Don Akchin

Photo by Chris Charles on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This week I attended my first Death Café. If that statement disturbs you, then you have just illustrated why Death Cafés are needed. Death is not a familiar presence in the lives of most of us today – not like it was in centuries past when most people died at home. We’ve created institutions – nursing homes, funeral homes, hospitals – that serve to separate death from our daily lives. Not surprisingly,... Continue Reading

No. 45/Dec. 6, 2023 NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers. Your Call Is Very Important To Us If you happen to call the Social Security Administration’s toll-free line with questions or concerns, you can expect to be on hold for quite a while. The agency’s cus… Read more  Continue Reading

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. “There are no second acts in American lives,” F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote. Of course, Fitzgerald only lived to be 44. Had he devoted less time to pickling his liver and managed instead to live into his 60s or 70s, he might have had a different opinion. The great blessing in having longer lifespans, which many of us will enjoy, is that if you don’t succeed the first time around, you have enough time... Continue Reading

Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash By the end of second grade, it was an even bet that I was headed down the road to delinquency. For starters, I was caught with a knife on the playground (actually, a popsicle stick sharpened to a point on the sidewalk, which I had brought for show and tell). My second grade teacher (who will be played in the movie version by Margaret Hamilton) sentenced me to many hours in the dreaded “green chair” at the front of the classroom, my punishment for talking too much and for primitive attempts at humor that landed badly. Suffice to say that I was... Continue Reading

No. 44/Nov. 22, 2023 NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers. Dr. Ruth vs. the Loneliness Epidemic If you thought you had heard the last of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the fearless sex therapist who spoke openly in the 80s about such taboo topics as AIDS, condoms, org… Read more  Continue Reading

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Several weeks ago the New York Times published an opinion piece with this heart-stopping headline: “For the Good of the Country, Older Americans Should Work More and Take Less.” The authors of the essay, two highly educated scholars, observe correctly that the Social Security system will face a shortfall in just seven years if nothing is done. Their solution: Since older Americans are drawing more in Social... Continue Reading

Photo by Aakash Dhage on Unsplash I want to let you know that I won’t be providing fresh posts this week or next, as my wife and I are taking a two-week vacation. We’re driving from Baltimore to a succession of marvelous Southeastern cities where it will be our great pleasure to visit with friends we rarely see – some of whom we’ve known since elementary school. Also, I could use a little break to recharge the batteries and take in fresh ideas. If you are a paid subscriber,  your subscription period is being extended by two weeks so you don’t have to pay for my vacation. The... Continue Reading

Gary Allen Foster, an executive recruiter and career transitions coach, thinks traditional retirement is a bad idea. At 80, he considers himself semi-retired, working as much as he wants and keeping his mind sharp and his body fit. In this interview he discusses his thoughts on a variety of topics related to the last stage of life: His discovery that high achievers never stop creating. How retirement resembles an iceberg – most of its shape invisible until you’re upon it. Why the traditional 20-40-20 pattern of education, career, and retirement is being replaced by a cyclical model... Continue Reading

Photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash It’s open enrollment season for Medicare through December 7, which means it’s open season on the elderly or those hoping to become so. Last year, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a nonprofit health policy organization, 643,000 Medicare ads ran on television during the nine-week enrollment season, most of them for Medicare Advantage plans. That doesn’t include the bombardments of direct mail and internet ads. The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming... Continue Reading

No. 43/October 25, 2023 NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers. Who’s Old: 80 is the new 60 The latest study from Age Wave, The New Age of Aging, finds that the rising tide of older adults has already changed perceptions about aging. In previous generations, 6… Read more  Continue Reading