970s. The designation has to do with coming of age at the right time. They enjoyed sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, took all the good jobs and are now retiring and becoming a burden on society. Consequently, they are viewed by other generations with suspicion at best and hostility at worst. The charismatic right-wing Dutch populist Pim Fortuyn, in his book “Babyboomers: Autobiography of a Generation,” criticized his own cohort with gusto. (Fortuyn was assassinated in 2002 for his anti-Muslim views, however, not his generational views.) Even the French, who fight off pernicious Americanisms such as “fast food” and “supermodel,” have yielded to what they call “les baby-boomers,” defining them as the generation born from 1943 to 1959 that took to the streets of Paris during the student riots in May 1968. The Italians, conversely, see two groups of “baby boomers” — one born in 1937-1940 and the other in 1959-1964 — both products of economic booms. What distinguishes the Italian boomers are their ambitions, more than their numbers. Some Chinese learn about the American baby boom in school , but they refer to their own baby booms as “baby tides,” particularly those times when Chairman Mao Zedong encouraged births in the 1950s and during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. The recent return to a two-child policy in China may create a new baby tide, if not a tsunami. **landon.jones@verizon.net ** Read more from Outlook: Quiz: Match the generalization with the generation Baby boomers are what’s wrong with America’s economy Baby boomer nostalgia is oppressive. It’s about to get worse. Five myths about baby boomers Landon Y. Jones: Too many celebrities, not enough heroes Landon Y. Jones: The gun metaphors that pervade our slang Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Empty-nester boom offers boon for builders in Washington region

Baby boomers Julie Healy and her husband, Vladimir Leonov, have plenty of energy and mobility now. But they decided to make their next home one that can accommodate their future needs better than their Falls Church townhouse-style condo, which has multiple flights of stairs. “We bought the Waverly model, a villa-style home at Stone Ridge by Van Metre Homes that has a first-floor bedroom with a full bath that we can use someday if we need to,” says Healy. “There’s only one staircase to the upper level and it’s straight, so we could even add one of those stair lifts if we ever needed one.” Unlike many empty nesters, Healy and Leonov upsized rather than downsized in their move to Loudoun County, but it was the open floor plan, the natural light and the option for one-level living in the future that attracted them. Baby boomers, who drove the first-time buyer market in the Washington area in the mid-to-late 1980s and the move-up market in the early 2000s, were the largest segment of home buyers in 2013. “A major trend in the metro area last year was the number of non-family buyers,” says Dan Fulton, senior vice president at John Burns Real Estate Consulting (JBREC) in Reston, Va. “The group we call mature couples, who are 45 and older without any kids age 18 and younger at home, represented the biggest group of buyers, with 23 percent of the market share or more than 19,525 home sales.” “Mature singles” — over 45 with no children — accounted for 12 percent of sales last year, and retirees over 65 represented 10 percent; combined with mature couples, these groups of buyers made up 45 percent of buyers in the District region in 2013. “Never-nesters” — JBREC’s term for those without children — are beginning to look for a new type of home, typically with less maintenance, the option of one-level living with a first-floor bedroom or rambler-style home on one level, or an apartment-style condominium. Some empty nesters opt for an active adult community that’s age-restricted to buyers 55 and older, but others are simply looking to downsize and to live in walkable communities. “A common theme among mature couples and younger people without kids is to live within walking distance to shops and restaurants or public transportation,” Fulton says. “Buyers who make this lifestyle choice often choose location over size and are willing to pay a lot to be near a place like Reston Town Center.” David Versel, a senior research associate with the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis in Arlington, Va., says his studies are showing that while baby boomers prefer walkability, most are concentrated in the suburbs where they face the need to drive. GMU’s research shows that 47 percent of homeowner households in the D.C. area in 2010 had at least one baby boomer owner (aged 45 to 64). “There’s a lot of inertia among baby boomers, which we think is contributing to the low inventory of homes on the market,” Versel says. “The biggest obstacle to getting baby boomers to move is the lack of the right types of housing. We have the push factor in place; boomers think their homes are too big, they don’t want to climb stairs, or they want to drive less. But we don’t have the pull factor of the type of home they’re looking for. They can sell their house for $700,000, but they can’t find an attractive housing type in a desirable area that’s also affordable.” Diana Keeling, a realty agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Bethesda, Md., not only works with many empty nesters looking to downsize, but she also is one. She and her husband, Nick Keeling, recently bought a one-level rambler in the Bannockburn section of Bethesda, an area where they’ve lived since 1983. “We wanted to stay in the neighborhood, so we found this house and completely gutted the inside and turned it into a beautiful contemporary home,” Keeling says. “Most of my buyers in their 50s and 60s want to live somewhere where they can walk to things. They think they want a condo, but condos often turn out to be too expensive, especially if they want three bedrooms. There just aren’t very many available, especially in Bethesda, so they can cost nearly $2 million.” Keeling says some of her clients opt to stay where they are and wait, or they move to smaller homes but without first-level master suites. She says some buy townhouses and have elevators installed, but that can be a costly option and isn’t always possible. “A few buyers have just decided to wait until they’re ready to move into an age-restricted community,” Keeling says. “Some people are moving into places like Fox Hill in Bethesda earlier because they have bigger condos, and that way they don’t have to move again.” Homeowners in their 50s and 60s often want to move out of their detached single-family homes and into condos so they don’t have to do home maintenance, says Kevin Love, a real estate agent with Re/Max Allegiance in Arlington. These people also prefer to buy something newer and to avoid renovation projects, because they’ve already experienced the pitfalls and stress of remodeling, he says. “Some older buyers are looking at homes in the Gainesville area, where they have smaller detached houses and a golf course, but most want to stay in the area,” Love says. “If they’re in a single-family home in Arlington, they want to move to a condo in Arlington, and they’ll compromise on the size or the age of the place in order to have less maintenance.” Love says many of his buyers prefer to be in a mixed-age community rather than an active-adult community. “The trend seems to be to age in place, at least in the same Zip code, near friends and in a neighborhood they like,” Love says. “Also, a lot of people are working longer, so they need to stay close to where they work.” Fulton says that buyers who are interested in active-adult communities typically choose them for the lifestyle that includes recreational amenities and a grand clubhouse along with the social aspect of living near people of similar interests and ages. “Outside of those communities, there aren’t a lot of move-down homes available for empty nesters, so this is an opportunity for builders to introduce this,” Fulton says. “The homes people are looking for don’t exist much as resales in this market.” Age-restricted developments such as Fox Hill in Bethesda are sprouting across the region, but a few builders also are designing for empty nesters in multi-age communities. At Willowsford in Loudoun County, Va., Arcadia Community, a company that started in California’s Napa Valley, has introduced luxurious, single-story homes priced at $750,000 to more than $1 million. “These are big, single-level homes on three-fourths to 1.5-acre lots with a wide-open floor plan so you can see straight through from the front of the house to the back,” says Brad Durga, chief operating officer for Arcadia Community in Leesburg, Va. “The bedrooms and kitchen and living areas are all on the main level, and then we have what we call a club level downstairs that’s open to the main level with a wide staircase. . . . You can also add an elevator to each home.” The houses have 3,000 to 6,700 finished square feet, so they’re not meant for downsizing. Durga says the houses are popular with other buyers in addition to empty nesters because they’re designed to be a better match for the way people live today. Van Metre Homes has several new designs geared to empty nesters, including detached single-family homes, villas and condos in a building with an elevator in the active-adult Villages community at Broadlands in Ashburn, Va. “Our Vista collection of homes sold out at Raspberry Falls, and now we’re selling them at Bull Run Golf Club in Haymarket,” says Merle Phillips, vice president of sales and marketing at Van Metre Homes in Stone Ridge, Va. “The one-level homes have a big owner’s suite . . . plus two more bedrooms on the main level.” At Bull Run Golf Club, the houses start in the $700,000s. The condos at the Villages, priced in the $300,000s, offer walkability since they’re across the street from the Broadlands Marketplace. At Brambleton, Van Metre Homes offers an optional first-floor master bedroom in its attached villa models, priced in the $400,000s. Phillips says these flexible floor plans appeal to empty nesters and others. The company also offers single-family homes with first-floor bedrooms and baths at Belmont Glen, Brambleton and Stone Ridge. Those are priced in the $500,000s. “We asked our sales team for comments from potential buyers and found that even when people didn’t have multiple generations living with them year-round, they liked the idea of having a first-floor bedroom for extended visitors or in case they need it in the future,” Phillips says. Fulton says that the existing homes in the D.C. area are geared to families with children, so he expects that builders will begin to focus on designing and developing new homes for empty nesters. “There will always be a market for family oriented new homes,” Fulton says, “but builders are competing with existing homes for families. They’ll face less competition when they build homes that match what empty nesters want.” **Michele Lerner** is a freelance writer. ●Walkability to restaurants, shops, public transportation — in the city or an inner suburb or in a community with a town center. ●One-level living — or an elevator. ●Big windows that let in lots of natural light. ●Less space — but lots of storage. ●Open floor plan with fewer formal spaces. ●Stairs — a two-level home is acceptable as long as the master suite is on the first floor. ●Routine home maintenance requirements such as shoveling snow, cutting grass and cleaning gutters. ● A lot of space — too many rooms means more cleaning and more maintenance. ● Location where they have to drive everywhere. ● Older homes that need remodeling — empty nesters prefer a new or already renovated home rather than working on a place themselves.

Mortgage debt — the new retirement time bomb

How long has it been since you’ve seen one of those mortgage-burning pictures? It was once a big deal, especially with the Greatest Generation. There was no joy like that last mortgage payment, and our parents prided themselves on burning that paper, hopefully before they retired. These days, baby boomers increasingly are carrying that debt into retirement. And while there are pluses to that (the interest rate deduction for some), many financial planners now advise their clients to pay off the mortgage. But they are much more concerned with credit-card, auto-loan and student-loan debt. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the percentage of homeowners ages 65 and older with mortgage debt increased from 22 percent in 2001 to 30 percent in 2011. Among homeowners 75 and older, the rate more than doubled, from 8.4 to 21.2 percent. And the median mortgage debt for seniors increased by 82 percent, from about $43,400 to $79,000. The CFPB said, in a report last year, that rising mortgage debt is “threatening the retirement security of millions of older Americans. In general, older consumers are carrying more debt, including mortgage, credit card and even student loan debt, into their retirement years.” It’s a trend that distresses financial planners and retirement planners. “My philosophy with regard to debt is when you retire your debt should be retired,” says Ken Moraif, senior adviser at Money Matters in North Dallas, Tex. “We really adhere to that with our clients. If they have debt, we want to embark on a journey of getting it paid down and maybe working longer to generate the cash flow to accelerate the payments to get it paid off.” Moraif says one of the dangers of retiring with mortgage debt is that the economy and markets may turn bad. “The money you thought would be there to service your mortgage is not there,” he says. Now what? I’m sure the bank will not say, ‘I will let you live there for free.’ ” James Gambaccini, financial adviser at Acorn Financial Services in Reston, notes a stark difference between baby boomers retiring today and their Depression-era parents. “People who lived through the Depression wouldn’t think about retirement without having all their debt cleared,” he says. “Boomers are not only fine with it, but prior to the crash, they tried to retire with a lot of debt. We had people trying to retire and build that dream home of 15,000 square feet. That is somewhat unique to baby boomers.” Mark Hebner, president of Index Fund Advisors, says the retirees with the least amount of stress and the most financial freedom are those with the lowest fixed expenses. “One of the problems with debt is it contributes to your fixed expenses in retirement,” he says. “The more you have, the less room you have for variable expenses, such as entertainment and travel.” So what can you do if you’re preparing for retirement and believe you have too much debt? **Reduce expenses.** “What we like to do is see how we can pay down that debt to their comfort zone,” says Roger Stinnett, managing director of planning at First Foundation Advisors in Los Angeles. “We will create a budget. Where can we reduce other expenses so we have more cash flow to apply toward paying debt?” **Pay off credit cards first.** “For sure, you have to pay that off,” Moraif says. “You cannot have $20,000 in credit-card debt and pay that out of your retirement.” **Pay down the mortgage faster.** If you’re an avid saver, it may make sense to redirect some of that money you’re putting into your retirement savings to pay down your mortgage earlier. **Delay retirement or work part time to pay off the debt.** “I advise clients to keep working to pay off debt,” Moraif says. “Maybe spend another six months or year working. You will spend the rest of your life with no debt. It’s worth it.” As Stinnett puts it: “We want our clients to sleep well in retirement. If you can sleep well with no debt, then that is the answer.”

America’s biggest advantage over the rest of the world, in one graph

For all its troubles, the U.S. economy does have one major advantage over the world's biggest industrialized nations over the next few decades: demographics. "Within four decades the U.S. will likely have one of the lowest percentages of elderly citizens, and one of the highest rates of working-age bodies among large economies," the Motley Fool points out. It's largely because of America's big immigrant population: Hispanics, for instance, have a higher birth rate than average, and the influx of immigrants in the late 20th century will continue to have a major impact in the 21st. "China, meanwhile, will see its working-age population plunge and its elderly ranks soar -- an echo of its one-child policy. Europe falls deeper into age-based stagnation. Alas, Japan becomes the global equivalent of Boca Raton," the Motley Fool explains. Joel Kotkin argues, accordingly, that Americans should fear a slowdown in immigration to the United States rather than the opposite if they truly care about the country's economic prospects.

Generational warfare, anyone?

An enduring puzzle of our politics is why there isn’t more generational conflict. By all rights, younger Americans should be resentful. Not only have they been tossed into the worst economy since the 1930s, but also there’s an informal consensus that the government, whatever else it does, should protect every cent of Social Security and Medicare benefits for the elderly. These priorities seem lopsided and unfair. Generational distress isn’t an abstraction; it’s repeatedly reaffirmed. Just recently, the Pew Research Center reported that 36 percent of women aged 18 to 34  live with their parents or other relatives, the highest proportion since 1940, also 36 percent. Among men of the same age, 43 percent live with their families, though that’s still below the 1940 level of 48 percent. Spread boomers’ retirement costs more equitably, say some. Here’s Post economics reporter Jim Tankersley: “If anyone deserves to pay more to shore up the federal safety net, either through higher taxes or lower benefits, it’s boomers — the generation that was born into some of the strongest job growth in the history of America, gobbled up the best parts, and left its children and grandchildren with . . . a big bill to pay. Politicians shouldn’t be talking about holding that generation harmless.” For the record, I have taken a similar position. Boomers shouldn’t be exempt from sacrifice. There are millions of wealthier older Americans (including me — born in 1945) who have saved adequately for retirement and for whom some benefit cuts or tax increases, though unpopular, would not inflict any genuine suffering. Gradual increases in eligibility ages, starting now, would similarly represent a common-sense adjustment to a graying society. As Pew’s Scott Keeter notes, these arguments haven’t made much headway among the public, especially the young. Although the 75 million baby boomers (people born from 1946 to 1964) are flooding into Social Security and Medicare at about 10,000 a day, there’s no clamor from the young to shift some of the programs’ costs from themselves to the elderly. (Social Security and Medicare are financed with current taxes and general funds, generated mainly by workers.) Why? It may be that many younger workers — so-called millennials, born from 1981 to the mid-1990s — think their present economic problems are temporary. Despite high student debts and low wages, they’re optimistic. If things are bound to improve, why pick a fight? “While [millennials] are not as satisfied with their current financial situation as are their older counterparts, they are much more upbeat about their financial futures,” Pew said after a 2014 survey. “Among millennials who are employed, only 33% . . . say they now earn enough to lead the kind of life they want, but fully half (51%) say they will be able to earn enough in the future.” A mere 15 percent said they won’t ever “earn enough.” By contrast, 38 percent of all boomers feared they would never earn enough. Although this could be wishful thinking, millennials may have stumbled onto something. All those retirees will do more than run up Social Security and Medicare costs. The massive departure of boomers from employment may also create a tight labor market. Jobs may be easier to find, and “real” (inflation-adjusted) wages may rise as employers compete for scarce workers. Bargaining power would shift from firms to workers. The magnitude of replacement needs is astonishing. Economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that employers need to replace two retiring workers for each new job created by economic expansion. From 2012 to 2022, replacement jobs are projected at 34 million compared with 15.6 million new jobs. Consider engineers. Over the decade, the economy will need 544,300 more; three-quarters are projected replacements. Still, the best explanation of why there is no generational war may be the simplest. “A generational war needs combatants, and the generations like each other,” says Paul Taylor, author of “The Next America.” Unlike in the 1960s, when children often challenged their parents’ political and cultural beliefs, today’s young workers “value their parents . . . and they’re not spoiling for a fight.” The result is paradoxical: While half of millennials _never_ expect to get any Social Security benefits, according to Pew, they have protected benefits for existing retirees. Millennials seem to have subordinated their economic and political interests to their parents’. Within a family, this may be admirable; for the country, it’s an exercise in avoidance. We’d be better off with a little less social peace and a little more generational conflict. _Read more fromRobert Samuelson’s archive._ **Read more about this topic:** Catherine Rampell: For millennial women, ‘the one’ must have a steady job Catherine Rampell: Bad news for older folks: Millennials are having fewer babies William H. Frey: Baby boomers had better embrace change Robert J. Samuelson: The ‘next America’ is now

What to do with the empty nest

_Rory S. Coakley is founder and president ofRory S. Coakley Realty, Inc., a full-service_ _residential and commercial real estate company operating in the Washington area since 1989._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Your oldest child graduated from college several years ago, has a job and owns a home. Your other two kids are almost out of school. You and your spouse are beginning to wonder why you need the suburban four-to-five bedroom home with the large lot. You have two options: You can “re-feather” that empty nest, making renovations that would allow you to “age in place.” Or you could downsize by selling your home and moving to a smaller condominium or townhouse in a closer-in, walkable community. _[The Washington area is experiencing a boom in the construction of developments for people 55 and over, coming up in Saturday’s Real Estate section.]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Aging in place**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico An excellent source of aging in place guidance in the nonprofit sector is the D.C.-based National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC). NAIPC has published “Act III: Your Plan for Aging in Place,” a tool designed to help retirees and seniors assess their needs for successful and fulfilling aging.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Act III invites seniors, either alone or with family assistance, to answer a set of questions about each critical area of life: home, health and wellness, personal finance, transportation and community involvement/social interaction. The collected information, which remains private, is used  help them evaluate their needs for the kind of lifestyle they desire. If they choose, users can enter their specific needs on a two-page template available on the _ageinplace.or_ g Web site. If they submit the “Needs Assessment” to NAIPC, the national office or a local chapter will respond with recommendations for services.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Once the decision to “age in place” has been made, you can request financial assistance for renovations that will help you stay in your home.  The key is to make your home as safe, secure and easy to move around in as possible. The State of Maryland last year introduced the Accessible Homes for Seniors (AHS) program, which provides seniors with financial assistance for aging in place renovations. The program offers low- and no-interest loan options for home renovations and has recently been expanded to include grant money for those who do not qualify for the loans.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The program helps to fund home improvements for Maryland residents age 55+, including installing grab bars, railings and ramps, and widening doorways and hallways.  These are the basic home improvements that are needed to help seniors stay in their homes and maintain their independence. More ambitious — and costly — aging-in-place renovations that are not covered by this program include building a first-floor master suite and installing walk-in tubs. Fairfax County has a similar program called Home Repair for the Elderly. D.C. has no program.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Downsizing   **   Downsizing usually begins with casual conversations between spouses. Typically, one wants to stay in the family home and one wants to go. Neither has the desire to get the house ready for sale after numerous years of living there. What usually occurs after those initial conversations is an eight-step process that goes something like this:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 1**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 2**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 3**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 4**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 5**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 6**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 7**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Step 8**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Which ever route you choose concerning disposition of your empty nest – aging in place or downsizing – the sooner you get started the better because both processes can be time-consuming. While most of us want to do this on our own terms, there is a natural tendency to put off making these kinds of late-in-life decisions until it’s absolutely necessary. But that approach can be risky because it might lead to other people making crucial decisions for you. Previously from Rory S. Coakley: How to appeal your tax assessment    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

How boomers can appeal to millennial home buyers

_David Charron, president and chief executive of Rockville-based multiple- listing service MRIS, writes an occasional column about the Washington-area real estate market._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Today’s millennial buyers have different expectations and desires for a home than their parents had. Yet with the shortage of home listings in the Washington area,  baby boomer homes are what make up the majority of listings in a millennial’s price range. The sellers of these homes are often newly retired and ready to downsize, so selling their home is going to be a significant part of their retirement nest egg. In order to command top price, it pays to present the home in a way that appeals to the needs of most millennials. Millennials prefer their living spaces to be streamlined. A home’s entryway is one of the easiest places to make a good first impression. In new construction, developers are building shelves right next to electrical outlets for charging stations, but sellers can convey the same idea by setting up a dedicated command center near the door with a place for keys, mail, coats and bags. If there’s an outlet nearby, stage it with a plugged in tablet or phone so potential buyers can see immediately that there’s a place to keep their devices near the hub of the home. Next, focus on the common areas. No other generation is known for placing such a high priority on socializing. Make sure the living room and kitchen look as inviting as possible. The kitchen can have a taller-than-usual table with bar chairs to give the impression of being a good place for a crowd to place their drinks during a cocktail party. If you have an open layout, arrange the seating areas so that it’s easy for buyers to imagine having a group over without too much crowding. If you or your real estate agent are hosting an open house, consider setting up a beverage and snacks station for people who come through. That not only shows how amenable the home is for entertaining, but also makes people linger a while longer and learn more about the property. This is not to say that every millennial is looking for a place to party. Millennials roughly span from ages 20 to 35, so a large percentage of the population has begun a family, or plans to in the near future. Thus, many of these buyers keep an eye out for places where young children can play safely — either indoors or out.  If the home doesn’t come with a yard, clearly display maps with the nearest playgrounds, parks and bike paths outlined so they get a sense of how kid-friendly the community is. Millennials make up the largest segment of our country’s population and will be a driving force in both the real estate market and the economy as a whole. Appealing to their needs and wishes for a home doesn’t have to take too much effort and will payoff substantially when it comes time to put your home on the market.

Through a growing number of senior villages in the D.C. area, aging in place becomes easier

Mary-Carroll Potter, 78, raised four children in Hollin Hills, near Mount Vernon, but they are spread out across the world, from Portland, Ore., to Cape Town, South Africa. Although she’s been invited to move closer to them, she prefers to remain in the neighborhood that has been her home for 50 years, even if it means continuing to live alone. Thanks to a phenomenon that has swept through the Washington area at an astonishing rate in recent years, she’s been able to do so. Potter is a member of Mount Vernon at Home, a “senior village” that, for an annual fee of $700 per individual or $950 per couple, coordinates volunteers to provide older residents with services that help them live independently. “I’ve had a man come in to help change the light in the ceiling, I had another man do some caulking and another man change a lot of pictures in the house,” Potter said. “It’s not a total substitute for your child, but it’s certainly a substitute for having a child who lives nearby.” A generation or two ago, many Americans assumed that when they grew older and more frail, they would go to a nursing home or assisted-living facility. But aging looks different now, and along with embracing dating sites and Zumba classes, today’s older Americans — 88 percent of those 65 and up, according to a recent AARP study — prefer to stay in their residence for as long as possible. They’re also more assertive about getting what they want, with increasing numbers embracing the grass-roots movement of senior villages. “The attitudes are changing. People don’t want to just get old and sick and isolated, so I think they’re looking for alternatives to that,” said Debra Umberson, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas who studies aging and relationships. “The boomers want to stay independent — they want to stay more active and vibrant and connected . . . and that’s being reflected in their housing choices.” The Washington area is leading the country in the surge of senior villages, going from about five in 2010 to 40 that are up and running or in development, according to Village to Village Network, a national umbrella organization. Nationally, the number of villages registered with the network has increased from 50 in 2010 to 124 this year, with more in development. The first, in Boston, opened in 2002. Senior villages are typically organized in neighborhoods to offer older residents a variety of volunteer services — including grocery delivery, lawn mowing and transportation — and to connect members with providers of paid services. Membership fees in the Washington area usually are several hundred dollars a year. The village movement started mostly in urban areas but has increasingly spread to the suburbs and recently to rural places, said Natalie Galucia, Village to Village Network’s member-services coordinator. As the movement matures, villages have added more complex services, such as social work, discounts with local merchants, trips, cultural activities and, at one District village, a program in which volunteers accompany members to doctor’s appointments to take notes. That village, Northwest Neighbors, started the service in December with 16 trained volunteers. “It has helped our members especially when they’re facing critical illness . . . and members who have poor recall,” said Marianna Blagburn, the village’s executive director. Ally Feldman, 92, a retired professor, said he appreciated the note-taker going to a recent appointment with his arthritis doctor. “Her being with me was very helpful in that she took notes and she understood things that I didn’t understand,” he said. “You see, I’m old.” The Washington area may be particularly receptive to villages because it is a more transient place than many metropolitan areas, with close relatives often living far away, said Barbara Sullivan, Mount Vernon at Home’s executive director. “We have a lot of members who raised their children here and the children have moved away.” But the concept also works particularly well here because the area attracts so many career government and nonprofit workers, said Andy Mollison, vice president of the Washington Area Villages Exchange and founder and former president of Palisades Village in the District. “Washington has always been a hotbed of volunteer activity,” he said. “People who’ve been running things all their lives, whether it’s PTAs or local food drives.” Ed Missiaen, 72, is both a Capitol Hill Village member and volunteer. For him, the camaraderie of the village — which opened in 2007 and is the oldest in the area — echoes his stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s. “It’s the idea of working together, trying to make things maybe a little bit better, which in a way was what we were trying to promote when we were in the Peace Corps.” For him, as for many, membership is also a form of insurance. With grown sons living on the West Coast, Missiaen said he and his wife joined not because they need the help so much now, but because “maybe one day I’m going to need these services.” Village members like to say, “If you’ve seen one village, you’ve seen one village.” Each develops differently in response to members’ needs. While urban villages tend to serve denser, more “vertical” geographical areas, suburban villages are typically more sprawling. Mount Vernon at Home, a five-year-old village of 190 members whose average age is 82, is spread out over 14 square miles. “Transportation is 80 percent of what we do,” Sullivan said. “Our county can’t provide it. We don’t have walkable communities, so most of our services involve driving people to medical appointments, grocery stores and social events.” The village also offers technology classes and has added care management to its services, helping people find close-by rehabilitation centers and figure out which ones accept their insurance. In March, Lake Barcroft Village in Fairfax County plans to start a service that will help people with financial and medical planning. In many cases, the social component has over time become as important as the services provided, said Katie McDonough, executive director of Capitol Hill Village, which, like a growing number of villages, offers social memberships that don’t involve services. The village includes literature clubs, opera clubs, and cancer and caregiver support groups. “In the last couple of years, this has really taken off as a whole part of the organization that the founders didn’t envision,” McDonough said. Silver Spring Village, which opened in October, offers such activities as architectural tours, lectures and performances as well as a weekly happy hour. At the same time, some villages have taken a more active role in medical care. Capitol Hill Village has a care coordinator who matches trained volunteers with people with special needs, and this month, Foggy Bottom West End Village, which opened in October, plans to start a quick-response team, training and aligning specific volunteers with members who are identified as needing more attention. “As baby boomers, we’ve worked with aging parents and some of the things you know from your own experience,” said Susan Haight, president of Foggy Bottom West End Village. Some municipalities have encouraged villages as a complement to their own aging services. Fairfax has a designated liaison to assist people who want to start one and to help connect villages in the area. Libraries in Montgomery County offer a guide to starting a village, and the county is hiring a villages coordinator. The village model has been more successful in more prosperous areas, which tend to have a larger number of people with time to volunteer or money to pay for membership. Many villages offer reduced or sliding-scale rates for lower-income members. The District’s Office on Aging recently awarded two $15,000 grants to organizations in wards 7 and 8 looking to help start villages in low-income areas. Liesbeth Boxman, a freelance licensed city guide in her 60s, said that membership in Foggy Bottom West End Village has brought perks far beyond the services it provides. A native of the Netherlands with no relatives living close by, she has lived in the District for 40 years but had not really known her neighbors, she said. Since the village started last year, she said, “you already can sense the difference — people are walking down the street and they’re looking at each other to see if they know each other. . . . Whoever came up with this brilliant idea, I owe a lot to.”

The on-demand economy: Changing the way we live as we age

Companies such as Instacart, Uber and TaskRabbit may be known for their appeal to young, urban consumers, but they may soon influence older adults’ lives just as profoundly. Offering alternatives to traditional, senior-oriented services, these companies stand to transform how the older demographic gets things done. At 88, Sally Lindover already participates as both a user and a provider in what’s known as the on-demand and sharing economy. She recently signed up for home delivery services following a trip to France with a younger tour group. “I’m so competitive, of course I had to keep up with them,” Lindover says. The result was some lower-back pain that made it difficult for her to walk to the grocery store when she returned home to Cambridge, Mass. So she started using Instacart, a company that does grocery shopping for you. “I was very pleased with it. I certainly will use it again in the winter,” she says. For bulky paper products and heavy household goods such as detergents, “I used a service called Jet, which is competing with Amazon — and competing very effectively, I must say — on prices.” Lindover has a long history of defying expectations about her age. In 1983, she joined the U. S. Foreign Service at age 56. “I became the oldest junior officer at the time to enter the Foreign Service and broke what was known as the age barrier for that reason,” she says. Now, living by herself in a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, she rents out her extra room through Airbnb. In her relationship with that company and others, she has taken a place at the forefront of a trend that’s likely to change the experience of old age. In the past, when frailer, older people needed dinner provided, a ride somewhere or a light bulb changed, solutions tended to be explicitly senior-oriented: Think Meals on Wheels, paratransit services and dedicated senior living facilities. But now, on-demand and sharing-economy companies are offering those very services — and many others — to customers across the age spectrum. It matters that they cater to all ages because consumers often avoid products and services that mark the user as old, even if that avoidance comes at the cost of quality of life. Stigma is one reason that the National Institutes of Health reports that most hearing-aid users live with hearing loss for 10 or more years before seeking help. Products and services marketed to the young and old alike, however, avoid this trap. And so older adults are now not only buying what such companies as Lyft and Instacart are selling, but also joining in as providers: driving, hosting and helping others. Before joining the Foreign Service, Lindover, a native New Yorker, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia and Rwanda. Then she entered the Foreign Service and earned world-traveler status, living and working in “Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya,” she says, pausing to look at the globe in her apartment. “India, Yemen, China, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, France, Germany, Haiti. . . . I always forget one or two. . . . Oh, Poland, of course!” After a brief retirement in the mid-1990s, she began renting a home in Cambridge where, now fully retired, she lives with a rotating cast of Airbnb users. She doesn’t worry about bringing new faces into her home, she says, “because I had so many experiences all over the world with so many people, and I have a lot of confidence in Airbnb’s vetting of people.” More than half of Airbnb’s hosts are older than 40, and 10 percent of them are older than 60. “Our older hosts have some of the best ratings on our site,” says Anita Roth, Airbnb’s head of policy research. Not only do empty-nesters tend to have extra rooms to rent, but they often also have “the life experience to know what it means to welcome someone into your home.” “I like to be here when people come in,” Lindover says. “I like to see them, and they see me, and I can give them some information about the neighborhood.” Ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber similarly rely on large numbers of older adults. Twenty-five percent of the drivers at Uber, which recently announced a partnership with AARP, are 50 or older. “We have a lot of retirees who are drivers,” says Mike Masserman, Lyft’s director of government relations. “They know the cities really well — they’re locals, and they love sharing anecdotes,” he says. “We hear from our passengers that some of our retirees are the most popular drivers.” Between 2020 and 2030, the 65-plus population in the United States will increase by 18 million people, a base that sharing and on-demand companies are eager to gain as loyal consumers. “We think there’s going to be huge opportunity in this market,” Masserman says. At the same time, traditional senior-oriented services are awakening to the possibility that these young tech companies may poach their customers. “I do view it as both a threat and an opportunity,” says Tom Grape, chief executive of Benchmark Senior Living, the largest provider of senior housing in New England. The threat lies in the fact that companies such as Instacart and TaskRabbit will make it possible for some older adults to delay climbing onto the less-care-intensive rungs of senior living, instead meeting their needs via their smartphone or computer. The decision not to move to senior living “is already our biggest competitor, and of course we fully expect that technology will allow people to stay at home longer in the future,” Grape says. The opportunity comes from tech-enabled efficiencies in how a company is run, he explains — efficiencies that on-demand companies are aware of as well. Perhaps the strongest challenger to the senior living industry would be a company that could make it easier and more efficient to bring care professionals into one’s home. The prospect is so enticing, in fact, that some of the best-known names in Silicon Valley venture capital have bet $20 million on a company that promises to do exactly that: Honor. When an older adult needs help with a day-to-day activity, such as getting dressed or bathing, most professional care companies bill for a minimum of three hours of work in order to minimize travel and overhead expenses. Honor, which is now operating in San Francisco and Los Angeles, provides care professionals in one-hour increments. “It’s about efficient routing, and the right people in the right place at the right time,” says Seth Sternberg, Honor’s co-founder and chief executive. “A bunch of technology is making it possible,” he says, but “to the older person, that’s all just invisible. They’re just getting a better service.” Perhaps the ultimate expression of the tech company with invisible tech is Hello Alfred, which offers a personal butler — the company is named after Batman’s stalwart companion — for a few hours every week. “We’re oriented towards people who need help in their home or in their lives for a variety of reasons,” says co-founder and chief operating officer Jessica Beck. “All the things that pile up in the back of your mind, which I can imagine, particularly as you age, go up, are some things that we can remove.” Alfreds, as the butlers are known, are available in Boston and New York. They can help out with shopping, laundry and other chores. Perhaps more important, they can take over the management of other online services. “We do interface with all the sharing economy services,” says Beck, rattling off a list of names including Instacart; Airbnb; TaskRabbit, which provides workers for jobs around the house; Thumbtack and Pro.com, which connect users to local contractors; and Washio, a laundry service. Instead of learning how to navigate a bewildering forest of companies, she suggests, people who are new to the on-demand and sharing economy “can learn one interface, and that can take care of everything on their behalf.” Regardless of how one interacts with these companies, their offerings aren’t free. Some, such as Airbnb, can provide certain older adults with a welcome cash flow. But many other consumers on a fixed income will find that participating in the sharing and on-demand economy requires a significant, constant outlay — an added expense that would not be as discretionary as it might sound. To those who would otherwise be stuck at home, for instance, the cost of Uber or Lyft rides may feel far more like an essential expense than a splurge. The price of such quality-of-life gains is something the financial advisory industry has begun tracking. “I don’t think the advisers have any way of quantifying yet exactly how much that would cost,” says John Diehl, senior vice president of strategic markets at Hartford Funds. In some cases, solutions such as ride-hailing could cost less than car ownership and maintenance, he says, saving consumers money. But overall, the focus on renting, not owning, assets in the on-demand and sharing economies will translate into a need for more cash on hand than retirees currently need and less stashed away in illiquid assets such as real estate. “It’s really taking the emphasis perhaps off of growth to some extent and onto income,” he says, “which over the long term could cost me some return.” Lindover says that because she moved around so much in the Foreign Service, she never bought property in Cambridge, instead holding on to her apartment, whose rent has tripled over the past two decades. “My fixed income is not that high,” she says. Airbnb provided “a way of helping pay the rent. And a rather pleasant way, without too much investment on my part.” “So, yeah,” she says, “I’m all for all these newfangled things that make life easier.”

This ad makes viewers cry

The ad tells the story of a lonely old widower who seems especially sad now that it's Christmastime. Trying to persuade his children to finally visit, he resorts to a desperate solution: He fakes his own death. My colleague Colby Itkowitz recently summarized what happens next:   There are particularly many old people in the eastern part of the country, which also happens to be where most poverty prevails. High unemployment in east Germany also partially explains east-west differences in demographics. Many young Germans have moved from rural eastern areas to the west to find jobs. Although that development has slightly helped bring down unemployment rates, it has also worsened the demographic balance. Many elderly have been left on their own in the east. But the east-west differences will gradually diminish as Germany's population rapidly ages as expected in the coming decades. Within the next 45 years, the nation's population will decline by at least 10 percent — whereas most countries, including the United States, expect the opposite to happen. Some consider that dynamic to be the driving force behind Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to take in nearly 1 million refugees this year alone. Refugees tend to be much younger than the average German citizen. Germany has one of the world's most generous welfare systems.  But many are concerned that if the number of retirees keeps growing, social programs, including those designed for older citizens, will have to be cut.

Aging boomers will put new focus on transit

A traveler had a follow-up question about last Sunday’s column, in which we discussed the impact of Metro’s proposed fare increases on senior citizens. **Dear Dr. Gridlock:** I am surprised that you did not mention the option of the yellow SmartTrip cards for seniors 65 and over. They have all of the senior discounts built into them and also allow the holders to avoid the paper-ticket penalty. This is one of the biggest bargains in our family budget. **— Bob MacCallum,** _Charlottesville_ MacCallum is quite right about the value of these cards. Here’s the deal: A few years ago, Metro introduced a different type of SmarTrip card for people 65 and older. It looks different. It’s yellow and says “Senior SmarTrip” on the front. It works like a regular SmarTrip card at the Metrorail fare gates and Metrobus fareboxes. But it automatically applies the senior discount, charging half the regular fare. (That’s half the peak-period fare on Metrorail.) The card costs $5, just like a regular SmarTrip card. Unlike a regular card, it isn’t for sale on Metro’s Web site or at the SmarTrip card-vending machines. Seniors have to show a government-issued photo ID with proof of age when they buy one at Metro sales offices, commuter stores, and some public libraries in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. The discounts are good for seniors and for Metro, because older riders tend to travel at midday, when the trains and buses are least crowded and draw the least revenue. A study released last week by a D.C.-based organization called TRIP (The Road Information Program) was a reminder about the importance of this age group in the nation’s transit programs. While we talk a lot about Metro’s fare-increase proposals and the state of the service, we don’t talk enough about the type of transit system we’ll need in the future. The baby boomers are now in transit to senior citizen status. “This aging population will both create and face significant transportation challenges, including a transportation system that lacks many features that would accommodate the level of mobility and safety older Americans desire and expect,” the TRIP study said. Seniors are no different from the rest of the population: They prefer to drive. But that’s not always going to be possible for them. It will be in their interest, and the interest of the community at large, to make sure we have a transit system capable of meeting their desire to stay mobile. That’s an ambitious task for governments and community leaders, one that goes far beyond senior cards, fare discounts, and priority seating on trains and buses. “Transit systems can be improved to better accommodate older Americans as well as the population at large,” the TRIP study said. Among its recommenda-tions: Ensure that public-transit vehicles, facilities and stops are easily accessible for elderly or disabled passengers; expand bus and other transit routes; and create innovative alternatives tailored to the needs of older people, such as ride-sharing systems, volunteer driving programs and door-to-door community transportation services. Metro does many good things to accommodate older people, but it still puts up barriers. The out-of-service elevators and escalators that are annoying but endurable to younger people can lead to outright rejection of the transit option among those more aware of their frailties. Meanwhile, some seniors heading for Washington’s cultural attractions will drive right past the Metro garages because they don’t expect to find a midday parking space. Metro will need to enhance its offerings and become more flexible with its services to accommodate this coming generational change.

How millennial homeowners are changing the look of kitchens

As millennials join the ranks of homeowners, they’re making their mark on how those homes look, and in some cases bucking long-held preferences. Here are some of the trends popping up among the newest generation of homeowners found in Houzz’s 2017 Kitchen Trends Study. Of the survey’s 2,700 participants (all of whom had recently completed a kitchen remodel project or were in the process of doing so), between 10 and 12 percent were ages 25 to 34. “Millennials are a lot more focused on making sure that the style, color palette and materials used in the major elements of the kitchen stay as relevant as long as possible because they’re not planning another remodel any time soon,” said Nino Sitchinava, Houzz’s principal economist. Although gray was the most popular wall color across all ages (and up in popularity 4 percent from 2015), it was especially popular among millennial homeowners (43 percent of millennials vs. 22 percent of baby boomers chose it). Boomers, on the other hand, were more likely to try warmer colors, and 1 in 10 chose green walls. White cabinets topped all age groups, but millennials were nearly twice as likely to extend that color to the backsplash as well. Younger renovators tended to prefer decorative pendant lighting (67 percent), while older homeowners were more likely to choose more functional under- or in-cabinet lights (74 percent). “There’s potentially a little more versatility with pendant lighting,” Sitchinava said. “It’s self-   contained [and] a little more affordable. But some of it could also be preferences and style aesthetic.” Lighting upgrades were part of 84 percent of the kitchen renovations surveyed. The most popular built-in features for millennials were pantry cabinets and islands, appearing in 2 of 5 renovated kitchens, and younger homeowners were much more likely to install an island than older homeowners (49 percent vs. 36 percent, respectively). “They are a must-have in a millennial kitchen,” Sitchinava said. “Millennials really do value that extra counter space.” Although contemporary is the most popular style for kitchen remodels across all ages (26 percent among millennials and 24 percent among baby boomers), younger homeowners are more likely to try a modern (19 percent) or farmhouse style (14 percent) for their renovation as opposed to boomers, who are more likely to stick with a traditional style (14 percent compared with 8 percent of millennials). Millennial homeowners “are twice as likely to be driven by cost considerations than homeowners over age 35,” per the survey’s findings. Younger renovators are also more willing to get to their hands dirty when it comes to kitchen remodeling, with a majority favoring stock and ready-to-assemble cabinets. “They are less likely to hire a general contractor, architect or a designer and instead take on that process themselves,” Sitchinava said. Still, about a third of the millennials surveyed splurged on custom cabinetry (vs. 42 percent of baby boomers). “Millennials are going into their kitchen remodel with a sort of understanding that they want to make the kitchen as perfect as they possibly can,” Sitchinava said, “because they are going to be utilizing it for a long time.” Look and feel (72 percent), and durability (53 percent) were the driving factors for choosing a countertop material, far ahead of cost (21 percent), and quartz and granite reign supreme as the most sought-after materials, across all ages. However, Gen Y is much more willing to experiment with an alternative, more budget-friendly countertop material, such as laminate or wood. **More fromLifestyle:** Top-tier bar carts for budgets big and small Restoring cabinet veneer may take more than elbow grease Renovating your home? Here are the hot design trends for 2017.

America’s baby bust

Call them the missing recession babies. Births across the nation took a tumble during the economic downturn, and both the number of births and the birth rate have not recovered much since 2007. This small reverse baby boom will leave a faint but lasting dent on America’s population pyramid: Expect kindergartens to be a little less crowded in the next couple of years, Little League rosters a bit more condensed. The recession, of course, did not have an impact on every state to the same degree. Places like Arizona saw the biggest leaps in the unemployment rate, and, correspondingly, the biggest drop in the rate of babies being born. Likewise, states that weathered the recession well, like North Dakota and Alaska, did not see much in the way of falling birth rates. Younger women, especially those in their early 20s, had the biggest declines in childbearing. This is in line with a long-term cultural shift. Young Americans are taking longer to settle down and start families, and the average age of motherhood has been rising along with the average age of first marriage. This recession, which has been especially hard on millennials, sharpened these trends. If you’re unemployed and living with your parents, how can you have a baby? If recent history is any measure, the dip will be temporary. The recessions in the early ’70s and early ’90s also shocked the birth rate, which in both cases fell quickly but slowly rose again. That’s what recessions do: They delay the decision to have a baby. As soon as things start to look up, the crib and the car seat will follow.

Baby boomers have been a disaster for America, and Trump is their biggest mistake yet

Take the baby boomers. Please. The idealists of the 1960s have come a long way from Woodstock. After a quarter- century of mismanaging the country, they have produced Donald Trump, who with his narcissistic and uncompromising style is a bright orange symbol of what went wrong with the massive generation. And polls show that the boomers are the biggest source of support for Trump. Among voters between age 50 and 64, Trump leads Hillary Clinton by three points in Post-ABC News polling and by a point in NBC-Wall Street Journal polling, equal to the older, smaller Silent Generation’s support of the Republican nominee in the latter poll. The generational support for Trump’s burn-it-all-down campaign is the latest reminder of why the baby boomers are in the running to be remembered as the Worst Generation. But, if I may claim a rare moment of generational pride, there is good news in the polling, too. Generation X — my much-maligned generation — has turned emphatically against Trump. The NBC poll shows Clinton leading by 22 points among those between 35 and 49 — a more lopsided rejection of Trump than even the millennials mustered. This raises hope after the debacle of boomer governance. “It’s really the boomers that are driving the hyperpartisanship and polarization and gridlock,” says David Rosen, a consultant specializing in generational effects in politics. Beginning with the boomer-led 1994 Republican Revolution, “that’s where you see the origin of the insane politics that we have right now. Trump is in some ways taking that style to its most absurd and ridiculous extremes.” But maybe this is the boomers’ last gasp. “Hopefully,” Rosen tells me, “when Gen X comes to power it will repudiate the boomers and the entire legacy of this style of politics and move us toward something that is more pragmatic.” Before the emails start pouring in, let me make clear that this isn’t an indictment of individual boomers, nor of boomers’ contributions to art and science. But as a generation of leaders, they have been disastrous. Boomers seized the White House in 1992 and the House in 1994 and have generally dominated government since. Clinton, like Trump, is a boomer, which guarantees that the generation will control the White House through at least 2020. And what does this generation have to show for its quarter-century of leadership? Boomers inherited the sole superpower after the Greatest Generation won the Cold War — and squandered U.S. influence with two long and inconclusive wars. They gave us the financial collapse of 2008, the worst economy since the Great Depression, a crushing federal debt and worse inequality. They devoured fossil fuels and did little about global warming while allowing infrastructure and research to deteriorate. They expanded entitlement programs and are now poised to bankrupt those programs. Their leadership has led to declining confidence in religion, the presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, banks and big business, schools, the media and the police. They may leave their children (the millennials) worse off than they were. Boomers, coddled in their youth, grew up selfish and unyielding. When they got power, they created polarization and gridlock from both sides. Though Vietnam War-protesting boomers got the attention, their peers on the right were just as ideological, creating the religious right. Boomers are twice as likely to identify as conservative than liberal, a figure that hasn’t changed much in two decades. And Trump captures his generation’s selfishness: his multiple draft deferrals, his claim that he’s “made a lot of sacrifices” by building buildings, his vow not to cut Social Security but to have huge tax cuts and massive military investments. Generational patterns repeat over time, as researchers William Strauss and Neil Howe showed. A “civic” generation is followed by an “adaptive” one, then “idealist” and “reactive” generations. The boomers are idealists — same as the generations that led the United States into the Civil War and the Great Depression. Gen Xers are reactive — cynical and pragmatic — and clean up idealists’ messes. Millennials, like the Greatest Generation, rebuild institutions. Happily, Gen Xers, the cleanup crew, could become the plurality in Congress as soon as 2018. The question is whether my generation, working with the millennials, can break the boomers’ gridlock and deal jointly with the many crises boomers left us. Gen Xer that I am, I’m not convinced my cynical cohort has what it takes. But Rosen is hopeful. “When we see national emergencies arrive, Generation X will be able to get things done when it needs to,” he says. “All the evidence suggests that Gen X has those qualities.” And this much is for sure: After a quarter-century of boomer mismanagement and the monstrosity that is Trump, we can’t possibly do worse. **_Twitter: @Milbank_ ** _Read more fromDana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more on this topic:** Dana Milbank: The Greatest Generation’s rebuke of Trump

One reason millennials are living with mom and dad longer

The May 25 front-page article “Millennials’ most likely abode: Mom and Dad’s,” about changing millennial living arrangements, captured a rising trend and its perceived benefits and drawbacks. The article found a growing acceptance, which points to something previous studies have found: Millennials and their parents like each other. Unlike some previous generations who couldn’t wait to get away from their parents, millennials have said they enjoy spending time with their parents and, in many cases, their parents’ friends. It makes living together less of a challenge and more pleasant for everyone under the same roof. More important, though, is to put this growing cohabitation in the context of our changing demographics. People are living longer. We’ve added decades to life expectancy since 1900, and we’re redefining “old age” and life after retirement. As life spans increase, the roles we play across the ages elongate. Think about adolescence, a concept that didn’t exist until around the turn of the 20th century. We created this stage when we no longer needed people to transition directly from childhood to work. We live in an aging society. It’s up to us to take advantage of this gift and make sure each generation, and the human capital its members represent, is fully engaged. ****Donna M. Butts** , Washington** _The writer is executive director of Generations United._

A round of applause for the D.C. streetcar

The D.C. streetcar deserves a round of applause. Not because it’s finally rolling, returning last month after 50 years, but because it shows a commitment to transit that will keep the District among the nation’s great cities. And early ridership numbers are promising. As millennials — those people born between the early to mid-1980s and 2004 — come of age, they’re deciding in huge numbers to live, work and play in urban areas. Pew Research Center reports that 38 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds prefer to live in cities, compared with 24 percent of all other age groups. And they’re ditching cars and choosing public transit, ride-hailing services, bikes or a good pair of shoes over car ownership, insurance and maintenance costs. But it’s not just the young folks. Pew reports that boomers also prefer city living. As people get older, cities offer more convenient amenities, healthy and walkable communities and cultural pursuits not available in the ’burbs. Cities that want to continue growing and prospering are taking steps now to meet the needs of these massive generational waves. Core to their success is a robust, multimodal transportation network that facilitates mobility. In the District and in many other forward-thinking cities nationwide, this network includes streetcars. Why streetcars? They power economic development in ways bus routes cannot. Fixed rails involve a bigger commitment than bus routes. The greater investment and ongoing maintenance that a streetcar line demands signal a long-term promise that attracts businesses and developers. Portland’s streetcar line delivered millions of dollars in development adjacent to its route. Kansas City, Mo., attracted at least 11 commercial and 21 residential developments along its starter line. All of these developments generate tax revenue for municipal coffers. Plus, moving more people translates into fewer people driving, reducing pollution and congestion. Electric-powered streetcars are zero-emission machines. They’re also quiet, bike- and stroller-friendly and won’t splash pedestrians on sidewalks when it rains. Most important, streetcars provide connections to the larger transit network for more people. The 2.2-mile starter line of the D.C. streetcar on H Street and Benning Road NE provides another option for residents and visitors in Northeast to get where they’re going. And this is just a starter line. As the streetcar finds success in the District, just as streetcars have in other cities nationwide, the number of routes will grow and the network will lengthen. Longer routes will drive additional investment and provide additional transit options to more of the District, complementing existing bus and Metro routes, ride-hailing services and bike lanes. An important next step for the District is integrating fares so that streetcar tickets can transfer to bus and Metro services across the region. Planners are working on this. The times are changing. Younger Americans prefer city living and no longer dream of owning cars. Older citizens, too, want the convenience and amenities of urban areas. We all want less congestion on our roadways and less pollution in the air. Multimodal transportation is key to meeting these demands. The D.C. streetcar, now operational after a long journey, enhances multimodal transportation in the District, putting the city on track to grow and prosper as demographic waves break across the country in the coming decades. **Read more abotu this issue:** The Post’s View: Another wasted year for D.C.’s streetcar to nowhere The Post’s View: A streetcar named incompetence The Post’s View: The District’s streetcar deal leaves taxpayers holding the bag

Home Depot looks to adapt for baby boomers who aren’t so into ‘do-it-yourself’ anymore

Home Depot has spent years cultivating a customer base of baby boomers who relish the challenge and potential cost savings of renovating their own kitchen or tackling a bathroom repair. But now, the big-box retailer says it must adapt for a key change among its core customers: These days, when it comes to home improvement, executives say baby boomers are less interested in do-it-yourself and more about do-it-for-me. At a Tuesday conference with investors, executives said they will be ramping up their focus on catering to the professional contractor — whether they are an independent handyman or a small or midsize business — as older homeowners tire of taking on home-improvement projects themselves. “Their expectations of the Home Depot are changing,” said Marc Powers, the chain’s executive vice president of U.S. stores. “Now, people like me have less time and less energy to do it myself like the Home Depot taught us to do. Now, I want someone to do it for me.” DIY-happy baby boomers have been a critically important demographic for Home Depot, the fourth-largest retailer in the United States and one of few major chains that have consistently delivered robust quarterly sales growth in the past two years. The company said Tuesday that a majority of its non-professional customers are baby boomers, even as millennials now outnumber that generation. (A majority of Home Depot’s shoppers are also homeowners, and about a quarter of them have incomes of more than $100,000 a year.) With home prices climbing, and given that about 63 percent of the housing stock in the United States is more than 30 years old, Home Depot executives said they believe these boomers will still want to invest in improving their homes. But catering to them will increasingly be a different proposition. It will mean being smarter about wooing the professionals who boomers might hire to do these jobs for them. “We serve all kinds of pros, but generally acted more like a 7-Eleven to the larger ones,” said Bill Lennie, executive vice president of outside sales and service, in the investor presentation. In other words, the chain has been more of a destination for a quick fill-in trip than for a major purchase. Now, it will be working to adapt its merchandise assortment and the order fulfillment capabilities for the needs of this type of customer. Meanwhile, Home Depot is also trying to better connect with large-scale property managers, the ones who manage apartment buildings and condominium communities. As part of that effort, it spent $1.6 billion earlier this year to acquire Interline, a distributor and direct marketer of maintenance and repair products. The Interline acquisition was also meant to better position Home Depot to capitalize on another trend in the housing landscape: Many millennials who are not yet embracing homeownership and are opting to live in multifamily housing. Home Depot says it is confident that millennials will eventually take the plunge and buy a home, and that when they do, its research has found they will have the do-it-yourself ethos that their parents had in their younger years. For now, though, executives said they typically see millennial customers spring for items such as paint and window treatments — the kinds of things that can spruce up a home without violating a rental agreement. To connect with those customers, Home Depot is also looking to beef up its digital business, which today accounts for only 5.1 percent of its total sales. As with many of its bricks-and-mortar counterparts, the chain is racing to open fulfillment centers so it can get orders to customers more quickly, and has moved to offer a much wider range of merchandise online than it can fit in its stores. It is also shifting its advertising strategy, with plans to spend more on digital marketing this year than on print and television. Overall, it seems that the cautious consumer mind-set that has been a drag for so many retailers has actually been something of a tail wind for Home Depot. Shoppers have been resisting impulse buys and, instead, have been putting their dollars toward planned, carefully researched purchases. You can see that in Home Depot’s latest earnings results, when it saw a 7.8 percent increase in transactions totaling more than $900, thanks to purchases of items such as appliances, roofing products and countertops. The company said Tuesday that it has seen an increase in big-ticket purchases since the second quarter of 2011. The company’s recently strong sales have helped push its stock up more than 27 percent so far this year. As it laid out its strategy for the next several years, Home Depot also reaffirmed for investors its earnings outlook for 2015 and announced a long-term revenue target of $101 billion in 2018. That’s the equivalent, chief executive Craig Menear said, of adding 357 Home Depot stores, and yet executives don’t plan to grow the retailer’s footprint much. The chain, which operates stores in Canada and Mexico, said it is not considering further international expansion, and said it does not plan to experiment with adding small-format or other alternative brick-and-mortar layouts to its fleet of 2,273 stores. Instead, the company plans to expand sales by making its existing stores more productive and by ringing up more purchases online.

America is rapidly aging in a country built for the young

Although we seldom think about them this way, most American communities as they exist today were built for the spry and mobile. We've constructed millions of multi-story, single-family homes where the master bedroom is on the second floor, where the lawn outside requires weekly upkeep, where the mailbox is a stroll away. We've designed neighborhoods where everyday errands require a driver's license. We've planned whole cities where, if you don't have a car, it's not particularly easy to walk anywhere — especially not if you move gingerly.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico This reality has been a fine one for a younger country. Those multi-story, single-family homes with broad lawns were great for Baby Boomers when they had young families. And car-dependent suburbs have been fine for residents with the means and mobility to drive everywhere. But as the Baby Boomers whose preferences drove a lot of these trends continue to age, it's becoming increasingly clear that the housing and communities we've built won't work very well for the old. A new report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies and the AARP renews this warning. What will happen to Baby Boomers stuck in suburbia once they can't drive anymore? Where will an aging population with more disabilities live when we've built so little accessible housing? How will they pay for homes late into life when there aren't enough modest-sized homes or aid programs to help afford them?    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico For all of these reasons, we're rapidly approaching a serious clash in America between housing stock and community design on one hand, and demographics on the other. In 1990, less than 5 percent of U.S. counties had a population where adults over 50 made up more than 40 percent of the community (that was 156 counties). By 2010, this was true of 33 percent of all U.S. counties (or 1,031 of them): Put another way: The U.S. population over age 65 is expected to include 73 million people by 2030 (that's about 33 million more than today). Where do most of these people currently live? In the suburbs: And in single-family homes: Most of those homes don't have the kind of basic "universal design" features that older residents will need, like extra-wide hallways, no-step entries, living spaces on the ground floor, or accessible light switches and door levers. The Harvard report cites 2011 American Housing Survey data concluding that just 1 percent of housing units in America have all five of these features. In theory, such adjustments will mean making homes more accessible for everyone: for dads pushing strollers, children on crutches, anyone who just wants a grandparent to visit. But the prospect of age-proofing our housing stock and neighborhoods raises some thorny policy questions: Should communities require private homeowners or commercial builders to incorporate accessibility features? (Some already do.) Are we willing to invest in transit in communities that currently don't have much of it? Can we make room for "accessory dwelling units" — like little backyard cottages where grandma might live — that are currently illegal in many cities?    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico And there's another question not raised by the Harvard report, but it's an equally important one that's been voiced by researcher Arthur C. Nelson: If many Baby Boomers wind up leaving the large single-family homes they've long occupied — where they no longer want to mow the lawn or climb the stairs — will there be enough young homeowners wanting to buy them? America is the midst of shifts in both demographics and housing preferences that suggest there may not be.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico If you are already worried about what an aging America will mean for entitlement programs, health care spending or the labor pool, you should probably add housing to that list, too.

Echo Boomers flock to the District, Arlington

Amy Vance left the District for Arlington County two years ago to be closer to her husband’s job without feeling that they were giving up the vibrancy of city life. “I liked living in D.C., a lot,” said Vance, 31, as she walked her dog, Chewy, near the Courthouse, one of Arlington’s most popular neighborhoods for adults in their late 20s and early 30s. “But Arlington’s quieter and more walkable. I feel like I’m still living in the city.” More than anyplace else in the Washington region, Arlington and the District have been successful in attracting an outsize number of residents between the ages 25 to 34, census statistics show. These young adults, part of a generation known as “echo boomers,” are one of the fastest-growing age groups in the United States, second only to people 55 to 64, a cohort swollen by baby boomers. In the past two years, the number of people in the 25-to-34 age cohort increased by 12 percent in the District and 10 percent in Arlington, far above the national average of 3 percent and the regional average of 6 percent. Across the nation, the echo boomer population has spiked near military installations and in Texas oil boom country. But this age group also is fueling growth around cities such as Morgantown, W.Va.; Richmond; Charleston, S.C.; and New Orleans. Still young and with more money to spend than new college grads, they have sparked much of the transformation of Arlington and the District during the past decade. Government policies have been devised to lure them, and apartment buildings, restaurants, specialty supermarkets and bike lanes have sprung up to reel in even more. Demographers are watching to see if they will move to more distant suburbs — particularly those who had children after the recession began and may be waiting before leaping into bigger houses elsewhere. For the moment, however, many echo boomers are hewing to a different pattern from previous generations. Instead of heading for more car-centric suburbs as soon as they start having children, many are sticking around the urban core close to Metro stations. “What you’re seeing in Arlington and Washington is that you can live here without a car,” said Harriet Tregoning, director of the District’s Office of Planning. She says that is a boon for people who owe a lot of money on college loans: “If you don’t have a car, you can pay off your college debt quickly. As long as it’s expensive to go to college, we have a competitive advantage.” Proximity to Metro was important to David Kunz, 32, when he decided to rent an apartment in Arlington’s Courthouse neighborhood after he and his wife and son moved from Dubai to Virginia last year. They didn’t own a car, and he could ride Metro to his job as a database administrator and walk to the supermarket and parks. “It’s close enough to the city, and it’s a good mix of city and family-oriented suburban life,” he said. “There’s a Metro station. And restaurants nearby if we choose not to cook.” Arlington officials boast of having the nation’s highest proportion of residents in that age span — 28 percent — running just ahead of Alexandria, New York, the District and San Francisco. “We’re number one,” said Andrew D’Huyvetter, an urban planner with the county. That’s largely thanks to people in their 20s, he added. Many drift away in their 30s. Still, Arlington’s concentration in that age group is double that of Montgomery and Fairfax counties. The densest clusters of these young adults stretch along the Metro line and in Crystal City and Pentagon City, said D’Huyvetter, likening those areas to the District’s core, where many Arlington residents work and socialize. “They’re typically near Metro, in walkable locations,” he said. “You can hop on Metro in Clarendon and be in downtown D.C. in 20 minutes.” Arlington has built its popularity with young adults by providing a less gritty alternative to the District — sort of D.C. Light. It has many big-city amenities, such as convenient public transportation and enough restaurants, bars and movie theaters to justifiably claim a night life. But the apartment stock is mostly newer and larger than what’s available for the price in the District. “I’m from the suburbs,” said Samantha Bullock, 26, who grew up in Fairfax and moved to Arlington in 2009 after graduating from college in Lynchburg. “D.C. isn’t really my thing. It has no parking, and too many people everywhere. But in Arlington, there’s enough young people, great restaurants and great night life. There’s always something to do.” Census statistics show the Metro corridor that is home to so many young adults in Arlington is noticeably less diverse than the District and the rest of the region. Near the Court House station, two in three residents are white. Near the Clarendon station, eight in 10 are. Comedian Remy Munasifi’s viral YouTube video, “Arlington: The Rap,” poked fun at Arlington’s young would-be hipsters, skewering the Starbucks-on-every- corner phenomenon, guys in brown flip-flops and the reluctance of Arlingtonians to board Metro’s Green Line. Some residents say they rarely venture into the District. On a weekend afternoon, the Clarendon and Courthouse neighborhoods bustle with young adults heading in and out of restaurants, walking dogs, jogging or heading home carrying grocery bags from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Whitney Bossin, 28, and Ryan Burns, 29, ended up in Arlington when they moved to the area from New York this spring and couldn’t find an apartment in their price range in the District. “It’s kind of cute,” Bossin said of Arlington as she took her pug, Charlie, for a stroll. “It’s the suburbs, but it’s not too removed.” Lisa Sturtevant, deputy director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, said Arlington clearly benefits from the inclination of people to remain in a city or suburb rather than face a long commute. Sturtevant said she notices young couples pushing baby strollers around Clarendon, a sight she rarely saw a few years ago. She has heard of apartment companies contemplating turning their buildings’ party rooms into playrooms for children and residents building additions onto small homes and duplexes. But she isn’t sure that will continue. “There’s a sense that people have decided to grow families in urban environments in a way they haven’t before,” she conceded. “But the lure of suburbs is strong culturally. When new construction picks up in the suburbs and housing bounces back, they may move” farther out. Some residents, however, see Arlington as a place where they can settle in for the long term. Adam Miller, 26, a clinical psychology student at George Mason, has lived for two years in a Ballston condo with his partner. They each have cars that they drive to jobs outside the Beltway. Although their careers may lead them to leave the area in the future, Miller and his partner have discussed settling down in Arlington. “If we come back and raise a family, it will be in Arlington. The neighborhoods are safe. There’s lots of community involvement. And the schools are awesome.” For now, he said, they are enjoying living in-between in Arlington. “Arlington is a compromise between living in D.C. and way out in the suburbs,” he said. “It’s still got that big-city feel, but it’s small enough to feel connected to the neighborhoods around you.”

LGBT advocates hope to use White House aging forum to advance agenda

The last time the White House hosted its once-per-decade Conference on Aging, at least 1,200 advocates and policymakers attended. Among them was a single delegate representing older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. On Monday, President Obama is expected to host a smaller affair, with perhaps 200 delegates. But there will be four people officially representing the interests of older LGBT people, including Michael Adams, executive director of Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders (SAGE). Two of the LGBT representatives are octogenarians. One of them is transgender. “There’s a story there from the LGBT angle about the progress we’ve made on LGBT issues,” Adams said Friday. “For the LGBT community, and for people who are focused on LGBT issues, the question is: Where do we go now?” In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision upholding the right to same-sex marriage, LGBT advocates are hoping to use the conference to raise awareness of the difficulties older gay people and lesbians still face, especially when it comes to housing discrimination in retirement or care facilities. Adams said much remains to be done to combat routine discrimination against gay people in other areas, too. Gay people can now marry anywhere in the country, but in a majority of states, they could still lose their jobs or be denied housing or other services for being gay, he said. “We understand the significance of a conference like this in that regard,” Adams said. The conference comes as the United States is becoming an older society. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day, the population of people that age and older is projected to reach 88.5 million by 2050 — more than double its size in 2010. The demographic change is expected to increase the burden on Medicaid and Medicare, as Alzheimer’s and other age-related ailments become more prevalent. So will the burden on caregivers, most of whom are family members who sacrifice their time — and, often, finances — to look after aging parents and relatives. “The timing is fortuitous to have this,” said Ronald C. Petersen, who heads the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. He said the conference offers a spotlight on aging issues just as the call for more federal investment in Alzheimer’s disease research has become more urgent. And yet, this was the conference that almost wasn’t. In the past, the conference’s funding and agenda were set by Congress through the 1965 Older Americans Act, a measure that helps fund a wide variety of community services for older people. The bill has not been reauthorized, but the White House went ahead with the conference anyway, in part relying on funding from AARP. The powerful lobby for the 50-plus crowd sponsored five regional conferences on aging leading up to Monday’s conference in the White House. “The most concrete thing we’re hoping that comes out of it is reauthorization of the Older Americans Act,” said Sandy Markwood, chief executive of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, which is part of a nationwide network of providers set up by the Older Americans Act. She said the measure funds a number of services that allow people to remain in their homes as they age — a policy known as aging in place — without having to spend down their savings or liquidate assets in order to qualify for services from Medicaid. Obama is scheduled to address the delegates Monday morning, though it remains unknown whether he will address aging among LGBT people specifically. The meeting’s agenda will focus on ways of easing the burden for the nation’s unofficial army of caregivers, fighting elder abuse, enhancing long-term support and financial security for older people, and how technology can ease the experience of aging. The White House is using social media and is streaming the event live to encourage participation. The gathering has been credited with lending additional momentum to the push for Medicare and Medicaid, two Great Society programs that have benefited millions of older Americans, among others. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of those programs. President George W. Bush became the first president to skip the once-a-decade conference since its inception in the early 1960s, largely because of controversy over Medicare’s prescription drug benefit. Imani Woody, who is co-chair of SAGE Metro DC, an affiliate of the national organization, said she hopes the administration will propose legislation that would compel employers to offer paid leave to caregivers. The Home Care Fight for $15, a coalition aiming to improve the working conditions for home care workers, released a report Thursday that offered a glimpse at the growing need for professional caregivers. The research, conducted by the Service Employees International Union, found that there are nine consumers for each paid care worker nationwide, with significant variation between states in the contiguous United States. Florida, for example, has what the group calls a “senior care gap” of 35 consumers per worker, compared with a ratio of 4 to 1 in Minnesota. Woody also urged the White House to push for legislation that would ban discrimination and mandate training on how to assist LGBT people in assisted-living and other retirement facilities. A 2014 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Equal Rights Center used matched- pair visits in 10 states to determine whether same-sex couples would experience discrimination finding senior housing. The organization said its findings showed that in 96 of 200 tests, or 48 percent, the same-sex couple was subjected to some sort of adverse discriminatory treatment, compared with that received by a heterosexual couple. “Do I come out today to this doctor? Do I come out to this social services person who may not have had training? Do I come out to my older peer?” Woody said older gay people often face more discrimination, especially from peers who grew up at a time when there was greater intolerance for homosexuality. “They may harbor stereotypes more than the younger generation,” she said.

Maybe we’re not headed for demographic armageddon after all

The Census Bureau is out with a report on the changing composition of America's old people, and in one way, the story is the same as it's ever been: The Baby Boomers are retiring, and they're going to be expensive to take care of. The number of working-age people who'll be around to support their parents and grandparents is declining, in relative terms; the cost of pensions and social security payments and Medicare could take a toll. That's caused no small amount of fretting about the "silver tsunami" that will come crashing down on the economy over the next couple decades.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday But the report also contains a useful reminder: Even as the elderly population increases, the younger population decreases in relative terms, which leaves the overall dependency ratio relatively stable. In 2050, it'll even be substantially lower than it was in the roaring 1960s: Of course, youth dependency and old age dependency carry different kinds of burdens — older people require more medical care, while young people carry more educational costs. So the economy will still have to adapt to take care of the shifting load of non-working people. But overall, the picture is a lot less alarming when you know America has borne something similar in the past. And besides, most developed countries are a lot worse off than we are:

Demand rises for properties that can house more than one generation

Michael Cox and Aimee Norwood, married baby boomers, sold their home and were about to sign a contract for a newly built house in Virginia when their lives took an unexpected turn. “My stepfather’s health declined quickly and he passed away while we were deciding on a home,” Cox says. “We realized that my mother would be ready to downsize and that we wanted her to be closer to us.” Cox and Norwood opted to upsize rather than downsize and bought a house in the Executives collection by Toll Brothers in the Lenah Mill development in Aldie that includes an optional suite of rooms designed for multigenerational families. The couple estimates that the addition cost about $60,000, including design upgrades chosen by Cox’s mother, Janice Charlip. “My mom came to the design center to pick out the finishes she wanted because we all see this as her own space to live in the way she wants to live,” Cox says. “It just happens to be attached to our house.” Cox, Norwood and Charlip share the home with the couple’s two daughters, ages 11 and 12, and the family dog, who Cox says is the only dog his mother has ever liked. Cox’s two adult children from a previous marriage are frequent visitors along with their friends, and the approximately 6,000-square-foot home accommodates everyone. Although extended families living under one roof is common in various cultures, the inability of many people to get on their feet after the recession and the increasing longevity of Americans have boosted demand for homes that accommodate several generations. Since 2011, when Lennar introduced its “NextGen” model designed specifically to meet the needs of multigenerational households, the company has sold more than 3,000 of the homes in 13 states. “We came up with the idea of the NextGen home in Arizona, which was among the hardest-hit markets during the downturn,” says Kim Ashbaugh, director of NextGen brand management for Lennar. “We would see multiple cars in every driveway because there were so many recent grads from local colleges who couldn’t get a job, plus a lot of retirees who chose to move there and were facing higher expenses than they anticipated.” According to the 2015 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report , 13 percent of all home purchases in 2014 were by a multigenerational household, consisting of adult siblings, adult children, parents and/or grandparents. A 2012 Pew Research study said the number of people that year living in multigenerational family households reached a record 57 million, double the number in 1980. The biggest reasons for a multigenerational purchase, according to the NAR report, were cost savings (24 percent) and adult children moving back into the house (23 percent). Younger boomers represented the largest share of multigenerational buyers, at 21 percent, with 37 percent of those saying the primary reason for their purchase was because of adult children moving back home. Although NAR’s survey indicates that multigenerational homes are primarily for adult children moving in with their parents, Lennar’s research shows that 55 percent of its buyers nationwide are purchasing a NextGen home with the intent of bringing an aging parent into the residence, Ashbaugh says. “We were surprised that only about 7 percent of families were buying these homes to make it easier for their adult children to move in,” she says. Mark and Jennifer Ralston, who own a NextGen home in Bulle Rock, a planned community in Havre de Grace, Md., recently moved into their home with Mark’s parents. “My mother has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and although my father is healthy now, we liked the idea of buying a place where he could live with us in the future,” Mark Ralston says. “We weren’t looking hard, but last summer we stopped into the model homes at Bulle Rock and realized it was perfect for us.” Jennifer Ralston’s wish list for their home included a walk-in closet, a dining room, a screened-in porch and an area for her father-in-law. “This home had it all, so we put a deposit down that day and when we called Mark’s parents to talk about it as a future plan, they decided they would both come live with us as soon as the house was built,” Jennifer Ralston says. Mark Ralston says the exterior door is great to have for a home health aide to care for elderly relatives. “My parents come and go as they please and they really value their privacy and independence,” Mark Ralston says. “They open the interior door when they want to be with us but they also are sensitive to our privacy.” The NextGen homes vary in price, from the $180,000s to more than $1 million, depending on the location, the model and the options, Ashbaugh says. The NextGen Orchard model at Bulle Rock starts at $409,990. Buyers choose multigenerational homes for a variety of reasons such as finances, cultural norms or just because they want to be with their extended family as much as possible, says Eric Anderson, Virginia division president for Toll Brothers. Two key elements of every home designed for multiple generations are privacy and flexibility. “The NextGen home is designed so that you can use the extra space any way you want, not just for family members,” says Rod Hart, Maryland division president for Lennar. “We’ve had buyers turn it into a cool bar, a yoga studio and a sound studio.” These new multigenerational designs, while varying from one builder and one location to another, all have a separate exterior entrance as well as an interior door to the rest of the house to allow for privacy and independence along with a close connection to the family. Bruce and Susan Gatti, who bought a single-family Miller and Smith house in the One Loudoun development in Ashburn this year, added an optional studio apartment above the garage. “Our son Travis, who’s 26, is a special-needs adult and we always hoped to find a place where he could have some independence yet be close to us,” Bruce Gatti says. “We like the neighborhood because he can walk to work and to other places. He has his own bedroom and bathroom and a kitchenette and we added a separate washer and dryer so he can be more independent.” Although the Gattis’ house is slightly smaller than the one they sold, it has six bedrooms, including four on the upper level of the main house, one in the studio and one on the lower level. About 25 percent of buyers at One Loudoun have added the studio apartment above the garage, says Kim Ambrose, vice president of marketing for Miller and Smith. “The D.C. market is very multicultural and diverse, and many of these groups are looking for homes that can accommodate their extended families,” she says. “Many have family members who visit for six months or longer, and we kept getting requests for first-floor bedroom suites. We also knew that there was a segment of the market looking for accommodations for grown children who were moving back in with their parents for financial reasons or other reasons.” Anderson says that flexibility is essential for people who plan to age in place. “While the adults are upstairs now with their extended family in the addition, eventually the adults can move to the first floor and not have to leave home as they age,” Anderson says. “People like the flexibility and the fact that they aren’t relegated to the basement or cramped into a small space that was originally designed to be a study.” Anderson says that about 25 percent of buyers at Lenah Hill add the multigenerational suite, which Toll offers on its Executives and Estate collection houses from Virginia to Boston. The option also is available on other types of homes and in other communities nationwide. Lennar’s NextGen home, available in 13 states, has 120 floor plans to choose from, Ashbaugh says. “One challenge is that we normally need a lot that’s 70-feet wide to accommodate this home, which makes it particularly hard to build and expensive in areas closer to cities where land prices are higher,” Hart says. “We made a slightly smaller version at Bulle Rock with our Orchard model and it’s the number one seller out of the six models we have there.” Lennar’s Orchard model has 2,748 square feet, with 500 square feet allocated to the NextGen suite. “Lennar’s philosophy is to include everything, so in our NextGen homes, we include a kitchenette with a full-size refrigerator and a dishwasher so you can fully live in this space as your home,” Hart says. He says the company plans to introduce a model at St. Charles in Charles County, Md., that requires a slightly smaller footprint. Anderson says his company’s design for multigenerational living has evolved over time from a suite converted from living space on the main level to an almost separate apartment. “While turning a living room and powder room into an in-law suite served the purpose, it didn’t offer the sense of privacy and independence that most buyers want,” he says. “The challenge was finding the space to make an apartment without compromising the space inside the main house. We took the footprint of a two-car garage and turned it into a private space with a separate entrance as well as a door into the main house.” The Toll Brothers’ addition, like the one Cox and Norwood chose, includes a bedroom, a full bathroom, a sitting area, a large walk-in closet and a kitchenette. The configuration even allows for an optional private outdoor living space for the apartment. “Buyers can convert the kitchenette to a full kitchen or to a bar and they can add a bay window or a bathtub instead of the walk-in shower,” Anderson says. “Plus, the buyers can choose between hundreds of designs for the tile, the flooring and the fixtures.” The next challenge for multigenerational home architects is to design a smaller version of these houses. Miller and Smith’s architect found that with the rear garage configuration of the homes at One Loudoun, it was relatively easy to design a bedroom suite above the garage. The suite, which adds more than 400 square feet to the home, costs $29,000, plus $5,500 for the bathroom and $8,500 for the kitchenette, for a total of $43,000. “The challenge is to create private access and private space without losing too much space in your core rooms,” Anderson says. “Right now, the multigenerational options are available on homes with 3,000 to 10,000 square feet. The option adds about 500 square feet.” Toll Brothers plans to introduce a smaller multigenerational model in the next few years. Although finances are not the only reason some families choose to live together, the arrangement can be mutually beneficial, says Shelly Church, senior vice president of investments at Raymond James financial services in Naples, Fla. “Many older people find that the cost of living in senior housing is more than they can afford, and Medicaid is very difficult to qualify for because you have to have no assets at all,” Church says. “In most cases, the main buyers pay for a multigenerational home and then their parents pay a little rent out of their Social Security benefits to help with expenses.” Lennar anticipated that families would buy NextGen homes together, but Ashbaugh says the majority of sales are to one generation of buyers. Church says co-ownership of the property could run into legal and tax complications and recommends hiring a lawyer to protect everyone’s interests. She says parents who opt to contribute a down payment should equalize the investment with their other children in some way so that the estate is evenly divided. Mark Ralston’s parents made the down payment on their multigenerational home rather than pay utilities or rent. “My parents were paying $4,300 a month in their retirement complex in Chicago, so this is great for their retirement cash flow,” Ralston says. Lennar’s surveys of NextGen buyers have found that at least 50 percent say they are saving money with their new living arrangement because of reduced child-care, elder-care and transportation costs, as well as shared utility costs, sometimes $5,000 or more. “My mother volunteered to pay the extra money that the multigenerational configuration cost, and she also calculated the monthly cost for her utilities,” Cox says. “The important thing is that there’s no feeling of financial burden on either side. It’s just a convenient way to be co-located.” Hart says multigenerational homes can be economical and functional through various life stages and family dynamics. Says Anderson: “Multigenerational homes change the way a family lives and changes a community. They’re building a lifestyle of shared experiences in communities with amenities for every age.” **Michele Lerner** is a freelance writer.

Best web sites for boomers and retirees

Baby Boomers love to read. Why? Because we were raised with newspapers. Most of us remember the days when every city not only had a morning newspaper, but also an afternoon or evening newspaper, which we referred to as PMs. (I was raised in Northern New Jersey with the Newark Star-Ledger and the Newark Evening News.) Those afternoon newspapers are gone. (Many of the morning ones are gone as well, but that’s another story). Still baby boomers adapt better than we are given credit for. As newspapers have disappeared, we too flocked to the web. There are some great sites that cater to baby boomers and cover issues including retiree financial planning, retirement living, retirement homes and boomer health.   Conceived and developed by Twin Cities Public PBS in St. Paul, Minn., Next Avenue is the first effort by PBS to be launched on the web, rather on television. It offers high-quality journalism and features on a wide range of topics – from careers, to personal finance and retirement planning to health. “Nextavenue.org, a site for people 50+, features a Money & Security channel and a Work & Purpose channel, with articles aimed at helping readers manage their finances and make smart decisions about working full-time and part-time, before retirement and during retirement,” Managing Editor Rich Eisenberg says. “We’re finding a strong appetite for these pieces both on our site (which often has roughly 2 million visitors a month) and from our media partners at Forbes, MarketWatch and Huffington Post 50, which often republish these pieces. Among the top stories recently: Is an Alzheimer’s vaccine on the horizon; How boomer parents can stop babying their millennials financially; and 7 interview tips for older workers to get temp jobs.   Recent featured articles include: 10 costs to include in your retirement budget; The pros and cons of hiring a financial adviser, 5 mistakes that are reducing your retirement savings and 4 ways to botch your retirement plan.   “The purpose of The Retirement Café is to help the retired and the soon-to-be retired to better understand their lifetime aspirations, to help them minimize the complexity and uncertainty associated with retirement, and to allow them to concentrate on what matters most in retirement planning.”

The stunning chart that explains the next four decades of American politics

Here's the graph. The most common age for white Americans last year was 55 -- meaning they were born in 1960, at the tail end of the Baby Boom. In ten years, the most common age for whites will be 65 or thereabouts (depending on how well those years go). In 20, 75 -- and so on. This is the graying of America, the shift toward a much older population that's been forecast for a long time. At some point, the Boomers will make up less of the population of white Americans (sorry, Boomers) and the most common age for whites will jump down a few decades, to that millennial peak that's now at about 24 or so. But this isn't the only trend that's happening. The most common age for Hispanics in 2015 was 8. In ten years, the most common age will be -- 18, just old enough to vote. In 20 years, they'll be 28 or so -- except that the trend for the Hispanic population has been that there are more young Hispanics than there are old. So the most common age in 10 years might again be 8, or 5 or 11.  This is that same map for Hispanics. (Bits of Appalachia were missing data.) By 2050, the Census Bureau predicts, the racial and ethnic composition of the country will look like this. This is why the Republican party, in the wake of Mitt Romney's loss in 2012 when he took only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote (down from the 31 percent John McCain had won four years earlier), put new emphasis on reaching out to Hispanic voters. If the country is trending more Hispanic, after all, the party would need to bolster how it does with that population if it wants to be successful over the long run. Instead, the party's presumptive 2016 nominee went the other direction -- playing hard for the still-large white vote, which tends to be older and tends to be more Republican. That strategy may work this year, but it will work less well in 2020 -- and even less well in 2024 and so on. Today's 8-year-old Hispanic will be voting for president for the first time in 2028. Today's 55-year-old white will be 77. The uncaring nature of human existence means that one of those groups may be a better long-term political bet than the other.

For an aging parent, an ‘in-law suite’ can provide a home within a home

Two years ago, Diane Harris moved out of her longtime home and moved in with her daughter, Rachael, and Rachael’s spouse, Wendy Harris. Now Rachael and Wendy have created a home of Diane’s own under their roof in Springfield. Because health issues made it unsafe for Diane, now 78, to live alone, Rachael and Wendy moved Diane into their guest room in 2012. But the split-level house had steps between rooms that were risky for Diane to negotiate, and the guest room was “tight quarters” for Diane, Wendy says. The Harrises hired Moss Building and Design of Chantilly to build a 1,000-square-foot addition that incorporates a new kitchen and a great room as well as an “in-law suite” where Diane enjoys the comfort, privacy and personal touches of her old home, all without stairs. The suite features a spacious bedroom-living area and an attractive bathroom equipped for safety and ease of use. The bathroom has a large, low-curb shower with ramp entry, a hand-held shower head, a built-in bench and stylish grab bars. Although it is close to the kitchen and great room, the suite has a door that provides “nice privacy,” Diane says. Doorways are wide for accessibility. Furniture and collectibles from Diane’s old house bring a sense of home and the familiar to her new space. There are bedroom and other furnishings, glassware, paintings and family photographs, decorative hats that belonged to her mother and a tall, antique corner cabinet positioned under a 10-foot-high ceiling section specially designed for it. Diane loves ice cream, and now she can easily visit the kitchen for late-night ice cream snacks. The new kitchen includes a chair-height counter near the refrigerator and ice cream parlor chairs brought from her house. The suite and other new rooms are “working really well,” she said. Demand for in-law suites is growing, says Rodney Harrell, an AARP senior policy adviser and housing expert. With baby boomers aging, the U.S. population of people 65 or older is expected to burgeon from 39.6 million in 2009 to about 72.1 million in 2030, according to federal Administration on Aging data. Thus, more families are looking to provide space in their homes for an elderly relative. Joe and Janie Mack remodeled their house in Annandale recently to create an in-law suite for Janie’s mother, Dunny. She was “happy as a clam” in the suite, Joe says of his mother-in-law, who called it “my castle.” Dunny, who has since died, regretted only that she had not made the move sooner. Michael Winn, owner of Winn Design + Build in Falls Church, handled the Mack project, adding an accessible first-floor bedroom and a bathroom suite next to a new family room that replaced a carport. All the new rooms are on one level, with flush thresholds and wide doorways between them. The sitting area of the suite is big enough for a couch and chair. It adjoins a porch, so that it has plenty of natural light and views of the yard where the Macks’ four children play. An interior door to the suite assured that Dunny had privacy and quiet, but the suite’s location made it easy for her to share time with the children. They would stop by to introduce friends to her or bring in a snack to watch TV with her. “Having her here had a very positive impact on our family,” Joe says. It took the children “out of their self-focused world to be there for her,” Janie says. Thinking ahead, the Macks asked Winn to equip the suite with two walk-in closets. In the bathroom, they had a tub installed as well as a large shower, and the vanity has drawers on both sides of the sink. With these features, “the suite will be a perfect master bedroom for us later,” Joe says. “We’re thrilled with it.” An added incentive for investing in an in-law suite is the high cost of care- giving facilities and services. Moving Mom or Dad into the family home may be a more affordable option, says the AARP’s Harrell. Winn, who has seen an increase in extended-family dwellings in Arlington, agrees that the arrangement has financial advantages. “The cost of care for a parent has gotten so high that doing something at home makes more sense,” he says. True in-law suites — that is, living space integrated into a house to accommodate an older or disabled relative — are not the same as “accessory dwelling units” (ADUs), which function as separate dwelling units and often are intended for rental. ADUs are often placed in a walk-out basement or over a garage, walled off from the rest of the house and equipped with a full kitchen and separate entrances. They face significant zoning restrictions and conditions, and they generally require special permits. In some jurisdictions, “it’s just about impossible” to get permission to build such dwellings, Winn says. Not so for in-law suites in the D.C. area. “We want to work with folks” looking to house a family member, says Fairfax County Zoning Administrator Leslie Johnson. “We’re trying to accommodate people’s needs,” whether that means providing an elevator shaft, supplementary parking or a bump-out addition to make room for a bathroom accessible to people with mobility issues. In jurisdictions throughout the Washington area, the guidelines for in-law suites are similar. Basically, an in-law suite can have a bedroom, a sitting area, a bathroom and one or two simple appliances, but not a stove or a full kitchen. “When you close off the area and add a kitchen and bath, you need a special permit,” Johnson says. (For details about what is allowed where you live, check with the local government’s planning and zoning department.) Like Winn, of Winn Design, Jason Hampel, co-owner of Moss Building and Design, says his company is seeing more demand for in-law suites. So far this year, the company has done about 10 substantial in-law-suite projects, double the company’s 2012 number. “We do a lot of multi-use spaces” that address such issues as aging in place and preparing for parents to move into the house in the future, Hampel says. He advises clients who are planning in-law suites to “design with the long term in mind” — and with an eye to all the possible uses: such as housing a relative, serving other family needs and, ultimately, adding sales appeal to the house when it goes on the market. Wendy A. Jordan is a freelance writer. Anticipate design and construction of an in-law suite will take several months to a year. To expedite the permit process, experts advise homeowners comply fully with all relevant building codes and zoning ordinances and provide the required plans and paperwork. Contractors can help navigate this process. Follow all the rules and you could get a permit for your in-law suite in as little time as a day, says Debby McMahon, chief of the Fairfax County Permit Application Center. Omissions or errors in the application can make review and approval take considerably longer. Jason Hampel, co-owner of Moss Building and Design, and Michael Winn, owner of Winn Design + Build, offer several planning tips for in-law suites: ●The suite should be comfortable and private to foster a feeling of independence, Hampel says. •At the same time, it should be close and connected to the family living area. •Place the suite on the main floor so that it has access to shared living spaces without the barrier of stairs. •Incorporate wide hallways and doorways (at least 36 inches) in the suite and adjoining living spaces to accommodate wheelchairs, walkers and people walking side by side. •Integrate features that are attractive but safe and accessible, such as smooth flooring, lever handles for doors and faucets, non-skid bathroom flooring, a large curbless shower, a shower bench, a hand-held shower head, a chair-height toilet and sturdy, good-looking grab bars.

How baby-boomer homeownership trends could affect the local economy

Although baby boomers make up 26 percent of the population in the Washington area, anew study has found that they make up 47 percent of the region’s homeowners, a situation that suggests this aging generation has an outsize influence over the path forward for the local housing market. Their choices — whether they stay in their current residences or become part of a nascent trend of retirees and empty-nesters opting for smaller digs inside the Capital Beltway — could have broader ripple effects for the Washington area economy. David Versel, a senior research associate at the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University who conducted the study, weighed possible outcomes for the region, depending on whether boomers stay put or relocate. If many boomers decide to leave their longtime homes, Versel said it could “scramble the whole housing market.” “You have all this inventory that’s going to turn over for the first time in a generation, and nobody knows if there’s sufficient demand to fill that inventory,” Versel said. The Washington area has seen an influx of millennial-generation residents in the past decade, but most have flocked to the region’s urban core instead of its suburbs. And, even if they were attracted to a home outside the city, they might not be able to afford one. Whether boomers hang onto their homes could also have implications for the kinds of businesses that thrive in each neighborhood. “I think this changes the retail markets in and around those concentrations,” said Stephen S. Fuller, the George Mason economist who directs the Center for Regional Analysis. For example, Fuller said, this aging generation might have different recreation and entertainment preferences, and it might want different items stocked on the shelves of the nearest grocery or pharmacy. If boomers largely remain in their longtime homes, Versel said, local jurisdictions with the largest concentrations of boomers could feel pressure to provide more government services for aging residents, such as transportation assistance for those who do not drive. Such efforts could be costly for local governments, many of which are still regaining their footing after experiencing budget shortfalls during the recession. The impact of boomers’ homeownership patterns could take shape in different ways across various jurisdictions. With 50.1 percent of its homeowners in the boomer age bracket, Fairfax County had a larger share of boomer homeowners than any other local jurisdiction. Montgomery County, with 49.1 percent, was not far behind. “If you look at when Fairfax and Montgomery were built out, it was sort of when boomers were in the sweet spot of the household formation phase,” Versel said. However, Loudoun County was built up much later, a fact that is evident in its lower rate of boomer homeownership: 42.3 percent. The region’s lowest-level area of boomer homeownership, 39.9 percent, was the District, where a smaller share of the housing inventory consists of large-lot, single-family homes.

Little old lady behind the wheel? Not the baby boomers.

Aging baby boomers were supposed to bring a gray-haired danger to U.S. roads, with traffic-safety experts predicting years ago that the number of deadly accidents involving older drivers would soar as boomers reached their golden years. “I remember people talking about 2015 being when we’d really see catastrophic consequences,” said Loren Staplin, a traffic-safety consultant for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Instead, as the first wave of boomers approach their 70th birthdays, older motorists are involved in fewer fatal accidents than a decade ago, even as they hit the road more than previous generations of seniors and hold on to their driver’s licenses longer. Just as boomers — people born between 1946 and 1964 — made 50 the new 40, they’re transforming the stereotype of the little old lady behind the wheel. “As a group, they’re fitter to drive than previous generations,” said Jessica Cicchino, a senior research scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “It seems they’re changing what we thought an ‘older driver’ is.” The dire predictions made in the early 2000s were based on the assumption that fatal collisions involving older people would continue to rise, as they had since the 1970s, and then soar once the outsized post-World War II generation became increasingly frail and less likely to survive serious crashes. Instead, boomers have remained healthier and stronger than anticipated. They have also benefited from unforeseen safety improvements — particularly side air bags and crash-avoidance systems, such as automatic braking and lane-departure warnings — credited with reducing road fatalities for all ages. But some traffic-safety experts say it is too soon to celebrate. Despite their overall better health and safer vehicles, older drivers remain disproportionately involved in fatal accidents. It is not so much because their driving deteriorates, experts say. Rather, their more brittle bones and chronic ailments, such as diabetes and heart disease, make them more likely to die from an accident that might leave a younger person with a few broken ribs. While the number of vehicular fatalities for all age groups fell by 24 percent between 2004 and 2013, drivers 70 and older saw a less impressive 15 percent drop over that same period, Staplin said. When the grim predictions of boomer doom didn’t play out, “I think a lot of people drew the conclusion that there wasn’t a problem after all,” said Staplin, managing partner of the traffic-safety consulting firm TransAnalytics. “But it’s not quite that rosy either.” Boomers’ sheer numbers remain worrisome, too. Over the next 35 years, the number of Americans 70 and older is expected to reach 64 million, or 16 percent of the population. That compares with 29 million people, or 9 percent of the population, in that age group three years ago, according to the insurance institute. Moreover, some experts say the demographic bubble’s true impact won’t be felt on the road for another eight or so years. That’s when the oldest boomers will reach their late 70s — the age at which more recent studies have shown drivers’ odds of contributing to an accident increase significantly. (The chances of a driver at the traditional retirement age of 65 contributing to an accident was about the same as for motorists in their 30s, 40s and 50s, a federal study found. By their 80s, drivers were as likely to contribute to a crash as teen drivers.) Kathy J. Sifrit, a research psychologist for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency **** is doing more research into the relationship between driving, chronic health conditions and older people’s activity levels. That includes analyzing the best ways for state agencies to determine who should have their driver’s licenses renewed and whether more active lifestyles result in more physically fit and mentally sharp drivers. “We want to understand what it is about some older drivers that undermines their ability to drive safely,” Sifrit said. “We don’t quite know how to identify these drivers yet. . . . The goal is to help people stay mobile as long as they can, and to do so safely.” Of course, the question of how long motorists are safe to drive dates back to the Model T. But boomers are prompting a broader debate: How can state licensing agencies now focused on the quality of older drivers’ eyesight better assess those with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia? Are doctors or occupational therapists in a better position to regularly gauge their patients’ physical and mental fitness than a state licensing agency? How well do older drivers handle the additional “cognitive load” of dashboard technology, such as navigation systems? Adding to the urgency, experts say, is that many boomers are among the first generation to spend much or all of their lives in the post-World War II auto-centric suburbs, where taking transit or walking is often inconvenient or difficult. They also expect to work and remain active longer than their parents did, increasing their need to drive longer or have other ways to get around. “There are a lot of us who are going to outlive our ability to drive,” said Ann Dellinger, transportation safety chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Injury Center in Atlanta. “When that happens, what happens to our transportation options? I think we need some creative minds to look at those options.” Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said communities need to begin expanding shuttle van service for seniors and exploring other ways to help them get around, such as using school buses during their midday down times. Older people’s transportation needs permeate entire families, Coughlin said, because many of those who don’t have good alternatives to driving will depend on their children to get around. He said studies have shown that older people’s ability to go where they want to (say, out for ice cream with a friend) versus only where they need to (a doctor’s appointment) is key to preventing depression and physical illness. “Really, the older driver issue isn’t just about safety,” Coughlin said. “It’s also about the emerging mobility gap in the U.S. A baby boomer is turning 69 every eight seconds. When driving is no longer possible or comfortable or safe, you have a real crisis for families, for individuals and, frankly, for society.” Asking boomers in their 60s whether they consider themselves to be “older” drivers draws laughs and even a sense of embarrassment. At a recent AARP driver-safety class in Northern Virginia, several participants said they took the class to qualify for their auto insurance company’s “safe driver” discount, not because they’ve come to doubt their driving abilities. None of the participants of boomer age were willing to be quoted by their full names. One 65-year-old man said he thinks of “older” drivers as his 89-year-old mother, whom he had to persuade last year to stop driving after she hit the wall of her garage. “When our parents turned 65, they wanted to sit back and watch television,” said the retired federal worker, who would only give his name as Mark. “I want to go out and grab everything life has to offer.” Rick Tydings, 63, of Olney said he’s counting on the notion that autonomous vehicles will be widespread by the time he becomes unable to drive — a time he sees as “way in the future.” “It won’t be an issue,” Tydings, who works in sales and marketing, said recently after updating his car registration at a Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration office in Gaithersburg. “You’ll just get in your Google car or Audi or Mercedes and say ‘Take me to Giant.’ ” And how long does he plan to keep up his hobby of riding motorcycles? Tydings laughed. “I hope,” he said, “it’s forever.”

Trump is waging a war on millennials

Trumpcare is, on the whole, terrible. But if you’re a millennial, it does have one thing going for it: It’s virtually the only piece of the Trump platform that advantages the young at the expense of the old. The rest of the Trump agenda could be broadly characterized as full-on generational warfare against the young. If enacted, it will rob millennials and subsequent generations of earnings, benefits, consumer protections and even — if you look far enough into the future — a habitable place to live. Let’s start with the Trump tax plan. The latest iteration of this “plan” is so vague as to be meaningless. But based on proposals President Trump released during the campaign, and comments made in recent weeks by both administration officials and Republican legislators, the coming overhaul will almost certainly be heavily weighted toward the wealthy. An earlier version of the plan directed about half the value of tax cuts to the top 1 percent of earners, according to a Tax Policy Center analysis. These tax cuts also look likely to add trillions to the debt, again based on analyses of earlier plan versions. (Despite administration promises, virtually no serious economists believe the plan would “pay for itself” through additional economic growth.) All this amounts to a massive intergenerational transfer of wealth, one that hits millennials in at least two ways. The first has to do with who benefits most from a top-heavy tax cut. A marginal rate cut is most valuable when you’re in your peak earning years, which tend to come around middle age. That’s because when your income is highest, so is your tax liability. Millennials are at the beginning of their careers, and both their wages and taxes are low relative to what they will earn, and remit to Uncle Sam, as they gain work experience. All this means that a tax cut today, particularly one tilted toward the highest earners, would not help young people as much as it would mid-career people in their 40s and 50s. The second is that an unfunded tax cut — like anything else that increases the federal debt — is not free. Eventually someone has to pay for it. By the looks of things, that someone is not going to be baby boomers. Instead, younger Americans will pick up the tab, through higher taxes, fewer government services or both. Already millennials worry that their entitlements have been irreparably endangered by fiscal profligacy; a 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that half believe there won’t be anything left in the Social Security system by the time they retire. Taxes are hardly the only way the Trump administration is giving millennials the shaft. A host of changes to the student lending industry are doing the same. These include reversals of Obama-era policies designed to limit fees that struggling borrowers must pay, and to reduce the likelihood that new student loan contracts are awarded to lenders with a record of shoddy service or illegal behavior. But perhaps the Trump agenda plank that harms the largest swath of millennials is the administration’s climate change policy. Or lack thereof. The White House is weighing whether to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, which requires the United States to sharply reduce its carbon output by 2025. In the meantime, the Trump administration has already been undermining climate policy by disappearing public data, firing academic scientists and rewriting rules designed to curb emissions. Even before Trump took office, the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust filed a series of lawsuits on behalf of minors who argue that their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property are being violated by the government’s failure to address climate change. The suits are based on the public trust doctrine, a long-standing legal concept designed to protect natural and cultural resources for the benefit of current and future generations. The grounds for such suits will only grow as the White House makes clear it prioritizes the political expediencies of the present over any responsibility to the future — a future that, needless to say, millennials are stuck with. If you take the long view, even the Trumpcare proposal doesn’t truly promote millennials’ interests. Yes, it allows insurers to vary their premiums by a factor of 5 to 1 due to age, which helps today’s young (at least, today’s young and healthy). But it doesn’t shield us from rate hikes as we ourselves age. Add this — and fiscal, financial and climate concerns — to all the usual reasons many young people dread growing old. **Read more on this topic:** Robert J. Samuelson: For young Americans, growing up isn’t what it used to be Catherine Rampell: What do Bigfoot and moderate Republicans have in common? Douglas Holtz-Eakin: Trump’s tax plan is built on a fairy tale Robert J. Samuelson: Is student debt ruining the recovery? Todd Stern: President Trump, stay in the Paris agreement. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Prince William becomes a retirement mecca

Midge Teahan was having none of it when her daughter first suggested she move from Hagerstown to a Prince William County active adult community where every resident is on the far side of 50. “They’re all old people there,” she recalled saying. “I don’t want to hang out with old people.” Despite her initial misgivings, Teahan liked what she saw at a gated development called Heritage Hunt in Gainesville, and moved into a community that now numbers more than 3,000. Teahan, 74, is a busy member of resident groups built around travel, wine and mah jong. Thanks to residents such as Teahan, Prince William County is becoming a regional retirement mecca, a small-scale version of Florida on the outskirts of Washington. The share of residents who are 65 and older has risen much more sharply over the past decade in Prince William than in other suburbs. Their ranks have declined slightly in the District and in the Washington region as a whole. Prince William’s allure to older adults has implications beyond the county’s borders. The federal workforce is packed with baby boomers approaching retirement. Ten percent of the region’s population already is 65 or older, and 11.5 percent is between the ages of 55 and 64. Nobody knows how many will sell their homes and decamp for cheaper retirement havens better suited for fixed- income living. But less expensive alternatives to high-priced Washington are developing on the fringes, in places such as Prince William County. An outer suburb once considered appealing mainly to young families, Prince William in recent years has seen the construction of several new housing developments restricted to residents 55 and older. Land costs less than elsewhere in the region, and developers have created sprawling gated communities for “active adults,” built around golf courses and clubhouses. Their presence has helped Prince William leapfrog over Montgomery County in median household income. The communities have been an economic boost to places such as the Gainesville area, where Prince William Hospital is building a 60-bed facility and small strip malls with stores, restaurants and doctors offices have sprung up. But the rapid demographic change may signal an upcoming shift in priorities for the county, particularly as members of the Me Generation turn their attention inward. “They have a lot of disposable income, so they go to restaurants and buy stuff,” said Bill Vaughan, Prince William’s chief economist and demographer. “But some don’t have much interest in education. They don’t have kids in the household, and their focus is not on how good are the schools, which make up the biggest part of our budget.” If past behavior holds up, most of the region’s older population will stick around. In a pattern that has held firm for decades, most older Americans do not leave the area where they spend their working lives and raised their families. That has been a durable pattern, even in a transient region such as Washington, where many people have relocated from other places. An AARP analysis of census data showed that nine in 10 older adults nationally were living in the same communities where they raised their children and built their lives. Proximity to children, grandchildren and friends is key. “Folks who have been living and working here for a number of years may find themselves surprised at the roots they’ve developed,” said Amy Levner, who specializes in housing and family issues for the AARP. “The lure of moving out fades over time.” In this region, the phenomenon has been most pronounced in Prince William County. In 1990, 3 percent of the population was 65 or older. It rose to just under 5 percent in 2000, and more than 7 percent in 2011, according to census figures — a jump of 48 percent in the past decade alone. Vaughan estimates it is close to 8 percent now, although the county still has one of the youngest populations in the region. Although some of the rise in older adults is the result of the first baby boomers edging into retirement age, Vaughan said, most of it stems from the active adult communities built in recent years. The county Web site lists six developments of single-family homes and 12 apartment complexes that are reserved for people who are 55 and older. They are scattered throughout the county, from Four Seasons Historic Virginia in Dumfries to the Regency at Dominion Valley in Haymarket. Heritage Hunt was the first, and today is the largest, with more than 1,800 homes, condos and duplexes. It’s built around an 18-hole golf course, and little green signs warn motorists to look out for golf carts. Fliers in the lobby advertise luau parties, Cinco de Mayo get-togethers, plays and concerts, all held in a grand ballroom that doubles as the development’s voting precinct on Election Day. The houses are designed for aging in place. Although most are two stories, they have a master bedroom, a full bath and a laundry room on the ground floor. “There’s a real market in Prince William for that kind of community,” Vaughan said. “Most come here from elsewhere in the region. They can get more for their money out here than in Loudoun or Fairfax.” The cheaper cost of land in Prince William County makes developments such as Heritage Hunt economically feasible, said Bill Bullock, who sold houses in the community when it opened in 1997 and eventually moved in with his wife, Judy. New houses in close-in communities often sell for $1 million or more, largely because land costs so much. At Heritage Hunt, single-family homes start at a third of that. “We wanted to move into a new house, but not one that was 5,000 or 6,000 square feet,” said Bullock, 66, who sold a house in Vienna, where he had lived for two decades. “This enabled us to get in a new home that was properly sized for two people.” Curt Dierdorff, 68, a retired human relations director for the Defense Department and now president of the homeowners board, said he and his wife sold their four-bedroom, 3,400-square-foot house in Fairfax County and bought a house in Heritage Hunt with 2,300 square feet. His wife’s only requirement was that they live close enough to Fairfax City so she can be a part of their two grandchildren’s lives. “A lot of people just want to stay in the area because of family,” he said. Marilyn and Frank Lamm sold their home on 40 acres in Lovettsville to move to Heritage Hunt. That places them roughly equidistant from their children in New Jersey, Ohio and North Carolina, and they had friends living in the development. “If we would have had friends who live in Florida, we could have gone there,” said Frank Lamm, 80, a retired American Airlines pilot who flew international routes with his wife, a flight attendant with the airline. “It seemed like there were a lot of people like us here,” said Marilyn Lamm. “It was like finding the right college campus.” This being Washington, many of the residents have had impressive careers. So the regular residents’ night at the clubhouse, where people give casual talks to fellow homeowners, is not a meandering travelogue with slides. A member of the 9/11 Commission has discussed myths around the 2001 attack. A negotiator recalled talks he took part in to reduce nuclear weapons after the Cold War ended. A Smithsonian curator discoursed on a trip to Africa that he led. A university professor who has written books about George Washington offered an overview of the first president’s life. Dierdorff said he never has regretted staying in the area instead of heading to the Sun Belt. “A lot’s been written about people who move to Florida and they don’t know anybody,” he said. “Florida’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Healthy, wealthy and wise

Despite recent shocks to the global economy, the world continues to get richer, people are living longer and, through advances in technology and communications, we continue to get smarter. This convergence of factors is expanding horizons of health, economic and investment opportunity—positive news for the 50+ age group that prompts us all to think more optimistically about aging and the future. This dynamic age group is healthier, working longer, ably skilled and tremendously productive, capable of steering the national economy in new directions to meet its needs. And global companies are applying the best of their “can-do” spirit and technological and scientific acumen toward making aging a better and more positive experience.   If we expand the pool slightly to include workers 50 and above, this graying population has real economic power, expected to account for more than half of U.S. GDP by 2032, according to Oxford Economics.   As they drive more productivity, education and technology are shifting American attitudes toward aging for the better, and helping us grow smarter and more efficient in the creation of new wealth. And as computers become ever more powerful, the economic benefits of mechanization will cascade into other industries that promote longevity, like health care. “The global economy has come together at an incredible speed,” said George Evans, CIO, Equities and portfolio manager at OppenheimerFunds. “Technology has enabled the ability to communicate. That’s broken down barriers. We’re now moving from the Internet of People to the Internet of Things.”    Longer life expectancies mean increased health care spending. In the United States, the percentage of GDP spent on health care has more than tripled since 1960, rising from 5 percent in 1960 to 17 percent in 2014. That share of spending by Americans age 50 and up is projected to hit $4 trillion in 2032, according to AARP and Oxford Economics. This spending boom is also expected to generate increased demand for in-home health-care services and medical technology that help older people retain their independence. And technology advances are bringing more tools for extending our active years and improving health. Companies serving the over-50 market are targeting investments in everything from robotics to assisted living to vision and hearing care, and are continuing to grow and improve quality of life among populations who expect to live longer than their parents did. Several Oppenheimer International Growth Fund companies are working to bring hearing and vision devices to more people around the globe. Sonova has made strides to improve the range of hearing aid solutions and increase access in a world market estimated at $5.4 billion. And Essilor International is advancing prescription lens and other vision technology to answer the needs of a growing demographic that is eager to improve both health and lifestyle.   Healthier, longer lives and wealth growth lead to more opportunities to enjoy leisure and travel. In a 2015 AARP survey, approximately 99 percent of 50+ respondents planned to take a trip for personal or leisure purposes that year, either domestically or abroad. The process of planning and taking trips is more accessible than ever before. For example, Amadeus IT Holding SA provides information technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry, and is also an Oppenheimer International Growth Fund company. Its software systems ease the travel experience by automating search, booking and other processes, in just one of many examples of companies that help seniors lead the good life. Capital investment is nurturing opportunities in new and emerging markets all over the world, feeding innovation, driving entrepreneurship and creating the conditions for a new chapter of growing global wealth, longer lifespans and broader prosperity for all.  --

Grandparenting 101 for baby boomers

_K.C. Summers is chief of editorial copy at AARP Media._ It was the Snotsucker that really blew me away. As a (perhaps overenthusiastic) newbie grandmother, I was up to date on a lot of the breakthroughs in baby care — the “back to sleep” movement, blanketless cribs, the importance of “tummy time.” But the little things matter, too — like the Snotsucker, a disarmingly simple Swedish invention that takes infant nostril unclogging to a whole new level. Recalling the horrible bulbous contraptions of a generation ago, I can only marvel. Equally cool: the new diapers with indicator strips that tell you if the baby’s peed or not. Also, car seats that click into place, then morph into strollers. With cup holders! Pure genius. Becoming a grandparent for the first time is like revisiting an exotic country that you loved long ago, only to find that everything’s changed — the layout, the customs, even the language. The experience is just as wonderful as ever, but it takes a while to get your bearings. So when my firstborn had her firstborn last fall, I signed up for a course. Yes, grandparent classes are now a thing. Unheard of a generation ago, they’re increasingly being offered across the country, usually through hospitals or senior centers. For this development, thank the baby boomers, who’ve embraced our new role as grandparents with the single-minded enthusiasm we once reserved for antiwar protests and macrame wall hangings; and our progeny, the millennials, who think of their parents as best friends and want us to participate fully in nurturing the newest members of the family. Plus, they really need the help — and who better than good old Mom and Dad? As the popularity of the classes makes clear, this generation of grandparents is more engaged than their predecessors. “The boomer generation is cresting, their kids are having kids, and they want to be involved,” says Ellen Breslau, editor in chief of the popular Web site Grandparents.com. “It’s a two-way street: The kids keep the grandparents young, and the grandparents can share their wisdom and learning. It’s a very symbiotic relationship between the two, in a way that’s very different from their relationship with their own kids.” All very true. But in my experience, there’s another factor that makes this adventure such a delight and so different from my relationship with my own mother: There’s simply less of a generation gap between my daughter and me. We’ve shared clothes, career advice, Facebook likes — and now this awesome baby. My mother was a committed and much-loved grandparent, but she and I weren’t always on the same page when it came to child-raising. That’s typical, says Connie Livingston, president of the Raleigh, N.C.-based International Childbirth Education Association. “There isn’t the friction today that there once was between expectant parents and their parents. Before, it was: ‘Why aren’t you feeding the baby solid food yet? Why are you putting her in a car seat? Why aren’t you circumcising him?’ That produces a lot of friction and makes it difficult for expectant parents, who are very vulnerable.” With the new lack of friction comes acceptance — on both sides. Most elders don’t take offense when their kids suggest they need a refresher course in baby care. And some of us sign up of our own accord, knowing we need help. “They know they need to learn how to sleep the baby, how to feed the baby, what kind of gear to get,” Breslau says. “I’m not surprised that grandparenting classes are so popular, because these grandparents really love their grandkids.” The best grandparent classes are taught by registered nurses who are certified childbirth educators. Curriculums vary but generally cover the latest best practices in maternal and newborn care; updates on products and trends; advice on helping the new parents cope; and tips to make babysitting, baby sleepovers and grandparent visits go smoothly. My two-and-a-half-hour class cost $35; other hospitals around the area charge about $40 for similar sessions. Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington began offering monthly grandparent classes about a year ago after requests from soon-to-be parents in its childbirth classes, says childbirth education coordinator Carol Wyman. “They really want their parents to be up on all the new developments,” she says. “So much has changed.” The changes start with the birth itself. Even if grandparents aren’t going to be present in the delivery room — and kids, feel free to undershare when it comes to, you know, the actual birth — it’s important to be aware of new advances so that everyone’s on the same wavelength, Livingston says. That’s because almost everything about the birth process has changed over the past generation, she says, citing a new emphasis on involving partners (including in the delivery room), skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth (important for bonding), delayed cord clamping (can reduce complications for both mom and baby) and breast-feeding (it might be tricky in the beginning, so grandparents need to be supportive). Yes, fellow grandmas, you may have bottle-fed your kids and they turned out just fine, but get over it. Or, as Wyman puts it a bit more sympathetically: “Sometimes it’s hard for grandparents to accept that there’s a very different way of doing things. . . . If the mother is struggling with breast-feeding, and the grandmother understands the benefits of breast-feeding, that makes her much more supportive and bonding.” Another big change is the concept of “back to sleep” — the recommendation that babies be put down on their backs instead of their stomachs, to minimize the risk of suffocation. If you take nothing else away from grandparent class, pay attention to this one. The new practice is a direct reason that rates of sudden infant death syndrome have been greatly reduced , Wyman says. On a more mundane level, a lot of the routine stuff has changed, too. There are new views on bathing the baby (don’t do it every day), burping (trust me: you’re doing it wrong) and swaddling. Oh God, swaddling. I never did master the baby-burrito moves. Fortunately, my daughter still lets me come by from time to time. At 1 p.m. on a wintry afternoon, about two dozen grandparent-looking people took their seats in a brightly lit conference room at Virginia Hospital Center. I imagine everyone was thinking the same thing I was: Yikes, is that what I look like? At each of our places lay a life-size plastic baby and a bunch of brochures about SIDS, postpartum mood disorders, poison control, mastitis, choking, baby hip dysplasia . . . this was going to be heavy. But Debbie Walls, a registered nurse, certified childbirth educator and proud grandmother, put us at ease. You’re going to be such an important person in your grandchild’s life, she told us. What do you want to be called? She herself, she said, was Grammy. I rolled the name around in my mind, testing it out. Emphasizing that she was sharing from both personal experience and the latest evidence-based research, she plunged in with the most important things we needed to know, have, get or take. I present the list here as a public service: ●The location of the nearest hospital with a pediatric ER. ●An approved car seat that’s been inspected. ●A flu shot. ●A Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) shot. ●A notarized authorization for medical consent, if the parents are ever traveling and we’re in charge. ●A sleeper, sleep sack or wearable blanket, instead of blankets in the crib. ●A baby CPR class. And we were off and running. We learned so much — from the ridiculous things people will try to sell us or our new-parent kids (no, you really don’t need baby-wipe warmers) to the scary (bad swaddling can cause hip dysplasia or bowed legs) to the sobering (put your purse or briefcase next to the car seat when you’re driving with the baby, so you won’t forget he’s back there) to the sublime (skin-to-skin contact works because the mom’s respiratory patterns and heartbeat are so familiar to the baby). We learned how to bottle-feed the baby, how to burp her correctly and (of course) how and where to put her down to sleep (in a crib with a firm, tightly fitting mattress — and with no toys, soft bedding, blankets, pillows, wedges or bumpers!). We learned why cotton nightclothes are preferable to flannel (overheating is a real danger, so just dress the kid lightly and set the room temp in a comfortable range for a lightly clothed adult). And we learned some awesome diaper tips. Breathe through the mouth. Dilute the baby wipes in the beginning, since the solution can be caustic to a newborn’s delicate skin. And those little ruffles around the leg holes of paper diapers? They’re not cosmetic — if you open them up, the diaper won’t leak. But I didn’t really need to take a course to pick up my favorite piece of advice: “Spoil your grandbaby. That’s a requirement.” Seven months into this miraculous new relationship, I haven’t had any trouble with that at all. **Twitter: _@KCSummers1950_ ** Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Study: When Baby-Boomers refuse to retire, they aren’t stealing jobs from younger workers

More baby-boomers are putting off retirement, as the sour economy has sapped pension plans, 401(k)s and other savings, while life-expectancy has continued to rise. That's led to some speculation that younger workers are getting squeezed out of the workforce and face a "millennial glass ceiling" while they're in it. But one recent study shows the opposite to be true: Older workers who stay in the workforce tend to help younger workers get more jobs and better-paying work. The Center for Retirement Research looked at 1977-2011 data from the Current Population Survey. The study notes that labor force participation among elderly workers has increased since the 1990s. But after running the numbers, the researchers found no evidence that more employment of older people hurts younger people's jobs prospects. "Indeed, the evidence suggests that greater employment of older persons leads to better outcomes for the young in the form of reduced unemployment, increased employment and a higher wage," the report says. How is this the case? "Job opportunities rise as older workers enter the market as consumers as well as workers. Older workers create new products and services, raise national income and increase demand for labor throughout the economy," says Alicia Munnell, a Boston College professor who co-authored the study. Munnell compares the phenomenon to the impact of more immigrants in the workforce, which studies—like the highly regarded work of UC-Davis economist Giovanni Peri— have shown to increase economic growth without displacing job opportunities for native-born workers. There are other ways that baby-boomers may be economic parasites, as Jim Tankersley has argued. But this isn't one of them.

Ask Amy: Boomer parents wonder why they are ignored

_**Dear Amy:** During our 20s, 30s and 40s, my wife and I traveled to see our parents, who were in their 50s, 60s and 70s, during the holiday season — and at other times._ _We burned vacation time to see family, without thinking twice._ _Now we are retired. Our kids are in their 30s and 40s, with children of their own. They visit maybe once every five years. They tell us that if we want to see them, we will have to travel._ _They say they are too busy (just like we were). They say visiting us is a financial strain on them (just like it was for us). They say they don’t want to waste vacation time, and that traveling with their kids is hard._ _We know all of this, because we did it._ _We have elderly parents who can no longer travel, so we have to leave them in order to see our children._ _The kids don’t make any efforts to stay in touch (let alone travel) to see their elderly grandparents._ _Recognizing that life is not always fair, has there been a generational change that has once again turned boomers into the sandwich generation?_ _Your advice?_ **Disappointed Dad** **Disappointed Dad:** Here’s my take: People in your generation (older boomers) raised your own children to occasionally miss a tournament or a birthday party in order to climb into the station wagon and spend time with (and have their cheeks patted by) older family members. I’m describing a family structure that was more “top down,” where the parents made choices on behalf of the family. But there has been a significant shift. First of all, two working parents are working long and hard. But these parents are also exhausted because they assume their children’s priorities — including dropping everything for sports tournaments that are scheduled during national or religious holiday weekends. These parents promote a family structure where everything revolves around their kids. I assume that when they’re older your grandchildren might see their own parents the way your adult children see you — as a “waste” of vacation time. My advice to you is to accept the parameters and do what you want to do — but to do your best to love them, regardless. More than ever, young people need to spend time around older relatives. _**Dear Amy:** I am the teenage daughter of an alcoholic. My mom is not abusive in ways that people can see, but the verbal and emotional abuse she directs at everyone in her family is tearing us apart._ _She ignores all attempts to communicate, claiming that everyone hates her — no matter how gentle we are when attempting to talk to her._ _She is volatile and forgets what she has said or done. I leave for college next fall, and the thought of being thousands of miles away from her is the only thing getting me through this. But now she’s trying to take even that away from me by trying to manipulate me into going to a college close to home._ _Should I give up? What should I do?_ **Emotionally Exhausted Daughter** **Emotionally Exhausted Daughter:** I hope you have other adults in your life who can support you. My advice is to leave. Don’t give up on the relationship, but learn to accept the truth: You are responsible for your life. Your mother is responsible for her life. This is a very hard truth for the loving child of an addict to accept, because hope is dangled and then snatched away so readily, and so often. Please find a local Alateen meeting to attend. Meeting other young people in alcoholic households could be a game changer for you. (Check www.al- anon.org for locations.) _**Dear Amy:** “Worried Mommy” was upset that her 4-year-old was being bullied by some young cousins. I agreed with your answer — she should be watchful, but she should teach her son strategies to deal with this. Other parents don’t always control their children. _ **Been There** **Been There:** This child is probably too young to fight his own battles effectively, but this situation offers teachable moments. I agree that the mother should keep a close eye. Amy’s column appears seven days a week at www.washingtonpost.com/advice. Write to  Amy Dickinson  at askamy@tribpub.com or Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. 2015 by the Chicago Tribune

Donald Trump is unusually old for a possible president, but not for an American

What's interesting about that bit of data is how it reflects the change in the U.S. population. If Trump had run as a 70-year-old in the year 1900, for example, he'd have been older than 98 percent of the American population. As it stands, he'll still be older than most — but 10 percent of the country will be older than he is. This is the graying of America, as you probably know. Both Trump and Clinton were born at the very front end of the baby boom, the post-World War II population surge that's now slipping into retirement age. Over the past century-plus, America's gotten bigger and older. In 1960, John Kennedy was inaugurated as the youngest elected president in American history. At 43, he was older than 68 percent of the country. In 2008, Barack Obama was inaugurated at the age of 47 — four years older than Kennedy. But at that point, he was older than only 64 percent of a much-older country. Prior to 1944, Census Bureau estimates of the number of people at each age aggregated everyone 75 and older into one category. (That aggregation is marked with a light gray bar in the graphs below.) By 1944, the aggregation point was 85. Recently, it's been 100 and higher.  That's the good news for Trump and anyone else turning 70 or more in 2016. In 1900, when William McKinley won reelection to the presidency at age 58, there were about 207,000 people of that age, according to the Census Bureau. In 2015, the most recent year for which annual data is available, there were 2.5 million of them. Obama was our first Gen X president. Our next president will be a throwback to the early baby boom. And if that president is Trump, he'll have gotten there thanks to a lot of votes from other members of his generation.

The Boomer economy

A lot has been written about Baby Boomers, who are doing a lot more to boost the economy than they are given credit for – a lot more – says author Lori Bitter. Bitter, author of “The Grandparent Economy: How Baby Boomers are Bridging the Generation Gap,” says Boomers are not only taking in their parents, but sometimes several generations of family members who have not recovered from the Great Recession. The problem, she says, is that they are doing it all at great peril to their own retirement. “The real story is they may have two or three generations of people living in their homes that they were working their butts off to support,” she says. “This generation just gets bashed. When you see what is really happening. It is more interesting that the headlines and misunderstood labels. “They are literally holding up the economy by taking care of families who haven’t made it through the recession too well, taking care of their elders and grandchildren,” she says. “Even if they aren’t totally supporting them, they are contributing to all those households.” Not only are they endangering their own retirement by supporting family members, but they are also doing it at the expense of their own health, she says. “Fifty is typically is where you have your personal health concerns,” she says. You look at your health in a different way. Middle-age people are managing a number of chronic conditions of their own. While caring for people at the older end of the spectrum or younger end, they’re managing doctor appointments of others, and push their own health care needs to the bottom of the list. They can see the decline of person they are they are taking care and simultaneously ignore their own health. We urge this population to take care of their own health. If their health problems get worse, the whole system breaks down.”  Retirees. Did you retire too early, too late, or at just the right age?  Many of us would change something if they could go back and do it over again. If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently and why?  There are many things I’d like to do over. But, if we’re talking money and retirement, I wish I could have followed my mother’s advice when I was 23. She told me to put away $2,000 a year in a retirement account right away. But, I was a graduate student living on $18,000 a year in the bay area during the first dot-com boom in the late ’90s. I just couldn’t pull it off. Now that I have a daughter of my own, when she hits her early 20’s I’ll give her the same advice. But, if she can’t pull it off (as I couldn’t then), I may gift her a small sum of money to get her started. If she’s unlucky, she might find herself in my position, wedged between aging parents who didn’t put enough away and the high cost of college for a child. I’m saving for both (our retirement and her college), so hopefully my foresight with pay off for three generations.

Millennials have transformed Arlington, but will they stay?

The condominiums on the cul-de-sac in Fairway Village have sold steadily over the past eight years, transforming a solidly middle-aged enclave into a community of starter homes for the oldest members of Arlington’s millennial boom. And now the young adults who have enlivened and enriched this urbanizing suburb just across the Potomac River from the District are starting a new generation; there have been 10 infants born to the 37 households on the cul-de-sac since 2008, five in the past year. With the babies come questions, for Arlington and for other millennial-dependent cities and suburbs: Will the newcomers stay as they age out of young adulthood? Can a place that lured this large generation with walkable neighborhoods and convenient transit now offer the classroom space and affordable housing that they say they will need to remain? Steve and Aneliz Sipe bought one of Fairway Village’s townhouse-style condos in 2012. They loved their short commutes and the easy walk to restaurants on Columbia Pike. But they moved recently to a single-family house in Fairfax County that offers more room for their infant son, a yard and proximity to Aneliz’s family. Their two-bedroom condo sold 10 days after they put it on the market to a couple that Steve described as “us, three years ago.” Arlington has always drawn lots of young people, but the millennial generation — those born roughly between 1980 and 2000 — is bigger than those that have come before. It is the most populous cohort since the post-World War II baby boom. So many young adults have moved to Arlington since 2000 that the median age in the county has dropped by more than two years, from 35.9 to 33.7. The latest census numbers show that 25- to 34-year-olds make up about 27 percent of Arlington’s population, up from about 19 percent in 2007 — a greater share than any other city or county in the region. In the spring, a 30-year-old won one of two Democratic nominations to the Arlington County Board, where the average age of the members is nudging 61. Keeping as many of these highly educated and tech-savvy residents as possible is a critical factor, experts say, if the county wants to attract employers and build its tax base. If the county succeeds, it could become a model for such millennial destination cities as Austin, Denver and Portland, Ore., that have seen a similar population bulge over the past decade. To that end, the county is considering a study of why residents move in or leave the county, and political leaders are talking about new housing options, including relaxing the rules about sharing single-family homes. “Arlington is again on the cutting edge,” said Steven Pedigo, director of New York University’s Initiative for Creativity and Innovation in Cities. “Nobody’s doing it yet on a large scale. . . . The county either has to find a policy to keep the millennials or say, ‘We’ll accept the cycle of people moving in and out.’ ” The millennials have fueled a yoga boom in Arlington and persuaded the county to plow snow from bike lanes. Luxury apartment buildings lured young residents with wine and bicycle storage lockers, concierge desks and on-site gyms. In response to customer requests, the Whole Foods in Clarendon has started opening earlier and closing later. It launched a Peruvian chicken take-out window, which doesn’t even require that customers enter the store, and turned its balcony cafe into a pub with craft and specialty beers and a four-hour happy hour — a big hit with its customers, at least 40 percent of whom are millenials, marketing team leader Jackie Zovko said. The bakery sells a lot of mini-pies and slices of desserts rather than whole cakes. During the holidays, Zovko said, the store leads all Whole Foods locations in the Mid-Atlantic in sales of tabletop Christmas trees: “We can’t keep enough in stock.” The lively sidewalk dining along Campbell Avenue in the county’s Shirlington neighborhood “makes us a little more of a community,” said Lauren Yoder, 30, who was drinking wine and sampling cheese with her husband and a friend on a recent night. “We’ve been down here twice today already — I brought our dog this morning.” The county’s public library system has built a robust series of programs that cater to young professionals, sponsoring trivia nights in local bars, book clubs in restaurants, and adult recess and game nights at the Central Library. Demand at the 15 recreation centers has prompted them to extend their hours, too, with some staying open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. “We love the accessibility to the city and walking on the trails. We probably go to the park four or five times a week,” said Anna Duran, 35, a mother of three who was taking her daughter to an American Girl reading event at the library. Arlington’s Virginia Hospital Center has seen a steady increase in births over the past few years. The number of babies born to women in their 20s rose from 1,360 to 1,640 between 2011 and 2014, a hospital spokeswoman said. The number of babies born to women in their 30s jumped by almost 800 in the same period, to 3,724. As millennials have children, their priorities expand to include good schools and family-friendly neighborhoods. A condo or townhouse can suddenly seem too small, and a bigger place in the same neighborhood may be too pricey. Six in 10 surveyed Arlington residents between the ages of 25 to 34 told the county’s affordable-housing study group last year that it’s somewhat likely or very likely that they will move out of the county within five years because of housing costs. “I love the Clarendon neighborhoods, but who can afford it?” said Heather Shepherd, 30, a neighbor of the Sipes, who is pregnant with their first child. “That’s the frustrating part.” Three-quarters of the millennials in Arlington are renters, county data shows, and one-quarter of them spend more than 35 percent of their income on housing, far above the recommended limit of 30 percent. New apartments in high-rise complexes in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, which includes Clarendon, rent for an average of $2,351 per month, according to the real estate firm Delta Associates, on par with pricey D.C. neighborhoods. The median price of an Arlington condo, townhouse or single-family home is up 7.6 percent from last year, to $570,000. “It’s hard to have long-term plans with [the cost of] real estate the way it is,” said Liz Belfield, 29, who lives in the Court House neighborhood. The county’s ability to help young professionals with housing costs is limited. Government subsidies are reserved for much poorer individuals and families, who also have scarce options in Arlington. But County Board members and candidates for the two open seats are beginning to kick around ideas such as revising rules that govern sharing single-family homes, or encouraging more micro-unit apartments where residents could also share work space. Arlington’s public schools are well-rated nationally. But enrollment has grown 19 percent in the past five years, and school officials say they expect a 2.7 percent annual growth rate for each of the next 10 years — the equivalent of one new elementary school each year, in a county where open land for building is scarce. Class sizes have increased, and so has the number of classes being held in trailers. Katie Roth, 34, a South Arlington mother of two, said her older son is thriving at Barcroft Elementary even though the school has portable classrooms and his kindergarten class was split in two last year because it was so big. She and her husband may look at houses elsewhere in the county, where the schools are less crowded. But they want to stay in Arlington, because of the diversity and the relatively easy commute to her job as a teacher in the District. Overcrowding is also a worry for Lauren Landrisan, 28, even though her daughter is 18 months old. “We may consider private schools, but we will look into the public schools,” said Landrisan, who lives in Shirlington. “We’re trying to figure out what to do.” Historically, young adults have moved into Arlington starting around age 20 and left for other suburbs in large numbers once they reach their early 30s. Federal employee Elsie Oldaker, who was among the hordes of young people pouring from the Court House Metro station one recent night, said that at 30, she sometimes feels “like I’m getting too old for this area.” But the millennial generation has confounded other past trends, including embracing public transit in ways its predecessors did not. Elizabeth Hardy, Arlington’s planner and demographer, said the county is planning a study of whether the out-migration of Arlington’s 30-somethings will continue. “Once we have an understanding of the factors that cause people to come or go, we could address how to keep them here,” she said. And since the millennial boom extends to young people born as late as 2000, Hardy says she expects the demographic to remain important to Arlington for the next several years. “We still have a large group who could move in as they age, even as [older millennials] move out,” she said. Back in Fairway Village, Heather Shepherd and her husband know three couples who have moved to Annandale, not including the Sipes. For now, the Shepherds do not intend to follow suit. They like the convenience of Arlington, close to city attractions and the D.C. law firm where Shepherd works in an administrative job. The schools seem good, she said, and Fairfax County seems too far away. “Our immediate plan is to stay.”

There’s a devastatingly simple explanation for America’s economic mess

Ever since the financial crisis, the U.S. economy has grown at a stubbornly slow rate, far less than the 3 percent that was widely considered a sign of good health. This disappointing outcome — the Federal Reserve expects the economy to grow only about 1.8 percent this year — has been blamed by economists on many factors: the financial crisis in 2008, fiscal fights in Washington, Europe's repeated debt crises, China's slowdown and more. But according to provocative new research from Fed economists, there might be a simple explanation for the slow growth — and there might not have been much policymakers could have done about it. If the new explanation is true, it might also explain why efforts to boost economic growth — including trillions of dollars in monetary stimulus and near-zero interest rates — haven't worked that well.  The researchers — Etienne Gagnon, Benjamin Johannsen and David Lopez-Salido — created a model of the economy that shows how changes in births, deaths, aging, migration, labor markets and other trends have affected the U.S. economy since 1900. Using that model, they find that most of the decline in economic growth and interest rates since 1980 has been due intractable factors like the aging and retirement of baby boomers, lower fertility rates and longer life expectancy for Americans. They find that these demographic changes account for a 1.25 percentage point decline in annualized economic growth since 1980, which is essentially all of the decline we’ve seen in that metric, according to some estimates. What’s really remarkable is that we might have seen this coming. The macroeconomics effects of this kind of demographic transition “have been largely predictable,” the economists write in their paper. In fact, most of the relevant changes that have weighed on growth and interest rates took place before the 1980s. The biggest drag on the economy has been the aging and retirement of America’s baby boomers, the researchers say. The boomers are by far the largest American generation on record, with 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964. They are substantially more numerous than the 47 million members of the Silent generation that preceded them, as well as the 55 million Gen Xers, the 66 million millennials and the 69 million post-millennials, according to Pew Research Center. Their generation is so large that it's easy to see their impact as they move through the American age distribution, as the chart below from the U.S. Census Bureau shows: As the boomers reached working age in the 1960s and 1970s, they greatly drove up the supply of labor in the United States, and that in turn boosted economic growth and interest rates. The effect was especially strong because boomer women went to work in much larger numbers than their mothers did, due in part to the women’s rights movement and more readily available birth control. The U.S. economy enjoyed the benefit of a demographic dividend, as the number of workers relative to the total population reached a historic high. But the boomer generation also ended up having fewer children than their parents did. And as they aged and retired, they left fewer people in the American workforce, and that reduced the country’s economic output. The aging and retirement of the boomers also put downward pressure on America’s interest rates, the economists say. Interest rates that stay low for a long time are a problem in that they indicate an economy in which growth is slow and there is little willingness to invest. Low interest rates also leave central bankers with little capacity to stimulate growth in the future by cutting interest rates. The retirement of the baby boomers has meant that what economists call capital — machines, factories, roads and buildings — has become relatively abundant compared to labor. That has depressed the return investors receive for investing in capital, and led to our era of lower investment. And that in turn led to a fall in the interest rate. In line with their model, the real interest rate in the United States rose through the 1960s and 1970s, peaked around 1980s, and has gradually declined since then, the economists say.  In the last decade, the effect of these trends has become even more pronounced, they say, as more boomers have retired and effects of the IT boom have faded. And their model suggests that low interest rates, low economic growth and low investment are here to stay, since America’s working population is not set to grow much in coming decades. Other countries in Europe and East Asia, are undergoing similar transitions, with rapidly aging populations, too. Because of the timing of this trend, the economists say, many have confused it with the lingering effects of the financial crisis. The financial crisis undoubtedly had a powerful effect on the economy. Actions like the massive bond-buying programs undertaken by central banks around the world to lift their economies are powerful, too. But both may pale in comparison to the economic power of demography.

The last decade was a historically awful time to enter the job market

The recession wreaked particular havoc on opposite ends of the labor market: on the young and unemployed marooned in their parents' homes for lack of work, and on the (relatively) old and experienced stuck in the workforce for lack of money to retire. Their problems were clearly not unrelated (particularly in the case of the retirement-aged grocery clerk whose job might have been done by a 19-year-old). But between the two of them, their parallel misfortunes made for a historical anomaly in this latest recession. You can see it in this chart from the Brookings Institution, which compares the employment rates for different age cohorts in 2000 and 2011 across America's 100 largest metros:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Over the course of the decade, the employment rate for 16-to-19-year-olds fell  from 44 to 24 percent, the lowest it's been in Current Population Survey data going all the way back to 1948. "It is an astonishing drop," says Martha Ross, a fellow with Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program who co-authored a recent paper on the recession's abysmal impact on employment prospects for young adults. What really stands out about that graph, though, is what happened to workers over 55. Their employment rates went _up_ over this same time.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University "We haven’t seen this before," Ross says, "this combination of employment rates dropping for the younger and prime-age workers while they’re increasing among the workers who are of or near retirement age." Brookings is calling this a historically unprecedented "great age twist." While every other age group was less likely to be working in 2011 than in 2000 (with unusually bleak prospects for the youngest workers), older people were actually more likely to be working. In some ways, this may reflect the particular circumstances of a recession rooted in housing collapse: Many retirement-aged workers who had their savings tied up in their homes suddenly needed to stay on the job much longer than they had planned. And the impact of that decision cascades down to younger, less experienced and less educated workers who've had to compete for jobs with the overqualified. This picture now raises some particularly alarming questions about the workers aged 24 and younger. Studies have suggested that people who are unemployed as young adults later earn less when they are employed. Aging into a crummy economy doesn't just hurt you when you're looking for your first job from your mother's basement; the negative effects persist for years.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Early unemployment, in other words, has lasting scars. And we've just watched an entire cohort come of working age at a time when employment prospects for young workers have been at an unprecedented low.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University "It’s not written in stone, and it’s not your destiny," Ross says of the long-term repercussions. "But this is a really formative period in someone’s life." Young workers without a college degree will have a particularly hard time. But other workers who've been biding their unemployed time in school will have to add massive debt to this equation. This suggests we should start talking more not about how the recession has hurt young workers, but what it will mean for them for years to come to have entered the job market with such historically bad timing.

Why baby boomers are poised to revive the economy

For generations, the dream retirement was one spent in warmer climates, on the beach and often walking distance from a golf course. Chris Farrell, a senior economics contributor at Marketplace, is among those now laughing at the idea. Farrell, 61, is the author of “Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community and the Good Life.” As people are living longer and in better health, they’re working longer, too. And opportunities for the 55 and up group are going way beyond the stereotypical part-time gig at the local supermarket, he says. Farrell, who says he is still far from retirement, recently spoke with The Post about the modern retirement. This has been edited for length and clarity. **You say in your book that what scares people the most about getting older isn’t aging — it’s retirement. Why is that?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico A lot of us haven’t saved enough for retirement, and we’re well aware of it. And I don’t think people haven’t saved enough because they couldn’t resist the mall or they just had to use that credit card. It’s expensive to educate kids and a lot of times people buy a house in a good neighborhood that they think will let them send their kids to a good public school. They spend a lot more than they want on their housing. Also, many private sector workers don’t have access to a retirement savings plan at work. So then the story is if you don’t have $1 million your standard of living is going to come crashing down. Then the story that you’re going to have too few young people supporting too many older people. What my book is saying is I think this is fundamentally wrong. What people are doing instead is thinking: What does retirement mean? What does my last third of life mean? When I would mention this 10 years ago, people would say “Great, so I’m going to be a greeter at Wal-mart.” Now when I mention it, people are saying “Okay, tell me more.” **So people are essentially more open to the idea that working later in life doesn’t have to be a bad thing?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico That’s right. And there’s a couple of factors. If we were having this conversation in 1950, 1960, when the commanding heights of our economy were smokestacks America — fishing, farming, mining. When you became a senior, those jobs were hard jobs, hard on the body. Most of the time they were also hard on the mind because they were numbing. You were not supposed to use initiative. You were supposed to do the same thing over and over. But today the commanding heights of our economy is social services, health care, information services. It’s much more practical to think about working longer if you’re working at a cubicle at a nonprofit. A medical diagnostics office. This older generation is well educated compared to the previous generations and their health and disabilities are less. And we are living longer. We are more receptive to this idea, and it’s much more practical. **Does it still make sense for people to work throughout their careers and then have 20 years where they sit in rocking chairs and by the beach?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico I think what a lot of people need is a sabbatical to sort of think about what to do next. People don’t want to walk away from their skills or knowledge. But they don’t necessarily want to work a 40 to 50 hour workweek either. So much of economics and finance is really storytelling. We have an image in our mind. My parents never moved to Florida or to a retirement community. But we could sit around and watch “Seinfeld” and when he visits his parents down in Florida we laugh at that. We think it’s funny. But that’s one of the images we have of retirement. What’s the image of working longer? We don’t really have that narrative. **What is the single thing people can do to better prepare for retirement? Save more? Put it off for another year or two?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico If you think about our whole discussion about retirement for the past 25 years, it’s really been dominated by the rise of the 401(k). So when we talk about retirement and preparing for retirement, it’s about how much do you have in stocks? How much do you have in bonds? Depending on what you save, what kind of withdrawal rate can you have? There’s all this discussion around asset allocation. And saving is important. But if you’re in your mid 50s and you’re thinking about retirement, the most important question is not “What is my number?” –which has been the question. The question is, “What do I want to do next?” And it turns out that’s not obvious to a lot of people. That’s where I think the sabbatical comes into play. The most valuable asset an older person has is their network. The people that they’ve known over the years. Tap into that and start exploring “What can I do next?” **What do older workers have in common with millennials?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The 20-something graduate comes talking to you and they’re exploring what it is they want to do. They want a job. They want to be earning an income. No, they don’t want to be living in their parents’ basement anymore. They also want to do something that has meaning, something that they feel makes a difference. And the only difference between the 60-something worker and the 20-something worker is that the 60-something worker knows time is short. For the 20-something worker, time is infinity. So the fact that you know time is short becomes almost paralyzing. It’s not always obvious to people. Most people don’t reinvent themselves. You’re not going to go from working in a cubicle to owning a winery in Napa Valley. So it’s about thinking about the skills and knowledge you developed over the years. You’re a nurse and you’re working in a major hospital. Maybe you go to work for a clinic in the inner city. Maybe you’re a financial planner and what you do is you keep some of your favorite clients, the ones who have become almost like friends, and you teach financial literacy in East Harlem. You take what you know, you take your skills, but you go to a different sector in the economy.That’s exciting. You meet new people. You don’t start your own business where you drain your 401(k) and then one year later you’re broke. You have to be smart about it. **You also talk about the personal connections people get from their jobs.**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Work is a social institution. When someone has a baby, you get excited. If someone gets divorced, you help them through it. When you look at the surveys of people who are retired and ask “what do you most miss from your pre-retirement years?” You might think money. But it’s pretty far down. No. 1 is their colleagues. **There’s this idea that if people work longer they could be taking opportunities from others who are looking to move up in the workforce. What is your response to that?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico My response to that is that until recently we’ve gone through the worst labor market since the 1930s. But overall, I think older workers and younger workers are on the same boat. When older workers are getting jobs, younger workers are getting jobs. When older workers aren’t getting jobs, younger workers aren’t getting jobs. The analogy I draw is the women’s movement. If you think back to the 1970s, the early 1980s. There was a lot of concern that as women enter the market there’s going to be a lot less opportunity for men. But what happened is we just created a lot more jobs. The economy got bigger. So I think overall, more older workers is not holding back younger workers. As older workers are going out and starting firms, guess what, they’re creating more jobs for younger workers. For the past five years a lot of employers have been saying to do more with less. My suspicion is that a lot of aging boomers are going to say goodbye. But they’re not going into traditional retirement. They’re going into their own business or to be a consultant. They’ll have informal partnerships with people they know. I think there’s going to be a lot more job movement than that idea of the older worker sitting in their cubicle for another 30 years. **You think older workers are contributing a lot more to the economy.**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico By continuing to work, their employers are better off and they’re continuing to be productive and to generate revenue. But the other part of it is there’s real stereotypes about older workers — that they’re not productive. When you start looking at the arts you find a lot of people get more creative as they age. Then you look at the law. Then at doctors. And then you start looking at management, at skilled craft people. All of a sudden you start looking throughout the economy and you see there are a lot of really productive, creative people who are seniors. We need to break down this stereotype. **Read More:**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The anti-retirement plan: Working 9-to-5 past 65    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Obama calls for higher standards on brokers giving retirement advice    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico How growing income inequality is hurting Social Security    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Stop blaming boomers

Two Sept. 24 news articles painted America’s aging population with the brush of fault, one with an erroneous assumption, the other with a snarky aside. Both are diversionary tactics and encourage inter-generational resentment. In “Shutdown’s shadow shrinks Hill priorities,” The Post said “the soaring cost of caring for an aging population” is “the nation’s central budget problem.” Truly? What about the billions spent on a decade of wars and the bailout of the financial sector? “Nurses express concern about law,” meanwhile, offered a mean-spirited comment in connection with the Affordable Care Act: “The system is designed to have . . . premiums help offset the cost of care for those baby boomers who were sure they’d never get old or sick.” What? Here’s a fact I rarely see: The baby boom cohort is a statistical anomaly, a bulge of births that has a beginning and end, lasting for 18 years. The oldest, born in 1946, are eligible for Medicare and are not using the Affordable Care Act, and the rest of us boomers will be there by 2029 (if we’re not dead). This is a time-limited problem. My husband and I have three millennials, and they’re starting to believe this nonsense. Let’s address all of our nation’s central budget problems and stop blaming boomers. ****Marie Kerr** , Davidsonville**

Millennials’ top competition for condos might be their parents

Millennials have tough new competition for the condominiums and apartments heating up the nation’s housing market: Mom and Dad. Roughly 10,000 baby boomers are retiring each day, and recent data shows that half of those who plan to move will downsize when they do. Many are seeking the type of urban living that typically has been associated with young college graduates — so much so that boomers are renting apartments and buying condos at more than twice the rate of their millennial children. “There’s not one thing I miss about my house,” said Abby Imus, 57, who recently moved with her husband into a condo in downtown Bethesda, Md., three miles and a lifetime away from the house they lived in for more than two decades. “I was so ready to leave.” This new generation of empty nester is reshaping the recovery in real estate after the industry suffered its worst setback in half a century during the Great Recession. Boomer demand has helped fuel a surge in high-end housing that features two-bedroom units and large kitchens reminiscent of boomers’ suburban homes. That could have big implications for cash-strapped millennials, who had hoped to snag affordable studios in buildings developed to house 20-somethings. The data suggests that boomers who are downsizing are relatively well-off. Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that those ages 55 and older accounted for 42 percent of the growth in renters over the past decade. In addition, the wealthiest tier of American households made up about one-third of new renters between 2011 and 2014. “Boomers will pay a premium if you can give them exactly what they want,” said Matt Robinson, principal at MRP Realty in the District. “Something closer to what was in their house, and that pushes up the price; they’re happy to pay for it.” Young Americans, after all, are not well-suited to compete: Many entered the job market in the middle of the recession and during the lackluster recovery. Few have had time to build wealth, and many are saddled with student-loan debt. Analysts worry that the trend is making affordable housing more scarce at all ages — including for some boomers. Nationally, the cost of rent has made a double-digit jump since the recession and hit a record $803 a month, according to government data. At the same time, the Harvard study estimated that the number of families who pay more than half their income in rent is expected to rise 11 percent to 13.1 million over the next decade. Jefferson Freeman, a 25-year-old researcher at a public affairs firm, said he is one of the youngest people living in his apartment building in Southeast Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood. Over the past two years, he said, more boomers have moved in and are willing to pay the $2,400 a month that it costs to rent a two-bedroom apartment. Freeman said that he must leave if rent goes much higher. “A lot of people my age, if prices continue going up, will probably start moving toward big group houses,” he said. The rebound in apartment and condo buildings has played a critical role in driving the recovery of the broader real estate market. Spending on what the industry calls “multifamily” buildings rebounded in 2011 and is growing faster than expenditures on offices and hotels. Government data shows that permits to build multifamily homes jumped 21.5 percent in August from the previous year, while approvals for single-family homes rose 8.7 percent. The numbers reflect two trends that have become intertwined since the recession. The first wave of baby boomers hit the traditional retirement age of 65 in 2011, a point at which many begin thinking about downsizing from the family home. Meanwhile, developers began capitalizing on a shift toward urban living that is revitalizing cities and transforming suburbs into hubs friendly to pedestrians and commuters — often inadvertently creating the ideal empty nest for those who can pay the price. That’s what happened at Vita, the 31-story luxury apartment building in Northern Virginia adjacent to the Tysons Corner station on Metro’s Silver Line. Developer Bob Kettler expected that the building would attract a crowd of young professionals, so he designed it with plenty of one-bedroom units. Vita’s promotional Web site features a couple snapping a selfie and a young family catching a movie on the lawn with their toddler. Instead, Kettler said that the strongest demand has come from baby boomers. Many are relocating from within the region and looking for a low-maintenance lifestyle in a familiar neighborhood. Often, they are still working and not yet ready to recline on the sunny beaches of Florida. But downsizing — especially to the confines of an apartment that might be one-third the size of the family home — is often easier said than done. Kettler said that the most frequent complaint he hears is that his apartments aren’t big enough. A two-bedroom unit generally is 1,200 to 1,400 square feet and costs from $3,000 to $4,000 a month, roughly 30 percent over the local average. One couple passed on a rental because it wouldn’t fit their side-by-side Sub-Zero fridge and freezer, he said. Kettler has learned his lesson: The next 160 units under construction at the site are larger and designed with empty nesters in mind. Just across the state line in North Bethesda, apartment complex Pike & Rose, by Federal Realty, is touting 24 penthouse units with up to three bedrooms and two communal rooms in which to practice music. The Flats and the Vio in the District, from PN Hoffman, have underground parking and concierge services. “Our definition of success and lifestyle has really changed over the last 20 years,” said Monty Hoffman, chief executive of PN Hoffman. “It used to be a white picket fence and a lawn and so many cars in the suburbs. That’s really being replaced.” Of course, many boomers have no plans to move — because they can’t afford to and don’t want to. Their net worth remains below the pre-recession average, and more than half would need to take out a loan to buy their next home, according to recent research by the Demand Institute. The study found that downsizers were typically wealthier and living in pricey homes that might be expensive to maintain. Boomers are typically defined as those born between 1945 and 1964, encompassing roughly 70 million people. They were the largest demographic group in the country until this year, when millennials took the top spot, and their approach to life in retirement is still evolving, experts said. But even divided, their numbers are large enough to shape the direction of the housing market. For Neil and Abby Imus, the moment of truth came after the last of their three children finished graduate school and got engaged. The couple had raised their family in a Colonial on a tree-lined, one-acre lot in Bethesda. But their kids were starting families of their own and it was not likely that they would return to the homestead. Keeping up the yard was becoming a hassle. No one used the two bathrooms upstairs. They didn’t need a living room and a study. And a finished basement. And a separate dining room. So they sold the house a year ago, and this summer moved into a condo in the heart of downtown Bethesda. On a recent afternoon, the last rays of sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows while their grandson raced around their living room. Their son, Steve, and his wife had brought over wine and spaghetti for dinner. Steve had briefly mourned the loss of the house in which he grew up, particularly the fate of the philosophy books he had left there. But Neil Imus was clear: There is no going back. “Forever,” he said when asked how long he planned to live in his new home. “We don’t have any plans to move.”

Breaking the silence on the inheritance boom

Few people want to talk about death or money. I bumped into my friend, Rose, several months ago, as I wheeled a giant, black stroller into a coffee shop. (At 27 and fresh out of graduate school, a combination of babysitting and freelance work paid the rent.) Rose had her laptop on the table and looked stressed. "I don't know what to do," she said. "I need to talk to my grandparents about money. What is my mom going to do when they die? What is the plan?" Rose is just one of millions of Americans standing on the shore of an enormous financial tidal wave. Over the next 30 years, a wealth transfer of nearly $58 trillion is expected to change hands from baby boomers to younger generations in the form of inheritance, according to a recent study from the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. "The greatest wealth transfer in history is through the boomer generation," said lead study author Paul Schervish, professor emeritus of sociology and former director of the center.   The enormous wealth transfer will give the next generation more money to spend, leading to increases in higher education tuition, insurance premiums and housing prices. But will this generation save or invest this money? Ironically, it’s unclear whether those inheriting money will be able to afford the rise in living costs engendered by their inheritance. Younger generations may be more susceptible to the behavioral biases that make it difficult to save. While humans in general tend to prioritize instant gratification, younger generations who grew up with technology that enables them to get whatever they want with a swipe or tap may feel the pull of these impulses more intensely than older generations. And those that do invest are likely to be less focused on maximizing yields than their parents. Research from the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment shows that those born from about 1980 to 2000 will not just base their investment decisions on the amount of their returns, but also on altruism, The tendency toward instant gratification combined with altruistic investing means that less money will flow into the economy as a whole. In the coffee shop, the economic impact of wealth transfer seemed far off and intangible. Rose's anxiety about her mother felt immediate and real. Her father died when she was 11, and a significant portion of his inheritance went to paying down roughly $300,000 worth of debt. Since then, Rose's grandparents have played a supportive role in her family's financial well-being. But she wonders who will help her mother when her grandparents die, and if she is expected to provide support. Will some wealth be passed down? How long will it last? These questions are still left unanswered.   I asked Rose if she could try talking to her mom or grandparents about what comes next. "Yeah," Rose said. "There's just no rule book about how you're supposed to deal with these things." Money—whether it's an inheritance, paycheck or paying the bills—is often on our minds, but is rarely the topic of conversation. "People don't know how to talk about money because they have never really heard it done," said Susan Bross, a financial counselor with the Financial Therapist Association. Talking about money is viewed as socially incorrect. Unlike with sex and other topics, conversations about finance are rarely depicted in movies, television and popular culture. A common language around money has not developed. "The only time I hear people talking about money is when they have a big win, a bonus, a raise," Bross said. The idea that you need to inherit or earn an enormous amount of wealth to warrant financial advising is a common misconception. Modest amounts of money are worthy of meaningful discussion. If beneficiaries invest wisely, even inheritances under $25,000 can grow significantly and make differences in their lives.   Amy Brooks* inherited $15,000 while in college when her grandfather died. Brooks said no discussion took place either before or after the money became hers. Brooks graduated college and landed a well-paying job in New York. She used the money from her inheritance on dinners, flights and drinks for friends, she said. Two and half years later, almost all of the money was spent. "I just lived outside my means," Brooks said. "If I had taken that and invested $10,000 and used $5,000 as a cushion, it could have been something more than nothing." With a bit of discussion to overcome the all-too-common "I want it now" mentality, Brooks' small fortune could have been multiplying. Instead she is now working to rebuild the money she squandered. And as Rose's trepidation proves, holding the uncomfortable but necessary conversation early on can prevent more heartache later. These stories are telltale. We can't afford to remain silent about the largest wealth transfer in history; our wallets, well-being and the economy depend on it. *Name was changed for this article.

Pioneering the granny pod: Fairfax County family adapts to high-tech dwelling that could change elder care

Viola Baez wouldn’t budge. Her daughter’s family had just invested about $125,000 in a new kind of home for her, a high-tech cottage that might revolutionize the way Americans care for their aging relatives. But Viola wouldn’t even step inside. She told her family she would rather continue living in the family’s dining room than move into the shed-size dwelling that had been lowered by crane into the back yard of their Fairfax County home. “You’re throwing me out! You’re sending me out to a doghouse! Why not put me in a manicomio?” Viola, 88 , told them, using the Spanish word for madhouse. Then the air conditioner blew. As temperatures and tempers soared in the main house, Viola’s family coaxed her into the cottage to cool off. Viola stayed the night, then another, and another, until summer had turned to fall. As the first private inhabitant of a MedCottage, Viola is a reluctant pioneer in the search for alternatives to nursing homes for aging Americans. Her relatives agonized over the best way to care for Viola only after her ability to care for herself became questionable. Their decision exposed intergenerational friction that worsened after the new dwelling arrived. The MedCottage, designed by a Blacksburg company with help from Virginia Tech, is essentially a portable hospital room. Virginia state law, which recognized the dwellings a few years ago, classifies them as “temporary family health- care structures.” But many simply know them as “granny pods,” and they have arrived on the market as the nation prepares for a wave of graying baby boomers to retire. Over the past decade, the population of Americans who are 65 or older has grown faster than the total population, the Census Bureau says. In less than 20 years, the number of Americans who are 65 or older will top 72 million, or more than twice the population of older Americans in 2000, and many will need to find living arrangements that balance their need for independence and special care. Viola’s family understood this. Her daughter, Socorrito Baez-Page, 56, who goes by Soc, and her son-in-law, David Page, 59 — both of whom are doctors — began planning her care well before Viola’s husband died of cancer last February. They explored many options and had firsthand experience with several. Soc and David had taken care of or arranged various types of care, including assisted living and hospice, for other parents. Their decision to buy the first MedCottage in private use, along with Viola’s bumpy adjustment to life inside it, offers a look at an unusual solution to an increasingly common situation and the emotional trade-offs that arise from it. The soft whoosh of an oxygen machine fills the MedCottage when Viola opens her eyes at the light streaming from the windows above her bed. “Hello,” Soc says. Soc has been up for a while. She stands almost at the center of the MedCottage, a self-enclosed space that blends bedroom, kitchenette, foyer and bath the way that a fork and spoon combine to form a spork. Soc has already folded up the rollout bed where she has spent the night at her mother’s side, and performed other chores before Viola wakes. Viola asks for a bathrobe, and Soc helps her into it, careful not to tangle the oxygen tubes trailing from her mother’s nose. A week after Viola underwent surgery to remove a cataract, Viola’s left eye also looks puffy, as if she’s been crying again, as she has almost daily since her husband died. “Open your eye,” Soc says, speaking in Spanish, as she administers drops. Viola blinks, as if it’s painful. “Eyes closed, please,” Soc says. “Cinco minuto.” After the eye medicine, Viola maneuvers her walker across the MedCottage to the bathroom. While Viola washes up, Soc brews a mug of instant coffee for her in the microwave oven and prepares a vaporizer that delivers Viola’s asthma medicine. Viola’s walker squeaks softly as she returns and takes a seat at the kitchenette's counter. Her hands tremble as she takes the mug and sips the coffee through the straw, so as not to spill any hot liquid. When the vaporizer is ready, Soc puts a mask on Viola. While mist pours from the vents in her mother’s face mask, Soc rummages through a cabinet filled with medicine bottles and puts pills in a small cup at her mother’s elbow. Then Soc prepares her mother’s breakfast, which is crackers and string cheese. Viola appears small, hunkered down in her chair. But her eyes can become huge when she talks about growing up in Puerto Rico or her life with her late husband. At times, she struggles for words, but when they come, they flow in a rush, sometimes in Spanish. She chuckles with pride when she recalls driving a motorcycle on her honeymoon in Florida, and then becomes somber in a swift change of mood. Tears well in her eyes one afternoon as she explains that she is in “luto,” wearing only black or dark clothing as a sign of mourning. “He treated me like I was a queen,” she says of her husband. “Without him, nothing is special. Nothing.” Overhead, a small green light blinks, an indicator that one of the MedCottage’s surveillance cameras is powered up and that perhaps an additional family member is watching Viola, too. Several firms have entered the market for auxiliary dwelling units, or ADUs, as they’re known in the building industry. These include FabCab, a Seattle- based company that makes ADUs and full-size homes. Practical Assisted Living Solutions, or PALS, a firm based in Meriden, Conn., makes freestanding modules; and the Home Store, which is headquartered in Whately, Mass., sells modular “in-law” additions called “Elderly Cottage Housing Opportunity” additions. The MedCottage in Fairfax is about 12 by 24 feet, the size of a typical master bedroom. With its beige aluminum siding — and cosmetic touches such as green shutters — the cottage looks a little like an elaborate dollhouse. The interior, painted gray and white, seems so airy and comfortable that Soc jokes about reusing the dwelling someday as a mountain cabin. The idea for the MedCottage came from the Rev. Kenneth J. Dupin, a minister in southwest Virginia who wondered why Americans didn’t take better care of their elders. He created N2Care, a company that designed the MedCottage with help from the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center. They stuffed its steel shell with the latest in biometric and communications technology, and crafted its features using universal design principles to accommodate people of all ages and people with disabilities. The company’s sales pitch includes dropping an egg onto its specially designed floor from a height of 7 feet to show that the egg won’t break. “People think it’s a rubber egg until we hold it over a hard surface and drop it from 5 inches,” said Chris M. Cummins, executive vice president of MedCare Systems, a Mechanicsville, Va.-based distributor. In addition to surveillance cameras, the dwelling has an Internet portal by which family members, doctors or other caregivers can monitor an occupant’s vital signs, receive medical alerts or change the dwelling’s temperature and security settings. The MedCottage retails for about $85,000, but with delivery and installation, Viola’s family has spent closer to $125,000. “Most people look at that and get sticker shock,” Cummins said. But Cummins also said that the company offers financing and repurchase programs that make the MedCottage a bargain compared with assisted-living facilities that charge $40,000 or more a year. Viola’s family is close-knit. Soc recalls taking her daughters, Erin and Shannon, to the Kennedy Center for a National Symphony Orchestra concert when the girls were so little that they listened while perched in car seats. Although Erin, 30, is now a lawyer and Shannon, 28, teaches in Fairfax schools, the family still goes to the symphony en masse, and the daughters still live in the family’s 1972 split-level on Vengo Court. The family is strikingly candid about the stress that comes with Viola’s daily care. Her physical problems include spinal stenosis, arthritis and asthma, and she takes about 16 medications. Relatives say Viola has traits that would challenge any caregiver, and some have become more conspicuous with age. She is moodier now, and needier. When Viola went into an assisted-living facility temporarily for physical therapy after a fall, she threw a fit that lasted hours. Soc calmed her by promising not to leave. Soc stayed for so long every day that eventually administrators told Soc the arrangement could not continue. “She’s very clingy, very persnickety about things,” Soc said. Viola’s late husband, Luis Baez, also pampered her. He was a first lieutenant in the Army when they married. Later, as a civilian architect for the Navy and the Coast Guard, he helped design the Westwind class of icebreakers. In the 1950s, he and Viola bought an Arlington County duplex. But their home became difficult to maneuver as they aged. About the time Luis began thinking of alternatives, he became ill with rapidly progressing renal cancer. Soc and David began discussing whether Viola would move in, whether to build an addition, or whether Viola should go into an assisted-living residence. Viola and Luis disliked nursing homes, and Soc’s property was not well suited for an addition. Then Soc read about the MedCottage, which Luis endorsed before his death. When Luis, 82, died Feb. 28, Viola’s granddaughters took turns staying at her Arlington home while Soc and David arranged the MedCottage purchase. Then Viola moved into the house on Vengo Court. But there were problems. Living in the family’s dining room, Viola disliked being so close to the kitchen when people were cooking. She complained about getting around in the house, saying that there were too many steps, not enough handrails, and that the shower was hard to access. She fought over the thermostat setting because she was too cold, even when everyone else was sweating. And she hated being alone. She wouldn’t shower unless someone was nearby. By late June, the MedCottage arrived. Workers cut down trees to make room and a crane lowered the cottage onto six concrete piers in the yard. Relatives brought photographs of Viola’s grandchildren and knickknacks, including a colorful row of miniature houses. Over the bed they hung Roman Catholic icons, including a painting of “Nuestra Senora del Perpetuos Socorro,” whose name, like Soc’s, means “help” in Spanish. But Viola wanted nothing to do with the place. As the standoff dragged on, Soc worried that their money had been wasted, that their MedCottage would end up being the biggest, most expensive storage shed on the planet. Then the air conditioner in the house went kaput, and Viola retreated to the MedCottage for relief. Viola now seems used to her new home. On a cabinet in the kitchenette sits a row of faded black-and-white photographs of Viola, wearing a pretty dress and an alluring smile, that she sent to her new husband when he was away on duty. Although the MedCottage has made it possible for Viola to live a few steps away from her family, Soc sometimes wishes that Viola were as self-assured and independent as the younger version in those old photos. But these days, the family also counts it as a small victory when Viola comes to dinner in the main house and then returns without a fuss to “my place.”

The future of Google’s driverless car is old people

Google is out with a new self-driving car prototype, and it's fantastic. It has no brake pedals or steering wheels. To make it go, you just push a button. The contraption looks less like a conventional car than a space-age personal mobility vehicle. Eventually, Google says, it will build 100 of these things for a pilot project on California roads.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Watching the promo video, you might notice something else, too: Almost everyone appearing in it seems to be a retiree, or nearly so. There's Nick, the man who gives a chummy thumbs-up to the camera; Annie and Judy, who can't help but wave at everyone outside as they pass by; and Linda, who adorably prods her husband, Walt, over his inadequate turning skills.  Google is known as a young, hip company. So what's it doing recruiting seniors to do its videos? Actually, it makes a lot of sense. Here's why: The elderly population in America is rich, vast and growing. As the baby boomers reach their golden years, more of their children will need to consider taking away the car keys. By mid-century, one in five of us will be over 65 — that's up from just eight percent of the population in 1950.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday But unlike their predecessors, this older cohort has tended to be more active, with some seniors launching "encore" careers that last long after they've officially retired. Rather than sitting around for a couple of decades, older Americans are feeling more energetic. It used to be that cutting off these older folks' access to a steering wheel was the only realistic option if their driving had become unsafe because of their age. Now, we might not have to. Google's self-driving car could get seniors out and about more. As a result, they might also earn more, spend more and give the rest of the economy a lift, too.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Google is targeting its cars to retirees for another reason: They've got the money. Boomers hold a vast share of the country's wealth, and, more importantly, they're willing to spend it.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday "There is a bias to believe that older people spend less of what they have," according to Nielsen. "While this may have been true of the generations of older consumers that preceded the boomers, it simply does not apply to this generation." Nielsen also finds boomers to be enamored of technology: They account for 41 percent of the people buying Macs and 40 percent of the wireless market. That's consistent with Jim Melin's experience. He's the president and chief executive of Air Force Village West, a retirement community in southern California that's home to mostly former military and business leaders. "They've been innovators their whole lives," said Melin of the seniors in his community. "People are really interested in things that protect the environment around them. They come from a long generation of people that were taught to be frugal and not waste things. So whenever they see technology that they think is going to be helpful in being thrifty, they're all about that. That's what they grew up with." Google is not the only company to see value in older customers. Earlier this year, Nintendo announced it was going to enter the health market in 2015. It's an important industry, particularly in Japan, where the population is growing older even faster than it is here in America.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday So it makes total sense for Google to market its new car to older generations. Even Google exec Sergey Brin thinks so. "The project is about changing the world for people who are not well-served by transportation today," Brin said at this week's Code Conference. "There are many people underserved by transportation today (the elderly, a lack of cabs and buses in some places). Look at people too young, old or disabled who can’t get around. It’s an issue and a real challenge for them."

An underappreciated fact about the 2016 election: The massive generation gap

Since the election last month, we have seen a parade of analyses examining how Clinton supporters differ from Trump supporters by race, education and geographic residence. The persistence of partisan differences by age in American elections, however, has received somewhat less attention. Younger voters, who first demonstrated a notable relative preference for the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, swung even further toward the Democrats in the two Obama elections. Obama carried the under-30 vote by 34 percentage points in 2008 and by 23 points in 2012, according to the national exit polls. At the same time, voters over the age of 50 collectively preferred Republican nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney to Obama in both of his successful national campaigns. Hillary Clinton may have lacked Obama’s (and Bernie Sanders’s) personal appeal among younger voters, but she still carried the under-30 vote by an 18-point margin over Trump, according to the 2016 exit polls, while voters over the age of 45 opted for Trump by nine points — confirming that the contemporary political generation gap will outlast the Obama era. This is a significant divide by historical standards. None of the 1960s-era elections produced a comparable partisan difference, despite the decade’s prominent youth-led protest movements and memorable “don’t trust anyone over 30″ rhetoric. According to Gallup data, Hubert Humphrey led Richard Nixon in 1968 among voters under 30 by only nine points, 47 percent to 38 percent, while voters over the age of 50 preferred Nixon by just six points (47 percent to 41 percent). So Trump performed about as well among young voters in a two-person contest as Nixon did in a three-way race. Many of the most prominent political issues of our time include a generational dimension separating the left-leaning young from their more conservative elders. Social issues such as gay rights and drug legalization divide Americans sharply by age. The Affordable Care Act drew its fiercest opposition from the elderly — who already enjoyed Medicare benefits and thus perceived little collective benefit in expanding health-care access to younger citizens. Climate change is of greater concern to those who stand to inherit the planet than to those who rule it today. Democratic candidates frequently tout their plans for enhancing college affordability and access to child care; Republicans seldom discuss these topics. Conservative efforts to lower federal tax rates on high incomes also stand to primarily benefit older — and disproportionately wealthier — voters. More broadly, the 2016 election exposed a key divide in the American electorate between nationalism and internationalism, between a preference for traditional social hierarchies and an attraction to new social norms. The themes of cultural nostalgia and alienation adopted by the Trump campaign were particularly primed to appeal to older generations feeling increasingly out of place in contemporary society and preferring a bygone past of perceived American “greatness” defined by a rejection of “political correctness” at home and an adherence to military and economic unilateralism abroad.    Young people may still be sunny these days, but Republicanism is decidedly not. The victories of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama damaged conservatives’ confidence that they spoke for an enduring popular majority, and the main conservative objectives of shrinking the size and scope of government, establishing American military supremacy abroad, and promoting morally traditionalist attitudes among the American public have all, to varying degrees and for varying reasons, remained unfulfilled in the years since Reagan departed the national stage. When combined with the continuing leftward evolution of American culture in the realms of race, gender, religion and sexuality, these developments have left many conservatives — including the current president-elect — warning darkly of the imminent destruction of the United States as we know it, which in turn justifies increasingly aggressive challenges from the right to established political norms and institutions.  As the Republican victories of 2014 and 2016 confirm, there is no youth-led “permanent Democratic majority,” in part because our electoral rules and institutions tend to provide Republicans with a built-in advantage in close elections. Plus, there are simply lots and lots of baby boomers and pre-boomers, and they vote more reliably than their children and grandchildren.  Cultural backlash can be a powerful tool for winning elections, but it’s very hard to actually deliver on promises to move an entire society back in time.

A cheap shot at boomers

The Dec. 15 Health & Science article “Cheaper hearing devices can turn up the volume” contained useful information, but it began by taunting baby boomers about their age-related deficits: “Spend a lot of time hunting for reading glasses? Can’t run so fast anymore?” The Post itself is getting on in years. Would its reporters and editors prefer to be mocked as “over the hill” or respected for their experience? ****Ellen Cassedy** , Takoma Park**

How to cope with caring for baby boomer parents while raising small children

About a year after Heather Rowe’s youngest son was born with Down syndrome, her father died. Two years after that, her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. Life’s challenges began to stack up as Rowe, 45, cared for her two young sons and also her mother. “I was emotionally exhausted,” said Rowe, who lives in Takoma Park with her wife and boys, ages 6 and 9. Rowe is on the cusp of a fast-growing population — a mashup of Generation X and millennials — that is starting to care for a revolving door of young and older loved ones. The term “sandwich generation” was coined in the 1980s to describe people who are squeezed between taking care of their children and their parents. Now, as members of the baby boom generation are entering their 70s, that sandwich is poised to become a footlong. There are about 75 million baby boomers in the United States, and many are beginning to experience the changes nobody wants and nobody likes to talk about: disease and chronic conditions. They are starting to look to their children for assistance, just as Rowe’s mother did. The boomers’ children, meanwhile, tended to have babies in their 30s and 40s instead of their 20s, meaning that if they have a sick parent, it’s not uncommon for them to juggle young children and a mom or dad in need of care. Their challenge is that their children and parents often need them at the same time, in much the same way — for time, love, patience and even money. “I was sad I was spending so much time away from my kids,” Rowe said. “When my mom was very sick, it was hard to be really present with them.” Carol Abaya, a writer and expert on aging issues, created a magazine called the Sandwich Generation in the 1990s. It happened after she suddenly felt the pressure to take care of her sick parents at the same time she was running her public relations and advertising firm in the New York area. Although Abaya’s children were grown by then, she realized that a growing number of people were torn between the needs of their parents and their children. The publication offered advice and support to mid-life adults who felt stretched thin in their caregiver roles. “When I looked around for help in dealing with my parents, there wasn’t anything,” Abaya said. “But there’s been a big change. Today, there’s more awareness of aging, chronic illness and the toll that it takes on society.” The U.S. population is graying. Between 2012 and 2050, the number of people over age 65 is expected to almost double, from about 43 million to about 84 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “The baby boomers are largely responsible for this increase,” states An Aging Nation: The Older Population in the United States, a Census Bureau publication. Older people are also living longer. For example, a person who is 85 years old can expect to live to an average of 91, according to the publication. All of this can add up. Baby boomers are sometimes caregivers to their aging parents at the same time they’re dealing with their own health issues. That leaves the boomers’ children stretched between caring for parents, sometimes grandparents and young kids. “The problem is time,” Abaya said. “Women are generally working, so they don’t have the time to take care of their parents.” If caregivers change their lives to make more time, then the problem often becomes money. “Let’s say the woman who was working quit work to take care of her elderly parent,” Abaya said. “Later in life, she has less money. You have a snowball effect. Everything snowballs to the next generation.” So what’s a sandwicher to do? Experts say they should find and accept as much help as possible. Rowe’s mother died in December 2014 at age 76. Rowe said she could not have managed the dual caregiver role without the support of her wife, her friends and her mother-in-law, who watched her kids on the long, draining days when she took her mother to chemotherapy treatments. “It helped to come home and everyone there understood what I was going through,” Rowe said. “I couldn’t have done it without my support network.” Rowe started accompanying her mother to chemotherapy each week in Columbia, a 40-minute drive from her home. Her brother coordinated her mother’s finances. Her sister moved into her mother’s home. Rowe, who quit her job after her first son was born, said she was able to handle the stress because she didn’t try to do everything herself. And no matter how tempting, she did not spend the night at her mother’s house. “After those long, exhausting days, I wanted to be home with my family,” Rowe said. “I needed to take myself out of that space and transport myself someplace else.” Experts in the field say people who are sandwiched need to take breaks. Otherwise, they become burned out and even sick themselves. “Caregivers are notorious for not doing self-care. They feel guilty for not being there,” said Anjana Chacko, a social worker who runs a pre-hospice program with Gilchrist Services in Maryland. “Having breaks and getting out and doing something fun for themselves is not frivolous. It’s self-care. It’s vital.” Chacko said one client of hers was recently stressed out from the intensity of caring for a loved one. “She says to me, ‘I do get a break — I go to the dry cleaner and the grocery.’ . . . I said, ‘Okay, we need to have a talk about what we consider a break.’ ” Chacko also said some caregivers are concerned they will lose their job, and income, if they take too much time off. Her advice is for everyone to be more flexible in the kind of help they are willing to accept. “Some families are capable of hiring help but want to try to save their money for a future catastrophe,” Chacko said. “They can try taking some of that money out now to keep their sanity.” She defined the range of help as anything from hiring someone to come in and cook and clean to hiring a nurse to give a family member a break a few hours a week. “If people do have funds but are loath to part with them, I try to get them to see the broader picture here,” Chacko said. “Consider using $50 for a couple of hours of relief. Put that in context of what it’s costing you emotionally because you never have a break.” She also encourages people to rely on community. “Is there somebody who can provide child care?” she said. “What support do you have from church? Community? Friends and neighbors?” Robert S. Bullock, 69, a lawyer who specializes in estate and life planning, said he is starting to see friends his age show the beginning signs of cognitive and physical issues. He says people need to have a plan in place if they become sick. “I’ve become my own client,” Bullock joked. He said nobody wants to talk about declining health, but if you plan for it, it takes a large part of the burden from your family. He said that includes small things, such as aging parents organizing their home so caregivers can easily access documents and sort through belongings. And larger things, such as having a living will. This way, people can stipulate when they are not in a crisis situation how they’d like things done if they happen to find themselves in one. Potential sandwichers need to encourage their parents to make a long-term plan if they haven’t already, he said. “People will be on a journey to chaos unless they do financial and care planning,” Bullock said. “Planning will allow your family to survive and absorb what can be the overwhelming costs of long-term care. You want to preserve your assets consistent with your estate plan.” Some things Bullock suggests are estate and disability planning, understanding Medicare and Medicaid, setting up disability trusts and life insurance trusts, naming guardianship and conservatorship, getting long-term care insurance, and becoming familiar with nursing homes. “Nobody wants to face it. It’s painful,” Bullock said. “But you have to address the elephant in the room.” He also said that taking care of a sick or disabled loved one can be a full-time job. “Someone has to be the advocate and caregiver and financial manager,” Bullock said. He suggests hiring professionals to help through this tough phase. “There’s a service for everything,” he said, including a company to help you maximize your health insurance coverage when you file claims. There is also a range of lower-cost and free senior resources available through state-run departments of aging, which can be found online. Many also have family caregiver support programs. For Rowe, while it was heartbreaking to sit with her mother for hours during her treatments, she said it was a nice way to bond, listening to her mother reflect on her life. Chacko said the key to making end-of-life time meaningful is to listen to the person who is ill and respect her wishes. Ask yourself, is she more social or more private? Some people may want to go on safari in Africa, but some may not have that energy or inclination. “I tell patients: ‘You only have this much energy. Use your energy like gold. You get to pick how you spend your gold,’ ” Chacko said. “All family members need to do is to just be there and show them you love them. Don’t expect things they may not be able to provide.” She said illness often amplifies a person’s personality. “Some people who are dying never want to have any conversation about dying,” she said. “They don’t feel the need to have to talk about it and wrap up things. It depends on the person.” Rowe and her mother had long stretches of time side by side, when they could each talk and listen and show how much they cared for each other. The reason parents look to their children when they are sick is because they love them and trust them. They want to pull their children close when they feel vulnerable. And they want to spend the time they have left surrounded by them, remembering days when they were vigorous and healthy, when their bodies and minds worked as they should. “I’m grateful I got to be there for my mom,” Rowe said. “And I’m grateful for the time I got to spend with her. We were close.” More from Lifestyle: Stuff it: Millennials nix their parents’ treasures Schools are now teaching kids — and their parents — how to deal with stress Parenting in the digital age: Real tips to help kids (and parents) today

Direct mail still a force in campaigns

The modern political campaign has fully embraced Twitter, Facebook and other social media to reach voters, but President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are still spending massive sums on a more traditional form of communication: snail mail. The two presidential campaigns have spent nearly twice as much on old-fashioned fliers, get-out-the-vote cards and other forms of direct mail as they have on Internet advertising, according to disclosure data and campaign aides. The hope is to appeal to millions of baby boomers and retirees, who may prefer the familiarity of the U.S. Mail to pop-up ads, YouTube videos and other flashy media. The only cost that outstrips mail is broadcast advertising, which is notoriously expensive and has been washing over swing states for months. Direct mail is especially crucial for Romney, whose supporters skew older than Obama’s. Romney and the Republican National Committee have spent more than $100 million on mail costs, compared with about $70 million for Obama and the Democrats. One typical Romney mailing to seniors in Florida pledges to “preserve and strengthen Medicare” with “no change in benefits for those in or near retirement.” It features an elderly couple and an older woman — all white — along with a picture of the Republican candidate and his wife, Ann. “Florida Seniors CAN’T TRUST President Obama,” the brochure reads above a picture of the president looking rather grim. It continues in capital red letters: “BARACK OBAMA HAS FAILED OUR SENIORS.” Richard Beeson, the Romney campaign’s political director, said that direct mail is a central part of the campaign’s outreach approach, which also includes digital strategies, phone canvassing and other methods aimed at engaging supporters. “We are believers in voter contact,” Beeson said. “There’s a number of different ways to talk to voters, and the mail is one very effective way.” The use of mass direct mail in politics stretches back at least as far as George S. McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, which deployed tactics perfected by the mail-order industry. The Religious Right movement of the 1980s married sophisticated voter lists with the reach of the U.S. Postal Service to become a potent political force. Mailings are used to attack opponents, make policy promises, solicit donations and help supporters register to vote. “The power of it is still huge because it’s reaching that age group that includes baby boomers, who are still largely more comfortable with direct mail than other, newer forms of communication,” said Paul Bobnak, research director for DirectMarketingIQ, a Philadelphia-based target marketing firm that tracks campaign mailings. “It is still a huge workhorse for political fundraising and messaging.” In 2008, more than half the voters in the presidential race were 45 or older, according to exit polls. Those 65 or older went for Republican John McCain by 53 percent to 45 percent, while Obama ran about even with McCain among voters aged 45 to 64, the data show. For many congressional candidates, trade unions and interest groups, direct mail offers a particularly effective, and inexpensive, way to reach supporters. Last week, the AFL-CIO labor confederation sent out 150,000 mailers to its Ohio members attacking Romney and GOP Senate candidate Josh Mandel; afterward, the same households received robocalls repeating the messages. “Our testing shows that union members spend more time reading and recall more info from our mail program than just general mail from campaigns,” said Ohio AFL-CIO spokesman Mike Gillis. The Obama campaign has used mailings aimed at women, Latinos, pet owners and a host of other demographic subgroups, part of the campaign’s sometimes obsessive use of micro-targeting. But Obama has also used mailings to press broader themes in key battlegrounds, including sharp-edged attacks on Romney’s wealth, tax policies and history as a private equity fund manager. Obama pamphlets that poured into Ohio in recent weeks featured images of Romney’s oceanside manse in California and a stretch limousine with a fake license plate reading “ROMNEY 1ST.” One leaflet shows Romney piloting his luxury powerboat near his lakeside home in New Hampshire, first facing one direction and then another. The images seem to echo a famous 2004 Republican television ad that showed Democrat John F. Kerry switching back and forth as he windsurfed, which was supposed to symbolize flip-flopping and elitism. “A NEW $250,000 Tax Cut For Multi-Millionaires — Like Himself. But up to $2,000 in Tax Hikes on Families Like Yours,” the caption on the Obama powerboat mailing reads. “Not so fast, Mitt.” The Obama campaign declined to discuss its direct-mail strategy. Unlike television ads, which are widely analyzed by the media, political mailings fly under the radar into voters’ mailboxes, rarely getting much notice unless they are particularly provocative. A recent 10-page “voter survey” from the conservative Faith and Freedom Foundation accused Obama of having “Communist beliefs” and compared his policies to the danger posed by Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. One of the most unusual postal pitches to emerge this year came from the Romney campaign, which mailed fliers to voters in Northern Virginia hawking the candidate’s commitment to battling Lyme disease, which it called “a massive epidemic threatening Virginia.” The message may be linked to a meeting Romney had with a Virginia Republican who believes in chronic Lyme disease, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says does not exist. “That’s something that’s very important to the folks in Fairfax County,” Beeson said, referring to Lyme disease. “The Obama campaign made light of it, and that’s fine, but at the end of the day we will talk about things that are important to people in the state.” Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, said direct mail remains a linchpin of the organization’s strategy. Mail “is especially good for reaching senior citizens” and works well for complex issues such as health care, he said. But Phillips also said mailings must be coupled with telephone banks, e-mail, broadcast ads and other approaches to break through the media noise. “The message environment today is so much faster and so much more cluttered than it was 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago,” he said. “There is no silver bullet. You better be touching people through multiple mediums, multiple times. The goal is to have a presence in all of them.”

Washington area draws the young; older residents leave

Even as the Washington region’s stable economy has drawn record numbers of young adults, many older residents are leaving the area, an analysis of new census data shows. In the past three years alone, the two conflicting migrations of young and old have pushed down the median age of the metropolitan area’s 5.6 million residents by six full months — to barely 36 years. American Community Survey numbers for 2009 to 2011 measure how many people in various age groups leave a place compared with how many people arrive. In essence, they capture the ebb and flow of big cities as young adults move away after graduation and older people retire and relocate, replaced by newcomers starting their careers or settling down closer to family. Few places illustrate the shift more than Washington. Over the three-year span marking the onset of the recession and the shaky recovery from it, the region averaged an annual net gain of more than 10,000 people aged 25 to 34, more than any metro region. It was ahead of Houston, Denver, Austin and Portland, Ore. So many young adults flocked to the area while the rest of the nation struggled with mounting job losses and foreclosures that Washington soared in the census rankings for that age group from 45th before the recession to No. 1. During that period, almost 7,000 more people 55 and older left the area than moved in, a number surpassed only by New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. “Washington is still a magnet for young people and college grads,” said William H. Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer who analyzed the data. “They find it’s a nice place to live, and as they get older, they may keep living here, at least until they’re 55.” Despite the departure of many older residents, the total population age 55 and up rose by more than 50,000. That is largely because so many baby boomers have passed that birthday, joining a new age group. Virtually every city in the nation is also experiencing a jump in its 55-and-older population. Despite persistent stereotypes of retirees moving to golf communities in warmer climes, surprisingly few people move far away after retiring. Richard W. Johnson, director of the Urban Institute’s Program on Retirement Policy, said that only about 1.5 percent of retirees who are 55 to 65 — the age group most likely to move — relocate across state lines. “Overall, most retirees stay put or stay in the same general location,” he said. “The movement to retirement locations is not nearly as concentrated as it once was.” Surveys of AARP members, done most recently in 2010, show that nine out of 10 retirees want to remain in their own homes or at least stay in the communities in which they built they lives. “If they do move, the number one reason is to be close to their families,” said Amy Levner, who specializes in home and family issues for AARP. “People 55 and older are not moving to Florida and Arizona in the numbers the Greatest Generation did. They’re moving in much smaller numbers, and usually to be closer to their kids.” Bert Sperling, a resident of Portland who produces rankings of the best places to live, said the economy can explain both tides — of young adults moving to Washington and older adults moving away. “Times are tight now, and D.C. is a job-creation engine,” he said. “Nobody’s really wealthy, but people are doing the best” around Washington. Most of the cities attracting the biggest numbers of people 55 and up are ones that went through a collapse in housing prices and now are starting to rebound — Phoenix, Tampa and Atlanta, and Riverside, Calif. “They’re affordable,” Sperling said. Levner said many of the cities attracting lots of retirees or near-retirees still have a vestige of “small town” feeling to them — places like Austin, Denver, San Antonio and Portland. One factor working to Washington’s detriment, she said, is its traffic. “Our region is set up for commuters,” she said, noting that men tend to outlive their driving years by seven years and women by 10 years. “A lot of our neighborhoods aren’t set up yet to support walking.” Although other cities are expected to move back up in the rankings once the economy improves, Frey said he expects Washington to retain a measure of cachet. “Washington and a few other places, like Denver and Portland, have a lot going for them,” he said. “It’s a combination of coolness, high tech and a place that probably has the prospect of staying economically above the water in the future.”

More evidence that we’re doing a better job taking care of senior citizens than young adults

For most of the last seven decades, multi-generational households in America likely contained an elderly parent or grandparent, an older generation cared for by the younger one. But in just the last few years, a curious trend has emerged: Young adults, aged 25-34, became more likely to live in a multi-generational household than the elderly over 85. In reality, this means that a grandmother over 85 is more likely to live away from her family than an adult child of 25. Just barely. Here is how the Pew Research Center charts this odd reversal in a new report on multi-generational living in the U.S.:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Those two trends, drawing on Census data, reflect some long-running and fundamental shifts in the economic prospects of the old and young. But before we get to them, a couple of quick definitions. Pew's "multi-generational" household does not refer to nuclear families of parents with young children living at home (although, yes, that would be two generations). Pew also takes a more expansive view of what "multi-generational" means than the Census Bureau does. Here, it's counting several different kinds of family arrangements: 1) parents living with their adult children over age 25 (a scenario in which either adult or child may be the head of household), 2) households with three generations, including parents, adult children and grandchildren, 3) "skipped" generations such as a grandparent caring for a grandchild, or 4) households with more than three generations. College students living in dorms, or young adults 18-24 still living at home, are not counted in the analysis. So what's happened here? On the one hand, fewer and fewer of the elderly have been living with family for decades now, for a variety of reasons. Advances in medicine and health mean that it's more likely now that an adult over 85 can live independently. Social Security and pensions have given them the financial stability to do so. And as the average size of the U.S. family has declined, elderly parents now also have fewer adult children with whom they might live. Meanwhile, the likelihood that a young adult will live in a multi-generational household has been increasing since 1980. This has been particularly true over the course of the recession, as job prospects have dwindled and as twentysomethings have been increasingly delaying the markers of adulthood (first job, first house, first kid). But the economic prospects of young adults have been shifting for much longer. As Pew points out, poverty has fallen over the last 50 years for the over-65; but it's been rising since 1980 for young adults.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Here's the troubling bottom line, from Pew: This trend nests within some much larger shifts in multi-generational living. Nationwide, the share of multi-generational households has been on the rise since 1980. And it will likely continue to increase, even as the economy improves, because immigrant and minority households that make up a growing share of the population are more likely to live in multi-generational households. This has some interesting implications for housing itself: Demographics can shift faster than our housing stock does. And so how will communities full of tw0-and-three-bedroom single-family homes accommodate families that want to pile in more than one generation at a time? The most unnerving takeaway, though: Changing living patterns may be another sign that a country (and economy) that has evolved over the years to support the elderly doesn't do quite such a good job with the young.

Tackling entitlements

Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), expected to comprise the Republican presidential ticket, are making a huge point of guaranteeing that under their budget plans, those of us age 55 and over would experience no change in Medicare benefits. At the same time, they talk of wonderful health-care “options” that would be available to those 54 and younger — purportedly including the option of keeping those same Medicare entitlement benefits. If the proposed options for younger folks are so grand, why should they not be available to us older folks as well? A corollary: If present Medicare benefits are such a relatively good deal that they need to be guaranteed for older folks, why would younger folks not be expected to opt for keeping them? And if they did, where would the “entitlement reform savings” come from? Do the former Massachusetts governor and his advisers think that Americans will buy this hokum without question? Given Mr. Romney’s refusal to identify specific domestic programs and expenditures that would be reduced under his proposals, his refusal to release more of his income tax returns, his refusal to reveal his immigration policy (other than to say it’s going to be “comprehensive”) and his evasiveness on countless other positions that raise obvious questions, I think the only possible answer is: They certainly do. ****Robert Davidson,** Falls Church**

For transit, it’s all about options

In his Nov. 6 Washington Forum commentary, “Our political divide on transportation,” Robert D. Atkinson ignored the biggest trend in American transportation: a desire for options. There is no pro-car vs. anti-car battle being waged through social engineering. Instead, there is a national movement for transportation choice led by millennials with no addiction to car use and graying baby boomers who are recovering from theirs. Younger Americans don’t just drive less — many choose not to have driver’s licenses. They would rather spend their time and money on technology and experiences. They use cars without being tethered to them. Increasingly, many prefer biking, taxis and ride-hailing services and mass transit. Their baby-boomer parents and grandparents are finding the car-dominated lifestyle in which they grew up to be increasingly unsatisfying. They, too, are moving to urban neighborhoods and reducing their automobile use. Clearly, not everyone has abandoned motor vehicles. Some prefer to drive everywhere and don’t mind the time and expense. Because so many communities surrendered to the car long ago, too many Americans have no real choice. Those who do have choices, young and old, are opting for the balanced transportation systems of livable communities that look nothing like Mr. Atkinson’s view from the 1970s. ****Earl Blumenauer** , Washington** The writer, a Democrat, represents Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District in the House.

Now that the nest is empty, retirees seek housing better suited to their age and households

Howard Bluth was standing outside his five-bedroom house in McLean, Va., when a man stopped in a pickup truck and asked him whether he’d like to sell it. That was three years ago, and Bluth and his wife, Paige, haven’t looked back. “I sold it very quickly,” said Howard Bluth, an engineer. While selling was easy, buying required research and more time. Like many empty nesters, the Bluths found that the tough part was preparing to transition from a large home to a much smaller one — identifying their many needs and wading through a range of options to meet them. Among the considerations: Do you want a one-level condo or a single-family house? Do you want a multilevel single-family house with the master bedroom on the first floor? Do you want a newly constructed home or an existing one? Do you want a townhouse with an elevator? Can you find a place we can afford near your family? “We want to be near our grandchildren and our children,” Howard Bluth said. All three of their grown children expect to be living in the D.C. area, and two already do. The Bluths looked at high-rises in downtown Bethesda, Md., not far from Northwest Washington, and at condominium apartments and townhouses throughout the area. “We didn’t want the steps,” Paige Bluth said. Much of what they saw was too pricey, including one-bedroom condominiums for $600,000 to $800,000 — more than they wanted to spend for less space than they needed. Finally, driving around the area with daughter Liza Aronie, they became interested in the Sumner Village condominium community, not far from where Aronie and her husband and children live in Bethesda. They called Aronie’s real estate agent, Caryn Krooth Gardiner of Long & Foster Real Estate, affiliated with Christie’s International in Bethesda, to find out what might be available there. Sumner Village is a long-established low-rise development on 28 wooded acres near the Capital Crescent Trail and the Shops at Sumner Place. Tennis courts, adult and children’s swimming pools, and a community center are among the amenities. A gatehouse controls access to the premises by automobile. Two- and three-bedroom units were available, but the Bluths had to move quickly or risk being shut out. ****A three-bedroom unit in Sumner Village sold before they could make an offer. “You can’t wait,” Paige Bluth said. “You had to just do it.” So they settled on a two-bedroom unit. The trade-off was the patio and private garden that came with their apartment. “It’s like living in the woods,” she said. But they traded 3,300 square feet for 1,200 square feet, and the downsizing wasn’t easy. “I gave away so many memories and memorabilia,” Paige Bluth said. They gave some of their art to their children, but items they didn’t want were discarded. “It’s heartbreaking, but you do it because this really is the best step,” she said. Her husband, who has an interest in history, had a library full of books that “he had to consolidate,” she said. For the Bluths, a major advantage of moving from a single-family house to a condominium was the freedom to travel without worrying so much about what was happening at home. Security will check an apartment for the owners if they are going away for an extended period. “We can pick up and go,” Paige Bluth said. “It’s just easier doing it from here.” In the end, a low-rise condominium building, dating to the 1970s, met their needs. “I got enough of a garden that I could at least plant rose bushes,” she said. “I didn’t want to live in a high-rise.” And Howard Bluth said, “The price was just right.” He declined to say how much they paid, but two-bedroom units tend to sell for just under $500,000. According to a 2015 Merrill Lynch and Age Wave national study, “Home in Retirement: More Freedom, New Choices,” 64 percent of retirees say they are likely to move at least once. Thirty-seven percent already have moved; 27 percent expect they will. The top reason for moving was to be “closer to family.” And some move to live in one-level homes. “A lot of people, when they’re retiring or getting older, choose to get rid of stairs,” Gardiner said. Sometimes a move to one-level living is more than a lifestyle decision; it’s a health decision. Also, buyers may be looking for “something now that will work for them — or can be adapted — later,” said Billy Buck, an agent with Buck & Associates in Arlington, Va. For those who want to continue living in a single-family home, finding a suitable one-level rambler or some other one-level home can be difficult. Even clients with an “unlimited budget” can’t always find exactly what they believe they are looking for in a one-level space or a multilevel space with a built-in elevator. “It’s out there, but just not in the package you’re looking for,” Buck said. “They’re looking for one of these needle-in-a-haystack ramblers before a builder comes in and scoops it up.” Another complication is that less space doesn’t necessarily mean lower price. Although many empty nesters are hoping to move to a space that is both smaller and less expensive, some of them end up with a smaller but more expensive home because they want to remain in an expensive area, according to real estate agents. “This could be a space downsizing but a financial upsizing,” said Steve Schuck, associate broker with the Schuck Group, Long & Foster Real Estate in Bethesda. “People are paying more for what they’re headed to and financing it,” he said, rather than buying something less expensive for cash. This can be the case when shopping new construction such as Hampden Row, The Lauren and The Darcy, luxury condominium projects in Bethesda. “It’s not necessarily a price decrease as much as a lifestyle change,” Gardiner said. After renting for five years, Rosaleen and David King, who are in their 50s, bumped up their commitment to the Washington area last year. The Kings, who had lived in Alpine, Calif., near San Diego, for 15 years, moved to Huntsville, Ala., for a work opportunity in 2007. They rented out their California house, not knowing if they would ever move back there. While in Huntsville, David King landed a position as a government contractor in the Washington area, and the Kings decided to rent a home until they figured out where they wanted to live. “We wanted to think about aging in place,” said Rosaleen King, an elementary school teacher at the private Beauvoir elementary school at Washington National Cathedral in Northwest Washington. “We need to be able to stay on one floor.” While they were renting — first in Northwest Washington, then in Montgomery County, Md., just north of the Friendship Heights Metro stop in the District — the Kings began thinking seriously about whether to buy in the District or in Montgomery. Knowing something about the price of houses in neighborhoods they had looked at when they first rented, they set a budget of no more than $1 million. “We thought we’d be here for a while,” said Rosaleen King, who has grown to enjoy the area. They decided to sell their California house. Their son would soon graduate from college, and their daughter was nearing the end of her high school career. So the Kings were also thinking about downsizing their living situation. After months of considering a smaller rental, they began to look for a home to buy, working with Susan Sonnesyn Brooks, an agent with Weichert Realtors in Bethesda, whom they met while looking at a prospective rental. “When we started the search, we thought we wanted to end up in the city,” Rosaleen King said, but everything proved to cost more than they wanted to spend. At the same time, even with a $1 million budget, it wasn’t easy to find a house in the Montgomery suburbs that met their needs and appealed to them. Moving slightly farther out, but still in Bethesda, they found one that was within their budget and that they can enter without climbing stairs from the front walk or the garage. It was a house they had seen priced at $1.05 million in Kenwood Park, off River Road inside the Beltway, a 1950s rambler that was taking a while to sell. The house had two bedrooms on the main floor, and the owners had built an addition with a large upstairs bedroom that was suitable for the Kings’ daughter. They closed on the house at the end of September 2015, paying $940,000, but they waited until some changes were made before moving in at the end of that October. They plan additional renovations, but, for now, they are enjoying the new neighborhood, though it’s a little farther from the Metro than they’d like, at 1.8 miles. “We’ve moved around a lot,” Rosaleen King said. “The thought of staying put appeals to us. We finally found a place where we knew we could stay put.” ● Figure out whether you’re going to buy or sell first. Unless you can carry the cost of two or more properties at the same time, you may have to rent in between. “It’s a way to do it but you have to move twice,” said Jim Toronto, an agent with McEnearney Associates, Arlington. ● Consider how far you want to live from public transportation. ● Search for properties in areas adjacent to your dream location as the prices may be lower for similar properties, Toronto said. ● Consider working with a professional — for example, an organizer or an interior designer — if you are downsizing. ● If you want to live in a townhouse, look for one with an elevator to avoid the possible trouble and expense of new construction later. ● If you want a single-family home, search for one that has the master bedroom and bath on the main level and that provides entry without stairs from the garage to the main level, said Susan Sonnesyn Brooks, an agent with Weichert Realtors in Bethesda. ● Consider an active adult community or independent living such as Fox Hill Residences, Maplewood Park Place, Greenspring or Ashby Ponds.

Immigration fuels Americans’ optimism about aging, Pew report says

As the global population of people 65 and older is projected to triple to 1.5 billion by 2050, public concern about the graying of society varies widely across the world, with Americans much more optimistic than those in many other countries thanks to immigration, a new study finds. That optimism is not unfounded: While one in five U.S. residents is expected to be 65 or older by 2050, the country is aging at a slower rate than other nations. This is largely due to the high rate of immigration, according to the report, “Attitudes About Aging: A Global Perspective,” released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. With fertility rates dropping and longevity increasing, nations across the world will see their ranks of older people swell, with about one-sixth of the global population expected to be 65 or older by 2050. But perspectives about this diverge dramatically depending on a country’s demographic, economic and political context, according to the report. In surveys in 21 countries last spring, 22,425 people were asked whether aging posed a problem for their country, whether they anticipated having an adequate standard of living in their old age, and whether governments or families and older people themselves should bear more responsibility for the elderly. Americans ranked among the least worried, at 26 percent — a stark difference from residents of the United States’ main economic and political partners in Europe and Asia, where more than half the respondents said aging was a major problem. The United States is projected to age more slowly, in large part because immigrants and their descendants are expected to shore up the ranks of young people of working age. Immigration is projected to increase the U.S. population by 89 million by 2050, the report said, while the populations of Japan, China, South Korea, Germany, Russia, Italy and Spain are expected to stay the same or decrease. Concern about the issue correlated closely with a country’s rate of aging, said Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at Pew and the report’s lead author. “In countries that are aging the most, people are indeed the most concerned,” he said. “Europeans are already old and continuing to get older. Younger countries tended to be more optimistic.” The most worried respondents were in Japan, South Korea and China, where 87, 79 and 67 percent of people, respectively, said aging was a major problem for their country. Europeans also expressed a high level of concern. But even as attitudes in the United States have become more negative since the 2007 recession, Americans remain far more optimistic, perhaps because the country’s demographic trajectory is projected to remain relatively stable. “Unlike Europe, it’s going to maintain its demographic status, where its share of the global population is unchanged,” Kochhar said. As the United States increases in size relative to other countries whose populations are shrinking, he said, it is likely to see economic benefits. Africa is expected to see the greatest population growth by 2050, with an increase of 1.4 billion people. Europe is expected to shrink by more than 30 million. Respondents in the most rapidly aging countries expressed the most concern. Japan and South Korea are expected to have majority populations older than 50 by mid-century, and European countries already have some of the world’s oldest populations. Latin America and Asia are projected to age the most rapidly, but Latin America has a relatively low median age, 10 years younger than that of the United States., so it is expected to be on par with it by 2050. Confidence in one’s standard of living in old age was related to both the country’s rate of aging and its economic vitality, the report said. Respondents who believed the government bears more responsibility for taking care of older people tended to be less optimistic about their old age. The coming demographic changes could significantly alter the distribution of global power in coming decades, with younger countries potentially able to pull ahead of older ones, the report said. The older the population, the more people are past the age of contributing to economic development and the more people are dependent on government services and family caregiving. This is defined as the old-age dependency ratio, or the number of people older than 64 per 100 people age 15 to 64, or working-age. In South Korea and China the old-age dependency ratio is expected to quadruple by 2050. In Spain, it will nearly triple; in Japan, Germany and Italy, it will double. These countries will have almost as many dependents as working-age people by 2050, the report said. Countries where the younger populations are expected to increase, such as Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria, have a brighter outlook, with more economic resources expected to be freed up for economic development. In the United States, the swelling ranks of older people are expected to be offset by the infusion of more younger people, putting the country in a better position than many of its major economic and political partners, the report said. But population estimates are only one factor when predicting a country’s economic viability, the report said. People might choose to work longer in aging countries, boosting economic vitality. In the United States, for example, the original Social Security full retirement age of 65 has been edging up since 1983 and is expected to level off at 67. Stability, social customs, governance and corruption also play into the equation, Kochhar said. “Is demography your destiny? You can’t assume so,” he said. “It’s a combination of things. But demography does set the stage in positive and not so positive ways, and the rest is up to you.”

What the world’s best cities will look like in 2030

First, the city of the future should have the infrastructure and transportation links to address the needs of citizens of all generations. Second, each city should build new housing options to enable older citizens to “age in place.” Thirdly, each city should include access to community health programs with innovative medical technology for seniors. And finally, the city of the future should have plenty of opportunities for continuing work, education, arts and recreation for all ages.  If anything, though, the pace of innovation is happening faster overseas than in the United States. That’s largely because there is greater awareness about an aging population in Europe and Asia. According to a survey commissioned by MHFI examining the attitudes and concerns of people around the issues of urbanization and aging, 94 percent of the population in China and 89 percent of the population in Brazil are aware of the pending demographic shift. In comparison, only 49 percent of Americans are aware of the issue.    So, putting all this together, we can expect cities of the future to include new transport links that bring elderly citizens (many of whom no longer drive) to where they need to be; new housing communities where elderly can “age in place” comfortably with the help of technology; new medical innovations that are responsive to the needs of older citizens; and new work and leisure activities that aren’t oriented just to young urban hipsters.

Is $1.5 million in savings enough to retire?

Have I saved enough for retirement? This question about financial security can overwhelm a lot of folks. I know it concerns me, and I’ve been saving for retirement since my early 20s. Joining me last week for my online discussion was Jean C. Setzfand, senior vice president of AARP programs that address health, wealth and personal enrichment issues for consumers 50 and over. The questions came fast and furious during the chat, so Setzfand agreed to answer some in offline.   — What’s your plan in retirement and consider the near-term (5 to 10 years) AND the longer-term (20 to 30 years)? If you have a clear view on your lifestyle, you’ll have a better sense for the expenses (costs) required to support that life. Also, don’t forget to factor in where you will be spending your retirement as cost of living expenses can vary by location! — As you consider your lifestyle, don’t forget to budget for health-care and long-term care expenses. Most people overlook the out-of-pocket health expenses, which really adds up (estimated at $250,000 for a 65 year old couple) and that doesn’t include long-term care costs.         Older Americans use prescription drugs more than any other segment of the U.S. population, typically on a chronic basis. As we look at ways to lower health care costs in this country, we believe that Congress must do more to reduce the burden of high prescription drug costs on consumers and taxpayers. Rather than address costs, BCRA simply repeals the fee on manufacturers and importers of branded prescription drugs. This repeal removes $25.7 billion from the Medicare Part B trust fund between 2017 and 2026, and leads directly to higher Medicare Part B premiums.   2. What will your lifestyle be in ‘retirement’? Will you have a higher expense base or lower? 3. If you relocate, you’ll want to think about the specific location so you can estimate your cost of living. 4. Don’t forget to consider your out-of-pocket health care AND long-term care costs.  Did you retire early and if so, how did you do it? Is retirement everything you hoped for? Are you scared you’ll run out of money? Sharing your story might help others. So send your comments to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Please include your name, city and state. In the subject line put “Retirement Rants and Raves.”  “I recently turned 50, have what I believe to be a reasonably decent amount saved for retirement but also face some significant insecurity regarding my current (well-paying) gig,” Katz wrote. “ I am also in good health and single with no kids. I am consequently struggling with wanting to be ‘the ant’ and save enough for retirement but also worry about getting to my 60s and regretting not having done more when I was younger and had the money. So in a sense I think I am asking if you’ve heard from anyone saying they have ‘grasshopper regret,’. i.e. they were so focused on savings they didn’t do things — which cost money — when they were younger but now can’t because of age/infirmity?” I’d like to hear from the grasshoppers, too. Any regrets on saving and missing out on some fun? Send your comments to colorofmoney@washpost.com.  I believe that wealth happens intentionally and that means for me reading as much as I can about all things financial, especially retirement. In this section of the newsletter is devoted to postings from retirement blogs. Got a favorite blog or specific posting let me know.   I asked Wolfe why he liked this particular blog. It “caters to my demographic — professionals with higher income than the societal average, but not high enough to not have to think about money (primarily doctors, but he’s acknowledged a broader professional audience),” he said. “I think that group sometimes gets lost in between financial advice for people with lower income or more dire situations, and people with such significant wealth that they don’t really need to stress about retirement so much as not mess up an already good thing.”

You may intend to keep working. But life may say otherwise.

A third of Americans expect to work at least until age 65. Another 10 percent don’t plan to retire at all. Many don’t think they’ve saved enough money. And baby boomers are redefining retirement and must keep busy to stay happy — especially if many expect to live into their 80s and 90s. But they are in for a shock. A 2015 Employee Benefit Research Institute survey found that 50 percent of retirees left their jobs sooner than planned. Why? Half had to leave because of disability, a health issue or to care for someone close to them. Another 18 percent left because of layoffs or downsizing. “We always try to tell people you should be prepared for that every day,” says Nancy Coutu, co-founder of Money Managers Financial Group in Oak Brook, Ill. “Even if the plan is to work forever, Mother Nature often does things out of control, and you are forced into retirement. “Bad things happen to good people,” she says. “You could be best worker on the planet, but no one in indispensable.” What can you do to prepare? Financial advisers and retirement experts offer some tips. Just in case. **Do a budget.** “If you have time to plan, the most important thing is to have detailed budget of cash inflows and outflows,” says Michael Dalton, author or co-author of more than 100 books on financial planning. “That’s the only way you know where money is coming from and where it’s going.” Coutu agrees that this step is critical. “First they run numbers to see if there is a deficit,” she says. “Then we figure out how much they have to make. A lot will go back to work making less. Or they may have to get a part-time job. If they want to maintain current lifestyle and can’t find a full-time job, we look at real estate. We look at downsizing and if they have to do a reverse mortgage. “ **Make extra payments on your mortgage and car.** “Management of housing expenses is a critical item, because it’s the biggest,” Dalton says — about 40 percent on income. The strategy here is simple. If you are 55 and worried about losing your job at 60, make additional mortgage payments. So, if you have a 30-year-mortgage with 23 years left, try to pay it off in seven. Similarly, look at automobile payments, he says. “I need to get the car paid off around the time I am at the highest risk of being terminated,” Dalton says. “Pay down debt,” says Greg Hammer, president of Hammer Financial Group. “If you are married, ask yourself, ‘Where would we be if we only had one income?’ If you have an unexpected retirement, most will not be prepared.” **Boost your emergency savings.** “We tell people to pay yourself first,” Hammer says. “You should have six months of cash reserves. And if you are eligible, you should be contributing to a Roth IRA. Principal dollars can be pulled out at any time after you reach 59. You can stretch those dollars.” Paul Bennett, managing director of United Capital Financial Advisers in Great Falls, says six months of savings is not always possible, so there are alternatives. “Sometimes they will rely on untapped home equity to act as bridge,” he says. **Have a plan.** Coutu had clients who had a long-term plan: Upon retirement, they would sell their home and move to Arizona. “Out of nowhere the husband lost his job,” she said. “We went back to drawing board. I asked the wife, ‘If he can’t find a job, what do you want to do?’ She said if he’s not working, she’s not working. “We accelerated their plan,” she said. “I said, ‘Let’s work it out on paper.’ We looked at what Social Security would be, what the pension would be, what we would get for the house, what it would cost for the dream house in Arizona. It turned out they could go right now. They sold their house and are living in Arizona. Because they had been planning for years, it was a wonderful success story.” **Consider disability insurance.** “Personally, if someone is disabled, it is critical that they have a disability policy to protect their biggest asset — ability to earn a living,” Bennett says. Similarly, he says, some people leave jobs because their parents are facing long-term health issues. “That can create a real problem. One way to cover that is to consider purchasing long-term care insurance for your parents if they can’t afford it. The costs on average in this area are over $10,000 a month for nursing-home care.” **Keep your skills current and your résumé up to date.** “Keeping your skills sharp, keeping your résumé updated, staying active on professional networks is imperative,” Bennett says. But lower your expectations for salary and benefits if you do land another job. People over 50 separated from their jobs often find it nearly impossible to find similar jobs and salaries. **If the layoff happens, negotiate your severance, especially health insurance.** Dalton said that when he was bought out by a university, he secured group health insurance, even though he pays the premiums. His goal was to keep it going until he qualified for Medicare. “What you do about health care is critical,” he says. “Fortunately, under Obamacare, you don’t have to worry about preexisting conditions. “ “Plan for the future like I may not have a job tomorrow,” Coutu says. “People need to make sure they don’t outlive their money.” In the past year, 13 percent of workers report increasing the age they expect to retire, compared with 22 percent in the 2013. ** 2008-2015 Retirement Confidence  Surveys **

Well-connected homes for seniors and everyone else

Part of the fun of new home technology is using it to make daily living more comfortable and cool. The marketplace is growing with smart-house innovations, such as getting hot water from a refrigerator or instantly turning on a group of lights in your house. Older Americans, and the people who care about them, want user-friendly homes full of convenience and safety. With wireless technology, more and more functions in the house can be controlled by remotes, keypads, smartphones or tablets. Home systems are being redesigned in ways that often can help people with arthritis or disabilities perform daily tasks more easily. Eight out of 10 baby boomers say they want to stay in their homes and communities as long as possible, according to a 2012 AARP poll. “Our research shows people are not going to move,” says Nancy Thompson, an AARP spokeswoman. Businesses such as iHome Integration  in Burke provide technology solutions to seniors and people with special needs. Co-owner Justin Tsuchida says he installs motion, door and pressure sensors as well as cameras that can help families keep track of loved ones through a smartphone or computer. Builders and remodelers are increasingly getting technology requests from consumers who are spending time at home shows or reading up on innovations for kitchens and bathrooms. According to Bill Owens, president of Owens Construction near Columbus, Ohio, and past chairman of the National Association of Home Builders Remodelers, buyers are looking for convenience and comfort but are turned off by labels such as “senior-specific” or “universal design.” “Baby boomers are looking for mainstream convenience and comfort,” Owens says. “They want to be jazzed by buying something new that is easy to use and has a wow factor. The safety aspect is an added bonus for a lot of people.” Here are a few products that harness some of the latest technology. A new GE refrigerator has several senior-friendly features, including a hot water dispenser for making tea. “This could be a lifesaver for someone who does not use the stove as well,” says Amy Levner, manager of home and community for AARP, who spotted the model at the the International Builders Show in January. Other senior-friendly features: It has extra LED lights to illuminate drawers and shelves better and has a water-filtration system that removes 98 percent of five trace pharmaceuticals. **Price:** $2,999, available in April. The ioDigital shower system by Moen can enhance showering safety for seniors. The consumer can set a precise temperature and flow for the shower, lock it in and press a button to activate it daily. The system is sold with four programmable presets. The technology prevents that morning scramble to adjust handles to avoid being scalded or frozen. “This product makes life easier, and it has a safety implication,” says Brad Crozier, a Moen senior product manager. “That is true whether you are a senior or a parent with children.” **Price:** $800-$1,300 for digital valve, controller and showering components. Versions for bathtubs ($1,200-$1,800) and more elaborate spa showers ($2,000-$3,500) also available. An unlit garden path can be dangerous for anyone getting home at night, senior or not. With Maestro, you can pull into your driveway and push a button to have lights inside and outside your house turn on. The system is installed by replacing light switches or dimmers with those embedded with the Lutron radio frequency technology. According to Melissa Andresko, Lutron’s spokeswoman, you can link up to nine dimmers (on/off switches are also available) to one remote control. “It’s good for both coming and going from your house,” says Andresko. “It is also good for people with limited mobility who use wheelchairs. The remote can be handy for turning lights on and off.” **Price:** Maestro Wireless dimmer and Pico remote control package $130; additional dimmers or switches $88; additional remotes $56. The convenience of turning your kitchen faucet on or off without having to touch a lever or handle would be appreciated by anyone who loves to cook. If you are cutting chicken, you don’t need to touch the faucet with messy hands to turn on the water. Sensate plugs into an outlet, so no crawling underneath the sink to replace batteries. And there’s an added benefit for seniors who might have arthritis as waving your hand or a pot under a faucet to turn it on or off can be less painful than turning a handle. **Price:** Available in chrome ($675) or vibrant stainless ($800). (The unit also works in a conventional way.) **Chat Thursday at 11 a.m.** Amy Levner, home design expert for AARP, joins staff writer Jura Koncius for our weekly online Q&A; on decorating and household advice. Submit questions at  _washingtonpost.com/home_ . **At Home newsletter **Go to the Home & Garden page to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter, delivered every Thursday. **Handy Guides** Read our guides to buying paint, mattresses and household appliances.

Future retirees at risk of downward mobility, Pew finds

The retirement prospects of Americans are slipping for the first time in generations, according to a report released Thursday, adding a new voice to those warning that future retirees face the risk of downward mobility when they leave the workforce. The report by the Pew Charitable Trusts said that Americans born after 1955 are carrying more debt than the generations that came before them, putting them in danger of not having enough savings to maintain their standard of living in retirement. The report estimates that, at the median, Americans born between 1966 and 1975 — so-called Gen-Xers — will be able to replace just half their pre-retirement income once they stop working, well below the minimum 70 percent replacement rates recommended by most financial planners. Late baby boomers — which the report defines as those born between 1956 and 1965 -- will be able to replace 60 percent of their working incomes in retirement, the report estimates. Both replacement rates are below what financial experts say is necessary for a secure retirement. “Late boomers and Generation-Xers lost significant amounts of wealth during the Great Recession, eroding their already low levels of assets,” said Erin Currier, director of Pew’s Economic Mobility Project. “As policy makers focus on Americans’ retirement security, particular consideration should be paid to how younger generations of workers can make up for these losses and prepare for the future.” The new report from Pew, a nonpartisan authority on public policy issues, adds to the growing concern about retirement security as policymakers face financial pressure to trim programs such as Social Security and Medicare that form the mainstay of financial support for the nation’s rapidly aging population. The report found that the country is on the verge of a pronounced shift in retirement security. Buoyed by the run-up in housing values over the past two decades and ballooning stock prices caused by the dot-com boom, Americans born between 1946 and 1955, are approaching retirement well prepared. They have more financial assets and greater home equity, on average, than people born between 1926 and 1935 or those born between 1936 and 1945, the so-called war babies. But the report said neither late boomers nor Gen-Xers are on track to build on that progress, largely because they are carrying more debt, often in the form of student loans, higher mortgages and credit card balances. Those trends were only magnified by the Great Recession, which cost Gen-Xers nearly half their wealth — far more than other age cohorts, according to the report. The report examines finances only up to 2010. But researchers believe that the findings are still relevant even though the economy has been in a slow recovery since. Unemployment rates, while ebbing, have stayed far above historical norms. Meanwhile, housing values — the biggest source of wealth for most Americans — remain far below pre-recession peaks, despite recent increases. In addition, the benefits from the surging stock market have gone mainly to the nation’s top earners, widening the nation’s wealth inequality. The Pew report also predicted increasing wealth inequality within each successive age group as they approach retirement. For example the wealth gap between the poorest and most affluent Gen-Xers is expected to be larger at retirement than the gap separating the poorest and wealthiest late boomers. The recession compounded factors that were already hurting the finances of future retirees. They included ever-rising health care costs, growing household debt and an increasing reliance on individuals to plan and save for their own retirements, a responsibility previously borne largely by employers. Half of American workers have no retirement plans through their jobs, leaving people on their own to save for old age. Meanwhile, four out of five private- sector workers with retirement plans at work have only 401(k)-type defined contribution accounts rather than traditional pensions that pay retirees a fixed benefit for life. Researchers have repeatedly found that workers with defined-contribution accounts often do not save enough, make unwise investment choices or dip into their retirement savings too often for non-retirement expenses. The analysis in the Pew report was done by John Gist, a professor of public policy at George Washington University. The data used in the study came from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, conducted by the University of Michigan.

Rent vs. Buy: The three questions Boomers should be asking themselves

Baby Boomers have become one of the major drivers of rental demand over the past decade, according to a study by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Other research finds that Boomers accounted for twice the growth in renter households as millennials did since the recession — and their ranks will only grow as more Boomers reach retirement age.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico But is renting in retirement a smart financial decision? Experts say Boomers are weighing a different set of factors from their millennial counterparts. Many Boomers already own a home and may be looking to downsize in favor of less maintenance — and perhaps a warmer climate. While homeownership is a way for Millennials to grow their wealth, Boomers should already have built their assets. Instead, they should focus on making sure their money stretches through their golden years. We talked to two financial planners — Eleanor Blayney, consumer advocate at the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, and Jeff Bucher, president of Citizen Advisory Group in Ohio — and came up with three critical questions Boomers should ask themselves as they weigh whether to rent or buy. **How long will you live there?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The five-year rule of thumb still applies to Boomers: Buying a home only makes sense if you plan to stay there at least five years. Closing costs, realtor’s fees and moving expenses make homeownership an expensive upfront proposition, and it takes time to make that money back through appreciation. That’s an obvious piece of cautionary advice for Millennials who have yet to put down roots. But Boomers often fail to grasp how quickly their lives can change as well. Dreams of retiring in a secluded mountain cottage can fade once a grandchild is born. Florida may seem like paradise — until summer arrives. Or plans to travel the world can be sidelined by health complications. “Flexibility in housing is important as we get older,” Bucher said. “You want to be able to understand what the end game can be for us.” **What else could you be doing with your money?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The standard argument against renting is that the monthly payments are the equivalent of flushing money down the drain. But that analogy applies mainly to young adults, who are searching for ways to start building wealth. Boomers have had decades to do that. Instead, they should be thinking about the best way to deploy what they’ve already accumulated. Blayney said she tries to get her clients to see the bigger picture: Real estate should be just one part of a broader retirement portfolio. A house is a large but relatively illiquid asset, meaning that it’s hard to access the equity in your home to pay for a medical expense or a trip to Spain. Boomers should focus on making their savings work as hard as possible for as long as possible. That might mean selling the family home, putting some of the proceeds into a brokerage account and renting an apartment. Diversifying the potential sources of income during retirement also creates greater flexibility in tax and estate planning, Blayney said. “You have the ability to begin to engineer your income,” she said.  “You have a portfolio now with lots of possibilities.” That doesn’t mean buying a home in retirement is never worth it — the reasons are just different. Bucher said the tax deductions associated with homeownership might make it worthwhile, especially for Boomers with higher incomes. The question, he said, is “how do we get the most cash in our pocket to do all the things that we have dreamt of doing?” **What social services do you need?**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Buying a home also means paying property taxes, which many jurisdictions use to pay for schools — an important and desirable public service but one that Boomers generally do not use. But Bucher cautioned that renters still pay that tax indirectly because it’s usually factored into the monthly rate for an apartment. Instead, retirees should be on the lookout for jurisdictions that levy special taxes to fund education. Health care should be a critical component of Boomers’ financial plans. Medicaid could help ease the burden, and Blayney said some Boomers may choose to spend some of their savings in order to qualify for its long-term care benefits. In those cases, she said, owning a home may be the best option. And in the end, the government cannot claim the house to recoup health care payments if a spouse is still living there. Planning for the next stage in life can mean confronting uncomfortable but necessary topics. Blayney said that’s the key to ensuring the golden years don’t go bust. “Baby Boomers are sort of redefining the next phase,” she said. “You want to do the math but you want to superimpose the likely lifestyle changes coming.” **More stories** :    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Millennials’ top competition for condos might be their parents    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico A financial guide to retiring abroad    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The most expensive cities in the U.S. for single people and families    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

In redoing Adams Morgan rowhouse, less is more for boomers

Empty nesters Tony Gittens and Jennifer Lawson decided to stay put in their Adams Morgan rowhouse rather than move to smaller living quarters as they neared retirement. “This street has a sense of community, and we like the convenience of the neighborhood,” says Lawson, senior vice president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The couple’s desire to remain in the family home where they raised their two sons is common among the nation’s 77 million baby boomers. According to a 2010 survey conducted by AARP, about 75 percent of adults 45 and older want to live in their current homes for as long as possible. For Gittens, 68, and Lawson, 66, staying put meant modernizing the kitchen and living spaces without losing the home’s historic details. The 1909 rowhouse was designed by architect Nicholas R. Grimm, who helped shape such District neighborhoods as Bloomingdale, Foggy Bottom and Mount Pleasant. “This is the reason we bought the house in the first place,” says Lawson, pointing to the living room’s framed doorways and ornate mantel. While making the changes, the couple purged many of their belongings, so much so that some of the rooms resemble an empty nest. To say the kitchen and living spaces are clutter-free is an understatement. “We wanted a streamlined design without a lot of useless stuff,” says Gittens, the founder and director of FilmFest D.C., the annual movie festival, now in its 27th year. “I’m not interested in living in a furniture gallery.” The back of the house, where most of the recent remodeling took place, is now a minimalist’s delight. All-white finishes in the kitchen are designed to maximize daylight from tall windows in the long, narrow space. Snowy, German-made laminate countertops are left bare, and cabinets have no visible hardware to interfere with their clean lines. The ultra-modern kitchen and adjacent seating area also showcase two of six televisions in the home. “I actually need to watch ‘Downton Abbey’ — it’s my professional responsibility,” says Lawson with a laugh. Gittens often uses the flat-screen TVs to preview movies for FilmFest D.C., scheduled this year for April 11-21. “I have even taken advantage of dinner guests to show them films we are considering and get their opinion,” he says. The couple often entertains at the dining table built into the kitchen island — all in white, including the chairs. In renovating, the homeowners initially thought they would have to add onto the house to get the subtractive look. “We started with the idea of a bigger kitchen and expanding outward,” says Gittens. “We wanted to be able to have large dinner parties,” adds Lawson. A search of local design talent led them to Reena Racki, a South African-born architect, who insisted on making better use of the existing space rather extending it. “The house was very long and dark,” says Racki, whose D.C. office is in the Chevy Chase Arcade. “An addition would have made it even longer and darker. We decided to strategically erase walls to open the space to light.” At the back of the main level, the original kitchen, a staircase leading to the basement and a small bathroom were demolished to open a large area for the new kitchen and “family room” — a seating nook for watching TV. A powder room was created off the foyer. The rear wall of the kitchen was punctured to accommodate floor-to-ceiling glass and allow more sunshine to reach the interior. A glass door on one side opens to the back yard where a brick patio is bordered by a tiny garden planted with a holly tree. Racki says part of her job was making the most of the budget supplied by the homeowners, who spent about $200,000 on the renovation. “We thought about cutting holes through the roof and floors to bring light into the center of the house, but that was too costly,” says the architect. “We decided on a simple space with light maple floors and white surfaces to amplify and reflect the light.” Helping to brighten the kitchen are new windows above the sink, next to the refrigerator and on the side of the TV-watching space. Instead of shading the glass with curtains or blinds, Racki placed pots of bamboo in front them to act as screens. On the long side of the kitchen, a new wall was constructed at a slight angle to direct the light from the windows deeper into the interior. It is thick enough to conceal structural columns, an electrical panel and pantry cupboards. Small niches fitted with lights and painted in pops of different colors animate the wall. This design treatment extends outdoors in white cement-board fencing punctuated with a single orange niche. “They remind me of the sprocket holes in film or the openings for movie projectors,” says Lawson of the wall niches. Racki sees the bright recesses as another way to bring light into the center of the room and establish visual counterpoints to the media equipment on the wall. “They act to balance the presence of the TV so they don’t become the primary focus,” she says. On the second floor, the back bedroom over the kitchen was remodeled into an office for Gittens with a built-in desk, shelving and flooring of recycled oak. A custom-designed Murphy bed on one wall can be pulled down for guests. New floor-to-ceiling glass, an extension of the kitchen window wall, provides a wide view of a nearby apartment building like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window.” The homeowners had remodeled their second-level master and guest bathrooms in the mid-2000s and were able to add heated floors to these spaces while ceilings on the first floor were opened to fix structural problems. During the most disruptive phases of the six-month renovation during 2011, Gittens and Lawson traveled to the Middle East for three weeks before subletting an apartment in Columbia Heights for two months. “That helped us understand we didn’t need all our things,” says Lawson. While remodeling, the homeowners jettisoned furniture, oriental rugs, African masks, copper pots and other stuff collected over decades. “For me, the minimalizing isn’t quite done,” admits Lawson, on a tour of her “woman cave,” a cozy, third-floor bedroom where some possessions are stored. On the main level, the homeowners redecorated to create a modern look even in spaces framed in old woodwork. The front living room, one of the few spaces in the house without a TV, is updated with low-slung Scandinavian sofas and chairs, and an acrylic coffee table from CB2. In the sitting area off the kitchen, reproductions of 1960s chairs and midcentury coffee table by Danish designer Hans Wegner are paired with a contemporary sofa and a shag rug from Bo Concept in Georgetown. Lining the wall separating the remodeled kitchen from the stair hall is built- in Ikea shelving to display what is left of the couple’s book collection. No artwork or personal memorabilia decorates the walls of the main-floor rooms. Gittens says maintaining the clean surfaces in the spartan rooms “has almost become a spiritual discipline” for him. “Removing from our space what does not belong there allows us to better appreciate what does belong there.” **Deborah K. Dietsch** is a freelance writer.

Coming home in your 30s: Young adults drive rise in multi-generational living

Like many adults in their 30s accustomed to their independence, Tasha Hart had no intention of staying long when she moved into her parents’ house in Newport News, Va., after separating from her husband. But two years later, she and her two children are still there — and will be for the foreseeable future, although perhaps not “for life,” as her mother predicts, hopefully. “I came home once before, for six months when I was 25 and trying to find myself,” said Hart, 36. “My friends looked at me like I was from a different planet. It was almost taboo to move back in with your parents. But now people say with the economy the way it is, they wish they could do that, too.” Hart is part of a phenomenon that began slowly more than three decades ago, accelerated during the recession and has continued into an uneven recovery. Adults 25 to 34 are driving a rise in multi-generational households, according to a report the Pew Research Center released Thursday. The study concludes that almost one in four young adults in that age group are living in households with several generations under one roof. The vast majority have moved in with their parents, while others are living with grandparents, aunts or uncles. It is now more common for young adults to live with multiple generations of relatives than it is for those 85 or older, traditionally the group most likely to live with family members. Overall, 57 million Americans — 18 percent of the population — lived in multi-generational families in 2012, double the number in 1980. There are almost as many young adults 25 to 34 living in these families than there are people under 18. The growth reflects a more profound and historic change than the rise in adults younger than 25 who could not find jobs during the recession and temporarily moved back home. The increase in the age group just above them is a striking reversal of a pattern that held through most of the 20th century, when each year registered a decline in multi-generational living. The turning point came in the 1980s, and the number has grown every year since. Richard Fry, an economist who co-authored the Pew report, points to several factors. The nation has experienced a wave of recent immigrants who are more likely than native-born Americans to live in multi-generational homes. According to the report, 10 percent of households headed by someone born in this country are multi-generational, compared with 16 percent of foreign-born households. There have been behavioral changes, too. Young adults are marrying later — 29 for men and 27 for women, according to the census, four to five years older than was typical in 1980. Married couples are more likely than single people to live on their own. A slow economic recovery has played a bigger role than demographics in recent years. “The multi-generation living arrangement serves a private safety net,” Fry said. “Some of this increase is clearly driven by a less-than-stellar job market.” Donna Butts, executive director of the advocacy group Generations United, said attitudes toward multi-generational living have changed as it has become more common. In a survey of multi-generational families a few years ago, the group found that many families that came together because of need decided to stay together by choice. “Previous generations were so much about rebellion and making your own identity,” she said. “Now, parents and children have different relationships. They find they’re liking each other and like to be together.” Hart said she thought she would stay for a few months, at most, when she moved from Northern Virginia to her parents’ home in 2012. Then a heart condition suddenly flared, requiring surgery. Her mother was there to nurse her through her convalescence and take videos of her daughter heading to her first day of kindergarten, which Hart missed because of the surgery. “My parents have been pillars to lean on as I’ve dealt with health and finance issues,” she said. Hart doesn’t want to have to lean on them forever, though. “I want to move out,” she said. “I thought I’d save money to pay a year’s worth of rent, so I can be in a position to be self-sufficient again. My goal is to be just 10 minutes away. I don’t want to be too far again.”

Why the looming ‘Silver Tsunami’ could put 25 million jobs at risk

Baby boomers, the generation born immediately following World War II, are getting old. Many of them are small business owners and, over the next few years, are likely looking to wind things down, play a little golf, move to Florida, spend more time with the grandchildren…and exit their businesses. Some are calling it the “Silver Tsunami” – a massive shift in ownership of private companies. That could be very good for the boomers. But it may not be so good for their employees.  According to Project Equity, many small business owners do not have succession plans–and because of this they’re putting their employees at risk. As a small business owner I empathize–we tend not to think ahead. This leaves us with fewer choices when it comes time to retire. Without succession planning, many of these businesses “will just quietly close down and go away,” says Project Equity’s co-founder Alison Lingane. Lingane says a third of business owners in this generation who want to sell are having a “hard time finding a buyer” and many are being bought out by out-of-area buyers that are consolidating ownership and wealth. The result: the jobs of all of their employees are at risk, regardless of their industry. The organization is working to raise awareness of the issue. It is urging local governments to measure the impact on their tax base by using business license data to track how many businesses are more than 15, 20 or 25 years old so that local business and political leaders can get involved. The most impactful solution is encouraging business owners to think ahead and consider transferring ownership of their companies to their employees. “Since today most family-owned businesses don’t have somebody in the next generation who wants to take over, employee ownership is one of the best ways to keep thriving businesses locally rooted into the next generation,” said Mark Quinn, District Director, U.S. Small Business Administration.

In Washington, vertical living is on the rise

Across the country, a shift in lifestyle choices is driving the trend toward vertical living in urban areas. In Washington, we are seeing this trend as having a lot do with general commute times. For years, many Washington workers have commuted into the city for work and back out to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs for their home and family life. Now people want to bring these two parts of their lives together and cut out the commute. Vertical living allows them to do that. In addition, people are getting married and starting families later in life, so the need for the larger, suburban house with a yard for the kids doesn’t arise until they are older. Living in an apartment or condominium in the city is feasible for many more people, and for much longer, than it was in the past. The reverse is also occurring, with empty-nesters and retirees moving into the city for its walkability and easy access to the cultural amenities the District has to offer, plus dining and entertainment. In response to increased demand for the clutter-free, highly mobile lifestyle desired by both millennials and retirees, developers are building more multifamily buildings in the city. They are trying to appeal to the majority of buyers — including first-timers — in the city, especially from a price-point perspective. That means they are building spaces that still have an affordable monthly payment, but also check the box on size. With properties that are for sale right now, we are seeing spaces that are a little smaller than what we’ve seen in the past in Washington, but not drastically so. From a rental perspective, apartment units are smaller — about 10 to 15 percent smaller than a similar condo. Developers are also moving forward with less space in the unit and greater focus on the building amenities and shared public spaces. The thought is that residents are spending less time in their apartments and more time enjoying amenities such as roof decks, pools and theater rooms. Among renters, these types of amenities are now expected and part of the appeal of vertical living. The buildings have spacious club rooms, lobbies with espresso bars, fully staffed front desks, resident concierge, pet runs and washing stations, common-area kitchens and dining spaces. For buyers, the condo fee is considered part of the monthly payment, which they generally want to keep as low as possible. The size of the building drives that, so it’s generally larger properties with many units (60+) where you’re seeing more amenities like a front desk, for example. In general, a majority of these properties will have a common-area roof deck and additional storage. The trend toward vertical living in the Washington area means that we will continue to see more rental units being built. On the flip side, that also means that we remain underserved from a for-sale inventory perspective. In 2006, 5,000 for-sale units were built; in 2017, 1,400 are to be built. We’re also seeing more people moving to the Washington market now than ever before, and that will probably result in the development of new neighborhoods in the city, such as the popular Southwest Waterfront neighborhood.

Cedarwood in Stone Ridge, Va., is a natural for older, and younger, buyers

Houses with bedrooms and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms on one level might naturally appeal to older buyers anticipating mobility issues. But younger couples such as David and Kristen Carroll are also drawn to the Cedarwood Main Level Living enclave at WestEnd in Loudoun County. After more than a decade of living in townhouses — most recently in Herndon, Va., — the Carrolls, in their late 30s, were looking for a single-family house with a yard. But most of what they found available was too large, Kristen Carroll says. “It was McMansions, with the formal dining room, formal living room, study,” she says. “But it’s just the two of us. It didn’t make sense.” With its open floor plan, the new Van Metre development in Stone Ridge, Va., does make sense. “It’s perfect for us,” she says. It’s also appealing to buyers with children, Cedarwood sales manager Bonita Hartbarger says. “It’s nice not to have to go up and down the stairs all the time with young kids,” she says. And, of course, it’s an important consideration for people nearing retirement. “My knees and the stairs are not friends anymore,” says Alice Lazarevich, who is moving with her husband from a colonial in Sterling to Cedarwood in the fall. Two-car garages, 10-foot ceilings and gourmet kitchens are universally attractive, Hartbarger says. The openness in the living space is another selling point, Lazarevich says. “We really like the floor plan,” she says. It will make hosting family and friends easy, Carroll says, especially because the layout is friendly to parents and grandparents who no longer can negotiate stairs. “We love to entertain,” she says. **Three models available** : Of the 28 houses available in the Cedarwood One- Level Living collection, 11 have sold. The houses are available in three floor plans and styles. The 2,500-square-foot Sonoma has two bedrooms and four bathrooms. It starts at $596,715. The 3,100-square-foot Ramona, which starts at $629,655, and the 2,900-square-foot Napa, which starts at $616,225, have three bedrooms and four bathrooms. Siding is standard, but stone, brick and front porches are exterior options. All three models have a laundry room off the kitchen, a walk-in owner’s closet, and a mudroom adjoining the garage. “Everything you need is on one level,” Hartbarger says. However, there’s additional space. All three floor plans in the collection have finished basement rec rooms. And the Sonoma and Napa are available with the option of adding a second floor. The houses also have upgraded fixtures and crown moldings, she says. And the kitchens have stainless-steel appliances, maple cabinets that rise to the ceiling, granite countertops and a large island. “The standard is at a higher level than most homes,” Hartbarger says. **Mixed-use community** : Van Metre has built more than 2,000 houses in Stone Ridge, a mixed-use development that includes office space and retail. Stone Spring Hospital is set to open in December. The Stone Ridge Village Center is walkable. It has a Harris Teeter grocery, a bank, a pharmacy, dry cleaners and several restaurants. Other community amenities include a fitness center, county library (which hosts a weekly farmers market), ballfields, walking paths and three swimming pools, including one within walking distance. The homeowners association sponsors social events such as pool parties and seasonal festivals. **Schools** : Arcola Elementary, Mercer Middle and John Champe High. **Transit** : Loudoun County Transit operates a commuter bus service with a stop at the Dulles South-Stone Ridge Park and Ride. The Wiehle-Reston East Metro station is about 16 miles away, and a Metro station is planned at the Dulles North Transit Center, about eight miles away, as part of the second phase of the Silver Line extension. Dulles International Airport is about 13 miles from Stone Ridge. Route 50 has been widened recently between Poland Road and Route 28. **Laura Barnhardt Cech** is a freelance writer. 24710 Marshy Hope St., Stone Ridge, Va. Single-family houses from $596,715 to $629,655. **Builder** : Van Metre Homes **Features** : The houses have 10-foot ceilings, bedrooms and bathrooms on the first level, gourmet kitchens with granite countertops, and two car- garages. **Bedrooms/bathrooms** : 2 or 3/4 **Square footage** : 2,500 to 3,100 **HOA fee** : $143 a month, includes landscaping, trash collection and recreation amenities. **View models** : 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. **Sales** : Bonita Hartbarger, community sales manager, 703-764-5466, _www.stoneridgeva.com._

Accommodations for elderly have crossover appeal for younger home owners

In the music business you have crossover hits that appeal to music lovers of every stripe. In home building, you have “crossover features” designed to appeal to one group of buyers that resonate with others. For example, details intended to help older buyers stay in their houses as they age can make a house feel bigger, add storage and help parents with the care of very small children. Design features intended to help elderly homeowners “age in place” are now being marketed to much younger buyers as accommodations that can not only serve them far into the future but also make their lives easier now. To be specific, every family member from the oldest to the youngest will benefit from a “curbless” or “zero step” entry at the front or back door or in the garage, said Bill Owens, a Columbus, Ohio, home builder. When an entry can be reached without having to negotiate steps, a person using a wheelchair, walker or crutches has no difficulty getting in and out. This also helps the parent of a small child who simply wants to take him out for a walk. Instead of struggling to get the stroller down the front steps and onto the sidewalk, you can open the door and roll right out. An absence of steps is not the only critical aspect of the curbless entry, Owens said. The opening itself should be three feet wide, so that a person with a large stroller, walker or a wheelchair can effortlessly pass through. Even the crew bringing in your furniture on move-in day will appreciate the wider doorway because it will make their job easier and reduce the possibility of damaging your belongings. Once you’re inside the house, wider doorways throughout will make every room accessible and ensure that the furniture is put in place without incident. How much wider? Six inches more than the standard 30 is optimal, said Vince Butler, a builder and remodeler in Clifton, Va. How much does this add to the cost? About $2 to $3 for each door, he said. Wider hallways will also make a difference to someone using a wheelchair or a scooter. A standard 36-inch hall width requires that person to do a lot of maneuvering to get into a room, but when the hallway is six inches wider, the turn is a “cinch,” said Owens. A wider hallway will not affect overall house size because removing a minuscule amount of floor area from the rooms to either side of the hallway to make it wider is inconsequential to the function of those rooms. In fact, the wider hallway and doorway will make the room being entered seem bigger, he said. A wider stair, which adds about $200, can also make things easier for the household. Add six inches to the standard 36-inch width and two people can use it at the same time. With the extra width you can also move around a chair lift with greater ease, said Butler, who speaks from experience. He installed one for his mother’s use on his own standard 36-inch wide stair and “it’s always in the way,” he said. A chairlift has other negatives, Butler added. If the person is not ambulatory, you need a wheelchair at each stair landing and a space to park it. Though an elevator is more costly ($15,000 to $20,000 vs. $6,000 to $8,000), you avoid a chairlift’s shortcomings. To prepare for this possibility, he recommends stacking five-by-five-foot closets that later could be converted into an elevator shaft. In the meantime, you get a walk-in pantry on your first floor and an extra walk-in closet upstairs. Zeroing in on specific rooms, a bigger and more spacious master bathroom is a luxury now that can become a necessity in the future, but where you add the extra space is critical, Owens said. You should incorporate a five-foot turning radius next to your toilet because you might someday need to get a wheelchair in there. Owens said he would omit a separate toilet compartment and, instead, screen the toilet area with a knee wall that is installed over the floor tile so that it can easily be removed, should the need arise. If there is a vanity next to a toilet, Owens would also install it over the floor tile, so that it could be easily removed if need be. During construction, wood blocking for grab bars should be placed behind the walls in the shower and toilet area, but nothing more is needed until a household member has mobility issues. At that time, Owens said, you should bring in an occupational therapist to help you determine where the grab bars should go. For kitchens, Dan Bawden, a builder in Bellaire, Texas, said he favors variable height counters, with work areas both higher and lower than standard 36-inch kitchen counter height. When possible, he raises a dishwasher by 10 to 12 inches to make loading and unloading easier for a tall person and anyone who has trouble bending over. One of Bawden’s more unusual suggestions is a movable island counter on casters that fits under a standard counter. When the 30-inch island is pulled out, it can be used by an adult who wants to sit while preparing food, a kibitzing guest or a person in a wheelchair. Children and grandchildren can use the lowered island to help cook, and if you knead bread or roll out pastry dough, a lowered counter makes this task easier. With custom cabinetry, Bawden said the rolling island adds about $150; with stock cabinets it adds about $300. Some “aging in place” features have become standard because public tastes have changed. Owens pointed out that louvered door handles, designed to be easier for a person with arthritis to use, are now ubiquitous because buyers think they look better. As more and more people discover that wider doorways and hallways make rooms feel bigger, these may become standard too, he said.

‘Village’ groups, home alterations help more elderly people keep the homes they love

About seven years ago, Bill Cousins realized he was having more difficulty climbing the stairs of his home in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, a result of aging and his post-polio syndrome. Cousins, a widower who is now 88, said he felt his independence in his home in Northwest Washington slipping away. But he learned that by making some key modifications to his Cape Cod and joining an organization that provides various in-home services to elderly people, he could perhaps stay. Over a period of about five years, he installed an elevator, erected ramps and widened his kitchen to accommodate a wheelchair. He lowered his light switches on the walls and put in an easier-to-use kitchen faucet. He also joined a senior “village” organization, which among other services provides rides to doctor’s appointments and periodically checks in with him to make sure he’s okay. In the Washington region, the population of people 65 and older rose 29 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the Brookings Institution. That has spurred a number of new programs in the “aging in place” movement, which aims to help elderly people such as Cousins remain in their homes rather than relocate to assisted-living facilities. “I’m an independent man,” said Cousins, who’s lived in the house since 1968. “I don’t like to be on an institution schedule. I don’t take well to rules I don’t agree with.” The movement to accommodate elderly people in their homes is growing rapidly in this region, with villages becoming a more popular option. Villages, typically organized by geographic areas and neighborhoods, are run by nonprofit groups that recruit volunteers to provide the most-needed services for older people who want to remain in their homes. By paying an annual fee of about $500, elderly people can receive transportation and technology services and lists of approved repair vendors. They also may participate in social clubs and activities. The District has six villages, with a seventh in Cleveland Park expected to open later this year. Montgomery County has four active villages, with three more to emerge soon, according to Elinor Ginzler, director of the Jewish Council for the Aging’s Center for Supportive Services. And Northern Virginia has three in operation, with four more in development, said Barbara Sullivan, a member of the Fairfax County Long Term Care Coordinating Council and executive director of Mount Vernon at Home. “What’s happening here in D.C. is part of a national phenomenon,” said Elizabeth Fox, board member of the now-forming Cleveland Park Village. “It’s a very collaborative situation for something that is really grass-roots-based.” Because of his degenerative post-polio syndrome, Cousins said he knew he was going to shift from a walker to a wheelchair. So when he started a major renovation of his home, he included accessibility elements. Over time, he modified the height of the front stairs (while he was still walking); installed a lift onto the front porch for his wheelchair and a ramp off the back deck; moved the wall of his galley kitchen out 18 inches; and installed a special bathroom with sink, shower and toilet that easily accommodate a wheelchair. He also lowered a built-in wall oven, installed a cut-out under the range to allow for a wheelchair user to pull up close and moved light switches lower on the wall. One of the most important modifications was the installation of an elevator between the first and second floors. “It’s very handy. It’s very simple. It cost money but it wasn’t extraordinarily expensive,” said Cousins. Cousins declined to disclose the cost of the modifications. Costs for retrofits typically run from $250 to tens of thousands of dollars, said Louis Tenenbaum, a consultant and remodeler specializing in universal design and aging-in-place living. For instance, he said, a grab bar can cost $250; a door widening, $800 to $1,200; a ramp and lift, $2,500 to $20,000; and an elevator, $20,000 to $35,000. But Cousins found another accessibility solution in his kitchen that cost him nothing. “I use drawers for things I can’t reach in the upper cabinets,” he said. All of his dishes and “the things I really use” go in drawers, while upper cabinets are essentially for storage. “It’s just generally a much more convenient space now,” he said. Experts say many people make the modifications as they need them. A big push, they say, is to get older people to think ahead, as Cousins did. “People don’t plan in advance,” said Tenenbaum. “When the time comes, it’s hard to get any remodeling done quickly enough and get it done well,” he added. “If you have a shower you can get in without lifting your feet, you can stay in your house longer than if you only have a tub, or a shower with a curb.” When Peggy Small’s husband died eight years ago, she began making plans to move from the house in Alexandria they’d owned for more than 40 years to a retirement home. “That was not the lifestyle for me, but I thought, ‘I can’t live alone,’ ” she said. She was packing to move when her daughter came to visit and noticed an ad in the local paper for an organization called Mount Vernon at Home. That’s how she found out about the village concept. “With Mount Vernon at Home, I don’t have to move out of my house. I can stay right here,” Small said. Small calls for repair work and rides to the doctor’s office and biweekly hair appointments. “They come over and replace my light bulbs in the ceiling. I don’t get on ladders,” said Small. The first village was founded in 2002 in Boston’s Beacon Hill by a group of aging adults who wanted to help each other. They provided their own network of support in their homes, with medical care and social activities. They didn’t want to have to move to unfamiliar cities, to retirement homes that held no memories for them. They wanted to stay in their homes and maintain connections to familiar settings, activities and neighbors. However, they knew that as eyesight and hearing failed — inevitable results of aging — they’d no longer drive or easily walk to the store or doctor’s appointments. They would need help that would be expensive through private fee-for-service models. Over time, in-home care and taxis for transportation are expensive for anyone on a fixed income. By 2012, the number of villages across the United States had grown to more than 70. Including the United States, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, there are now 89 villages in operation and another 123 in development, according to the Village to Village Network. “The fundamental thinking behind the village is that it reflects the community that is forming it,” said Ginzler, of the Jewish Council for the Aging’s Center for Supportive Services in Montgomery County. “Neighborhoods put together an organic structure that allows people to stay in their own communities.” While wealth is not necessary, the village concept does require modest means. “It’s primarily a middle-class phenomenon for now,” said Fox of the Cleveland Park Village. She said she isn’t aware of villages organized by low-income neighborhoods, perhaps because of the costs of membership. She said she expects dues to be $750 per couple and $500 per individual per year. The money, she said, covers the staff member’s salary, insurance, security check for volunteers, Web site construction and maintenance, printed materials and light refreshments for occasional social functions. Mount Vernon at Home charges similar member fees. “I think I paid $650 for last year. The peace of mind they give me is worth it,” Small said. During the recent storm, a volunteer came to her house to make sure she was okay. “You can’t even think of a dollar value for that,” Small added. “They are so giving, it’s amazing. Every volunteer I’ve had, I think, ‘Oh, I could just hug you,’ and I do. I feel so grateful to have this service.” Susan Straight is a freelance writer.

Amid downturn, more older Americans employed than ever before

Amid the wreckage of the economic downturn, something curious happened to older Americans. More of them are working. Though the recession has thinned the ranks of other generations in the workforce, more people older than 55 are employed than ever before, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reasons for the surge of older workers are complex, experts said, but one of the primary economic forces behind it is the growing fear among older Americans that they lack the means to support their retirement needs. The phenomenon is closely linked to the broad shift in the United States that began in the ’80s away from reliance on company pensions toward the adoption of 401(k) plans and other personal savings. That shift in retirement financing, combined with the recession, has dramatically increased the incentives to work into old age and appears to be reshaping how Americans ride out the latter part of their lives. Like it or not, millions of graying Americans, some past 75 years old, are rejoining the workforce or staying in it longer than once might have been expected. “Fear is a wonderful motivator,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “Some of these people are just clinging by their fingernails to jobs.” In interviews, many older workers indicated that, indeed, the lack of a pension or fuller savings account was leading them to stay in the labor force longer. A 60-year-old masonry contractor in Fairfax came out of retirement when his wife lost her job. A 70-year-old computer manager from Bethesda said he was still working because he was looking forward to a long life and he wanted to accumulate more savings to accommodate it. And a 63-year-old real estate saleswoman from Alexandria has put off retirement and, with the downturn in homes sales, sold off jewelry and purses on consignment. “Sometimes I wish I could retire,” said Carole Oates, 63, the saleswoman. “But at this point I expect to be working as long as I can.” An August survey by the AARP Public Policy Institute of people older than 50 showed that 57 percent reported that they were less confident than before the recession that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years. Similarly, 61 percent of the respondents said that their savings had fallen since the recession. To the surprise of some experts, the incentives for older people to work have been strong enough to overwhelm the effects of the recession, which has slashed the ranks of the employed among other generations. The number of people older than 55 who are working has actually risen by 3.1 million, or 12 percent, since the beginning of the recession, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The phenomenon extends even to people 75 years and older; there are more of them working today than before the recession, too. By contrast, the number of people between the ages of 25 and 54 who are working has shrunk by 6.5 million, for a drop of 6.5 percent. In part, the climb in older workers is due to the growing numbers of older people, but the statistics show as well that a growing proportion of older people are interested in work. The percentage of people 55 and older who are working or seeking work has climbed from 38.9 percent to 40.3 percent since the start of the recession, while the percentage of workers between the ages of 25 and 54 who are working or seeking work has dropped from 83.1 percent to 81.5 percent. The notion of retirement is relatively new in American history, and the boom in older workers reveals that it continues to evolve. Until the end of the 19th century, people generally worked as long as they could, historians said. By 1880, however, the percentage of older male Americans in the workforce had begun a decline that would last more than a century. People were retiring before they were forced to for physical reasons. In part, this was due to generous Civil War pensions for Union soldiers, according to historians, and in part because the nation’s rising wealth allowed people the opportunity to save for retirement. “By the later 19th century, households were actually able to save some money for retirement,” said Jon Moen, an economic historian at the University of Mississippi. “That continued for decades.” But in the 1990s, as Moen, then with the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, had predicted, the proportion of older Americans in the workforce began a steady upward rise that is now visible in the surprisingly strong showing of older workers during the recession. The rise was fueled at least in part by gains in longevity. In addition, many jobs today are less physically onerous and make it easier for older people to perform them, experts said. But there were two other key changes to the economics of retirement that had occurred by that time. Changes to Social Security rules, some of them in 1983, made retiring at 70 more attractive: Those who retired later earned larger payments. And about the same time, companies began a profound shift away from offering employees pension plans, which offered certainty and set specific ages for retirement, to 401(k) and other investment plans that relied on workers to set aside money and invest wisely. Between 1983 and 2007, the proportion of workers with old-age benefits covered only by a “defined benefit” or traditional pension plan plummeted from 62 percent of workers to 17 percent, according to the Center for Retirement Research. Meanwhile, over the same period, the percentage of workers covered only by defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s climbed from 12 percent to 63 percent. The shift to 401(k) plans put the burden of saving and investing for retirement on workers, and many were unable to do so. During the recession, moreover, some dug into their accounts to make it through bouts of joblessness. Although traditional pension plans, which often began benefits at age 65, had helped establish that as the “normal” age of retirement, the shift to personal savings plans appears to be making the “normal” age of retirement more ambiguous. Workers must decide when they have enough set aside, while also forcing them to assume the risk of living longer. Although pensions continue steadily until death, personal savings accounts are finite and force workers to spread out their savings over an unknown number of years of life. “People don’t have the incentive to retire early anymore, and they look at their nest egg and say, ‘I’d really benefit from working a few more years,’ ” said Sewin Chan, a professor of public policy at New York University. Not everyone 55 and older is lucky enough to find a job, however. In fact, there are far more older people who want to work than there are jobs available. Due in part to the surge of older workers, the unemployment rate for people older than 55 has roughly doubled since the start of the recession, from 3.2 percent in December 2007 to 6.2 percent in December 2011. Daniel Barnum, 73, is an architect in Houston, one of the owners of a 13-person firm. Once he reached 65, he said, he decided to keep working because, then unmarried, he didn’t relish the prospect of hanging around the house. Plus, he said he hadn’t been wise enough to start early to set aside money for retirement. “It would have meant life without vacations for the most part, certainly European vacations,” Barnum said. He just got back from three weeks on the Danube with his wife, 62. He does, however, expect to call its quits once he turns 75. “There is within me a desire to slow down and take life a little easier, relax a little bit,” he said.