Movies About the Second Half of Life: What's Behind the Trend?

05/16/2012 - 08:47:05am

All of a sudden, there are movies about life beyond midlife.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy – has quickly become a critical and box office hit.

Don’t forget Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Larry Crowne, Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt in Late Bloomers, and, next year, Tina Fey in The Intern, playing the founder of a fashion company who mentors a 70-something intern bored with retirement.

What gives?

AARP's Jane Pauley on Encore Careers and the Myth of Reinvention

02/09/2012 - 11:59:05am

If you’re wondering how to figure out what’s next in your life, take three minutes and watch this clip from Emmy-award winning journalist Jane Pauley.

Purpose, Passion and a Paycheck in a Tough Economy

11/28/2011 - 03:16:37pm

How has the current economy affected encore career interest and plans for encore careers?

With support from MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures, researchers at Penn Schoen Berland surveyed nearly 2,500 Americans ages 44 to 70 to find out.

Intel Offers Encore Benefit to Employees Near Retirement

11/21/2011 - 01:58:28pm

Intel is the first company to make Encore Fellowships – paid, part-time, yearlong assignments working at local nonprofits – available to all of its eligible pre-retiree employees nationwide.

It’s a bold move that could signal a sea change in corporate retirement benefits and bring a new wave of talent into the nonprofit sector.

And the 2011 Purpose Prize Winners Are…

10/28/2011 - 11:56:07am

Some have called The Purpose Prize the “genius award for retirees.” This year's winners exemplify the spirit of the $100,000 award – the country's only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

The 2011 winners are:

Oprah Winfrey Hails Purpose Prize Winners

10/19/2011 - 12:02:47pm

Oprah Winfrey has her sights on two 2010 Purpose Prize winners. Margaret Gordon and Dana Freyer were recently showcased on Oprah.com for the extraordinary work they do in their encores.

Nonprofits Offer Hope to Encore Career Seekers

10/17/2011 - 06:39:07am

Heard any good news about the job market lately?

I didn’t think so.

So here’s a bit of good news to hang on to: Idealist.org, a popular nonprofit jobs site, reports that most nonprofits are “cautiously optimistic” about hiring and believe the worst economic times may be over.

Early in 2011, Idealist reached out to thousands of organizations to see how they were dealing with “the financial crisis that hit our sector in the fall of 2008,” and to gauge their feelings about the future.

‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’ Taught Women About Sexuality and Reproductive Health

10/07/2011 - 11:41:15am

When it comes to women’s sexuality and reproductive health, I’ve come to believe that the world divides into two camps: those who know something about hand mirrors and those who don’t.

My sister Julie, solidly in the first camp, recently went to a 30-something female gynecologist, who’s in the second. At Julie’s first mention of hand mirrors, she told me, her doctor was more than a little taken aback.

“You did what?” she asked.

“I went into a classroom at Hampshire College with six or seven other women in the fall of 1980,” Julie explained from the examining table.

The Dangerous Myth of Reinvention

09/07/2011 - 12:50:56pm

Two recent news stories show the upside of encore success stories – and the downside of reinvention myths.

BusinessWeek recently posted a slideshow to its site, showcasing 16 people in new, later-life careers. Eight of the 16 are in true encore careers dedicated to the greater good, and two of these are ones we know well.

Purpose Prize Winner, Environmentalist Ray Anderson Dies at 77

08/10/2011 - 01:09:10pm

Ray Anderson, a winner of The Purpose Prize in 2007 for his advocacy on behalf of sustainable business practices, died this week of cancer at the age of 77.

Anderson founded and led Interface, Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of modular carpet tiles. His life changed in 1996, when, at age 60, he made a radical decision to eliminate Interface’s environmental footprint by 2020.