In the US, there has been a wave of new programmes helping individuals over 50 make seamless transitions to encore careers. Ten community colleges have created inexpensive pilots to help ageing boomers retrain for encore careers in education, health care or human services.
Harvard University recently launched a one-year fellowship for successful individuals to start a new chapter in their lives focused on solving major domestic and international problems ranging from poverty, homelessness and climate change.
Companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard have also started helping older staff begin new careers in teaching, social services or the environment.
Changing mindsets about ageing, meanwhile, is proving difficult.
Mr Freedman narrates the story of Ms Velma Simpson, a 50-something Colorado native who gave up her job peddling insurance, went to school to get a master's in social work and landed a government job to work with homeless people.
She found she was continuously given short-term assignments as her employers thought that, at her age, she 'had one foot out the door'.
Indeed, older folk here often complain that they are the last to be hired and first to be fired. Even during near-full employment here early last year, the community development councils were able to find jobs for only one in four workers aged 40 and above who approached them.
Therefore, he says creating better incentives for employers to hire older people, and building better pathways for retraining and re-entry into the labour market are critical.
'We've been much better at developing off-ramps for older workers, women and men alike, making it as easy as possible to exit the labour market. Where most nations fall short is in creating on-ramps, vehicles that make it easier for individuals to get training and assistance in returning to the workforce after caregiving duties and other responsibilities.'
These 'on-ramps' could be created through training programmes and monetary incentives for both employers and older folk.
But will it work in a place like Singapore where many of the baby-boomers come from less educated and poorer economic backgrounds? After all, as of 2005, more than half of the 862,000 people here aged 50 and above had only primary school qualifications or less.
He maintains: 'Many of the most important social and human services needs of the coming decades will require fundamental human kindness - mentoring children, caring for the frail, supporting the elderly. Individuals of any education level are in a position to provide these services.'
In the US, there are two government- sponsored programmes for older folk, mostly women, who work 20 hours a week providing one-on-one care for children and for frail seniors.
More than 40,000 individuals participate in these programmes each year, in return for a cash stipend and other benefits.
Indeed, those with rewarding encore careers come from all walks of life - from former presidents like Mr Jimmy Carter and Mr Bill Clinton, to hotshot former corporate lawyers who now help human rights victims get their day in court, to waitresses who found new meaning by morphing into guardian angels for kids in hospital.
Even if they don't want to save the world, finding a renewed purpose later in life can be a blessing, since many would have otherwise lived out their last years in loneliness.
Ultimately, an encore career - whatever it may be - puts older folk at the intersection of money, meaning and impact, he says.
'It's about reaping the maximum returns on experience. And paying it forward.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times on January 07, 2009.
