"Encore Jobs:" A New Phase of Work Life?

Writing in the San Jose Mercury News, Marc Freedman looks at people starting new, more meaningful careers in their 50s:

It has become commonplace to hear that boomers are reinventing retirement. But the important story is that something new is being invented. Men and women are moving beyond midlife yet refusing to phase out or fade away. They are crafting a new phase of work that offers not only continued income but also the promise of more meaning - and the chance to do work that means something beyond themselves.

There is no statistical record of this incipient movement yet, but there are countless stories.

... we are in the midst of fashioning a new stage of life between the traditional midlife years and careers, and true retirement and old age. It is a development that is distinct, significant and historic.

Freedman has numerous examples of people starting entirely new work lives, often at charities or nonprofits. His take -- that the "encore stage" of life is something new and the "encore career" can't be jammed into the old model of a typical career -- is intruiging.