Why You Should Be Worried About Ageism Now, Not Later
Many of us hear about ageism and shrug it off as a problem we might have to deal with later in life. However, if you don’t take steps towards eliminating ageism now, your future could be in jeopardy.
What we don’t hear about very often in the press is that your well-being, your finances, your job security, and your way of life could all be completely changed by ageism – and you need to plan for it earlier.
Why You Should Worry Sooner Rather Than Later
If ageism often affects older individuals, you should have a plan in place. We have plans for retirement, plans for where we want to live if we ever need assistance when we become older, but we don’t usually plan for ageism. Why should we?
Ageism could cause you to be out of work far before your desired retirement date. The company you work for could decide to make an agist play to lay off older individuals within the company. This could put you out of work, and because of rampant ageism stereotypes you may not be able to get back into the workforce.
What if you need to have thousands of additional dollars saved to live without income for more years than you originally planned. That is why you need to worry about ageism now, and not later.
What Should You Do?
Advocating and being a voice for ageism is important. Ensuring that companies know about ageism, and try to eliminate it from their businesses is an important step in ensuring that our time in the workforce isn’t cut short in the future.
Also, be sure to plan for the unplanned. If there is even a chance you may lose your job earlier in your career than you would like, start something on the side. Grow a start-up from scratch, become a freelancer to expand your resume, or begin volunteering at organizations that may hire you later in your career if you’ve given them hours of your valuable time.
It might even be an interesting idea to put a little bit extra into savings each year as a “just in case” fund.
The Future
We all hope that with enough education, ageism will dissipate by the time it will affect our lives, however that may not be the case. Planning for the unplanned in the future will help protect you and your loved ones.
Reverse ageism isn’t a conversation that’s had very often, but it’s an important one to be a part of – starting now.
