Marika Stone is proud to say that she’s 59 years old and her husband, Howard, is 65. And Marika remembers what her parents were at the same age.
“They were elderly,” says the Weehawken resident. “They were ready to hang it up.”
The Stones felt like they were actually heading in that direction.
“We were going down the conventional road,” Marika Stone said. “We bought a home in Palm Springs and actually liked it at first. We were ready to settle down with everyone else.”
But then, something triggered a different reaction.
“We were not ready at all,” Marika Stone said. “We realized that the retirement scene was not for us. People think that when you reach your 60s, it’s an artificial deadline. I look at it as the time for grownup liberation.” That is why the Stones have combined forces to start their website, 2young2retire.com, which features stories and ideas for people and from people who are not ready to put on the sweater and slippers and sit on the rocking chair for the rest of their lives.
Howard Stone was in business publishing for 37 years and Marika was a freelance writer. But both were ready for a change.
“I wanted to give up writing,” Marika Stone said. “So I became re-trained as a yoga teacher.”
And now, Marika teaches yoga in her home, as well as at the Women’s Project at Christ Hospital in Jersey City. However, about a year ago, the Stones launched the website, first as just a hobby.
“It was a fun thing to do and it was a way Howard thought he could attract people to his personal coaching business,” Marika said. “But then, people started sending us e-mails and stories. The thing took on a life of its own.”
Marika’s son works for online media outlets in San Francisco and told them that they had a great idea, that maybe they could turn their hobby into a business.
Since then, the Stones have expanded the site. It has grown in popularity with the elder generation ever since. People write to them and tell their stories on how they enjoy their golden years to the fullest.
“We get a flood of e-mails from people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, who are all having a great time,” Marika Stone said. “And they don’t believe in retirement either.”
“If one looks up ‘retire’ in the dictionary, it says withdraw,” Howard Stone said. “It says retreat. It says move away from the world. I don’t know too many people that really want to do that. There’s got to be another way.” The Stones are not the only ones who believe that retirement is a dirty word. The national association, AARP, which used to be known as the American Association for Retired Persons, but now only goes by the acronym.
One-third still in the workforce
The organization changed its name to AARP because at least one-third of the organization’s 34 million members are still in the workforce, AARP spokesman Tom Otwell said. An AARP study showed that 80 percent of baby boomers say they plan to work after official retirement age.
“I think this was inevitable,” Otwell said, referring to the move to find a new word for retirement. “Change is coming.”
The Stones gained a lot of media attention of late, because they ran a contest through the website to “retire the word ‘Retirement,'” as Marika Stone put it.
Some of the winning entries included “renaissance,” “graduation” and “entirement,” which obviously is a created word.
“I have graduated from kindergarten, grade school, high school, college, and will soon graduate from work. Each step of the way, I prepare myself for the next step,” KJD of Maryland wrote. “Now I graduate into the final portion of my life, determined by me, with few limitations by others.”
“To me this means awakening, rebirth or time to do your most creative and self-satisfying activities,” wrote NW of Florida, who suggested the word “renaissance.”
“We had a lot of fun with the contest,” Marika Stone said.
Many people are having fun with the website, which has received more than 150,000 hits since its inception last year.
“People just started sending us stories and we had about 10 or so to start,” Marika Stone said. “We now have 48 and I’m working on about 10 more right now. I want to have 100, to have database of real-life information. It’s all unsolicited by us. People just volunteer their stories from all over the country. It’s been amazing.”
The Stones have already begun to make plans to expand the site. They’ve been asked to speak at social functions. Howard has become a personal coach in helping people over 50 to deal with their crises. They have plans to write a book.
“We’ve been doing it slowly, but things are picking up,” Marika Stone said. “We keep getting stories about people who blow me away with their strong will and their attitude. I’m inspired by them. People who realize that they have 20 or 30 years left in their lives and that’s a long time to spend puttering around a golf course. There’s more to life.”
And the Stones are willing to help find those options.