Create a Portfolio Life

"The good news is that this generation has more healthy later years than ever before. The bad news is that there is no road map for planning our later years," said Jay Bloom during a talk he gave called Creating a Portfolio Life. There is indeed lots of good news for people who are passing the 50-year mile marker and approaching retirement.

by Gayle Seely

"The good news is that this generation has more healthy later years than ever before. The bad news is that there is no road map for planning our later years," said Jay Bloom during a talk he gave called "Creating a Portfolio Life" on Wednesday, November 4th, at the Multnomah Central Library.

There is indeed lots of good news for people who are passing the 50-year mile marker and approaching retirement. Jay Bloom, former CEO of United Way of the Columbia-Willamette and now president and CEO of Bloom Anew, a coaching and consulting business, shared some of the positive trends in the post-50 age group.  He punctuated his talk with quotes from his large collection of quotes about life, like "In the long run, the pessimist may be proved to be right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip" by Daniel L. Reardon.

Jay's company, Bloom Anew, has helped hundreds of older adults find new meaning in their lives.  He is passionate about the concept of "returnment" versus retirement. (Returnment encourages older adults to spend their later years using their skills, resources, and knowledge to benefit the greater good.) In his presentation he reported that 70 percent of older adults will want to work in some capacity in their later years, and 58 percent of adults ages 50 to 70 years old would consider taking jobs now or in the future to benefit their communities.

A key to experiencing rewarding and fulfilling later years comes from finding purpose and meaning.  Because older adults have much more energy and better health than previous generations, they find that they are most challenged by what to do with that time and vigor.  One way to evaluate and plan these vital years is presented in Portfolio Life, by David Corbett. The book offers a new strategy for adults who are reaching the "third chapter" in their lives, or "returnment" age.  It proposes that we view our lives — like a portfolio — in categories such as physical health, financial health, relationships, continuing learning, and creative engagement.  We can assess our lives by ensuring we are doing meaningful things in each category.

Jay shared a piece of wisdom that his father taught him: One secret to successful aging is to "celebrate what you have and forget about what you can no longer do."

Some other adaptive strategies for building value in our later years are:

• See change as a challenge -- an opportunity not a threat.
• Make a commitment to something meaningful to you.  Seek a purpose and a passion
• Focus your energy on what you can influence, and where you can make a difference.  Choose situations where you can make good things happen.
• Engage in your community to meet and collaborate with people who share your passion.

Jay challenges those near or past 50 to seek and discover what has true meaning, to design a life plan with around that meaning, and then to engage that plan with the full energy and purpose of the wisdom they have acquired in those first 50 "prelude"  years.

Listen to a podcast of the presentation here.

About Gayle

Gayle is an Oregon resident whose personal experience includes both the pressurized business world of executive recruiting and care-giving for aging family members.  In 2005 Gayle recognized that it was time to refocus her energies and to 'reinvent' herself. She attended Portland Community College to study Gerontology, biology, and writing.   She is in the process of a number of writing projects, and has an abiding affection and respect for those who seek to re-focus the meaning of their lives, and to help others who are growing older to realize their personal potential. She is one of Life by Design NW's valued volunteers and is a contributing writer for our website.