The Longevity Economy

Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market

By: Joseph F. Coughlin

Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel

Oldness: a social construct at odds with reality that constrains how we live after middle age and stifles business thinking on how to best serve a group of consumers, workers, and innovators that is growing larger and wealthier with every passing day.

Over the past two decades, Joseph F. Coughlin has been busting myths about aging with groundbreaking multidisciplinary research into what older people actually want - not what conventional wisdom suggests they need. In The Longevity Economy, Coughlin provides the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market: a vast, diverse group of consumers representing every possible level of health and wealth, worth about $8 trillion in the United States alone and climbing.

Coughlin provides deep insight into a population that consistently defies expectations: people who, through their continued personal and professional ambition, desire for experience, and quest for self-actualization, are building a striking, unheralded vision of longer life that very few in business fully understand. His focus on women - they outnumber men, control household spending and finances, and are leading the charge toward tomorrow's creative new narrative of later life - is especially illuminating.

Coughlin pinpoints the gap between myth and reality and then shows businesses how to bridge it. As the demographics of global aging transform and accelerate, it is now critical to build a new understanding of the shifting physiological, cognitive, social, family, and psychological realities of the longevity economy.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 Joseph F. Coughlin (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Joe Coughlin has proven that the time has come to create a new narrative of possibility in old age. In The Longevity Economy, he not only defines that better narrative - he shows businesses how to lead in creating it and how to profit from the opportunities it provides." (Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO, AARP)

"Joe Coughlin has done a terrific job exploding "old age" as a concept. The magnificent result - at once forward-looking, hilariously irreverent, and engaging - serves as an indispensable road map for how to take full advantage of life's ever-lengthening third act. As I've found among the world's longest-lived people, celebrating older people is a key ingredient. The Longevity Economy shows us how to harness the skills of the wisest people among us and help them - and everyone around them - live longer." (Dan Buettner, National Geographic fellow and author of The Blue Zones)

This book is classic Coughlin, complete with real-life examples too big to ignore and too interesting to forget. The Longevity Economy doesn't just make you rethink the role of consumer insights and trends, it forces you to re-imagine their impact." (Stephanie Linnartz, Marriott International Global Chief Commercial Officer)

Great insight on the senior generation

The book gives a good insight on the senior generation that was either not so well known or misunderstood by the younger generation. A great place to start if you are considering to start a business or working in companies targeting the older audience.

bravo

A must read if the Longevity Economy is of any interest at all. Well written, fascinating, inspiring, and will be a kick in the b**t to get on with being a part of this great wave, brought on by the world changing Baby Boomer!

What does a growing older pop. mean? Read it here

By 2023, retirees will out number children and this book provides great insights into what this world will look like...time well spent..

Fantastic

Loved the book. Not sure why more businesses and society are not more attentive with regards to our aging population.

thought provoking!

Shifts my thoughts and perceptions on aging from an organizational perspective yet aligns complete with my personal outlook on how I wish to age

fantastic overview of market

wonderful overview of market. helps you think about the population in a new way. great read.

Excellent explanation of our outdated narrative on aging

This book relays how historial events, policies, beliefs, and businesses have played into what is now a tired and even ridiculous view of what “being old” means, particularly being “retired”. The examples, stories, and facts and figures of this book create explanations and pose important challenges about our old age narrative. It emphasizes how companies and their products, as well as individuals, can and must reevaluate paradigms in order to not completely miss the boat in the longevity economy, meaning, fail in their attempts to market products and fail in contributing to the elimination of ageism which impacts us all.
Well-done! I learned a ton and am inspired.

Lightweight Handling of Important Subject

I found the author’s arguments superficial and unconvincing. Anyone with an introductory level understanding of global demographics does not need to bother with this book.

Interesting but painful to listen to!

The narrator seems to end EVERY sentence with an exclamation point. And the subject matter is all about how it ISN’T rather than how it should be.
Getting yelled at with a series of problems in our society is not enjoyable, or enlightening.

A book by Boomers for Boomers.

Hardcover

I really, really tried to get through the audible book. As a Gen Xer, I have had the opportunity of observing Baby Boomers my entire life while not being part of them. I have gained such an acute sense from my observations over 50 years that I have developed what I like to call the Boomer Sense (BS). Well, my BS detector was pegged high while listening to this. So much so that I had to stop listening. It was like listening to my incoherent and reality challenged Uncle rant and ramble about the good old days. Although it does cite facts, it cherry picks the successes of the 20th Century as all due to the Boomers, while taking no accountability for the failures. For decades we have witnessed massive declines in wealth, record debt, collapse of morals, and decay of our institutions. It is just not coming from a fair or unbiased viewpoint.

It also completely ignores the fact the older people just dont make as much or spend as much (on a macro level) as they age. Their families are out of the house, many have lost their retirements, they are worried about healthcare, and they are downsizing and scaling back. To suggest they will be a "disruptive" force in the economy going forward is delusional and not rooted in reality.

This book is half cognitive dissonance and half of the Boomers ultimate denial of their own mortality.