16 songs everyone over 50 must own

An AARP slideshow. How many of these are on your playlist?

Best-selling author Jacquelyn Mitchard lists 16 songs you should own

Music stokes my mood, keeps me spinning, on the bike and in life, and recalls for me irreplaceable moments we get to experience once, if we’re lucky. 

So I’ve compiled a list of favorites from every genre, each of which speaks in some important way to our generation.

I'm glad to have this list

Because I hear they're phasing out Walmart greeters.  And that was looking like my second career.  Fortunately, I already live in a college town.  From AARP.org.

College Town Jobs for Older Workers

Grow old along with me

In jobs like these we'll be.  Debra Auerbach, writing in Aol.com, lists 14 secure jobs with a high percentage of workers age 55 or over.  Here are the first ten.

Best Jobs If You're Over 55 - Careers Articles

1. Clinical, counseling and school psychologists*
Percent age 55 and over: 41.9
Median annual salary: $67,880**

2. Psychologists, all other (not listed separately)
Percent age 55 and over: 41.9
Median annual salary: $90,010

3. Chief executives
Percent age 55 and over: 35.5
Median annual salary: $166,910

4. Physicists
Percent age 55 and over: 33.8
Median annual salary: $106,360

5. Urban and regional planners
Percent age 55 and over: 33.8
Median annual salary: $64,100

6. Management analysts
Percent age 55 and over: 32.3
Median annual salary: $78,490

7. Education administrators, all other
Percent age 55 and over: 32.2
Median annual salary: $76,730

8. Education administrators, elementary and secondary school
Percent age 55 and over: 32.2
Median annual salary: $87,470

9. Education administrators, postsecondary
Percent age 55 and over: 32.2
Median annual salary: $84,280

10. Administrative services managers
Percent age 55 and over: 31.9
Median annual salary: $79,540

Low hanging fruit

We used to routinely do this years ago to attract adults into our nontraditional degree programs.  And I mean years ago. Where's our award? It worked, but we sometimes didn't screen our contact list closely enough and ended up contacting students who had flunked out.  Never mind. From Kentucky.com.

Kentucky program helping college dropouts graduate wins national award

Then Reese heard about Project Graduate, a statewide program that finds students who have 80 credits but haven't graduated and streamlines the process for them to get a degree. Today, Reese is slowly finishing up the language requirements that had eluded him.

"I think the program is really beneficial because it gives those who are on the edge of getting that degree that step up to finish what they started," Reese said. 

Project Graduate was started by the Council on Postsecondary Education in 2008 and has graduated 605 students so far. It has an additional 651 enrolled at all eight of Kentucky's public universities.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/07/08/2252547/kentucky-program-helping-college.html#storylink=cpy

LERN's New Boomer Market for CE

The Learning Resource Network has a new White Paper on The New Boomer Market for Continuing Education with advice on designing programs for boomers. Programming for boomers, they point out, is not the same as programming for senior citizens.

LERN's Julie Coates gives the following tips for reaching this 78 million person market:

1. Do not mention age in your promotions. Nothing about prime time, mid-life, later life, retirement, 50 plus.
2. Do not attempt to integrate your boomer offerings with those of senior program, including LIR and Osher offerings. Market boomer offerings separately.
3. Provide intellectually stimulating topics in science, psychology, philosophy, literature, politics, media, and history.
4. Market quality faculty.
5. Charge higher prices that convey the sense of qualities that boomers want.

Email Tammy Peterson at TammyP@lern.org with any questions or call LERN at 800-678-5376.

(Am I the only Boomer that cringes a bit at the attention we call to ourselves--i.e. that Dennis Hopper television ad that says we changed the world? You couldn't blame Gen Next for hating us.)