You may have heard of Disney’s “imagineers” — the creative geniuses behind the immersive experiences at Disney World and Disneyland. But I bet you haven’t heard of America’s “re-imagineers.”
If you’re in your 50s or 60s, however, there’s a one-in-three chance you may be one.
So says Michael Clinton, author of “Roar” and founder of the business intelligence platform ROAR forward, who just unveiled a survey of the roaring 50- to 70-year-old Generation X and boomer Americans he calls “re-imagineers.”
Clinton, who estimates the group comprises roughly a third of people their age, says “they’re creating or leading the new social movement of the new longevity and driving the change as to what it means to be over 50.”
Read: Getting older isn’t what it used to be. There’s big money in aging.
What they are doing
According to the survey, conducted with the National Research Group (NRG), 67% of re-imagineers have started something big and new, such as launching businesses, volunteering and pursuing educational opportunities.
A striking 74% of the general population of Americans in their 50s and 60s aspire to be re-imagineers, the survey found. Clinton thinks they will serve as role models to millennials, who’ll start turning 50 in eight years.
The current crop includes 60-something ad sales exec-turned-executive-recruiter-turned-successful-novelist McGarvey Black, whom I caught up with just before she headed out to Machu Picchu on vacation. (There are 43 other re-imagineers on the Roar Forward site.)
‘Having a ball’
“I’m having a ball,” said Black. And, she added, “all of my friends are kind of like me; they’re all doing more.”
Black published her first novel, “I Never Left,” in 2019, once entering her late 50s. Her eighth novel, the suspense thriller “Twice on Christmas,” came out in mid-October. The next one will be published in March 2024.
Black’s advice to anyone eager in re-imagining this part of their life: “Start examining the things that give you joy.” Then, pursue them — either as a source of income or through volunteering.
Read: Volunteering can be key to a happy retirement. Why aren’t more people doing it?
Who are the re-imagineers?
Most re-imagineers (58%) are male. They also tend to be affluent and educated. Their household incomes are $100,000+, 37% have a net worth over $1 million and they have at least a college education.
They are more likely to be men because men traditionally have made more money than women, giving them more financial freedom to reimagine the second half of life, says NRG vice president Fotoulla Damaskos.
But the survey’s women, Damaskos notes, were often more ambitious than the men.
“They are, in many ways, surpassing the males that are part of this group,” she says. “They’re doing more, they’re volunteering more. They’re very much engaged.”
They’re also more likely than men to believe the previous generation’s approach to retirement and the second half of life is out of date (72% of females vs. 65% of males). Women are also more likely than men to believe they’re never too old to try something new.
Reimagining the future
Damaskos expects the re-imagineer gender break will even out over time.
Clinton believes that 10 years from now, “you’re going to see a whole swath of people reimagining and reinventing, starting new careers and launching businesses.”
When the millennials hit 50, he believes, “they’re going to have a very, very different sense of how they want to live the second half of their lives.”
What they don’t like
While re-imagineers are happy about life overall, they’re very unhappy with the way older adults are portrayed in ads — when they’re shown at all.
“They feel they’re completely underrepresented and misrepresented, that the advertising marketing world is way behind them in terms of where they are,” says Clinton, the former president/publishing director and chief marketing officer of Hearst magazines.
The lack of age inclusivity in advertising, he adds, “is sorely lacking.”
What about people over 70?
Just one thing about the survey troubled me: Why did it stop at age 70? After all, plenty of people in their 70s are reimagining their lives, too.
People like Clinton, who celebrated turning 70 taking a nine-day hike to Mt. Everest base camp and then running a marathon down. He’s on the board of three nonprofits, launched The Circle of Generosity foundation 12 years ago and earned a master’s in philanthropy from Columbia three years ago.
“You’re absolutely right,” Clinton told me, about the age cutoff in his Re-
Imagineer survey. “We could have easily gone to 75.”
This post was originally published on Market Watch
