Getting older is getting better

A woman who turned 65 in 1960 could expect to live about 15 more years. A man turning 65 in 1960 had about 12 years of life expectancy. Today, a woman who celebrates her 65th birthday can expect to reach 85, while a 65-year-old man has a good chance of living until at least 82.

With more people working past retirement age, and many starting new occupations in their 40s and 50s, what was once considered a lifetime career may actually be just a midlife job.

This change in how we view both work and our later years is the focus of "The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife" (PublicAffairs, $25), a new book by Marc Freedman.

Freedman, also the chief executive of the boomer think tank Civic Ventures, says in most cases these extra years are added to the middle of our lives, not to the end. The extra time means that what once was considered retirement may be better described as reinvention.

"Large numbers of people are asking the same questions about what's next, and envisioning a chapter that can be as long as midlife in duration," Freedman says.

Freedman expects that in this generational shift, boomers will not only reinvent themselves, they will reinvent society. In the past, older people were shunted aside and the value of their experience was ignored.

"We can see a wave of creativity coming out of a segment of the population that's been disregarded or cut off prematurely for decades," he says. "We're starting to realize people at this stage can offer innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity, assets we once thought were the exclusive province of young people."

But boomers must first shift their thinking. The generation that worshipped youth must realize that 60 and 70 are not old but actually vital new stages. These ages can be a time of new careers, a time to do the type of work you've always wanted to do

Those ages can also be a time to help others, what Freedman calls living a legacy instead of simply leaving a legacy. He believes aging boomers can create "a windfall of talent" that can help solve many of the nation's social problems.

"That can have a profound impact on what future generations think is possible," he says. "And that may well be the contribution they are remembered for."