There’s gold in the silver economy: Baby boomers are the wealthiest generation to ever live, according to the financial firm Allianz. So, it makes sense that some companies have made seniors’ billfolds and pocketbooks a focus of their business models.

Floating on: Per AARP, 68% of adults over the age of 60 planned to travel this year:

• Cruise company Viking specifically tailors to the older crowd. Unlike many of its competitors, the cruise line doesn’t allow children on board, catering to those who prefer a quieter, Cocomelon-free experience.
• The company’s stock has doubled since it went public last year.

The finer things: While millennials eat out at restaurants more often, baby boomers and the Silent Generation tend to prefer places that are less likely to have plastic silverware. They account for 40% of premium restaurant customers, Bank of America reported last year.

Older Americans watch a lot of linear TV. So, advertisers are meeting them where they are:

• Drug companies spent over $5 billion on television ads last year, CNN reported.
• Nearly half of those ads aired on news channels like Fox News, MSNBC, and CBS. Drug ads are also popular during drama reruns, game shows, and special events, according to research firm eMarketer.
• Cable TV is also swimming in ads for walk-in showers, which can help prevent falls. It’s a $1.5 billion business that’s forecast to grow to $2.8 billion by 2033, per Verified Market Reports.

The downside: Older Americans’ spending power gives them an outsized effect on the financial system. If the stock market goes south, and seniors sell their shares and cut back on spending, it could put the economy at greater risk.—BC

The promise of midday golf games and spending three hours drinking one cup of coffee at a McDonald’s is not enough to keep older Americans retired. As of last year, workers over the age of 75 are the fastest-growing group in the workforce.

Baby boomers (anyone in the 61–79 age range) are either refusing to retire or, increasingly, reentering the workforce. In some cases, they need to, as the cost of living increases and the Social Security eligibility age creeps higher. Additionally, only about 24% of boomers have defined pension benefits, and only half of private sector workers have access to employer 401(k) plans.

But some, especially white-collar workers, are choosing to spend their golden years in an office:

• Industries like nuclear energy are desperate for seasoned experts as the country starts to bring plants back online.
• Less labor-intensive jobs mean older people can work longer with more flexible schedules. Doing a desk job for extra money might be more attractive if you’re doing it from a nice office with central air.
• Older Americans are also becoming entrepreneurs: As of 2023, nearly a third of new founders are 45+, and the percentage of businesses founded by people 55–64 is rising.

Looking ahead…nearly 11 million older workers are employed right now, and that number is expected to jump by ~97% in the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.—MM

Eventually, your parents may get sick of winterizing the deck. As the 75+ population grows rapidly and lives longer than ever before, some are opting to move on from their 4-bed, 2.5-bath home. But doing so could mean ditching a paid-off mortgage for something smaller—and much more expensive.

Baby boomers with no kids at home owned twice as many 3+ bedroom homes as millennials with kids, according to a Redfin survey published in 2024. Most of them purchased those homes decades ago, when they cost roughly whatever change could be found rattling around in the ’69 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Don’t call it a retirement home

But some older adults are willing to pursue new digs if it means migrating to a community tailored to the 55+ crowd:

• Seniors flush with cash are heading south to communities like Sun City in Georgetown, TX, where golf carts are plentiful and income taxes are nonexistent for those 65 or older.
• Per the Wall Street Journal, there are roughly two dozen Sun City communities in the US, mainly in the South and West. Developer PulteGroup said last year that the “active adult” market is one of its biggest revenue drivers.

Looking ahead…developers are foaming at the mouth to cash in on building homes for this wave of seniors. Even some universities, cash-strapped in the wake of declining enrollment, are converting parts of their campuses into senior living and offering courses for both undergrads and their grandparents to take together.—MM

The odds of getting 360 no-scoped by someone who consumes prune juice are higher than you’d think: Older adults represent a significant and potentially undervalued chunk of US gamers, recent data shows.

According to the Entertainment Software Association’s annual gaming report from June:

• More than a quarter of the ~205 million gamers in the US are 50 or older.
• Almost half of all baby boomers play some kind of video game every week (Candy Crush counts), as do 36% of people in their 80s.

What are they playing? Like everyone else, they’re mostly choosing word- and puzzle games on their phones, tablets, or computers. But some older gamers prefer to slap on a headset and lock into the same big-budget video games that teenagers love:

• A 60-year-old Washington state resident who goes by TacticalGramma is so good at pwning n00bs on Call of Duty that she’s garnered 2 million followers on TikTok and 113,000 followers on Twitch.
• Similarly, 1.4 million people subscribe to the YouTube channel GrndpaGaming, which belongs to a 72-year-old US Navy veteran who streams combat games like Battlefield 2042.

Overlooked: Seven in 10 gamers over 50 feel that video games aren’t designed with them in mind, according to a 2023 AARP study. Age representation is gradually growing (e.g., The Sims released its first kit focused solely on elderly styles and accessories in May), but accessibility issues, like font size and controller design, make it difficult for some older folks to dive into gaming. In 2023, the 50+ crowd represented nearly one-quarter of US gamers, based on figures from AARP and the ESA, but less than 10% of gamer spending, according to Marketplace.—ML

What better way to prove that clothing is livable than by modeling it on people who have really lived? That’s the growing mentality in the fashion world, where older adults have become fixtures in recent years.

Aging is in. This year:

• Actors who graced fashion week runways included Richard E. Grant (68), Jason Isaacs (62), Tracee Ellis Ross (52), and Sarah Paulson (50).
• Spike Lee, Amy Sedaris, and John Turturro (all 60+) are three of the faces of Nordstrom’s flagship store campaign. And Danish swag master Mads Mikkelsen stunned in a recent launch of Zegna’s new moccasins at the age of 59.

Honorable mentions include: A 68-year-old Jerry Seinfeld starring in Kith’s most viral campaign in 2022, the late Dame Maggie Smith (aka Professor McGonagall) as a face of Loewe in 2023, and Martha Stewart becoming Sports Illustrated’s oldest swimsuit cover model that same year, at the age of 81.

But…older women in modeling who don’t already have mainstream fanbases saw a big drop-off in job availability right after the pandemic. Some agencies say that runway demand for elder swag has rebounded, but only for some models—older Black women are still largely underbooked. Batsheva Hay, a New York designer, sought out a more diverse range of wise faces for the runway last year by street-casting women over 40.

Zoom out: At Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks in early 2024, at least one older model walked in roughly three-quarters of the top 20 runway shows, according to the fashion search engine Tagwalk.—ML