-
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You know me.
-
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I am in your friendship circle
hidden in plain sight.
-
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My clothes are still impeccable,
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bought in the good years
when I was still making money.
-
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To look at me you would not know
that my electricity was cut off last week
-
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for non payment,
-
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or that I meet the eligibility
requirements for food stamps,
-
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but if you paid attention,
-
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you would see that sadness in my eyes,
-
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hear that hint of fear in my otherwise
self-assured voice.
-
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These days I'm buying $1.99
trial-size jug of Tide
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to make ends meet.
-
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I bet you didn't know laundry
detergent came in that size.
-
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You invite me to same expensive
restaurants the two of us
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have always enjoyed,
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but I order mineral water now
with a twist of lemon,
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not the $12 glass of chardonay.
-
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I am frugal in menu choices --
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meticulous,
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I could every penny in my head.
-
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I demure dividing the table bill evenly
to cover desserts and designer coffees
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and second and third glasses
of wine I did not consume.
-
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I am tired of trying to fake appearances.
-
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A friend told me that I'm broke not poor
and there is a difference.
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I live without cable,
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my gym membership
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and nail appointments.
-
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I discovered I can do my own hair.
-
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There is no retirement savings,
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no nest egg.
-
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I exhausted that long ago.
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There is no expensive condo to draw equity
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and no husband to back me up.
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Months of slow pay and no pay
have decimated my credit,
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bill collectors call constantly,
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leaving, verbatim from a script
-
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before expressing polite
sympathy for my plight
-
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and then demanding payment arrangements
I cant possibly meet.
-
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Friends wonder privately how
someone so well educated
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could be in economic freefall.
-
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I'm still as talented as ever
and smart a whip,
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but work is sketchy now,
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mostly on and off consulting gigs.
-
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At 55 I've learned how to fake cheeriness,
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but there are not many
opportunities for work anymore.
-
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I don't remember exactly when it stopped,
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but I cannot deny now having entered
the uncertain world of formerly
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and used to be.
-
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I'm not sure anymore where I belong.
-
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What I do know is that dozens
of online job applications
-
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seem to just disappear into a blackhole.
-
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I'm wondering what is to become of me.
-
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So far my health has held up,
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but my body aches,
-
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or is it my spirit?
-
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Homeless women used to be invisible to me
-
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but I appraise them now with curious eyes
-
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wondering if their stories
started like mine.
-
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I wrote this piece a year ago.
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It's a composite of my story
and other women I know.
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I wrote it because I was tired
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of pretending I was
all right when I wasn't.
-
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I was tired of faking normal.
-
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I wasn't seeing myself
in the popular press.
-
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Nobody I knew was traveling the world
of buying a condo in Costa Rica.
-
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Very few of my friends had set aside
the 15 to 20 percent
-
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experts tell us we need to maintain
our standard of living in retirement.
-
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My friends,
-
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many in their 50s and 60s,
-
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were looking at a downward mobility,
-
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a work-for-life proposition,
-
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just a job loss, medical diagnosis
or divorce away from insolvency.
-
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We may not have hit rock bottom,
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but many of us saw a sequence of events
where rock bottom was possible
-
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for the first time.
-
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And the truth is,
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it really doesn't take much.
-
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The median household in the US
only has enough savings
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to replace one month of income.
-
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47 percent of us cannot pull together
400 dollars to deal with an emergency.
-
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That's almost half of us.
-
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A major car repair and we're
standing on the abyss.
-
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You wouldn't know it took around you --
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I'm not the only one in this situation.
-
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There are people in this room
who are in the same predicament,
-
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and if it's not you,
-
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it is your parents or your sister
or maybe your best friend.
-
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We get good at faking normal.
-
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Shame keeps us silent and siloed.
-
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When I first decided I was going
to come out with my story,
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I did a website
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and a friend noticed that there were
no photos of me,
-
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it was all kind of cartoons like this.
-
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Even as I was coming out,
-
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I was still hiding.
-
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We live in a world where success
is defined by income.
-
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When you say that you have money problems,
-
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you're announcing pretty much
that you're a loser.
-
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When you're a graduate of Harvard
Business School as I am,
-
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you're some kind of double loser.
-
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We boomers hear a lot about
how we have underfunded our retirement,
-
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how it's all our fault.
-
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Why on earth would we draw down
our 401K plan to cover the shortfall
-
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on our mother-in-law's nursing home care?
-
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Or to pay for our kid's tuition,
-
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or just to survive?
-
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We're accused of being
poor planners and deadbeats,
-
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all that money we spent
on lattes and bottled water.
-
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To shame and blame is so
deliciously tempting.
-
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Many of us don't even wait
for others to do it
-
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we're so busy doing it to ourselves.
-
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I say let's own our part:
-
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we all could have saved more.
-
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I know I could have saved more.
-
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And if you were to rifle through
my life over the last 30 years,
-
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you would see more than one
dumb thing I have done financially.
-
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I can't change that now
-
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and neither can you,
-
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but let's not mix up individual,
isolated behavior
-
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with the systemic factors
-
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that have cause the 7.7 trillion dollar
retirement income gap.
-
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Millions of boomer-age Americans
did not land here
-
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because of too many trips to Starbucks.
-
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We spent the last three decades
dealing with flat and falling wages
-
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and disappearing pensions
-
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and through-the-roof cost
-
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on housing and health care and education.
-
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It used to not be like this.
-
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We all remember the three-legged
retirement income stool
-
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which had the savings and pension
and social security.
-
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Well, that stool has gone wobbly.
-
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Take savings --
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what savings?
-
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For many families,
-
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there's just nothing left to save
after the bills have been paid.
-
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The pension leg of the stool
has also gone wobbly.
-
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We can remember when
many people had pensions.
-
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Today only 13 percent of American
workers are employed by companies
-
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that offer them.
-
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So what did we get instead?
-
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We got 401K-type plans,
-
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and suddenly responsibility
for retirement planning got shifted
-
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from our companies to us.
-
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We got the reins but we also got the risk,
-
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and it turns out that millions of us
just aren't that good
-
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at voluntarily investing over 40 years.
-
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Millions of us just aren't that good
at managing market risk.
-
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And really the numbers tell the story.
-
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Half of all American households
have no retirement savings at all.
-
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That would be zero.
-
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No 401K, no IRA, not a dime.
-
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Among 55 to 64-year-olds
who do have a retirement account,
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the median value of that is $104,000.
-
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Now, $104,000 does sound better than zero,
-
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but as an annuity,
-
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it generates about $300.
-
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I don't have to tell you
that you can't live on that.
-
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With savings down,
-
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pension is become a relic of the past
-
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and 401K plans failing
millions of Americans,
-
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many near-retirees are dependent
on social security
-
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as their retirement plan.
-
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But here's the problem.
-
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Social security was never supposed
to be the retirement plan.
-
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It's not nearly enough.
-
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At best it replaces something
like 40 percent
-
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of your pre-retirement income.
-
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Things have changed a lot
-
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from when social security
was introduced back in 1935.
-
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Then, a 21-year-old male had
a 50 percent chance
-
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of living until he was 65.
-
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So he retired at 60,
-
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did a little fishing,
-
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kissed his grandkids,
-
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got his gold watch --
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he'd be dead within five years
of receiving benefits.
-
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That's not the pattern today.
-
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If you're in the your late
50s in good health,
-
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you're going to live easily
another 20 or 25 years.
-
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That's a really long time
to make ends meet
-
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if you are broke.
-
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So what's the play if you've landed here
-
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and you're 50 or 55 or 60?
-
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What's the play if you
don't want to land here
-
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and you're 22 or 32?
-
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Here's what I've learned
from my own experience.
-
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The calvary's not coming.
-
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There is no big rescue,
-
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no prince charming,
-
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no big bailout in the works.
-
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To have a shot at being something
other than old and poor in America,
-
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we're going to have to save
ourselves and each other.
-
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I've had to come out of the shadows,
-
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stand here openly,
-
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and I'm inviting you to do so as well.
-
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I'm not going to tell you
that it's not easy.
-
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I venture though to tell my story
-
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because I thought it would make it
a little easier for people to tell theirs.
-
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I think it's only through
our strength in numbers
-
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that we can begin to change
the national la-la conversation
-
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that we are having
on this retirement crisis.
-
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With so many of us shellshocked
and adrift about what has happened to us,
-
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we're going to have to build up
from the grassroots,
-
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forming what I think
are resilience circles.
-
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These are small groups of people
coming together to talk about
-
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what has happened to them,
-
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to share the resources and information
-
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and to begin to figure out a way forward.
-
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I believe from this base that we can
find our voices again
-
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and the sound the alarm,
-
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start pushing our institutions
and policymakers
-
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to go hard on this retirement crisis
with the urgency it deserves.
-
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In the meantime --
-
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and there is an in the meantime --
-
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we're going to have to adopt
a live-low-to-the-ground mindset,
-
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drastically cutting back on our expenses.
-
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And I don't mean just living
within our means.
-
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A lot of people are already doing that.
-
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What is called for now is to,
-
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in a much deeper way,
-
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ask ourselves what it really means
-
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to live a life that is not
defined by things.
-
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I call it "Smalling up."
-
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Smalling up is figuring out
what your really need
-
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to feel contented and grounded.
-
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I have a friend who drives really
beat up, raggedy cars,
-
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but he will scrimp and save
$15,000 at one point
-
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to buy a flute
-
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because music is what
really matters to him.
-
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He smalled up.
-
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I've had to also let go
of magical thinking --
-
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this idea that if I just
was patient enough
-
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and tightened my belt
-
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that things would just go back to normal.
-
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If I just sent in one more CV
-
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or applied to one more job online
-
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or attended one more networking event
-
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that surely I'd get the kind of job
I was used to having.
-
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Surely things would return to normal.
-
Not Synced
The truth is I'm not going back
and neither are you.
-
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The normal that we knew is over.
-
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In this new place that we are,
-
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we're going to be asked to do things
that we don't want to do.
-
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We're going to be asked
to take assignments
-
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that we think are beneath
our station and our talent
-
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and our skill.
-
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I have had to get off my throne.
-
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Last year a good friend of mine
asked me if I would help her
-
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with some organization work.
-
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I assumed she meant community organizing
-
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along the lines of what President
Obama did in Chicago.
-
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She meant organizing somebody's closet.
-
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I said, "I'm not doing that."
-
Not Synced
She said, "Get off your throne.
-
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Money is green."
-
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It's not easy being part
of the advanced team
-
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that is ushering this new era
-
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of work and living.
-
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First is always hardest.
-
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First is before there are networks
-
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and pathways
-
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and role models.
-
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Before there are policies
and ways to show us
-
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how to go forward.
-
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We're in the middle of a seismic shift
-
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and we're going to have to find
bridgework to get us through.
-
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Bridgework is what we do in the meantime,
-
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bridgework is what we do
-
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while we're trying
to figure out what is next.
-
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Bridgework is also letting go
of this notion
-
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that our worth,
-
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our value,
-
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depend on our income
and our titles and our jobs.
-
Not Synced
Bridgework can look crazy or cool
depending on how you were rolling
-
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when your personal financial crisis hit.
-
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I have friends with PhDs who are
working at the Container Store
-
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or driving Uber or Lyft.
-
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And I have other friends who are
partnering with other boomers
-
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and doing really cool
entrepreneurial ventures.
-
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Bridgework doesn't mean
that we dont' want
-
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to build on our past careers,
-
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that we don't want meaningful work.
-
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We do.
-
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Bridgework is what we do in the meantime
-
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while we're figuring out what is next.
-
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I've also learned to think
strategy not failure
-
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when I'm sort of processing
all these things that I don't want to do.
-
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And I say that that's an approach
that I would invite you
-
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to consider as well.
-
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So if you need to move in
with your brother to make ends meet,
-
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call him.
-
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If you need to take in a border
to help you pay your mortage
-
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or pay your rent,
-
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do it.
-
Not Synced
If you need to get food stamps,
-
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get the darn food stamps.
-
Not Synced
AARP says only a third of older adults
who are eligible actually get them.
-
Not Synced
Do what you need to do
to go another route.
-
Not Synced
Know that there are millions of us.
-
Not Synced
Come out of the shadows.
-
Not Synced
Cut back,
-
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small up,
-
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think strategy, not failre,
-
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get off your thrown
-
Not Synced
and find the bridgework
to get your through the lean times.
-
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As a country we have achieved longevity
-
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investing billions of dollars
in the diagnosis, treatment
-
Not Synced
and management of disease.
-
Not Synced
It's not enough to just live a long time.
-
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We want to live well.
-
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We haven't invested nearly as much
in the physical infrastructure
-
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to insure that that happens.
-
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We need now a new way of thinking
-
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about what it means to be old in America.
-
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And we need guidance and ideas
about how to live
-
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a richly textured life
-
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on a much more modest income.
-
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So I am calling on change agents
-
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and social entrepreneurs,
-
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artists and elders
-
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and impact investors.
-
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I'm calling on developers
and distrupters of the status quo.
-
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We need you to help us imagine
-
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how to invest in the services
and products and infrastructure
-
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that will support our dignity,
-
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our independence
-
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and our well-being
-
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in these many, many decades
that we're going to live.
-
Not Synced
My journey has taken me
from a place of fear and shame
-
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to one of humilty and understanding.
-
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I'm ready now to link shields with others,
-
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to fight this fight,
-
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and I'm inviting you to join me.
-
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Thank you.
-
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(Applause)