Lina Ko June 30th, 2008
According to a recent report of The National Post, baby boomers are the fastest growing age group in the luxury neighbourhood of Forest Hill in Toronto. The strength of the condominium market has been a testament of the impact of boomers on the housing market as adult children of boomers have been leaving home as first-time condominium buyers or renters; and as the empty nester parents themselves have been trading in their large homes for a condominium lifestyle.
According to the latest 2006 census data, there were 13,965 residents living in the Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates area. However, compared with the 2001 census, the leading-edge baby boomers (aged 55 to 62) were the fastest-growing age group increasing in numbers by close to 26 percent.
The prevalence of families living in this neighbourhood is also evident in the marital status data which showed an almost 11 percent decrease in the number of single residents, compared with a net increase in married and common-law couples. Even the number of separated and divorced residents fell by four percent, compared with a city of Toronto trend toward more ‘marriage casualties’.
It’s clear that if you’re a single, never-married, divorced or separated boomer, Forest Hill may not be your neighbourhood since families seem to congregrate there. The affluence in this neighbourhood remains unchanged – the latest census data also reports that Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates are a relatively affluent neighbourhood with a lower-than-average employment rate, higher-than-average education and an annual household income of $246,000 – among the highest in the city.
Lina Ko June 23rd, 2008
According to an article filed by Canadian Press last week, the 2008 USA Memory Championship winner Chester Santos can memorize a shuffled deck of cards in three minutes and learn 100 random words and 100 new names and faces in 15. He has been training his brain for seven years and has recently quit his software job to teach his memory techniques full time.
The brain fitness software market reached US$225 million in revenues in 2007, according to a SharpBrains (market research firm) report published earlier this year, up from an estimated US$100 million in 2005. The increase was driven only in part by Nintendo’s popular Brain Age game. The brain fitness market passed a tipping point in 2007 thanks to the convergence of a very proactive group of leading-edge boomers reaching their 60s.
Many boomers have watched their parents struggle with Alzheimer’s, and an estimated 10 million of them are now expected to develop the disease in the U.S., according to a recent report from the Alzheimer’s Association. The picture in Canada is not any rosier. A large group of the North American population is getting to the age where they are vulnerable to degenerative neurological diseases that seem to be prevalent.
Ageing boomers should find something that is mentally challenging and fun and do it on a regular basis to keep their memory going. In the meantime, the brain fitness market is poised to grow. SharpBrains estimates the software market will reach US$2 billion in 2015 in the U.S. Perhaps we will have certified brain coaches, brain fitness programs in the workplace and government-led efforts to sharpen our brains?
Lina Ko June 16th, 2008
Last week, the Ottawa Citizen pointed out that maturity is a lucrative commodity, according to the latest box-office numbers. Sex and the City earned $55.7 million its first week, the biggest debut ever for a romantic comedy. As mentioned in this blog before, all four lead actresses are boomers. Robert Downey Jr. demonstrates a superhero can be a 43-year-old guy with crow’s feet in Iron Man. And yes, at 65, Harrison Ford as a senior citizen is saving the world again in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Indiana Jones and Iron Man are the first two films to make more than $200 million this year.
Baby boomers are changing the rules of age perceptions. Back in their youth, they fuelled the emphasis on youth culture. Now, the generation born between 1947 and 1966 is showing its economic clout once again by redefining wha’t sexy and sellable in Hollywood.
All the above-mentioned movies give their stars a chance to play their own age, something rare for action films. The significant thing about Ford’s current turn as Indiana Jones is “he’s being allowed to play a 65-year-old,” says Bill Newcott, entertainment editor of AARP The Magazine. “If that movie were made 20 years ago, it would be 65-year-old Harrison Ford still trying to play 45-year-old Harrison Ford.”
Across the pop-culture spectrum, older celebrities are having a noteworthy summer. In the music arena, Neil Diamond recently scored his first No. 1 album after appearing as a mentor on American Idol. Madonna, who turns 50 in August, is still showing club kids how it’s done with her latest release, Hard Candy. I’ve also bought Al Green’s latest release Lay It Down – my first acquisition of anything Al Green in 20 years – after reading raving reviews of his album.
We’re seeing a transformation. There is life after 40 or 50 or 60 – and it’s pretty good!
Lina Ko June 9th, 2008
According to a new survey conducted by the online dating site Lavalife, single baby boomers are all behaving like Samantha Jones in Sex and the City – they are enjoying better sex, are open to threesomes and are not looking to get married.
According to the American Association of Retired People (AARP), about 30 percent of boomers are single. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults born between 1946 and 1964 (definition of American boomers) and 46 percent of them said they enjoyed sex more than they did during their 20s and 30s. The poll also showed that 34 percent would have sex on a first date compared with 17 percent of singles in Generation X.
The survey of people in the U.S. and Canada by the company’s site for older adults – prime.lavalife.com – also found that 47 percent of single boomers were primarily looking for friendship while 19 percent were seeking a sexual companion. Only a mere 10 percent hoped to get married, compared with 60 percent of those aged between 30 and 39.
The survey findings are hardly surprising. Boomers have been around and many of them have experienced marriages and divorces. Most of these people just want to share who they are, where they’ve been, and what insight they’ve picked up along the way. They are looking to enhance their lives. They are not desperate and their attitude is: they want to meet interesting people. Whether they will choose to find such friends online is another issue.
Lina Ko June 2nd, 2008
The big hoopla about the movie Sex and The City this past weekend has proven once again that the women who are about to enter their boomer years are still feeling good about themselves. Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte have all turned 40 although not quite making it for the Canadian boomer age of 42 yet, while Samantha, the boomer woman in her finest form, turned 50 in the movie.
The TV series which stopped production about four years ago has always been about girl power. And this movie is no different. Men come and go; careers have their ups and downs; life has its own tragedies, comedies and bland happenings, but women can always count on their girlfriends.
Film critics all over the world have given this movie a very low rating, including our own Globe and Mail which gave it a zero rating out of 4 stars. I saw the movie over the weekend with my own gal pals, and I have to disagree. If I were a film critic, I would have given it 31/2 over 4. But I’m not a film critic and most film critics are men. That’s why they don’t get it. I’m trying not to be a ’spoiler,’ so what I love about this movie is that you can be happy whether you’re single or married; parental or childless, in L.A. or in New York, ageing gracefully or defying age with Botox – the most important key message is that you MUST have girlfriends who will stick with you and support you in sickness and in health. They may not be perfect, but they are always there for you. Whether they are in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s or growing old into the 50’s and 60’s, women are always there for one another. That’s why this movie is hilarious, yet touching, to teens and boomers and younger women alike. And who won’t salute Samantha, the most ‘mature’ and daring of all the lead women characters who bares it all in the movie when she just turned 50?