By Peter Wyckoff

Peter Wyckoff, founding director of both the Minnesota Senior Federation and the Federation's Metropolitan Region, is retiring at the end of December 2006. Senior News asked him to reflect on his more then three decades of service to the Senior Federation.

In 1973, as a kid three years out of seminary, I had the rare opportunity to provide staffing leadership as the founding director of what is now Metro Region of the Minnesota Senior Federation. Based on the major success of these metropolitan efforts, the statewide Minnesota Senior Federation was founded three year later.

I had hair on my head, a two-year-old child and a loving wife. I had the privilege of working with hundreds of extraordinary older persons, but retirement issues of health care, financial stability, housing and transportation were issues that directly impacted Federation leadership and not me.

Now 34 year later as I retire, the issues and aging have become far more personal. I lost most of my hair, my two-year-old son is now a young professor as the University of Minnesota-Morris, but I still have the same loving wife. Now that retirement is upon me, I look at aging with a different set of eyes (and bifocals).

I have learned, and I hope well, from past and current leadership about how to live a productive and fulfilled retirement. Some things change and some things don't. Key issues remain but approaches vary as the years come and go.

Financial security - the perennial question of my peers (those in their early 60s) is how much is enough for a secure retirement? There is no simple answer. What will the economic future of America be like when we seem to lack fiscal discipline as a country? What will it be like as we face unprecedented global competition and a disregard for stewardship of our limited natural resources.

For me, the debate on Social Security is now personal. If some have their way, may have to go without a defined guaranteed Social Security benefit to serve as the bedrock of financial security. Instead, future generations may have to leave it to the whims of investment returns that may or may not be in their best interest. And that's not even counting the trillions of dollars of debt we would put on our children to fund transitions to privatization. 

For many, the issue of financial security will not be the solvency of Social Security but the solvency of our company's or union's pension plans. The under funding of pension plans is a major sleeper issue for my generation.

Health care - the future of Medicare and health care in this country is a prime concern for boomers. For those under 65, who may want to retire, the key impediment is often not finances but health care coverage. How do you get coverage until you become Medicare eligible? From a policy point of view, allowing persons under 55 to purchase Medicare coverage ought to be an issue that receives strong bi-partisan support. But in our partisan, polarized society, politics seems to trump good policy.

Medicare is indeed heading for a "financial train wreck." Our inability to develop a rational, just health care system that puts needs of Americans ahead of the greed of health care special interest groups (including some senior organizations) is jeopardizing the health and finances of all Americans.

We also need to take more personal responsibility for our health, both in our lifestyle and our planning. "Exercise and moderation" is what my wife keeps telling me. Someday soon, I will be mature enough to listen. We have taken out long-term-care insurance, which is not the answer to our caring for an aging population, and I still need to get my 10,000 steps in everyday as well as getting to my neighborhood "Y" three times a week to qualify for my $20 a month HealthPartners discount.

Personal worth - more important than the issues above are issues of personal worth as we age. Retirement can be a time of shutting down, trivialization and filling time. Or it can be time of new growth, new commitments, unprecedented freedom and living a life of substance. I choose the latter.

Issues of faith and social justice, I suspect, will remain core to my life. My only regret is that as I retire, that because of my 34 years as a Federation staff member, I shouldn't serve as a volunteer with the Minnesota Senior Federation. The Federation is the most effective organization in Minnesota dealing with the substantial issues of aging. That's my problem, but not yours. For Federation members this organization provides you an incredible opportunity to be involved in truly the major issues of substance for older Minnesotans.

Relationships - I hope also in the years ahead to value and build relationships more than ever. For many of us with type "A" personalities, we have shortchanged the home front. I hope to be a better husband, father, grandfather and son-in-law. But that takes work and it will be a major priority. My wife, Sue, and I expect to commit more of our time building the Karen Wyckoff Rein in Sarcoma Fund (www.reininsarcoma.org), created by our daughter shortly before her death from Synovial Sarcoma cancer in 2001.

What I will miss most retiring from the Federation are relationships. Friendships and colleagues that I have had the opportunity to know, respect, learn from, collaborate and "agitate" with. From founding leaders of MnSF and an incredibly overworked but truly committed staff, to colleagues in the "aging network" both in Minnesota and the nation, it has been an extraordinary "call" upon my life. 

I am now retiring to the next phase of my life. Many have offered "words of wisdom" during these last few months that I deeply appreciate. New opportunities and challenges now lie before both my wife and me. We will be intentionally building new relationships and investing in current ones. I have learned this from Federation leadership, past and current, and wonderful colleagues. For these gifts I am truly thankful.