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During retirement, people often encounter ageism in social, medical, mental health, and workplace settings.

Ageism can lead to shorter lifespans, poorer physical and mental health, and cognitive decline.

Ageism can be overt disdain and contempt of older adults or could be disguised as compassionate patronizing.

I recently overheard a conversation occurring amongst an assemblage of 30-year-olds. One woman was sheepishly describing her attraction to actor George Clooney when she was cut short by the vehement response of a peer.

“How can you find him attractive? He’s got to be at least 60. He’s old.”

As of the writing of this blog, Mr. Clooney is actually 65 years old. I am five years younger, so this woman’s comment stung me.

Welcome fellow adults of my age bracket (and older) to a time of unwelcome and unfortunately inevitable ageist experiences. Nobody prepares us for them. Not even the most comprehensive retirement planning programs—those that address financial matters, the challenges of unstructured time, changing marital dynamics, loss of workplace relationships, and post-employment purpose and meaning—consider how ageism will impact our retirement years.

And ageism most certainly impacts the quality of our retirement.

The Two Types of Ageism

Research findings are quite frightening, so don’t dismiss, minimize, or trivialize the impact of ageism. Consider the World Health Organization’s Global Report on Ageism (2021), which states, “[A]geism is prevalent, ubiquitous and insidious… Ageism has serious and far-reaching consequences for people’s health, well-being and human rights and costs society billions of dollars” (p. IX).

Let’s back up a little bit and consider the history of ageism. Robert Butler first introduced the concept of ageism in 1969 and described it as "prejudice by one age group toward other age groups” (p. 243). Fifty years of research have occurred since this seminal definition was introduced, and we now have a much more comprehensive understanding of ageism. Consider the 2009 definition by Iversen, Larsen, & Solem, who describe it as “negative or positive stereotypes, prejudice and/or........

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