Association of Healthcare Journalists ‘Liz Seegert joins Jeffrey to unpack how mindset shapes aging, why “health span” matters more than lifespan, and what employers—and individuals—can do to support productive, vibrant later years. Learn the research-backed link between positive views of aging and longer, healthier lives, the workplace tensions between generations, and practical steps to prioritize mobility, cognition, and planning for a longer, better third act.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Liz, it’s always great to see you.
Welcome back to the program this morning. Nice to be back, Jeffrey. So we’re gonna talk about aging, but I think we’re gonna do it in the context of the power of the mind.
Liz, how you age is really based on your will, I would think.
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
It’s not so much will as mindset. There have been numerous studies, including by Becca Levy at Yale University, that actually show that a positive mindset about aging can add about seven and a half years to your life. And that people who look at aging only in negative terms, decline, frailty, loss of friends, loss of function, and all those bad things that can and do happen, tend to also develop more propensity to dementia, to heart disease, and to other chronic conditions.
So it really does matter what your mindset is about getting older.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And has the mindset changed? There used to be a stigma. I often joke that when I was a kid, someone my age, they looked really old.
Now that is a sense of perspective. But as I’ve gotten older, and to my age, I’ve got a different perspective now. I feel like I’m relatively young.
So has the stigma evaporated, and do people have a different perspective on age?
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
It’s starting to shift, I think, as more boomers get into that 65 plus demographics. As a matter of fact, the oldest boomers are turning 80 this year, which is a little surprising, but yet inevitable, of course. What’s happening though, is that there’s this push-pull between younger generations and older generations.
And your listeners have probably heard the framework of millennials and the younger generations saying older people need to get out of the workforce, they’re hanging on to their homes too long, we can’t afford to buy a house, and so on and so on. I mean, when we were in our 20s and 30s, yes, 50 and 60 seemed very old. But then again, the life expectancy when we were that younger generation was shorter.
Routinely, Americans live well into their late 70s, early 80s, and more of us are living well into our 90s and beyond. So the concept of age is starting to change. What’s not changing is how we’re preparing for it.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So how are we prepared for it, and how are we preparing for it? Or how are we preparing for it, and are we prepared for it? Let me ask it that way.
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
I think some of it goes back to the mindset. If you believe that your later years, you can call it your third act or your third wave or whatever kitschy name that people wanna give it now. If you believe the years after retirement and leading up to retirement are going to be productive, that you’re going to continue healthy habits like walking and eating balanced diet and so on, and taking care of yourself, then you can plan for a longer life expectancy.
Most people are worried about outliving their money. And that’s a legitimate fear because most of us, as you know, do not save enough for retirement. And social security and the trust fund have all kinds of issues, which is too wonky to get into in this discussion, but we all know there are problems there.
But understanding that aging is a process and it’s the start of something different, you can better plan for it. The people that look at aging as, oh, I’m just kind of gonna sit at home and I’m worried about losing friends, I’m worried about I won’t be able to drive as well, or I’m worried that my diabetes or my heart disease is gonna get the best of me, they actually do tend to have shorter life expectancies. And people who kind of adopt that negative mindset, studies have shown that they don’t plan as well for their later years, regardless of their longevity.
What you’ve got to plan for is a health span more than a lifespan.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And if- Go ahead, I’m sorry.
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
If you can adopt that mindset, you’ll be better prepared for whatever comes your way.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I was gonna ask you, I wanna go back to a comment you made about the younger generation kind of saying, get out of the way, whatever the terminology was, and that’s fine. But don’t people, aren’t employers really kind of warming up to the idea of having an older members of the workforce as part of their organizations? There’s a lot of knowledge that you and I and others in that category have gained that I think would help.
If we walk, that institutional knowledge goes away, Liz. So I think there’s, are employers warming up?
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
Some of them are. The problem is that employers often don’t have very age-friendly policies. So for example, suppose you’re a grandparent that wants to watch your grandkid two days a week.
Do employers make accommodations for that? Is it an all or nothing? There aren’t many places, perhaps the airlines and some government jobs perhaps where you must retire at 65 or 68.
So that’s the good news. But the complaint also becomes that if older people are staying in the more senior positions longer, that puts a block in younger generations being able to move up in the corporate hierarchy. So there is a dynamic, there is a push-pull there.
And employers I think are still learning how to navigate this new normal. For example, if you’re in your 50s or early 60s, you may be caring for an aging parent and need a flexible work schedule. At the same time, you’re caring for a middle school or a high school or at home.
We don’t have very family-friendly policies in many organizations. And that’s really part of the process. Sometimes younger people see an older worker saying, oh, I’m gonna work from home today because I’ve got to care, take my mom to a doctor’s appointment.
And there may be thinking to themselves, well, I don’t get that accommodation. But they’ll be in that position someday.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, I was gonna say, we’re all gonna be there. We’re all gonna potentially be caring for our loved ones. We’re all gonna be getting older.
So just think, it’s gonna happen too eventually. So, but it seems like employers, are they focused on these types of policies? I have to think as we reach a peak 65, which is that magical number that we’re gonna have more people over the age of 65 than younger, they’re going to have to adapt their policies.
They’re gonna have to make changes if they wanna survive and be profitable and tap into that intellectual knowledge.
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
We’re seeing some trends where more employers are starting to embrace this. And partially because they’re also in that generational squeeze. You know, when they started out, suppose they founded a business when they were 30 or 35.
Well, now 20 years have gone by and they’ve got their own aging parents to deal with. So they’re starting to kind of get the need for it, but it’s not across the board as there are, you know, it varies by state. So some states have very family-friendly policies.
Some companies have very family-friendly policies. A lot of them still, it’s a struggle. You might have to use vacation time or personal time.
And we have absolutely no law that says paid mandatory leave for caregiving, unlike many of the other, you know, industrialized nations around the world. And that’s pretty shameful.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, I think there’s a lot of work to be done. I know aging is a big topic in the Congress, local government, state government. So, you know, I guess it’s iterative and it’s evolution.
Liz, I was hoping we’ve got about a minute and a half left, two minutes left. Let’s talk about something that you mentioned, health span. Different than lifespan, what is that?
And how do we manage to that, as opposed to saying I’m going to live to 90? Because I may live to 90, I’m hoping to live longer by the way, but I may live to 90, but it may not be a good period of time in my life.
Liz Seegert, Association of Healthcare Journalists
And that’s really the distinction now, particularly people that work in the aging field are looking at maximizing your quality of life. And what that means is minimizing the effects of a chronic disease, keeping you mobile, keeping your mind sharp. Because as you say, most people would not want to live till 95 or 100 if it meant they were in a nursing home, if they had dementia, or if they had other kinds of chronic disease.
So the sooner people can start managing their health and doing whatever it takes to keep themselves healthier, the better quality of life they’re going to have in their later years.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And it certainly sounds like having the right mindset is a good start to that. Liz, we’re going to have to leave it there. Great analysis, great piece, great to talk to you.
And look, we’re going to bring you back next month and we’ll continue the conversation. We look forward to having you back very soon. Thanks so much, look forward to it.
