OLLI At-the-U: Encore Adulthood

Key Takeaways

1. Defining "Encore Adulthood"

• A New Life Stage: Dr. Moen coined the term "encore adulthood" to define the period of life that exists beyond the intense focus on career-building and family-building, but occurs before the frailties commonly associated with old age.
• Not Young, Not Old: Encore adults are unique because they are no longer young, but they are not old either.
• The "Bonus Years": Due to extended life expectancy and medical advances, society has gained active, healthy "bonus years." However, these years are inserted in the middle of the life course rather than at the very end.

2. The Core Challenge: Structural Lag and "No Blueprints"

• Outdated Frameworks: The traditional mid-20th-century "lockstep" life course — which strictly divided life into education, continuous full-time career advancement and a one-time total exit into retirement — is entirely outdated.
• Structural Lag: Cultural norms, corporate policies and government safety nets suffer from "structural lag." They remain predicated on this legacy lockstep timeline, failing to recognize that education is lifelong and that people want to scale back gradually rather than drop out of the workforce entirely.
• Absence of a Safety Net: Existing safety nets (like unemployment and medical insurance) are built for full-time workers. Encore adults who wish to work part-time or transition between roles find themselves with no templates, no clear paths and no safety nets.
• Liminality: Encore adulthood is currently a time of "liminality" — a state of being "betwixt and between," where there is no commonly shared model or expectation of what a "good encore" looks like.

3. The Paradox of Retirement

• Expectations vs. Reality: While many workers anticipate retiring at age 70 or older, statistical realities show that people actually retire much younger than they expect (closer to age 62 or 63).
• Health and Mental Health Risks: Complete, passive retirement can have negative effects. Studies show that following retirement, individuals experience notable increases in mobility difficulties and illness conditions, alongside a 6% to 9% decline in mental health. This decline typically stems from lifestyle changes, such as sharp drops in physical and social engagement.
• Activity Matters: Ultimately, the formal status of "retirement" matters less than what you choose to do next. Being completely idle or roleless leads to psychological distress.

4. Strategies for Personal Reinvention

Because this is a "do-it-yourself" life stage with no established roadmap, individuals must actively take control:

• Challenge Ingrained Mindsets: Individuals must reflect on and deconstruct the socially engineered concept of retirement as a passive, "roleless role."
• Deliberate Socio-Emotional Selection: Encore adults should evaluate their time horizons, choosing carefully which activities and relationships to maintain, which to pursue and which to let go of to reduce stress.
• Experiment and Embrace Failure: Dr. Moen highlights that a large portion of adults aged 50–69 "churn" in and out of full-time and part-time work as they test what fits. Experimenting with new activities — and being willing to fail at them — is vital to finding true purpose.
• Voting with Their Feet: Older adults are increasingly seeking out engagement; the employment rate for individuals 65 and older nearly doubled between 1985 and 2024 (from roughly 10% to 20%), and older adults are enrolling in higher education in unprecedented numbers.

5. Systematic Solutions: The Need for "Social Inventions"

To properly harness the potential of encore adulthood, Dr. Moen argues that society must move past technological innovations and invest in "social inventions" (similar to past inventions like the GI Bill, Medicare, or Social Security). Necessary changes include:

• "Not-So-Big Jobs": Creating institutionalized, flexible, and high-quality part-time or part-year positions that offer benefits like medical insurance and paid time off.
• Employee Control: Giving workers more control over the time and timing of their work, which has been proven to significantly lower stress, improve well-being, and increase retention.
• Flexible Career Paths & Timeouts: Developing legitimate paths for "second, third or fourth acts" in community service or employment, paired with paid leaves and institutionalized education/training intervals to adapt to shifts like AI.
• Social Insurance Alternatives: Designing financial underpinnings and skill-upgrade frameworks tailored to the risks and structural transitions inherent in later life stages.