Longevity Nation: Changing the Second Half of Our Lives

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00][music] >> Welcome to the Jill on Money Show. It's Friday, May 15th, and we are here trying to help you navigate your financial journey. If you need some assistance, especially with some of the more complicated emotional aspects of your financial journey, please get in touch with us. All you need to do is go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note, and if you'd like to join us live on the air, check the box marked "I want to do everything else." While you are on the website, I just have to point out a couple of things. First of all, you should absolutely subscribe to our free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Fridays, which is today. You may also want to check out our subscription service. It's called Jill on Money Live.

[00:00:48]That is where you have access to quarterly live webinars, the back catalog of those webinars, as well as bonus audio and video content. All of that for 45 bucks for the next 12 months. Now, our upcoming webinar, it is next month, Wednesday, June 17th, with Heather Schreiber. Heather is a social security expert. We are already getting questions that are pouring in. It would be great if you plan to join us live on that webinar to send us all social security questions ahead of time. That way we can really consolidate and figure out which of the questions need the most attention. And if you don't want to purchase the whole series, the whole 12 months, which you could do is you could actually purchase a single webinar for 15 bucks. So, you can go back in time and buy the Ed Slott webinar that we conducted in the first quarter of this year. You can register and you'll be able to get this upcoming webinar with Heather Schreiber all about social security. Each of the single webinars will cost you 15 bucks. So, let's get to today's show. We are going to give you a snippet of a longer interview that we conducted with author Michael Clinton.

[00:01:57]Now, Michael wrote a book called Roar, but his new book is so fascinating. It's called Longevity Nation, the people, ideas, and trends changing the second half of our lives. This is such a great topic for so many of you who are really thinking about what comes next. And Michael does a lovely job of weaving together people and stories and research into this book and contemplates, what is the impact of the idea that we are all living longer. So, here is our interview with Michael Clinton. Countries aren't ready, cities aren't ready, structures and systems aren't ready, financial literacy is needed. You know, there's so much that's going to be turned inside out because of this. Mhm. Um as people are living longer. Here's the stat I love, Jill, and you and I've talked about this. You know, 100 years ago when Social Security was established, there were 7.8 million people that were 65 or over.

[00:02:56]>> Mhm. Right? Life expectancy was 62.

[00:02:59]Today, there are 62 million people who are 65 and over.

[00:03:04]And the drain and the upcoming drain on Social Security and the trust you and I've talked about in the past. And you know, you've got 80 million people that are going to be in that cohort in the next decade or so. So, lots of pressures, financial pressures, policy pressures that are going to have to be addressed. I also want to get into, you know, beyond the financial part in and of itself. But, if we look at the workplace, right? And we know that right now, um let's say Jill, 60 years old, you know, toiling away, doing her thing.

[00:03:41]It would normally be like, "Hey, it's time for you to retire, Jill. You're 60 and someone else is coming up behind you." So, I also wonder what the workplace implication is is if I'm working longer and I'm feeling better and you know, I'm taking care of myself.

[00:03:56]What does that mean for the generation behind me cuz now I'm worried about those folks who are already so pessimistic and negative and you have an old fart like me occupying a seat that really maybe a 40-something wants. So how do we manage that part of it? Well, well, first of all, I think as we're all living longer, we're going to need to work longer.

[00:04:17]We're going to want to work longer.

[00:04:19]We're going to be able to work longer.

[00:04:22]And what I say is that you and others and myself are paving the way for the next generations because when they're in jobs, they're going to want to work longer as well. And so it's all sort of we're kind of paying it forward in an in an odd kind of way.

[00:04:38]But you know, in the AI revolution, much like in the digital revolution, you know, new kinds of jobs are created, new kinds of things happen. So what is really happening is there's a huge talent drain on the upper middle and upper level job marketplace because there aren't enough people in Gen X to actually fill those jobs.

[00:04:59]>> Mhm. The bigger issues are, you know, what's happening with younger millennials and people coming out of college right now, you know, with AI and the cutbacks. But what what I'm hoping is that people like you and others will be working well into their 70s. So that by the time that 35-year-old gets to that place, they're going to say, "Well, gee, I'm going to live to 95. I do need to work longer. I need income." And so I think we're the role models. And and you you have a like an ear to the ground not just in, you know, from as you former publisher, um but you also have a an ear to the ground of what companies are doing. So can you talk a little bit about how this experience of Roar, how you've interviewed a lot of people and talked to a lot of companies, how are the companies themselves preparing for the fact that people are living longer?

[00:05:50]Yeah, so enlightened C-suite are stepping out into acknowledging and recognizing this. And I always use L'Oreal globally as a great example.

[00:06:00]They have a global initiative called L'Oreal for all generations.

[00:06:05]And they have a specific focus on people 50-plus. They are focused on retraining, upskilling, retaining, hiring, promoting. And they are part of a consortium in France, ironically, which, you know, there's a lot of noise around retirement ages in France. But yet there are these a group of companies in France, AXA, Air France, that have come together in a group. They have been very focused on how do we retain people longer. We need people working longer. I think this is also an enormous big long-term trend because as you know, birthrates are down in 150 countries.

[00:06:46]And so this isn't just a short-term thing. This is going to be, you know, a long-term issue in the world. So those companies are part of a group called the charter in France, and they're really leading the way, I would argue, as among other companies in EU and in Asia.

[00:07:04]We have a lot of catching up to do in the US, but L'Oreal's a great example.

[00:07:08]Now, that was just a snippet of the interview. If you want to see the whole thing, it lives behind the paywall, behind the Jill on Money Live paywall.

[00:07:16]Remember the 45 bucks I said additional interviews and podcasts and audio and all that stuff. We have a video interview with Michael that lives behind the paywall, so you should definitely check that out. Okay, gang, well, it's Friday. It's time for our thank-yous.

[00:07:28]Our music is composed by Joel Goodman.

[00:07:30]Mark Talerico was our executive producer and the king of all things web. We are distributed by the lovely folks at Odyssey. By the way, [music] you can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast.

[00:07:41]Please lift someone up, change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thanks for listening and we'll talk to you on Monday.