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Legacy used to mean how much money we intend to leave behind for our kids. The concept of legacy has begun to change in new and startling ways, as boomers move into s0-called retirement age. This is because there's starting to be a realization that 'retirement' is a fading concept. In this country life expectancy has increased 2.5 years per decade in a linear fashion since 1847! Back then, life expectancy was 47 in this country. Now it's 74.3 for men and 80.5 for women. Among other things, this means that legacy isn't what it used to be. We now have the very real possibility of leaving behind wealth to our children if we do it right. The only question is whether or not we want to. Here's another prospect: why not recognize the trend of a new kind of 'generativity', a move beyond retirement into a so-called 'encore career'*, wherein we boomers leave a legacy not of money, but of public service, and the leveraging of our experience to help solve seemingly intractable problems? This is yet another way to burn the baggage of a past that may seem at times to be wasted, and wasteful. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong: there are second acts in American life.
*From Encore--Finding work that matters in the second half of life © 2007 Marc Freedman Perseus Books
Legacy used to mean how much money we intend to leave behind for our kids. The concept of legacy has begun to change in new and startling ways, as boomers move into s0-called retirement age. This is because there's starting to be a realization that 'retirement' is a fading concept. In this country life expectancy has increased 2.5 years per decade in a linear fashion since 1847! Back then, life expectancy was 47 in this country. Now it's 74.3 for men and 80.5 for women. Among other things, this means that legacy isn't what it used to be. We now have the very real possibility of leaving behind wealth to our children if we do it right. The only question is whether or not we want to. Here's another prospect: why not recognize the trend of a new kind of 'generativity', a move beyond retirement into a so-called 'encore career'*, wherein we boomers leave a legacy not of money, but of public service, and the leveraging of our experience to help solve seemingly intractable problems? This is yet another way to burn the baggage of a past that may seem at times to be wasted, and wasteful. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong: there are second acts in American life.
*From Encore--Finding work that matters in the second half of life © 2007 Marc Freedman Perseus Books
2 comments:
Great post. But I still don't get why we should pay taxes for inheriting.
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