Morningstar - Q2 2022 - 80

Ten Questions
Stanford's Laura Carstensen wants to
change the way we work.
Laura Lallos, managing editor of Morningstar
magazine, interviewed Carstensen in February. The
discussion has been edited for length and clarity.
1. Americans are living longer. How do we meet this
challenge for retirement?
We need to work longer. We're living 10 to 15 years
longer in adulthood than our grandparents
did, and most of those years are healthy years, so
why wouldn't we? Work is a primary source of
a sense of purpose in people's lives.
2. What about the concept of retirement itself?
We need to retire more often-to come in and out
of the workforce. We work way too hard in the
middle of life, while we're raising children and
often taking care of older relatives. It's also a time
when we're in managerial roles or clients are
depending on us. We need more flexible models of
work, where we work for fewer or more hours
at different phases in our lives.
Laura L. Carstensen is professor of psychology
at Stanford University, where she is the
Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. professor in public
policy and founding director of the
Stanford Center on Longevity. Her research
focuses on the motivational and emotional
changes that occur with age and the influence
such changes have on cognitive processing.
She is the author of A Long Bright Future:
Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an
Age of Increased Longevity. Carstensen
received her Bachelor of Science degree from
the University of Rochester in New York
and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from West
Virginia University.
Photography by David Lees.
3. Working mothers are in the vanguard here.
Staying in work is good. For example, working
mothers have lower rates of depression than
stay-at-home moms. We think it's because they
are less isolated. But it's hard to balance
things if you are working 60 hours a week when
your kids are young.
4. Has the pandemic helped redefine work?
So much pain and suffering came from COVID-19,
but it put a crack into the models of lives that
we live, and that crack is letting in light. Hybrid
work arrangements can be better for people's
mental health and family lives.
5. What's your advice to somebody starting their career?
Careers, and lives in general, are marathons, not
sprints, so pace yourself. If you want to have
kids in your 20s, work part time for a while. And
keep learning new skills. That will allow you
to have more flexible work later.
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Morningstar Q2 2022
6. What about older workers?
Older people in management positions need to
devise more humane work patterns for the
people we employ. And we'll have more flexibility
ourselves: Another COVID consequence is the
Great Resignation, so employers need older
workers. This is a good time to change the cultural
workplace norm that you're all in or you're
all out.
7. Is this approach to work a luxury for those in
certain fields?
Relatively low-wage workers are, for the first time
in decades, making more money. They have
more leverage, and I think that's going to lead to
better working conditions.
8. How can financial advisors address this shift?
Working longer in the ways that we have been
talking about-more flexibly, with respites, while
learning new skills-means you aren't working
toward one big pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. Advisors can help people save different
subpots of money, to take a year off or learn
something new. They can help clients think about
new pathways through working lives.
9. What about declining cognitive abilities as we age?
One of the best ways to stay cognitively able
to work is to work. When people step out of the
lives that they'd been living and sit down
on a couch and watch TV, that's when they begin
cognitive decline.
10. What's your best advice for healthy aging?
Exercise is the best thing you can do-for
your brain, too. If you want to stay cognitively
healthy, keep moving. And take care of your
friendships. Being socially embedded contributes
to quality and length of life.
https://www.morningstar.com/authors/44/laura-lallos
Morningstar - Q2 2022

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