- i'm clear, you're clear, we're all clear. - it could be a former naval officer who goes back to school in her 50s. - both of my parents became terminally ill, and i think that's when i realized that i had an interest in nursing. - it was a dark and stormy night on capitol hill. - or the washington lawyer and political aide who desperately wants to make it as a satirist. - i'm almost making money at it, almost famous since 2006. - whether it's called an encore career or a second act or a third chapter, people need to be planning for a transition period that can be bumpy. - in a tough economy, survival strategies for what comes next. - when you're over 50 and you're switching to a new field, you know, it's a little daunting. - also "inside e street," how one florida retirement village does its part to save energy. - there are currently about 50,000 golf carts

in the villages. - our car, it stays parked in the garage and we probably only would have to fill it up maybe once every 6 months. - "inside e street" is made possible by... - auto and home insurance from the hartford: helping to make a difficult time a little less difficult for drivers 50 and over. information about our program, including how to find an agent, is available at hartfordautoinsurance.com. - from the heart of the nation's capital and around the country, you're "inside e street," with lark mccarthy. - "encore career," "second act," "bridge job," "the next chapter"--whatever you want to call it, it's that stage of life between a first career and full retirement, a time long enough to take on a new job, something different and, ideally, personally fulfilling. it's becoming increasingly common. one recent estimate says 9 million boomers are in second careers and more than 30 million more are

interested in making that kind of change. and while we've all heard the success stories, the reality of starting an encore career in tough economic times is often far more complicated. - ♪ though i admit you're bad for me ♪ ♪ my heart forgets... - 17-year-old karina kinch isn't thinking about an encore career. she's just trying to get a first career going as a country singer. - relax. take a deep breath. i don't want you to worry about singing good. i just want you to make me feel what you're doing. - and she's hoping jill angel will help. angel might seem an unlikely choice. she was in the california highway patrol for 23 years, retiring as an assistant chief. she won this award for being the toughest cop alive. her only connection to the music business was her cousin ilene, a struggling songwriter in nashville. - ok, well, what songs are we gonna pitch? i jumped. i really jumped.

there was no business plan. there was... music just lit me up and ilene's music lit me up. i couldn't figure out how nothing had ever happened with her songs, and i went to nashville. i'd never been to nashville. i think--are we actually agreeing? - are we agreeing? you agree with me? - i started calling heads of record labels and getting meetings with them. i didn't know that that's not how you do it. - she got in to see people that i couldn't because, of course, i knew in my mind who they were and it was a big producer or record label or whatever it was. and she was able to just-- she had no intimidation factor. - ♪ i don't think about it, i don't think... ♪ - angel finally sold one of ilene's songs that was in a movie and became a hit. - ♪ twinkling across the sky at night ♪ - we got it on radio disney and it went number one in a week. it's a very tough business. it's like getting up every day and trying to accomplish the impossible.

- despite some success in music, angel was unable to support her two daughters, always her most important priority. - i was 53 years old, trying to find work in the middle of a recession, and nobody would interview me. i had all this experience. - make sure you're at that 45-degree angle so you stabilize your elbow. - a local newspaper did a story about angel and her job difficulties that led to her being hired as fitness director at a private country club in sacramento. - let's go down. feet apart, bend your knees. let's see if you can get to the grod. - lift the ground up! - ha ha ha! they handed me a class of seniors averaging in age from 85 to 92, some of the most amazing people i have ever met in my entire life, every one of them. use those legs. 1, 2, 3, up! - angel now specializes in working with the elderly, which she finds enormously rewarding. - here we go. over the net. good.

- but she continues to work with the young singer and has hopes for karina's career. - i want you to sing the same thing without your guitar. a cappella. - ♪ i don't want a relapse ♪ - ever since i retired, i've done two more careers, so i don't know what's next, but this life is such a journey if you just stay open and be willing to, you know, jump, really. - joining us now is kerry hannon, author of "what's next? follow your passion and find your dream job," a book about encore careers. kerry also writes the "great jobs for retirees" column on aarp.org and is a contributing editor to "forbes" magazine, where she writes a blog called "second verse." welcome. - nice to be here, lark. - all right, we heard jill angel say in that packet she had no business plan when she went to nashville. you don't recommend that. - no, absolutely not, but, you know, what jill did is she followed a passion of hers,

and i think that trips a lot of people up because what you need to do-- the successful people who make a career change are people who have done things methodically, nothing rash, did their homework, so to speak. and i think jill jumped in a little quickly. - all right, but, obviously it worked for her, but that's just not the ideal way to do it, right? - yeah. you know, truly i think if you can-- now, in this economy, it's hard, but if you can build out your plan over a 3-year process and add those little pieces in so that when you're ready to make the career change, you have it all together in order to do that so you're not just blindly jumping in to a new field. - so let's talk about that. when you say no rash moves, what would be a better plan? what's a methodical approach to getting ready for an encore career? - i think my favorite thing to tell people when they ask me is really do the job. if you think that you want to--for example, someone i profile in "what's next," he wanted to open an italian restaurant, and he and his wife loved to cook and they were gourmet cooks, but you know what he did?

he didn't just say, "i'm gonna go from investment banking to opening a restaurant." he apprenticed. he worked at every red sauce joint he could find in order to learn how to saute, to seat customers, everything. so i always say do the job and see if it's something you-- - and see if you really want to pursue that. - yeah. i mean, that would be the first thing. - all right. cast a wide net. what do you mean by that? - well, look around. a lot of people think, especially if they've lost a job or have been downsized, they think, "well, i've always been this. "this is the kind of job i need to look for in this industry." if you were really very good at marketing in your company beforehand, look for-- nonprofits are hiring. it's a wonderful arena to look towards. fundraising. why not take those skills that you had as a marketer and shift it and to say, "hey, i can wear that hat. i can be a fundraiser." - so in other words, sometimes people put themselves in too small a box when they're thinking about changing. - they don't look around and say, "what are my skills? what am i really good at?" and often for most of us, we miss some of those things.

we might not even know what we're best at. so it's good to ask your friends, ask your relatives, your colleagues, say, "what do you think?" because you'll hear things that go--you take it, naturally, but you'll go, "oh, my gosh. i really am good at that." - all right, research. what kind of research? what are we talking about, kerry? - where are the jobs, you know? - ok, where are the jobs? - let's find out what industries are hiring. don't just shoot off in the dark at some place or-- because if you've been downsized in your field, for example, you may find that there aren't jobs there. but there are jobs opening, and healthcare is always a very strong arena to look in. and i think that we have education jobs and those sort of things, so i think there are areas that you'll find opportunities. - all right, get financially fit. and this is a tough one, ok, especially in these tough economic times or if you were one of those people forced into a second career, you may not have that cushion. but if you have the options, what do you do to get financially fit? - well, absolutely, lark, this is my favorite thing. financially fit is critical. and if you can possibly have savings set aside of-- at least 6 months or more of saving set aside so you can be nimble.

pay down those credit card debts. if you can pay off your mortgage, do so. if you can't, you might consider downsizing. you might want to--depending on your real estate market-- move to a smaller place or consider refinancing. you want to--any way you can trim back. do a budget. find out, "what do i have to work with?" because to tell you the truth, if you have that financial burden removed, you're a lot more nimble to make a move. - of course. you have more options. - and i can guarantee you, probably if you're starting over, you're gonna start at a smaller salary or it'll take some time, and if you're starting your own business, which-- many people want to jump off and they've worked for the man and now they want to do their own thing. so, in fact, if that's what you want to do, you're gonna need to have your finances in very good shape in order to get your credit score. - all right, now you also talk about investing in additional education and training and, of course, it certainly plays into the research. so, for example, you mention healthcare careers, but for a lot of those careers, you have to prepare. you need certain special skills. - yeah, i think there are some certifications you're gonna need to look into and various other things.

you can get a second degree in nursing now, those sort of things. it's expensive, it's time-consuming. so i tell people you don't necessarily have to jump in and get that master's degree in something. start one course at a time. move slowly into the-- - it may be a non-degree course, but a skills course where you get a certificate, for example. - exactly. community colleges have some wonderful programs for over-50 workers now. - and one of the things you say is volunteer in the area you're thinking about. now, realistically, how is that viewed on a resume? you know, if you volunteer, how is that viewed? - i think it is really highly regarded. i think people want to see that you're out doing things, that you're not sitting at home just looking or sending resumes online, what have you. i think volunteering is really important and, depending on what you're doing in your volunteer position, you may be doing management. you may be doing leadership roles as a volunteer. - some people shouldn't dismiss that idea. - and it can lead to-- i think it gets you in the door. - ok, and you have real examples of people who say their volunteer experience helped them get a paying job?

- absolutely. - the other thing you say, once you do start that encore career, you may be starting at the bottom or near the bottom. brace yourself for the beginner blues. what is that? - it's so true. i think a lot of people, when you're over 50 and you're switching to a new field, it's a little daunting because you're no longer the head honcho, the one everyone goes to. you are now asking questions about what's going on and asking for advice and help with your job. so you often need a reality check and an ego boost and realize that--set that at the door and you may be-- - ego boost or ego check, i think, right? - yeah. both. and you may be working for someone younger than you, so get over it. - exactly. learn from them. you say you have to be open to learning from that younger person. - you can learn from them and they can learn from you. - not just younger person. younger boss. - yeah, absolutely, so i think that's a lot to think about. - all right, kerry. you stay right here with us because we're gonna take a look at another encore career. but first we'll hear from marc freedman, who runs civic ventures. it's a think tank focusing on boomers

and their second acts. - you know, i think there are a lot of people who are doing two different things, where one is really paying the bills and the other one is really where their passion resides. - it was a dark and stormy night on capitol hill. - meet congressman bud noir, the onstage persona of washington lawyer ken rynne. - the only creatures stirring were a few members, some staff, and a few alcoholics, but i repeat myself. [laughter] that's what i've set out to do, to write musical comedy. it's been a passion of mine for a long time and i'm almost making money at it, almost famous since 2006. - rynne has already had several careers. - seven years as a lawyer in a firm, about 7 years on the hill, then needed to make some money, so i went to work for mbna credit card bank in delaware and made some money. except after a while, it really felt like

the proverbial square peg in a round hole. just didn't fit right. ♪ it's planet washington ♪ ♪ show biz for ugly people, washington ♪ - when the bank was boug, he was laid off with a golden handshake and took advantage of the opportunity to pursue his dream. - i had a 5-year plan and then, if i didn't make money in 5 years, i would come out and the world would say, "welcome back." and i walked back into this post-2008 market, where a middle-aged, [muffled] 50-something lawyer, you know, was a dime a dozen. and so it's been a real challenge. ♪ what big-name white house staffer's so excited ♪ ♪ till they're indicted... ♪ - now rynne has burned through his nest egg and temps at law firms to pay the bills. - featuring ken rynne, a long-time washington insider. - i've learned it always takes more time and always takes more capital to make a new business,

to bring it off the ground. and right now, the law degree is bringing me back some income, which enables me to do comedy, but i'm--believe me, i'm spending that money now with an eyedropper. ♪ you should have seen the lobbyist i once was ♪ ♪ could have swayed the senate and the house ♪ i'm glad i took a shot at the dream job and i'm the eternal optimist, so it's not over yet. other things i've done, you know, are things i do, but this is really who i am. - joining us now is kevin cahill, a research economist with the sloan center on aging and work at boston college. he was part of an influential study called "down shifting: the role of bridge jobs after career employment." and author kerry hannon is still with us. thank you both for joining us. so, kevin, let's begin with you talking about bridge work. you say we really should have a different mindset. it's common, isn't it? - oh, absolutely.

i think the entire concept of "you work and then you retire" is definitely in the minory for most older americans. retirement is much more of a process, where individuals work at a career or other job and they gradually phase out of the labor force. - so one of the things you do, you study the trends. where are we in terms of this trend? and do you expect it's just going to continue in terms of numbers? - yeah. it's a good question. what we find is that about-- if you look at career workers, so individuals who've had a career job at some point in their life, about 60% of them take on another job before exiting the labor force completely. and we call those jobs "bridge jobs." they bridge the gap between career work and complete retirement. - and complete retirement, ok. what's the term you like, kerry? we didn't discuss that before. there are so many names for it. what do you prefer? - it's almost like recareering in a way. but i think that there's lots of ways to look at. but it's really just what kevin is saying. it's bridging that gap between--you know,

it's an awkward stage, but we have a lot more years to work after what used to be the traditional retirement age. - and you also say think about redeployment as opposed to reinvention. why is that an important distinction? - actually, that's quite true, lark. the thing is, a lot of people think, "oh, i've got to reinvent myself for what i'm gonna do next." not really. think about the skills you had in your last job and redeploy them to something else. i think that if you look at it that way, it's not so daunting. - are employers starting to recognize that bridge jobs are more common, encore careers, and to either prepare their workers for it or to offer them incentives to move on to that bridge job? - i think the answer is, ready or not, they're coming. i think employers really do need to be aware of the changing demographics of our workforce, and older workers are going to make up a larger fraction of the workforce, and that's a good thing. older workers have tons of experience, a lifetime of experience that they can contribute, and employers just need to figure out how to tap into that resource.

- well, let's take a look at a final profile. this is the story of a woman who went back to school for an encore career not once, but twice. - i don't feel well. - doesn't sound good, so let's take a look at the monitor. - these nursing students are simulating a life-or-death situation on a high-tech mannequin. - what you got, larry? - we have someone with v-tach and it's a shockable rhythm, so if you can do that for us. - ok. charging. - sandy logan is no stranger to high-pressure jobs. she was an officer in the navy for 11 years before retiring for health reasons. - i'm clear, you're clear, we're all clear. shocking. - now she's part of a booming second degree nursing program at marymount university's malek school of health professions. nearly all the students here, who range in age from their early 20s to over 60, are starting an encore career as nurses. - both of my parents became terminally ill, and i think that's when i realized that i had an interest in nursing,

and the awareness of that came to me relatively late in life. - logan's path was a little more circuitous than most. after leaving the navy, she came to marymount's arlington, virginia, campus 15 years ago. first she earned a master's in counseling psychology and went to work for the federal government. - perfectly fine career options, but something just didn't feel quite right or didn't resonate with me, and then i realized i wanted more of the rigor that attaches to something that's a scientific discipline. - coreg is the beta blocker. - ok. that's carvedilol. - right, the beta blocker. - so in her 50s, logan started all over again as a nursing student. she's doing her final internship at inova loudoun hospital, working on this day under an instructor half her age. - and this is sandy. she's a student here. gonna be two nurses for the price of one. - the last thing in the world i ever expected to do was to come back and get another bachelor's degree at my advanced age.

nursing is like being in a candy store. there's so many applications of the degree and so many things that you can do with it. - and how does she feel being back in college again? - oh, it feels great. i wish i had had the discipline back then that i have now. i feel a lot more focused and directed and committed. it's energizing and it's fun. - so let's talk about the role of education when it comes to older workers. we touched on this earlier, kerry. so, kevin, let me get you to weigh in. have colleges caught up with the need? so sandy was able to go back and go to nursing school. do we have enough schools available and open at an affordable price to that older worker who wants that? - i think there are a lot of issues with education and older workers. i think the key to think about is instead of a top-down approach of planning education, i think there's a need at the employee level for education,

and colleges will have no choice but to respond to the needs of older workers. - so would you say start first with your community to see what's available, especially at a lower cost, perhaps? - i would think so. you know, i'm a big believer in networking. talk to people who are doing these jobs. reach out to people you might know through your alumni networks, through your friends and colleagues and talk to them. what degrees do they have? what skills would you need for that job and how do you go about finding them, because you can weave it together bit by bit. i don't think it's always necessary to get that big, full-blown degree program. - so, kevin, briefly just what are you studying right now that we need to be aware of when it comes to looking at bridge jobs and encore careers? - i think a big theme or something we'll be focusing on is whether or not bridge jobs are continuing in prevalence as time goes on. the early evidence suggests that it's certainly the case that retirement is a process and that the changes in the retirement landscape give us no reason to think that that's going to change. i think the retirement as a process theme is here to stay.

- well, thank you both for joining us. thank you so much, kerry hannon and kevin cahill. we appreciate it. in a moment, one more thing: a florida community that's gone so mad for golf carts, they outnumber the residents. - we want your ideas and feedback, so follow us on twitter @insideestreet. retweets are welcome. for more information on encore career strategies, go to insideestreet.org. - one more thing. a planned retirement community where giving up the car doesn't mean giving up independence. northwest of orlando, florida, on a sprawling, 32-square mile complex bigger than all of manhattan, lies the villages, population: 86,000. zooming in from a satellite view, there are nearly 40 golf courses featuring more than 500 holes. the villages' signature is its transportation system.

what appear to be cars parked at lake sumter landing are actually golf carts... many customized to look like cars that travel on nearly 100 miles of cart trails and on more than 400 miles of surface roads. - there are currently about 50,000 golf carts in the villages. now, that means we've got about 4 times as many golf carts as manhattan has registered taxicabs. the golf carts are increasing at about 250 to 300 golf carts every single month. the conservative estimate is that we will have about 63,000 to 65,000 golf carts, and that will be in 3 or 4 more years. - you could call this the golf cart capital of the country, and that also makes it one of the greenest communities: more than one golf cart

per household, most of them electric, not gas; most used for transportation, not golf. - we actually use our cart for everything, from grocery shopping, all of my doctors are local around here. - shopping, hospitals, plays. it costs me about $12 every two weeks. not bad, huh? - our car, it stays parked in the garage and we probably only would have to fill it up maybe once every 6 months because we use our cart almost exclusively. - i'm the golf cart man. - tony colangelo's firm transforms the traditional cart into a hummer or roadster or just about anything a customer wants. - the price ranges will run anywhere from $10,000 to $22,000. it's what they want to put into that cart. you'd be surprised what these people buy. cool air blowers to keep themselves cool,

hot air blowers to keep themselves warm. - he also likes low-speed vehicles, or lsvs: faster than golf carts, but considered safer because of mandatory features such as seat belts. - if it's a lsv, you got to have 4 brakes on it. golf carts don't have windshield wipers. well, lsvs do. here we are, driving around, and we're living off the energy of these batteries, recharging our systems and not taking money out of our pocket. people really should rethink a gas car versus an electric cart. there's no maintenance, they're quiet, they don't smell, and you can hear yourself talk. - dogs, in particular, love golf carts. you'll see a lot of dogs in golf carts. if you ask a dog, "what's your favorite thing about being in the villages?" they'll say, "going for a golf cart ride." - and it's not all about joyrides, as the villages golf cart drill team demonstrates.

["stars and stripes forever" playing] more than three-quarters of all vehicle trips in this country are 10 miles or less, and given the cost of gas and the energy crunch, many communities are looking at new laws to accommodate the growing use of golf carts and low-speed vehicles, and whether they can safely share roads with higher-speed vehicles. next "inside e street," blockbuster drugs are losing their patents, but who will benefit most? - if it's generic and i still have to use the regular lipitor, it doesn't seem fair for me to have to pay that full price. - the battle over generics. thanks for joining us. i'm lark mccarthy. see you next time "inside e street."

- "inside e street" is a production of aarp, in association with maryland public television. - "inside e street" is made possible by... - auto and home insurance from the hartford, helping to make a difficult time a little less difficult for drivers 50 and over. information about our program, including how to find an agent, is available at hartfordautoinsurance.com. - to purchase a dvd of "inside e street," order online at insideestreet.org or call 800-873-6154. please include the show number.

>> today we'll be strengthening our core muscles using a large ball and hand weights. if you don't have these items, you'll still benefit from just going through the movements. sit and be fit made possible in part by vq actioncare.com, makers of the resistance chair. when you imagine your future, you wanted to be healthy and active. stay strong. 1-800-570-6220. "sit and be fit" is a creation of mary ann wilson, registered nurse, teacher and recognized leader in the field of fitness and healthy aging. mary ann con