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The Family CFO: The Couple's Business Plan for Love and Money
Baby boomers are rapidly approaching retirement age and will, before long, make up the bulk of the nation's mature population. Collectively, baby boomers have always displayed salient qualities of independence, curiosity, confidence and creativity. These are not characteristics that have traditionally been associated with old age, but most commentators agree the baby boomers will change this, as they have revolutionized so much else.

Not surprisingly, the baby boomers' exceptional interest in developing mind and body has, as they move beyond middle age, translated into a fixed determination to stay youthful. Rejecting terms like "senior" and "elderly," they are challenging the received wisdom that says old age must bring a slowing of faculties and weakening in physical terms.

In their defiance they are getting plenty of support from experts. Successful Aging contributes significantly to the argument that old age need not be disastrous for any aspect of vitality. John Rowe, M.D. and Robert Kahn, Ph.D., are both members of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network, and are quite adamant that aging and debilitation are far from inextricable. The extensive research they detail shows that genetic predetermination is most pronounced in very young subjects and accounts for fewer and fewer health concerns as subject samples get older. The ways seniors are living make the biggest difference to their continued life.

There are surprises revealed here: the 10 years of research cited by Rowe and Kahn suggests that an inactive person is jeopardizing his or her health more severely than a smoker who takes regular exercise. Even attitude plays its part, and a good one can mitigate against an unfavorable genetic legacy. Lifestyle makes more difference, their studies show, than DNA, even in subjects with a genetic predisposition to develop cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer's or other serious afflictions widely associated with genetic factors.

Rowe and Kahn's findings have been welcomed by baby boomers, whose concern for health matters is matched only by their desire to control their own fate. A very goal-oriented, results-driven group, they respond to the unusual application of the word "successful" in the book's title. That living as a senior is largely what you make it is good and resonant news for a demographic used to wielding control over most aspects of their fate, and accomplishing great feats in the process.

Useful not only to baby boomers and seniors who want to take control of their aging, the book is great for business heads and marketers who understand baby boomers' pro-active, self-determining proclivities. Rowe and Kahn's work shows how members of the baby boomer market can be helped to realize a higher level of control over their aging process. Anyone involved in catering to the health, fitness and anti-aging sectors for a mature market will appreciate the insights offered here on overall health-in-aging.

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