Author Wants to Retire Old Ideas

Senior activist Len Hansen takes a dim view of retirement.

“Most people look at retirement as the end of something, the time when you step into God’s waiting room,” he said, and then paused. “That’s horse manure.”

So, when a New York book editor suggested a look at retirement, Hansen jumped at the chance to smash some stereotypes about aging. The result: “Life Begins at 50: A Handbook for Creative Retirement Planning.” Hansen calls it an unconventional guide to planning for “the next stage of life.”

If retirement “means doing nothing, a significant number of people should never retire,” he says.

In his book, Hansen asks his older readers questions they may never have heard before:

* Do you really want to retire?

* Why not try a new career?

* Do you really want to spend the next 25 years putting the kitchen spices in chronological order?

* What about school or travel, or the Peace Corps?

As for finances, Hansen says, most retirement guides advise readers to base life decisions on how much money they have saved. He flips that around and urges those thinking about retirement to first decide what makes them happy, and then start saving for it.

“Most books on retiring go for the financial formulas, as if the only reason we work now is so we can be idle later,” said Hansen, a tall, solidly built man who is almost fastidious in his dress. “Well, our work life is different now than it was 50 years ago. We have an eight-hour workday, we move from job to job, and there’s more concern about leisure time. We live in a different time, and we have to make different assumptions about retirement.”

Hansen is good at taking his own advice. At 57, he has no plans to retire. And, although he has little in the bank, he says, he’s happy doing what he does best.

That means sticking up for sen That means sticking up for seniors, or, as he calls them, mature adults. He is a longtime writer and lecturer, and his weekly column, “Mainly for Seniors,” appears in nearly 200 newspapers throughout the United States (none in San Diego County).

He also works as a consultant to companies interested in reaching out to senior adults.

In his book and lectures, Hansen blasts what he calls the “senility, debility and inability” myths about aging.

“Everybody tries to put limitations on seniors,” he said. “I don’t like the image of all seniors as incredibly lonely and helpless. I don’t like the assumption that all seniors will be taking prescription drugs. I don’t even like the word elderly .”

Hansen first became known as an author in senior circles when he founded the Senior World Publications newspaper chain in 1973. Targeted at adults 55 and older, it began with a monthly in San Diego and expanded to include two other papers in Santa Barbara and Phoenix.

In 1988, he sold the chain to Landmark Community Newspapers based in Shelbyville, Ky. Hansen got $250,000 for the publication, all of which went to pay bills, he said.

As editor and publisher, Hansen wasn’t interested in reporting the local senior club’s shuffleboard scores. Instead, he tackled issues such as low-income housing, health care legislation and crime and fraud affecting seniors.

He is especially proud of his articles, beginning in 1976, that covered allegations that the Methodist Church was misusing money from residents of its Pacific Homes retirement centers. His articles focused on the three homes in San Diego County and helped spark an investigation by the U. S. attorney. The probe resulted in a $21-million settlement in 1981 for residents in Arizona, California and Hawaii.

After the stories began appearing, Hansen said, his advertising dropped a third. He took another job to pay the bills.

When major West Coast newspapers initially ignored the story, he took it to the Wall Street Journal and CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes,” both of which did stories on the scandal. Hansen said he was vindicated when the San Diego Press Club honored him for his investigative reporting.

“Here I was, this crazy guy taking on a major church, and everyone pooh-poohed me,” he said. “But if this little punkin’ paper had not pursued this, all of those 1,200 seniors would have lost everything.”

More recently, Hansen spoke out vehemently against the federal Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, which went into effect in January, 1989. He urged seniors to take a close look at the legislation, which he said would increase their taxes by 15% without solving their long-term health care problems.

His sharp criticism put him up against the bill’s main supporter, the American Assn. of Retired Persons, the most powerful seniors group in the United States. It wasn’t the first time he had challenged the AARP, which he believes does not represent the majority of seniors.

The bill was repealed in November--the first repeal by Congress of an authorized health program. Hansen believes the action demonstrates the growing power of senior Americans.

“What happened was this was the largest grass-roots effort by individual seniors ever. Real people--not so-called senior organizations--were against this bill,” he said.

When not blustering about social injustices, Hansen is congenial, almost charming at times, and not reluctant to toot his own horn, as his six-page resume attests. Part of it reads: “Len Hansen is the most interviewed and most quoted journalist in the mature-market field.”

When he speaks, it’s with the soothing voice of a radio announcer, which happens to be the first job in broadcasting he found, as a senior in high school.

Hansen’s interest in seniors started 25 years ago, long before he became one himself. As promotions director for the Seattle Center, which was formed from the Seattle World’s Fair after it closed, he launched programs for seniors. He says his ideas were a shock at the time--but he quickly adds that he boosted attendance with the programs.

He also worked as a speech writer for two Alaska and Washington state governors and has served on numerous senior task forces, including the White House Conference on Aging under then-President Reagan.

Since selling Senior World, Hansen has kept busy, founding Mature Life Features, a syndicated feature service for senior newspapers. (It competes with Maturity News Service, funded largely by the AARP.) He organizes conferences to bring together journalists writing for senior publications.

And, still following his own advice, the father of two is keeping young while growing older. A year ago he decided to change his habits. He sold his car and now walks 4 miles every day from his Pacific Beach home to his office. That and lots of salads helped him shed 63 pounds.

He has plans for more books. And, for the first time in years, he is taking time off by traveling with his wife, Marcia.

As for his own retirement, he’ll think about it. In 30 or 40 years maybe.