Life is Fleeting

You don’t have to be a religious person to enjoy and benefit from reading the Psalms. Even agnostics and atheists have found comfort in that classy collection of contemplative literature. The crises of life are addressed each in its own place there. Suffered betrayal?  Psalm 55. Dealing with anxiety issues?  Psalm 91. Struggling to understand why evil seems to prosper? Psalm 73.

I was this weekend considering Psalm 39. It’s a meditation on mortality. In the past few years I have lost several good friends from when I was a young man. My generation seems to be on the way out. The latest (last month) was Murray Polushin. Aside from having a special humor, he was one of the more articulate people I have known, well read and able to hold his own in a discussion with most anyone. He was able to dissect ideas and examine them critically.

I recall the time when Murray, who had just returned to Edmonton from college in the USA, was staying a few days with my then roommates and me in our apartment at Riverside Towers. We had another guest at the same time --- a super enthusiastic fellow named Tony Albert. Tony was a closer and did not like accepting No. Early one evening Murray and Tony started debating why it was that Americans seemed more prone to violent crime than did Canadians. They discussed this all evening and were at it when I went to bed around 11. I got up the next morning to get ready for work, and discovered they had been up all night and were still debating that same topic. When I got home at day's end, they were still going....I won't say strong.....they were flagging a bit....but they were still at it.

There is a continual stream of replacement humans coming along as babies are born and enter our lives or as adults wander in as strangers. They don’t really take the place of the ones we have long known because we do not have a history with them. I am not saying don’t build anything with them. Of course we should, but we should also treasure our old friends and also our families. We are social beings and need each other.

Advice if You Are an Older Worker or Thinking of Retiring

The shortage of skilled labor in English speaking North America makes it difficult to fill many jobs from the ranks of millennials, many of whom don’t aspire to work hard anyway. Combine that with the erosion of retirement plans through poor investment performance, bankruptcies, and very low interest rates, and one result is that many older baby boomers are looking for work.

Agora Financial offers some good advice, which I will paste below my own, which is that if you own a long-standing business, consider keeping it into retirement years instead of selling it, or at least keep part of it. You or your business partners probably have more skill in managing your business than you do in managing an investment portfolio, plus your rate of return on your equity is probably higher over the long-run than it is with most other investments you may have.

Now for Agora’s advice from their Rich Life Roadmap:

Finding work in your 50s or 60s is no easy task, but new and somewhat surprising employment data suggests that prospects are improving, especially for older job seekers.

One big reason?

This is the tightest labor market in nearly two decades, causing employers to look beyond the sea of Millennial candidates.

At the end of July, there were nearly 7.3 million unfilled jobs, but only 6.1 million people looking for work, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The unemployment rate in July for Americans 55 years and over was 2.7 percent, less than the overall unemployment rate at 3.7 percent.

What’s more encouraging is the average length of unemployment for older job seekers has dropped significantly since 2012.

It’s down from roughly 50 weeks to 34 weeks for job hunters age 55 to 64 and down from about 62 weeks to 30 weeks for those 65+.

In other words, it takes about seven to eight months on average to find a job if you’re over 55.

Stumbling Blocks for Those Over 50

Something I don’t think is given enough attention today are the unique challenges the over-50 crowd faces when looking for work.

Older applicants are competing with tech-savvy Millennials who often come at a cheaper price, and although age discrimination is technically illegal, it’s still pretty hard to enforce.

A study by the Government Accountability Office found five common barriers to employment for older workers:

High salary expectations — You may need to compromise on pay as your skills might not be as up to date as they once were.

Younger bosses — It’s human nature to want to work with people who are like you. If that’s the case, you need to learn how to address this obstacle in an interview.

Out of date skills — Technology is evolving faster than ever. Whether it’s applying for a job online or actually being able to operate new software, the pace can be overwhelming.

Expensive health benefits — The older you get, the more expensive your health premiums become. Bigger companies will be less impacted by this than smaller firms.

Bias — Old habits (and ideas) die hard. Know what biases you’re up against so you can get in front.

Acing the Interview

If it's been a while since you were actively looking for work, you'll notice certain aspects of the application and interview process has changed.

My hope today is to give you a few pointers on how to land your next gig, whether you’re coming off a layoff or looking for part-time work as a recent retiree.

If you follow these 10 tips, your inbox should be full of offer letters in the next few months.

Tip 1: Tap Your Network

A major benefit to having been in the workforce for so many years is your network of contacts. Don’t be shy to reach out to old bosses, co-workers, even subordinates.

Let them know you’re on the job hunt. Companies like referrals and it's a lot easier to get your foot in the door if you know someone.

Tip 2: Get on LinkedIn

A quick way to tap your network is to connect with them on LinkedIn, the popular business-oriented social platform.

If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, create one now. LinkedIn has become the go-to site for recruiters and hiring managers.

There’s plenty of good advice online that will walk you through how to build an attractive profile that will grab the attention of headhunters.

Bonus: just having a decent LinkedIn profile shows that you’re somewhat tech-savvy helping fight the ‘tech-illiterate’ label.

Tip 3: Update your Wardrobe

This might sound superficial but you need to dress for the job you want, and I don’t mean wearing a C-suite suit.

Your look should appear vibrant and modern. You don’t want to look dated because it’ll make the interviewer think that your skills are dated too.

The goal is to look age-appropriate yet current. Invest in a new suit, a slimmer fitted dress shirt, or a new pair of shoes. If you wear glasses, prioritize getting those updated first. Nothing ages someone more than an out-of-date pair of eyeglasses.

Tip 4: Update your Email Address

If you’re still using an old AOL or Hotmail account, you need to sign up for a newer email service. Get a Gmail or Outlook account to show you’re keeping up with the times.

It probably won’t win you a job, but it definitely won’t raise any red flags during the screening process either.

Also, check out Zoho and iCloud Mail, these are newer email services that’ll show you’re a little more tech-forward.

Tip 5: Modernize Your Resume

First, be sure to keep your resume to two pages max. Even if you’ve had a long and successful career, don’t bother listing every job you’ve held.

A good rule-of-thumb is to go back 10 to 15 years in your work history. This will also help disguise your age a bit should you be unfairly categorized. You can leave off the year you graduated from school, as well.

Be sure to include your LinkedIn profile URL and newly updated email address. If you have a landline, it’s best to leave it off and just use your cellphone.

These are minor details that will show a hiring manager you’re up to date.

Tip 6: Use Experience to Your Advantage

A major advantage you probably have over younger applicants is your experience, make sure you point that out and show how your expertise will help the company.

Don’t just tout your past though. Talk about the future and how you can mentor and groom the next generation of leaders in the company.

Tip 7: Show Adaptability

There’s a notion that older workers are typically going to be set in their ways. This is a common hurdle the over-50 job seeker must face. To fight this stereotype, you need to show that you’re adaptable to change.

When you speak to hiring managers, talk about situations where you adapted to change and the positive outcomes from doing so. Another way to show your flexibility is your willingness to take on temporary, part-time, or project-based work.

Employers understand that young job seekers want full-time jobs with benefits and security for their families. Older workers can fill the void especially for jobs that are seasonal or temporary by nature.

Tip 8: Keep up on Trends in Your Field

An easy way to impress hiring managers is to show that you’ve been keeping up in your field. To do this you can simply read industry newsletters, books, or watch videos online.

There are plenty of online courses you can take for further career development. Udemy, Lynda, and Coursera are all good places to start looking.

Tip 9: Highlight Your Tech Skills

You can’t get around it. In today’s workplace, you need to have a solid understanding of the technology used in your field. Find ways to weave the tech skills you have and are learning into the recruitment process.

For instance: instead of just saying you’re proficient in Excel, give a quick example of how you used Excel to filter large sets of data using pivot tables.

Tip 10: Show You’re High Energy

You want to give the impression that you're ready to hit the ground running and not simply winding down for retirement. Terms like energetic, fast-paced, and looking for a new challenge are easy ways to liven up your resume.

No doubt, finding work as you get older becomes more challenging.

But that certainly doesn’t mean that you have less to offer than younger candidates. You just have to exert a little more effort to show that in your resume and during the interview process.

Stick to the basics and follow these 10 tips, it’ll help improve your odds of landing a job, or two.

The Children Are Ready

Christian forecasters have long been predicting the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem as a pivotal occurrence in the flow of events leading to the end of the world. By the way, the world, as the Bible discusses it, is not the planet. It is the social order --- the culture --- the way things are done. It’s the system in which humans operate. Anyway, it is expected to start wrapping up once that far-off episode of the building of the Temple happens. Oh wait.  Maybe it’s not so far off.  Most readers of this blog probably do not know that there is an organized effort to focus attention on the project and to make it happen. You can see some related videos by going to https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=temple+institute+CHILDREN+ARE+READY.

Negative Mortage Rates

I’m not an economist, but I do know a few things about economics, I think. Anyone that specializes in business principles knows something about economics, particularly micro-economics. I was on a family picnic yesterday, and while being lazy in the park, I was thinking about the negative interest rates now seen in some places. For example, you can get a long-term mortgage in Europe that has you paying back less money than you borrowed. How is that possible? Probably because the supply of lendable cash exceeds the demand for it. With year after year of almost runaway quantitative easing, econo-speak for creating money, there is a surplus of money around.

Initially, the new money wasn’t going anywhere. It was parked and not lent, but more and more of it has found its way into consumer and business loans, with the result that interest rates have declined.

There is potentially another result too. Lending that money puts the money into hands that will spend it. The effect should be an increase in the velocity of money, with resulting increases in prices, unless production of desired goods and services grows more quickly, something that is unlikely to happen.

There are economists and politicians that regard humans mainly as consumers --- mouths to feed. They miss the fact that humans create wealth. Adding to a population of people should increase the wealth available to that population, unless the additions are uneducated, dull of thinking and lazy, not the norm with most people. Nonetheless, the increase in wealth that can be occasioned by a growing population cannot keep up with the rate of increase in money available to that population when money is multiplying geometrically and is being circulated.

We could easily see a major divergence between price inflation and interest rates, contrary to the old wisdom that interest rates parallel inflation rates.