When it comes to web-based activity, Pew Research studies shows the Boomer generation  fully engages in online research and shopping.  One-third of them use social media like Facebook or LinkedIn.  But if you ask them to tell you about their whereabouts —they shout whoa!

They often call texts intrusive. They don’t use Foursquare, saying it’s silly, again echoing the “I don’t want people to know where I am.”   And “push notifications?”  Forgetaboutit”

“I don’t want my phone showing me advertisements, no way,” a friend says.

I know this because I talk to Boomers and Seniors all of the time about their online habits.  I try and help them understand the positives of targeted advertising.  I explain that their web searching habits can lead algorithms to find them online shopping deals of products they actually like or want.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you were in a store and a coupon for a product you use popped up on your smartphone?” I ask.

“Well I guess so,” my sister-in-law admitted.  ”But I don’t want these apps texting me everywhere.”

“Nope, no one is going to find me in a store,” a 60-year-old man told me.  “They’ll have to hunt me down to advertise to me on the Internet.  I don’t want to share my information.”

Understand Their Fears

But why?  I ask, befuddling the Boomer information guardian. Hmm..not sure the facial expressions respond. Further prodding unveils that many Boomers actually are afraid that “Big Brother” is watching them online, or that there are roving bands of hackers waiting to plunge into their back accounts through their smartphones.

While this may be true, if they use the internet and/or shop online, their personal information is no longer private.  It doesn’t make sense Millennials say, and I agree.  But Boomers perceive it to be true and we all know that perception is reality.

To understand this paranoia, one has to appreciate the Boomer’s history.  This is a generation that grew up being told by their teachers and parents that anything they did wrong would be entered into their “permanent record.”

These legendary permanent records would follow them throughout their lives, they were cautioned.  In college, they were warned that these permanent records would contain all of their “anti-establishment” activities—including anti-war protesting.  These records also would track their job performance.  No one ever mentioned if they would chart their parenting skills.

Now that we’re all past 50, we Boomers need to honestly ask ourselves, the “where are these permanent records and did they really even exist? And more importantly, why are we hanging on to behavior that was created by threats made more than 35 years ago?

Has anyone even seen their permanent record?  “Oh it’s stored in my high school,” one Boomer told me when I posed the question.   Seriously, let’s think about that.  Millions of paper records warehoused in high schools throughout America?  And what about the argument that we had them in college and at our first jobs? Where are those records stored?

Once you walk through the sheer logistics with a Boomer, he or she usually reneges and accepts the foolishness of it all. After you explain that paper records of their bank accounts, health records and tax payments are scatted about on people’s desk across the country with no safeguards, they may realize they are overreacting a bit. But it takes time.

Unlike Millennials who are more willing than any other generation to post personal information online if it means more targeted adds.  Boomers are skeptical.

In fact, a new website app called Disconnet which blocks the invisible tracking of users search and browsing history, could likely become a Boomers best friend and an advertiser’s foe.

Help Boomers Understand You’re Not Intruding

So advertisers and marketers hoping to get Boomers to share more online information with them, need to take a cue from Ricky Ricardo.  He used to say to Lucy, “you gotta lot of splanin’ to do,”

Find ways to explain and educate Boomers and you’ll be more likely to eradicate the old myths that live inside of their emotional minds so can change their mobile behavior.

If you would like to learn more about marketing to the 50+ audience subscribe to our email updates at www.clearwritingsolutions.com

If you don’t want to leave money on the table, you best have one.  The 50+ market represents $2.7 trillion or 47 percent of consumer spending in America– the largest of any cohort.

That’s the message being delivered across the country by AARP Senior Vice President of Thought Leadership Jody Holtzman and it’s penetrating with venture capital firms.

Holtzman was speaking to the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit in Chicago last week, explaining that he’s disrupting the start-up pitch contests –just by showing up.

“The question I get, is what is AARP doing here?” Holtzman said.  “Which is great, because people are taking notice.  After I explain to them the sheer size of the market, they get it.  For example, the 50+ market is the largest spender on luxury travel, but no one seems to know that.”

He told a story about a VC friend who met with a well-known online travel company that was searching for more money.  Since sharing the stage with Holtzman a few months prior at a conference and hearing Holtzman’s question, the VC guy asked the entrepreneur, “what’s your 50+ strategy?”  The entrepreneur didn’t have one.  The VC sent him home with orders to “do your research and get one.”

So knowing that the 50+ Americans market spend $300 billion on personal care, enrichment and entertainment in 2010, I’m determined to help tech entrepreneurs develop their 50+ strategy.

I’m a Boomer messaging consultant and a consummate consumer.  I also write the technology blog “App of the Week” for AARP.  During the past year I have been contacted by nearly 100 app developers and entrepreneurs who say they have a great product or service to target to Boomers and Seniors.  Through press releases and countless emails they ask me to review their sites and blog about them.

To be fair, I try them all in hope of finding an app or site that will enhance the lives of my fellow cohorts.  I try apps designed for health, fitness, gaming, social networking, transportation, productivity, foods, medical issues, video, photos, and even apps to make email prettier.  Anything that crosses my desk I’ve tried.  I try apps and websites I read about on specialty app sites, such as Happtique for all things medical, AppAppeal, Business Insider, Mashable and countless other online publications.

I’ve done extensive research into where and how Boomers discover apps, what turns them on and what turns them off.  I have the experience to help developers adjust the app so it ends up with the right design with the right message in the right channel.

I know the 50+ market and when I try an app that is easy to view, easy to navigate, doesn’t invade my privacy, and enhance the lives of my fellow Boomers and Seniors, I share it across multiple platforms.

So app developers out there, get a 50+ strategy for our sake and yours.  We’ll use and even pay for your products —and you’ll help us lead more fulfilling lives.

This blog originally appeared on the author’s own blog called BoomerTech Blog.

They seem to have their own language much different than the Boomer’s language of the 60s and 70s.  We used to say a great experience was “bomb” or the movie Yellow Submarine was psychedelic.  Perhaps our parents were bewildered by our choice of words too.

But today’s vocabulary has a business/technology bent to it.

As a Baby Boomer I am part of a generation that prides itself on being cool and up-to-date.  Remember, we were the group that wasn’t going to trust anyone over 30? So when my 30-year-old son tells me I’m “just a data point of one”,  I’m confused– I don’t like it.

Trying to talk to Millennials 

“Half the time I don’t know what these kids are talking about,” my 50-something girlfriend says of her 32-year-old co-worker.  “Jennifer tells me she’s in beta.  What does that mean?”

It means, she’s changing, I explain, “It’s a start-up business term.  She’s evolving.”

Actually, a lot of Boomers are in beta.  Unless you’re one of those self-proclaimed curmudgeons who proclaim, “I’m saying no to technology, I’m not into that stuff,” then you are in beta.

Being in Beta

Those of us who want to remain relevant and visible to younger generations—are in beta.

If we’re learning new things or changing our perspective we’re in beta.  Becoming an in-law for the first time, or a grandparent puts us in beta.    In fact, being in beta is the premise of a book by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn and Ben Casnocha called “The Start-up of You.”

The book promises to help readers “adapt to the future, invest in themselves and transform their careers” but it really could be billed a guide for daily living—especially for Baby Boomers.

It’s a guidebook for personal and professional growth, for using your mind, for stretching outside of your comfort zones.

It describes some commonly used business terms that define life stages applicable to Boomers — new careers, retirement, grand parenting, single life and/or caregiving.  Basically if you’re doing something new, you’re in beta.

Being in beta is a good thing.  It means you’re alive—not stagnant.  So if you want to maintain the Boomer generation’s badge of hipness, here’s list of five new vocabulary words to incorporate in your conversations with your adult children.

5 Tech that have become Common Expressions

1. Pivot—it’s what you do when plan A doesn’t work out the way you thought.  You pivot to plan B.  We’ve all lived long enough to have pivoted many times.  We got married, got divorced, we lost our jobs, and “we picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off, “We called it changing. It’s pivoting now.
2. Data point—Wikipedia defines data point as a statistical set of measurements on a single member of a statistical population.  In other words, as a Boomer mom who believes her son should call her more often—I’m a data point of one.  I’m guessing I’m a data point of many, but since I haven’t seen actual survey results on this request, I will concede the fact to my son, “I’m a data point of one.”
3. Brain-dump—it’s sharing information—usually new information and sometimes complex.  For example, your grandson Alex comes over to fix your computer.  He shows you how to run the fixit program and check for other simple issues.  Your husband comes in the room and you say, “let’s get together at 7 p.m. for a brain dump where I can share all the info I learned from Alex today.”   Watch Alex and your husband be stunned.
4. Bandwidth-in technical terms it refers to the range of frequencies (not the speed), or the measured amount of information that can be transmitted over a connection: the higher the frequency, the higher the bandwidth.  In common language terms, it means the amount of information one is capable of processing at any given time.

For instance, you daughter asks you to pick up her clothes from the dry cleaners, stop at the drugstore,  and pick her son up from school so she can workout.  You agree to picking up her son but tell her, “I just don’t have the bandwidth to do all of your errands today.”

5. PING—traditionally this term refers to an Internet program used to determine whether a specific Internet address is on-line.  Now it’s been morphed (changed) into the lower case spelling of ping and means “get back to me by email or text.”    Use this expression when one of your kid’s says to you, “have a good flight home.  Safe landing.”  You respond with, “ok, I’ll ping you when I get there.” And then send the obligatory text “landed”.

It’s easy to incorporate these types of terms into your daily vocabulary.  When you do so, you not only impress your kids and other young people, you are experiencing your own personal growth with language.  Let’s face it, referring to your recent experience at a jazz concert as “far out” just doesn’t cut it anymore.  It was epic.

In fact, the gap is so big, that their potential customers can’t even board the website ship.

During this past week I’ve received five requests from entrepreneurs asking me to review their websites for my blog, which is geared to Boomers & Seniors.  Two of them intrigued me, so I downloaded them on my first generation iPad.

As I was exploring the app, it shut down.  I tried again, shut down again.  This happened on both sites.  So I contacted the developers who told me, “Yeah, we know that’s a problem.  It doesn’t work on the original iPad but it works on the newer ones.  It will be fine.”

No it won’t be fine.  And here’s why:

• Software shutting down is an insurmountable barrier to entry for a senior citizen.  If it happens, once ok, but twice, forget it.  They don’t want to be bothered.
• Most senior citizens don’t even own tablets.  According to Pew Research, only eight percent of Americans 66-74 years old own tablets and three percent of those above 75-years-old are tablet owners.
• Since the price of a new tablet is more than $700 and a majority of senior citizens are on social security, it’s probably a safe bet to assume that many of them are using hand-me-down tablets from their kids or grandkids.
• Sure there is a smattering of folks who have new tablets, but not a lot.

I hear developers talk about how important it is for “older people” to be connected to their families;   how using a tablet will help the senior citizen feel less isolated, and more in touch with their grandchildren.

So when developers design a product that is supposed to help senior citizens connect with their families, or remind them to take their medications, they had better be sure the software works on first generation iPads.    Or they’re spending their investor’s money foolishly and everyone is going to sink with the ship.

Baby Boomers are defined as the 78 million Americans born from 1946-1964. They control 77 percent of the nation’s wealth.  They buy 45 percent of all consumer goods and they spent $2.5 trillion in 2010, according to the Pew Institute.

The Pew Internet Project, concluded that 80 percent of Boomers are online and 46 percent of them own smartphones.  They spend 15 hours per week online doing research, emailing, shopping, reading and socializing about their hobbies like gardening and travel. 

The entrepreneurs attending the conference thoroughly understood the importance of meeting the online needs of Boomer generation.  They were offering many options in health care and caregiving technology targeted to the wealthy group.

So, why do so many app developers sill tag Baby Boomers as laggards in technology?  The facts just don’t support that theory.  Baby Boomers are early adopters of technology and their immense wallets should demand respect by the Millenials who are developing and marketing websites and apps.

Conventional wisdom amongst website and app developers is that early adopters are young. Wrong! Age and early adoption are independent.  Plenty of Boomers would love to be early adopters. But when an app is designed to appeal to the young early adopter, it limits the ability of the Boomer early adopters to participate.

Early adoption is a behavioral characteristic.

While youth has been a convenient demographic proxy, it’s a poor one. Boomers have a unique historical perspective about technology.  Developers who understand Boomers will open the floodgates to their wallets.  For example, early adopters to health and wellness products are Boomers.  Each month 100,000 people turn 65.

Understanding Boomer technology history

Boomers were in their early teens when the first IBM PCs and Apple computers appeared. They were early adopters of that era.  But they also recall a time when telephones had wires and there were only a few television stations, and when friends moved to another state they lost touch with one another.

Boomers ideals were developed during the Vietnam War years in an era when human rights and individual freedoms were primary concerns.  Their apprehensions about privacy and security are still paramount to their actions.  According to a study conducted by AARP and Microsoft in Oct. 2009, among people ages 18-24, 67 percent said they were concerned about online privacy  The number increased to 86 percent for people 55 and older.

Boomers want technology to fit into their lives and meet their values but they expect technology to adapt to them.

How to reach Boomers

So if app developers are serious about tapping into the Boomers $2.5 trillion wallets, here is some advice.

• Make the site clear and easy to read—Designers always want to use a thin font in a small point size that looks cool.  However, it’s too hard for Boomer eyes to read.  Use a sanserif font like Tahoma, Calibri, or Arial.  And never use a point size less than 12 point.
• Try to limit reverse type for headlines only.  Again, it’s too hard on Boomer eyes.  Use a lot of white space.  Primary colors are a plus a well.
• Use large buttons placed in areas that are easily recognizable.  Don’t make them search for the save, print, or help button.
• Make the help section and home page accessible from every screen if possible.  Boomers absolutely hate being lost in a maze of a website and not being able to get help or get back home.
• Make sure your help section uses easy to understand terms in its FAQ, not technical ones.
• Make the navigation simple.
• Name your site a name that explains what it is.  Try not to be too cute by half.  It doesn’t work, it’s confusing.  Some good examples are Fooducate, Flikster, Lose It–; the name explains what the site does.  An app called LonelyPlanet doesn’t cut it. It’s a travel site, but it sounds more like a sad therapy site. Yes, Amazon and Skype have names that don’t explain them, but unless you have the marketing budget of those companies it’s best to go with a more descriptive I’d approach.

If you follow these simple steps, you are destined to delight Boomer users.  Boomers have always thought of themselves and eternally young.  That’s why they want to stay relevant by having the latest tech toys and equipment.  Stop thinking of them as a static demographic, but rather as users of your product.

Michael Soenen, founder and CEO of EmergencyLink told me he was motivated to design an easy to share app, after his friend, who was single and lived alone, was seriously injured in a car accident while on a business trip.  His friend lay in the hospital for 2.5 days before any friends, relatives or co-workers could find him.  They knew he was missing, but they didn’t know his whereabouts.

“I knew there had to be a better way to find a person, so I spent the next year researching how to design an app to find people in case of an emergency,” Soenen explained.

Usability testing

First he gathered a group of 900 users.  He broke them into three control groups of 300 each—college students, moms with children, and people 55+. In an online survey he asked them questions about their own emergency preparedness, how they ranked a need for an emergency system, if they wanted the type of app he was thinking about, and if they did, what applications would they want in the app.

He learned the greatest number of users would be from the moms with children and 55+ groups—and tailored the app’s design to meet these users’ needs.   Then he hired designers and developers and launched a prototype.  They deployed the prototype to the control groups for six more months, revising the design and functions, as needed.  Then he officially launched.

“I had three people who had to sign off on the app.  It had to be easy to use for my sister who is in her 30s, my mom who is in her 60s and my grandmother who is 87,” Soenen said.  “Until they could all use it easily, it wasn’t ready.”

Delightful user interface

As a result of a year of market research, Soenen delivers a first class simple and necessary product.  It’s easy to understand, easy to read, and easy to register.

Easy to share

EmergencyLink is a free network that allows anyone to create a secure, comprehensive online emergency plan.  It lets members store and share their emergency contact and medical information. The member enters a contact person and his/her phone number and email address. EmergencyLink sends an email to that contact inviting him/her into the network.  Even if the contacts don’t become members their information is stored as the member’s emergency contact.

Each member is assigned an account number.  The member’s account number and the 24-hour emergency hotline can be posted on the smartphone home page so, in the case of an accident, first responders have easy access to the information, even if a phone is password protected. Members also receive a set of EmergencyLink ID cards for their wallet, keys, running shoes, briefcase or backpack and adhesive stickers for their drivers’ license, health card or cell phones.

Great for Baby Boomers

I joined the network recently and downloaded the home page information to my smartphone. Last week when I was at the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit, in California,  people were asking me about my favorite apps. Since I also blog for AARP on “App of the Week,” I’m often asked that question.

I opened my smartphone to my home page and displayed my EmergencyLink first responder information while enthusiastically explaining the app’s features.  Within in minutes, everyone around me started downloading the app. They wanted it for themselves, their spouses and their aging parents.

Soenen’s market research was paying off.  The 55+ crowd couldn’t move fast enough the get the free app.

That means I talk about it everywhere, load it on my friends mobile devices and blog about it.

Recently, Instapaper earned on a spot on my “must share” list.

For starters, the concept is terrific.  Everyone is inundated with news they want to read but just don’t have time, so read later is a natural.  However, many developers fail to secure Boomer app users because their sites are  too hard for Boomers (Americans ages 48-66) to navigate.

Not Instapaper.  It offers a delightful user experience.  I don’t know if app developer Marco Arment had the Boomer cohort in mind when he designed Instapaper, but he hit a home run.

Instapaper calls itself a simple tool to read webpages later.  And it really works.  It gives users   the opportunity to glance at a website that and article that catches their  eye but needs more time to peruse.

Accessing the articles you’ve saved to Instapaper is easy. You can view them on the Instapaper website, through one of the native Instapaper apps (available for the iPad and iPhone), or on your Kindle (thanks to a built-in integration). Android owners can use a number of third-party apps such as Everpaper and Instafetch.

The user interface is highly effective. The home page is clean and uncluttered, the font and point size are easy to read and the directions simple to follow.

Here’s an example of a Boomer being introduced to Instapaper and the joy it brought.  A.  few nights ago my husband complained that he couldn’t find a news story he saw earlier in the day, but didn’t have time to read.

“This really pisses me off,” he uttered.  “I wish I had a place to save these articles so I could read them later..”

“You do,” I proudly said beaming.  “There’s an app for that.”  I just love saying that phrase.

I sent him to the Instapaper webpage to get started and that’s all it took.  My husband is a typical Boomer, has a smartphone, iPad and likes his tech conveniences—but like others in his age group, he backs off if the app seems too complicated to use.

Instapaper reeled him right in.  In fact, last night when we were dining with friends I overheard him telling the guys about a really great app he found—Instapaper.

Did you know that by 2015 they will all be over 50?

Did you know that Boomers control 50% of the country’s discretionary spending?

Did you know that Boomers spent $2.5 trillion on goods and services in 2010?

Did you know that Boomers purchase 40% of all technology products in America?

Then how come app designers and developers aren’t courting this market?   It’s where the money is—it seems so obvious to me.  But then, I’m a Boomer.

I spend many hours each week reviewing websites and apps that seem like they are targeted to Boomers– medical sites, health care sites, shopping sites—all areas that are potential Boomer goldmines.  However, a majority of them are too complicated or difficult for us to navigate and become frustrating.

Developers, designers and entrepreneurs who think their sites should target young early adopters to be profitable and ignore Boomers, think again.  This infographic illustrates the depth and strength of the Boomer cohort.

“It’s important that we have easy to read fonts and 12 point type in the apps,” I was explaining to a developer.  “The light fancy font young people use is very hard on our eyes.”

No sooner had I finished my sentence when a young 20-something guy in scruffy jeans and t-shirt resembling the comic strip character Jeremy from Zits looked in my direction and uttered,   “Man, do these Boomer moms even know how to use smartphones?”

“Well yeah, dude, who do you think taught you?” I wanted to tell Zits, but my “momness” got in the way.

Just an uninformed kid I thought destined to design an app that probably won’t stick.  He he.

So I took my 57-year-old mom self over to a table and sat with some other more friendly faces.  After a few introductions we started exchanging apps on our smartphones. Pretty soon, I was the cool one; with the apps no one had seen.  I explained why these particular apps appealed to Boomers.

“How do you know all this?” one young woman questioned.

Kiddingly I responded “I’m a Boomer, and I’m a Mom. We invented technology”

The befuddled look on her face warranted more explanation, but the meet-up speaker began.

However, had I had the opportunity to pontificate I would have explained that we Moms, we Baby Boomer Moms, were involved in technology long before we gave birth to the youngins’.

We had computers in the 70s and cellphones in the early 80s.  We signed up for AOL as early adopters.

We got on Facebook to keep a watchful eye on our teenagers.   We learned to text to communicate with our college aged kids.  We might be a little slow to learn all of the facets of a program, but we know the basics.

And now 35 years later, we are going like gangbusters,–and there is no stopping us.  Just walk in an Apple store and see how many of the customers are over 50?  And are women?  More than half, stats show.

According to a  2010 comScore report, women spend 8 percent more time online than their male counterparts — and those active Internet users aren’t just teens. Women over the age of  55 spend an average of nearly 300 minutes a month on social networking sites.  Men our age averaged less than 200 minutes a month doing the same time period.

So watch out Zits, we’re gaining steam.

My own personal tech journey started in high school.  My Mom insisted that I take typing.  “You never know when you’ll need it,” she preached over and over again.  She was right; I’m a master at the keyboard a skill has served well through many decades.  In fact, in college I was one of the few who owned an electric typewriter.  I used it to type term papers for others—charging $5 a page—hefty stakes in the mid-70s.

And like so many, once I was bit by the tech bug it didn’t stop.  It grew–as did my income, allowing me to accumulate even more tech devices.   I have a bundle– laptop, iPod, iPad, iPhone, (I started with the original Blackberry) and kindle.

And there I was one day, sitting with my 29-year-old son flanked by our tech gear and I asked him life’s proverbial question “now what?

He’s my only child and he lives in different state than me.  He has a great education, a good career path, and wonderful wife.  My “mom job” isn’t even part time anymore.

“Be a blogger,” he says.  “Write what you know.”  “You can do it.”  “I’ll set you up with a site.”

“Ok,” I agree.  And I’m off.  I blog about Boomers and apps, and I love it.  I’m excited about all the new tech stuff I’m learning and about my new adventure that keeps me current, vital and working with younger people.

I run into hurdles every now and again.  I email my son questions and he replies with links to teach me how to solve my own challenges.

“Google is your friend, Mom,” he writes.  “Use it for your questions.”

He teaches me, like I taught him, and my Mom taught me, giving me the tools to do the task myself.

Encouragement wears many faces.  Today I’m lucky to be sandwiched between two very strong and loving faces; my own Mom who gave me the foundation to start a life, and my son who gives me the support to keep creating the future.

This blog originally appeared on blog.aarp.org on 5/13/12

This single cohort of 78 million people account for more than 50% of discretionary spending?

So why are app developers ignoring these wealthy folks known as Baby Boomers?

If you are a developer or designer reading this blog, I bet you are saying, “We’re not ignoring Boomers.  We make lots of apps and sites they can use.”

And young designers really believe that their apps are serving the 50+ market.  But they are wrong.  Every day, productivewebapps.com lists 5 or 6 apps new entries to the marketplace.  However, they are all designed for young users.

Even the apps that think they target older users with easy intros and register pages—miss the boat.  They start simple, but then get difficult, so difficult that the Boomer user experience goes from good to frustrating in less than three minutes.

I’m pretty adept at using apps.  I write an “App of the Week” blog for AARP, so when I find something tough to follow, it’s really hard.

Developers—plain and simple–your apps lack Usability for Boomers, as defined by Jakob Nielsen, of the Nielsen Norman Group, who is the founder of usability science.  He says usability is how easy and pleasant the features are to use.

So here’s how web site and app developers can make inroads into the huge and wealthy Boomer market by making them more usable.

1. Make sure the app does what users need.  If you are marketing a personalized exercise site for us to pick our goals, and select a personalized trainer, then make sure we can refine those goals easily. Otherwise it’s not personalized.
2. Make sure we can learn how to use it easily the first time we open it.  Many apps make the intro and sign-up easy, but get more complex when the app begins.  No! No! No! Keep it simple throughout.
3. Make it efficient.  Once we have learned how to run the app, can we perform the tasks quickly.  I use a wonderful app called LoseIt.  It’s a diet and exercise app.  I record all of the food I eat.  But it’s efficient because after I’ve recorded a certain food it goes into a section called “my foods” so I don’t have to search for it again.
4. Make the site memorable.  Remember Boomers are not on line or using apps as frequently as younger people, so we may not use the app every day or even every week.  However, when we return to it, we don’t want to have to relearn it.  If it’s easy to follow, we’ll remember it, and use it.
5. Make the experience pleasant.  You have all heard about delighting the consumer—here’s your chance.  If we like the experience, we’ll use it and become loyal to it.    If we love it and use it often, we’ll probably pay for a version without the advertising too!

It’s the only guide you need for recently released movies in theaters and those on DVD.  It even has a direct line to Netflix for those using that service.   I don’t use Netflix, I have cable “on demand” so I can use the DVD feature too.

Until I discovered Flixster, I would read the movie reviews in the Friday newspaper and try to remember which ones I wanted to see.   Not always easy.  And I’d have to keep that paper all week, so I could refer back to it.  But the weekly paper only helped with new releases that week and since I don’t go to the movies weekly, this was a problem.

Hmmm…was that the movie I wanted to see?  Couldn’t remember.  And forget remembering the recently released on DVD movies I could watch on television in the comfort of my own home.   I’d scramble through old editions of Entertainment Weekly to try and catch reviews on those.

But with Flixster I’m released from newspaper bondage. Now, armed with my smartphone or tablet, and my Flixster app I can peruse movie reviews anywhere.  Flixster has so many great options I can’t explain them all in this blog; you really have to use it get the full picture.

However, here’s a quick synopsis of the app’s highlights:

• The Home page offers clips of new features along with a section on what’s Hot Today.
• The Box Office page has three sections: Opening This Week, Top Box Office and Also in Theaters.
• Each movie has quick at-a-glance  list of critics’ Rotten Tomato Ratings.
• Once you select a movie, you can play a trailer, get the showtimes, read critic reviews,  read other Flixster user reviews, and mark it as “want to see “or “not interested”.  All of your “want to see movies” will wind up on another page called My Movies.
• My Movies is probably the coolest page because it lists the movies you’ve seen, the movies you want to see, the movies you have rated, and your friends’ movie selections.  That’s right; all of your friends from Facebook who use Flixster also are listed in alphabetical order with the number of movies they have reviewed.  This feature is pretty incredible.
• Here’s how it works:  You tap on your friend’s name, and up comes the movies your friend has seen and rated for you to view.  You can then scroll through and play the trailers, etc.  So this feature enables you to read reviews by people you know.
• There is also a Theaters page that lists your favorite theaters, those within five miles, 10 miles, etc. with a map.  This feature if great if you are traveling and want to see a movie in a city in which you are unfamiliar with theater locations.
• And the last section is my personal favorite—it’s the DVD section.  Since I like to watch movies at home, so I can knit while viewing, I see most movies on TV.  This section is great as it lists the movies by DVD release date.  Again, as with all the listings, there is the full review of each movie.
• In this section there is also a category called “browse” where movies are listed by type.  There are 22 categories that include the basics like Action & Adventure, Animation, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance and Westerns.  But it also has sections such as Art House & International, Documentary, Musical and Performing Arts, Sports & Fitness and Television.

While Flixster is a great help selecting movies, if you decide to watch the movie in the theatre;  you could be plagued with—the bladder issue.

If you’re like me, you get your refreshments, find the perfect seat and then—you need to use the restroom.

“Should I go now or wait,” you question yourself.  “If I wait, I won’t know when to go.”

Question no more—there’s an app to the answer.  It’s called RunPee.  This app, lists movies, running times, synopsis, and the exact time and the length of time you have to take the bathroom break.  It also gives you a few paragraphs telling you what you’re missing while in the bathroom.  It even has a silent stop watch that will vibrate in your hand to give you the signal.  So if you have a weak bladder, this is an app that deserves a close look.

Do you have a favorite app you’d like to share.  Please let us know in the comments section.

My new friend challenges my brain, and sometimes I’m a little embarrassed of the results.  But I know I need to keep engaging.

My friend could help me stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s.

My new friend is an app called Lumosity.  My friend also is a website that syncs with my app.

Lumosity is a series of brain training games that you can play to enhance your brain’s speed, memory, attention, problem solving and flexibility.

The games are simple and fun to follow.  This morning I played Lost in Migration, a concentration game. I had to determine which way a flock of birds was flying by identifying the direction of the bird in the middle of the flock.  Sounds easy, but it’s a bit of hand-eye coordination and concentrating the middle bird, not the whole flock.   I did pretty well, scored 90%.

Then I moved onto Raindrops, a problem solving game where my score dropped to 68%.  I knew this was going to be a tough one, once it started.  Math problems like 4+12 appeared in rain drops and I had to select the correct answer before the raindrop fell into the water.

Now math is not an area in which I excel.  And as I progressed through the game, the problems became more difficult for me, like 46-18 and my drops were spiking into the water.  I noticed I was getting nervous because I couldn’t solve a problem, which was causing me to freeze up and miss even more problems.  I was heading into a tailspin, and had to regain my composure immediately to progress.

My first inclination was to forget Raindrops in the future, and work on other games, but then I realized I need to play it more often to keep my brain‘s problem solving area sharp.  No pain, no gain.

Also, the higher your score, or the faster you complete the games, the more difficult they become.

You can personalize your brain trainer by specific areas of your brain you want to improve.  I picked flexibility, attention and speed, but I think I need to add problem solving to the mix.

The website offers a selection of web-only memory training games that improve face-name recall, working memory recall and spatial recall.

The brain games and training were designed by a group of neuroscientists.  Their games are being used in a variety of research and activities.   There are free games, starter programs and paid monthly subscriptions.  All are explained on the website.

I play the games because I’m scared.   Even though at 57, I still am employed full time, and am attempting to master all kinds of new technology I still occassionally forget names and words.

And the worry of Alzheimer’s invading my brain is ever present.  A 60-year old friend has been struck by early onset dementia and was forced to leave his lucrative law practice, so now it’s more real to me.

According to a recent study, Alzheimer’s   could be the defining disease of the boomer generation.

I want to do everything within my power to keep the nasty disease at bay.   That’s why this app that I can carry in my purse or my pocket is going to be my BFF I talk to daily.

This post originally appeared in AARP blog.

Last week, the New York Times reported that each American spend about $7,600 a year on health care, that one in two adults lives with a chronic disease—and the average wait time to see a doctor in a metropolitan area is 20 days.

Everyone is talking about trimming health care costs and promoting wellness but what are health insurance companies and Medicare doing to reimburse health care providers for keeping folks healthy?

If you listen to a hospital administrator—not much.

Recently, I was speaking candidly with a hospital administrator who told me, “Insurance companies pay us when the bed is full, not when it’s empty.  In order for wellness to really work, we need to change the payment structure.”

Makes sense.  Running a hospital is a business.  With rising health care costs, and the Medicare crisis getting larger by the minute as Baby Boomers turn 65, something has got to give.

When patients are well– no money is exchanged and that’s a loser for a lot of people.  And that’s a crime Baby Boomers ought to fight and fight hard.

Entrepreneurs are developing mobile app and websites to help consumers take control of their health, manage their ailments and promote their wellness.  These sites also have support group links so patients can talk to each other about their medical issues and discuss treatments that work for them.

Patients with chronic diseases are often well served by these sites.  For example, I have chronic tennis elbow.  I have been to physical therapy, but sometimes I forget the exercises.  So I looked them up on sharecare.com, a site where experts answer health care questions.  I refreshed my memory after seeing diagrams of the exercises and saved myself and the insurance company the cost of a doctor’s visit.

Sure, some physicians will argue—and rightfully so—that some patients self-diagnosis and wait too long to actually visit a doctor and when they do, the ailment has worsened.  But that also happens without the Internet.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 78%of all Baby Boomers use digital devices.  They say they search for health information 83% of the time they go on line.

Baby Boomers are squeezing the Medicare costs while simultaneously educating themselves about health care.  They are prime targets to become users of mobile health devices.  Smartphone users make up 46% of the population and 29% of Boomers use them.  Boomers have the equipment, the knowledge and the inclination to manage their health care better at a more efficient cost.

But again we must ask how are these entrepreneurs, physicians, and hospitals reimbursed for encouraging wellness?  They are not.

For example, there’s Avado, that’s talked about as the “mint.com for health care.”     It works when a doctor subscribes to Avado and gets a website package that enables patients to fill out forms, schedule appointments, track symptoms for chronic conditions, and even get weekly medication reminders.  Doctors and patients decide what metrics they will track—like blood pressure or asthma attacks.

But here’s the hitch…physicians have to pay for it.  And if patients are tracking and treating their health issues through a website in a physician-patient partnership—how is the physician to earn a living?

Again, the $64,000 question.  We must change the payment system in order to provide an incentive to health care providers to keep patients OUT of their offices.

Insurance companies and the government’s Medicare system need to talk about the elephant in the room.

The time has come when Boomers, who are experts at grassroots letter writing campaigns, and effective protesting tactics, take the message to insurance companies and their legislators that this form of reimbursement must change.

It’s time the 78 million people who defined modern day revolution  by marching on Washington, get on their computers and write letters, and make phone calls to make a change.

Boomers are fighting for their health and longevity every day.  But it’s not enough.  We need to raise our voices.

Like the hospital man said—“I get paid when my beds are full of sick people” and until that changes, all of these innovative apps and telemedical devices aren’t going to be used.

And that’s a crime.

The banter is the same.  “You gotta try it,” a peer says.

“Really, what does it do?”  I ask.

“I’m not sure,” he says, “but it’s really cool and everyone is using it.”

So I try it—I download the Lose It! app to see what the buzz is all about.  And after a few hours, I agree it’s pretty cool—however now I must admit I’m addicted.

I think this exercise and weight loss app is the best in its class. Unlike other apps that are just for exercise or just for weight loss—this app allows the user to keep an exercise and food log all in one location—always visible.

And the amount of exercises is huge. There are more than 100 exercises in the selection.  It includes the regular cardio activities like walking, running, bicycling, and swimming but that’s not all.

It’s the array of exercises not usually found on other apps that makes this one mind-blowing.  It lists pilates, playing catch, bowling, water polo, sky diving, vacuuming, home repair, house cleaning, yardwork, water aerobics and juggling just to name a few.  The list is so extensive it even includes all of Wii Fit exercises.

In a nutshell here’s how it works:

• You enter your age, weight and goal weight.  The computer calculates how long (weeks, months, years) it will take you to reach your goal weight.
• The program then calculates a daily calorie budget and presents it on a time line.
• You add the foods you eat.  There are categories for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
• You can do a random search for your food.  For example, I tapped in yogurt and it brought up 20 varieties.  I made my selection and the calories were added to list of “food calories consumed.”
• Or you can scan the barcode off of a food item and it logs it for you.
• It also has a list of Supermarket foods including Weight Watchers brand.
• And a list of restaurant foods (however, most of these are fast food restaurants)
• After you add your food, it gets stored under “my foods” so you don’t have to do the search again.
• You add your exercise.  For each exercise selection, you pick the rate you exercised.  For example for walking the selections range from 2 mph /slow to 5 mph/very fast.  In addition there are walking selections for pushing a wheelchair, pushing a stroller walking to work or walking with the dog.
• Like the food diary, once you add an exercise it becomes part of your list for easy referencing.
• After each entry you can see your running calorie count. You can see the calories from your food intake — the calories subtracted from your exercise;   and your net calorie amount. The graph illustrates if you are over or under your calorie goal for the day and the week.

These stats are all presented on a really cool timeline along with a bolded note that tells you how many more calories you can eat that day.

How great is that?  You also can add friends to your group so you can share motivational support messages.

The app also can be used from a website and all entries are automatically synced between devices.

After experimenting with several other exercise apps, I can honestly say that this one is bomb.

And, you can use the app without any worries of a having a bad trip or being arrested.

This blog was originally posted on AARP.org

Fastcustomer.com offers an app that does the waiting for you and calls you back when a real live person is on the line.  The idea is you can go on with your life while “the app on your smartphone waits in line.”

Here’s how it works:

• You download the free app on your iPhone or Android smartphone.
• You type in your phone number. It can be your cell or land line number.
• Then you search the app’s phone listing for the company you want to contact. There are 2,000 companies listed from utilities to airlines to retail stores to insurance carriers just to name a few.
• You select the company you want to call and the next screen tells you if the customer service department is open.  If so, you press the green button that says “have someone call me”.
• Once the call is initiated the app features ask several questions about why you are calling, and tells you how many minutes you have been waiting.
• Once your call makes it through the line, a real person calls you back.
• The entire time you can be away from your phone—doing whatever.

I tried calling a bank listed in the system on a recent Saturday afternoon and the wait time was seven minutes, but a human being did indeed call me back.

Following the call, I was asked to rate my experience and presumably it’s relayed back to the bank.

There is a “favorites” setting to log your frequently called numbers and a place to “request a company” to be added.

This is a great tool for Boomers who are always complaining that in these “high tech” days they can’t ever talk to a human.  It also removes all of the frustration surrounding “press 4 for this” and “6 for this”.

However, the app does NOT take you to the FRONT of the line, so expect to the normal wait time which could be 5-10 minutes to receive a call back.

When I first heard about the app I thought all I had to do was press the company name and I would immediately be connected to the customer service representative so I was a little angry about the wait time.  Then I went to the company website www.fastcustomer.com and watched a video explaining the app and its limitations.  The video acknowledges that the caller is not connected instantly, but rather a return call is generated.  For a great app and a simple instruction I rate the fastcustomer app a “thumbs up” for Boomers.

My Mom and I, armed with our sharp scissors, would scour the weekly coupon sections searching for our favorite brands.  We cut the coupons, placed them in piles according to product type, and then put them in the special envelope marked “Groceries” in big red letters.

I didn’t shop with my Mom, so I’m guessing she remembered to take her special envelope to the store with her.  Not so with me.

Oh, I clip the coupons alright, and like most Boomers I hear the family mantra in my head “why pay full price for something when you don’t have to.”  I even file them in a fancy coupon case I bought years ago.  But eight of 10 times when I get to the market and realize I left the coupons at home.

Guess I’m not alone because a mobile coupon clipping app has arrived to help folks like me.

Launched in early March, New America Marketing, (NAM) unveiled SmartSource Xpress, an iPad application that gives shoppers the ability to easily find and digitally “clip” coupons.

SmartSource Xpress uses direct-to-card paperless coupon technology that electronically links coupon discounts to consumers’ frequent-shopper cards.  A single ‘tap’ on a SmartSource Xpress offer sends the discount to the consumer’s registered shopper cards and will be waiting for the consumer at the checkout of a participating retail outlet.

How cool is this?  No more clipping, filing, storing and then forgetting the coupons.  Once you tap you’re done.  You can also check for products by name to see if there is a coupon that you missed.

For instance, I typed in “napkins” and it scanned all of the coupon inserts for napkins.

There are a few drawbacks however. You have to possess a frequent shopper card at one of the registered retail stores. Currently there are only 20 retail outlets signed up, so that’s limiting, but it’s probably sure to grow in time.

And while there is a great list of your clipped coupons along with their value and expiration dates, you can’t print it.  So you either have to lug to tablet to the store; or write the list down and remember to take it with you.

This mobile app has great potential—especially when it arrives on a smartphone.

This post was originally posted on AARP technology blog

If you are like me, you say to yourself, there’s the cholesterol one, what’s that called again?  How many milligrams?  It’s pink, I know that.  Then there is the three that make up the cocktail for migraine prevention…hmm.  There’s the little white one I take twice a day, and the capsule at night – I think that’s 20 mg.  And then comes the dreaded chart of non-prescription drugs, like vitamins and supplements…what’s that new one I just started taking that’s supposed to relieve hot flashes?  Can’t remember.

Sound familiar?  This was me until I discovered MyMedicalApp.  This terrific app stores all of your medical information on your iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch and Macs.  If you don’t have a Mac (I don’t) you can enter the information on your PC and email it to your downloaded app on your iPhone or other Apple products.

It stores your emergency contacts, general information, medications, tests and procedure, allergies, immunizations, surgical procedures, injuries, hospitalizations, physicians, office visits, family history, health insurance, eyesight, advance directives and documents and photos you attach.  It’s password protected and can be backed up to your email.

It also allows you to have several profiles, so you can keep track of your spouse, children or aging parents.

Ever since I downloaded it for $2.99, I can’t stop adding information to it.  It’s exhilarating to know I will have all of the information at my fingertips next time I’m in a physician’s office.  I don’t have to worry about forgetting my lists at home.  Mymedicalapp even has a place for questions for the doctor. You can log them in next to your upcoming appointment.  So organized.

Being armed with this data is helpful because it cuts down on guesswork and incomplete forms, but more importantly, having the data available is a safety issue.

According to the National Center of Health Statistics, over the last 10 years, the percentage of Americans who took at least one prescription drug in the past month increased from 44% to 48%. The use of two or more drugs increased from 25% to 31%. The use of five or more drugs increased from 6% to 11%.

Among older Americans (aged 60 and over), more than 76% used two or more prescription drugs and 37% used five or more.

The report summarized the conundrum of older adults and prescription drugs by stating, “Finally, almost 40% of older Americans used five or more prescription drugs in the past month. This likely reflects the need to treat the many diseases that commonly occur in this age group; however, excessive prescribing or polypharmacy is also an acknowledged safety risk for older Americans, and a continuing challenge that may contribute to adverse drug events, medication compliance issues, and increased health care costs.”

And this study didn’t take into account the mixture of vitamins and supplements we frequently use.

There are more than 9,000 health apps available to consumers through the AppStore says, Brain Dolan, editor of MobiHealthNews.  But so far this is the only one I’ve found that can store your personalized health information in a digital file cabinet.

Like so many other Boomers, I’m a reasonably healthy 57-year-old, who regularly exercises, is at target weight, but I still take a combination of 10-12 pills per day (including vitamins and supplements).

I’m also guilty of reading health and fitness magazines that have advertisements for natural supplements to “help you lose weight”, “give you more energy” or ease arthritis pain.  The trouble is, I often try these supplements, without writing them down and when I think I have a side effect or I’m feeling sluggish, I don’t remember to tell the doctor about the natural products.

Not anymore—all of those meds—prescription and over the counter, natural and synthetic, are listed in MyMedicalApp on my phone, along with any side effects.

Now if they could just come up with an app to alleviate arthritis in my keyboard fingers….

This blog was originally published on blog.aarp.org

Is this a new ailment?  Is it arthritis?  Carpel tunnel?  Oh no, I won’t be able to use the computer!   So I head to the doctor.

Sure enough, it was what I thought.  A recurrence of tennis elbow, which I got from throwing a ball to my dog too much—not from playing tennis.

“But I haven’t thrown the ball in months,” I tell her.  Then I confess, but I have been spending more time than usual on my computer, researching and writing blogs.   And then there’s the knitting that I do to relax.

“Your tendons are pissed,” she tells me.  “Cool it with the knitting, take breaks from the computer and return to your physical therapy exercises you have at home from the last bout.  It will go away, but it needs rest.”

Then she gives me some really good information, she tells me about www.sharecare.com a web site, founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz that allows people to use the Internet to research their conditions, and get accurate, clear, concise answers to their questions.

She also tells me, that she, Dr. Rachel Rohde, a board certified orthopedic surgeon, and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, had to apply and be accepted to be a physician who answers questions on the site.

Had I known about www.sharecare.com  before I visited Dr. Rohde for a recurring problem, I probably wouldn’t have wasted everyone‘s time and money this minor issue.

Managing My Wellness

As soon as I got home I went to the site and put in the question, “what is tennis elbow?”  From there, it took me to some easy to read and understand questions and answers such as:

• What causes tennis elbow? (including a muscle diagram)
• How is it diagnosed?
• How is it treated?
• How can I prevent it from reoccurring?

And the preventions included warm-up, stretching and strengthening exercises accompanied by photos that were reviewed by orthopedic surgeons (names and credentials listed.)

Presently there are 48 health topic categories, each with subcategories covering every aspect of health from diet and nutrition, to family health issues, to addictions, to healthy hearts, menopause, aging, hearing and cancer.  There are hundreds of doctors affiliated with the nation’s top hospitals answering questions.

In the introductory video Dr. Oz says he developed the site to be an “ideal reference for today’s savvy consumer.”

As we Boomers know, the more information we have about our health, the better equipped we can be when we seek treatment.

Sharecare is not a substitute for medical care, but it’s a great Internet tool available to us help us solve small health issues, and to educate us on our larger health issues and those of our loved ones.

Because, people and their gadgets can be a dangerous combination—especially when driving is involved.

Every time my husband gets into his car, he sets the GPS and the miles destination counter.  Admittedly it’s a useful tool to get him quickly and efficiently to unfamiliar business meetings.

However, he also sets when he’s only traveling two miles to the neighborhood drugstore when he has driven countless times before during the past 20 years.  That gadget needs to be activated.

It gets a little more complex when the gadgetry is used during his driving.  Before entering the vehicle to drive to work, he “suits up” with technology.  His smartphone and earpiece in hand.  As he pulls out of the driveway, he sets the GPS and mileage counter and then begins tapping a phone number on his smartphone.  Here’s where it gets dicey.

He hasn’t spent enough time learning how to operate his car sync system, so his voice is not recognized; therefore he doesn’t use the hands free option.  So as he drives down the street, he taps his phone book searching for his numbers.  I think this is problematic…he thinks it’s just fine.

If I’m a passenger in the car, I insist on dialing the phone numbers, but I know when he’s alone, he’s looking down, squinting at his iPhone while trying to pay attention.  “I can multi-task” he tells me.

Oh sure, and as  he hits the expressway, traveling the entrance ramp at 70 mph,  I think of him doing this drill scrolling through his cell phone book.  Horrors!

About a minute goes by and a text comes into his phone.  “I’ll read it for you,” I tell him.  “No” he says grabbing the phone from my hand like a commander of an armed force.  “I can do it.”

Then after reading, the typing starts up to return the text.

“Not now,” I shout with fright.  “We’re going to get into an accident.”

“I do this all the time when I’m alone,” he tells me.

Oh that’s a relief I sarcastically answer.

My Baby Boomer husband—who is old enough to know better– is part of a huge group or people known as “district acted drivers.”

Right now, the US Department of Transportation is holding hearings on tightening the federal guidelines for in-car technology, but not for smartphone usage.  The proposed federal guidelines would require automakers to block drivers from putting addresses into navigation systems or browsing the Web while driving.  However, devices drivers bring into their cars are not addressed.

I agree with automakers who are telling Congress that drivers will turn to their mobile devices for information they can’t get from their cars.  Imposing distracted driving federal guidelines on automakers is unfair, and useless if similar guidelines are not imposed for mobile devices.

This is the point Rob Strassburger, vice president of vehicle safety for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, argues.  He says that the Alliance members, which include all of the big automakers except Honda, agreed to abide by the federal guidelines which call for dashboard tasks to need no more than 10 two-second glances.  However, the new federal proposal would cut that to six two-second glances and lock out navigation input and Web browsing.

While I think it’s a good idea to encourage the automakers to more strongly regulate the navigation devices, I think the government has to be careful not to put undue pressure on the automakers that are just rebounding from the brink of bankruptcy.

As a life-long Detroiter whose family has never been employed by the auto industry, I believe the auto industry is concerned about product safety.  Industry executives don’t want distracted drivers causing accidents.  That’s not good for anyone involved.

But putting unreasonable or excessive regulations on smartcars isn’t the answer either.  Not when the driver can still freely use a smartphone with unregulated devices.

What we really need are more state laws that ticket distracted drivers.  You know the ones I mean—the not so smart drivers like my husband who is constantly on his smartphone.

So why are Baby Boomers so afraid of on-line banking?  I don’t get it.  Statistics show that 61 percent of adults bank on line.  However, most of those folks are not Boomers.  And why not?

This is what I hear from reluctant Boomers.  “It’s not safe,”   “I don’t trust it”  “I do it by phone”  “I like mailing my checks.”

Ok Boomers, it’s time to step it up.  Most of you have computers, iPads and smartphones so you own the technology to use online banking.    So in honor of  National Consumer Protection Week (March 4-10) learn the real facts about the safety of online banking and stop falling victim to old scare tactics.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that banks are consolidating; branches are closing while fees increase.  It won’t be long before banks will be forced to charge for the check writing option—even if you carry a substantial balance.  So do what Boomers do best….get ahead of the curve.  Venture in, be a part of the new era in banking.

Learn about Internet banking safety by going to the Federal Trade Commission website at ftc.gov.  Scroll down and find the banking icon that will take you to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FDIC website which offers tips for safe online banking.   Included in the tips is the following message:

As use of the Internet continues to expand, more banks and thrifts are using the Web to offer products and services or otherwise enhance communications with consumers.

The Internet offers the potential for safe, convenient new ways to shop for financial services and conduct banking business, any day, any time. However, safe banking online involves making good choices – decisions that will help you avoid costly surprises or even scams.

The FDIC offers a brochure to tell you how to:

• Confirm that an online bank is legitimate and that your deposits are insured
• Keep your personal information private and secure
• Understand your rights as a consumer
• Learn where to go for more assistance from banking regulators

Boomers—get out of the dark—don’t be technology laggards—join the rest of the people who are banking the simple and secure way—make it easy on yourselves—and free up your time for more fun activities.

I am a 57-year-old typical Baby Boomer destined to remain physically fit and mentally active until I’m at least 90.  I eat a balanced diet, am average weight “for my age” and exercise every day, including using weights and doing core training.

So why am I stricken by so many ailments?  It’s just age, the doctors say. NO NO NO, I answer.  It can’t be.  I’m doing everything right.  I can’t accept it. Not accepting it.  Why?  How can this be?  Sound familiar.

Slow down, take some days off, don’t use the injured arm, the doctors tell me.  But I can’t.  I have too much to do.

Now you would think I’m some kind of great athlete with all this complaining.  Not so, the injuries are called “sports injuries” but they hardly came from athletic activities.

Two years ago I had so much arthritis in my big toe that I had the joint replaced.  “Probably came from wearing those high heels when you were younger,” my podiatrist told me.

When I was recovering from foot surgery I also had a little puppy—the cutest Goldendoodle in the world named Lexie, but that’s another story.  Lexie needed exercise.  Since I couldn’t walk her, I took her to a neighboring schoolyard and threw a ball for her to fetch.  She loved the 30 minute fun time.  My arm–not so much.

I got tennis elbow from that foot respite. That was a year ago.  “Stop the ball throwing,” my orthopedic surgeon said.  “Give it a rest.”

So I started taking little Lexie on long walks.  Oops irritated my SI joint by walking through my neighborhood that doesn’t have sidewalks.  “Only walk on sidewalks,” my sports medicine doc told me.

Ok, switched to sidewalks, and then my big toe started hurting again.  Too much pressure on the pavement. “Stop doing the walks for a while and try a pair of MBT shoes,” my podiatrist offered.  “Give it a rest.”  Lexie’s walks became my husband’s activity.

In the meantime I spent weeks at physical therapy for my tennis elbow and my SI joint.  As my elbow and toe healed, and my SI joint no longer hurt, I jumped back into life.  I rode the stationery bike and resumed my only hobby—knitting and returned to my passion of writing.

Things were going along swimmingly until last week.  Tennis elbow returned—this time from “over clicking” the mouse to write blogs and research topics.  Hmm…does this qualify for workers comp? Maybe if I wasn’t self-employed.   And then there’s knitting….it caused pain in my hands.

“Your tendons are pissed,” my orthopedic surgeon said.  “Cool it on the knitting.”  And as for the mouse, I’m supposed to lighten up on clicking and wear a wrist band.  None of this is making me happy.  What’s going on here?  Why is this happening?  And why isn’t there a magic cure?

Like all my other Boomer buddies, my body tells me I’m not 25.  I have to change my habits.  So now when I use  the computer, I wear a wear a wrist band  and I use an iPad when I can so I don’t click so much. I’ve cut out knitting, at least for a while, and Lexie walks with her dad while I ride the stationery bike.

But my mind keeps sending me another message: I’m a Baby Boomer—I’m tough—I am not getting old.  I can keep going.

As Welsh poet Dylan Thomas so eloquently said, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

That’s my mantra—even if I have to wear a wrist band shouting it.

What about you—how are you coping with the “aging thing”?  Please share your methods to combat this madness.

Occassionally, he would return home to Michigan, and during his visit, he would complete various home repairs and check on my computer to be sure it was operating efficiently.

Now he and his wife live across the ocean in Israel.  So our conversations have switched to G-chat or Skype, and I’ve hired a handyman to do the repairs.  However, he is still keeping tabs on my computer, thanks to a great new program called Soluto.

A few weeks ago he sent me an email invitation that included a very nice picture of him.  I was delighted to see his smiling face and immediately felt connected.  Next to his photo were the words “I want to help you with your computer.”  Words that make a parent melt.

The invitation went on to say: “Soluto is a small piece of software that helps me take care of your computer and spot problems before they have a chance to bother you.  It’s perfectly safe and I’ll never see any of your personal stuff, just technical details about how your computer is running.  All you have to do is download Soluto.  I’ll do the rest.”

How could I resist?  My son wants to help me?   My husband, the skeptic, wasn’t as quick to jump on the bandwagon.  He was concerned that our files be kept private from our son. “How can you be so sure he can’t see our banking files?  I don’t want him snooping around on our computers.  You should check it out more,” he warned.

And so I did.  I went to Soluto’s web site where a diagram explained how “power users” – those who are techies, like my son and daughter-in-law — can use the Soluto web service to help their friends and relatives from anywhere in the world.   The illustration explained that the power users could make their loved ones’ computers run faster, help alleviate crashes, install important apps, spot when hardware repairs are needed, and silently upgrade programs–even if the PC is turned off or in another country.

The diagram concludes with the trusty “lock” and explains, “Plus it’s safe and secure. Soluto cannot see your personal files, desktop or browser history, just the anonymous technical details of your PC’s performance to help make it better.”

There is even a cute little video with a child helping mom as an example.   It sucked me right in—pulling on my heart strings.

But the reporter in me was skeptical—so I kept investigating.

I also checked out the company blogs to see how Soluto advises the power users about how to help a PC user, and to check that the message was consistent.  The blog says that power users can NOT see into the others’ computers.  What power users can see:

• A list of the existing apps on that PC that can be updated, followed by a list of apps the user doesn’t have that can be remotely installed.
• A timeline with different frustration events (applications that crashed or froze) that plagued the user.  Power users could see when a problem occurred and what might have caused it.
• All of the applications running during start-up and in the background, including recommendations for those that should be removed or delayed so the start-up is quicker.
• A place to enable or disable the firewall, install antivirus software (AVG or Microsoft Security Client) or update Windows.
• A detailed overview of the hardware, including laptop battery health, and the option to clean up the hard drive.

Because nothing is deleted from your  computer during this process — selected applications are removed from start-up or set to run at a more convenient time for optimal speed, for example – changes can be undone.  For instance, if your daughter or nephew removes a toolbar favorite from your internet browser, you can say, “bring that back, I want that,” and voila, easily returned with one click of the mouse.

So if you have a techie in the family, or you know a techie, you can ask your techie to help your computer run faster by using Soluto.  Just tell them to go to Soluto’s website and sign up.  The techie will be directed to send the invitation to you, and from there, it’s just a few simple instructions.

The program is free for up to five PCs, its quick and you won’t even notice what’s going on, only that your computer starts up faster and it doesn’t freeze up.   And when your techie has checked in on your computer, a cute little message complete with his or her photo appears, saying “David just improved your PC. “

I’m sure there are other similar programs out there, but I haven’t seen such a simple one that is as effective and unobtrusive.

However, I think the biggest bonus of Soluto is that you know a loved one is looking after you, even if it’s remote and you can only see his or her photo.

Could a Boomer parent ask for more?

This blog was originally posted on blog.aarp.org

Check out all of the tables and sometimes you see two or three Boomers together, all on their individual smartphones—doing what we chastise our kids for doing—not talking to each other.

“I love my smartphone, my 60 year-old sister-in-law says.  “I use it while waiting in doctors’ offices for my appointments, I can catch up on my email, play games, I’m never alone,” she exclaims.

My sister-in-law is a big smartphone gamer; and sometimes I have to remind her to get her eye off the smartphone and back into our conversation.

Being the first one to have something new, or being “in the know” is a badge of honor for Boomers.  So it’s only natural to find them showing off their latest downloaded app to their friends.

“Check this out,” I hear one middle-age-man say to his buddy.  “This app is great.  I can keep all my data in it and I can access it wherever I am,” he explains about Dropbox.

“Really,” his friend adds.  “Show me how it works.”

And for the next half-hour these two guys are engrossed in operating a new app.

According to Dr. Ken Dychtwald, author of Age Wave,   Boomers make excellent product advocates.

Here’s why:

•   On average, most baby boomers are asked for product or service recommendations about 90   times per year.

• Nearly 90 percent of boomers who were asked to give advice gave it to their fellow boomers.
• Practically all boomers consider their family and friends to be their most trusted sources of information

Add that to the recent findings of eMarketer that 86% of Boomers own mobile phones and that the Internet will be accessed via mobile browsers or installed apps by nearly 25% of this demographic—it’s easy to understand what the chatter is all about.

So here are 8 free apps that my Boomer friends have told me “I just had to download” and the implication if I didn’t download them—I would be out of it, so uncool.  And Boomers still do not want to be uncool.

• Dropbox—this is a recommendation from my business friends who travel between office and home, or between their northern homesteads and their snowbird houses in the south and west.  Dropbox lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. You load it on your computer and your smartphone then you never email yourself a file again.  It’s easy to use and easy to set up.
• Flixster– Read reviews, get customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about movies.  You can find the theaters, get show times, and watch trailers (what many Boomers once called previews).  It’s fast, visual and easy to use.
• Words with Friends—this app is a takeoff of Scrabble.  This is a personal favorite of my sister-in-law, who plays it at every opportunity with friends and strangers.   It’s mostly played on smartphones and iPads.  Very good to keep your mind engaged.
• Whitepages—Stop paying for directory assistance calls from your phone.  Use this free, easy to use app from your smartphone.  Find, people, businesses and reverse phone lookups from those unknown numbers that show up on your phone.
• Zite—this is probably one of the coolest sites I’ve seen in a long time.  Users select categories of magazines that interest them.   Then as you read articles on certain subjects, Zite sends you more articles on those subjects.  You have options to email the articles to others or save them later to read on your iPad.  This app is so incredible you have to try it yourself to grasp the full experience.
• The Weather Channel—More than 200 meteorologists provide interactive and beautiful hour by hour weather imagery.  Great for planning outdoor activities, car washes or snow shoveling.
• WebMD—first aid information, symptom checkers, drugs and treatments, information on various conditions and local health listings.  There are also many videos on treatments and common conditions like bad backs, fevers, diabetes signs.  An excellent app for Boomers and Seniors.
• Flashlight—So easy and so helpful.  With a single touch your phone turns into a valuable flashlight that can be used to find your keys or read a menu.  Great app.

This was originally posted on  the AARP technology blog

How did this happen? And how can parents help the 20-somethings without dipping into their own retirement savings?

Credit card debt happened because the kids were approved for credit cards even if they didn’t have jobs.  “Buy it now, pay for it later” became their mantra.  In the banks’ heyday of the early 2000s, credit card pre-approval letters arrived in the mail daily for the college bound students.

“Look Mom, another Visa card application,” I remember my18-year-old son saying in 2001.

This Baby Boomer parent would issue curt threats, “don’t you ever, ever accept a credit card until you have a job,” drawing on my own background of being raised to pay in cash.

Luckily, my son listened to me, but many kids take the credit plunge.   They spend four or five years charging furniture, food, liquor and vacations.  In addition, many are also accumulating student loan debt.  Then graduation occurs—and if they are lucky enough to get a job, they begin their careers with a mountain of debt.

So what can parents do to help their kids pave a lean path to financial independence without using their own savings?  Here are 4 tips to help your kids dig out of debt and pave a clean path to financial independence.

• Talk to them.  Ask them about their finances?  Ask them how much credit card debt they have?  Ask them how much student loans they have to repay.  Parents often hesitate to ask their kids about money.  They may feel guilty that they couldn’t pay for their college expenses, or that it’s really none of their business.  They may think if they ask about the kids’ financial situation, they will have to give them money.  They don’t.  The goal is to give the kids the tools to manage their own money.
• Support them.  Not financially, but emotionally.  Assure them that you understand their predicament, even if you don’t.  Be positive.  If you are supportive, they will be open to suggestions, if not, they will be back away and dig deeper.  We can share a teachable moment with our kids, by relating to them through their favorite method—technology.
• Stay neutral and stick to the facts.  The tendency of all parents is to teach, but resist the opportunity to say, “I told you so,” or to lecture.  These are young adults, in a vulnerable position, probably embarrassed by their out of control finances.  Don’t make it more difficult.
• Empower them.  Give them the tools to get their financial house in order—alone.

There is excellent online personal finance software called Mint.com that you can suggest to them.  It is free, and owned by Intuit, Inc., the makers of Quicken and QuickBooks, the finance software used by many Baby Boomers.

Mint.com was launched in 2007 by a young man who wanted to organize his finances.  It now provides almost 5 million users easy ways to manage their money.

Log on to the site, Boomer parents.  You can see the features of Mint.com’s step-by-step “Get out of Debt” goal that allows users to:

• Break down debt by creating separate goals by debt type—credit cards or loans
• Create payment plans—the program allows users to see how changing monthly payments affects interest paid, and how money can be saved.
• Take a comprehensive look at debt—users can create a 6 month payment plan detailing monthly payments for each debt.
• Develop an action plan—there are steps to find the best and fastest way to pay off debt and optimize savings.

Mint.com is not just for debt reduction, it is just a good solid money management program aimed at 20 and 30 year olds.  There are also several other on-line financial management sites.

To be clear, I do not have any relationship with Mint.com other than discussing it with my 29-year-old son who said he has used it.

But after listening to my friends, colleagues and acquaintances in the gym and coffee shops agonize over their kids’ bleak and disorganized financial situations, I decided to delve into the topic.

Step up Boomer parents and have “the talk” with your kids.  You can make a difference in all of your financial futures.

The defensive play is being done by the United States Postal System.  In a television ad, the USPS is taking aim at Boomers who use online banking.  The ad isn’t brazen enough to state that directly, but the message is loud and clear.

It begins with a solid middle-aged voice talking about security and identity theft. Viewers are watching middle-aged hands write and sign paper checks, then deposit them into a road side mailbox in front of a substantial home on a beautifully manicured subdivision street.

Soon the letters are loaded into a large mail truck and we watch them be delivered to another person.    The announcer is telling viewers if they want to be certain their bills are paid in a timely manner, without the risk of identity theft or computer crashes– they should use the mail service.  As the commercial ends, middle aged hands are filing the statements in paper files in a drawer while the announcer is talking about confidence and security of knowing bills are being paid.

I only saw the commercial once, so I may have it a little out of sequence, but the message was clear:  Use the USPS to be sure your checks are safe.  In addition, you’ll have paper receipts to file away and feel secure that your checks arrived on time.

Now I get it.  The USPS is losing money and needs to take dire measures to get customers to use its service.  But scaring Boomers and Senior Citizens away from using Internet banking is just wrong.  Feeding on unsubstantiated fears that bill payers won’t have the security of knowing their bills are paid unless there is a paper trail is outlandish.

Anyone who banks and/or pays their bills through online banking knows copies of bills are stored on line for years; as are the confirmation numbers of the actual payments.

Financial institutions are trying to trim costs as well; and we all know that online banking is one way to do that.  And we also know that once Boomers are on an online site, they will most likely make a purchase.

Why do I say these tactics are aimed at Boomers?  Because Boomers are the largest demographic in America, and many are still leery of using online banking sites.  And this USPS ad is playing on their fears.

Statistics show that Boomers spend 15 hours per week online and that nearly 80 % of Boomers spend more money on line than any other generation.  Some studies suggest Boomers spend three times as much money on line than any other demographic. According to eMarketer, the 116 million Boomers in the US (as of 2011) are a valuable target audiences to marketers.

Therefore, once financial services companies get Boomers engaged in their site, on-site marketing is on fertile soil.

So now what?  Here are 6 ways for financial sites to capture Boomers and attempt to allay their fears:

• Make the site easy to read.  Use large point size, have lots of white space, and make the instructions easy.  Use big buttons.
• Highlight the site’s security.  Talk about how it’s more secure than mail, which can be intercepted by a thief or dumped in the trash.  Combat the identity theft argument with facts. Have a Q & A about security—on the home page, not buried within the FAQs.
• Stress convenience.  Bill paying made simple.  You can receive your bill on the site; schedule a payment, get email update reminders when bills are due, and confirmations when they are paid.  You can also pay at will.  I online bank with PNC and it has a terrific system.  It’s easy to use.  If I forget to pay a bill, it’s sent out the next day.  Not all banks offer such a great online banking site, but PNC is great.  (BTW-I have no affiliation with PNC, other than being a customer.)
• Appeal to women.  Women, 50 + influence 80% of all buying decisions.  That figure includes selecting a doctor, health insurance, long-term care insurance, retirement accounts,  vacation spending and consumer products.
• Market Boomers as a Multi-Generational cohort.  Boomers help their adult children and their aging parents make financial decisions.  They are shopping for three generations.  Examine their life stages.  Do they have kids?  How old are their kids? Do they live at home? Are they just starting out in life? Are their parents alive? Where do they live?  Are they in good health?  Understand Boomers and marketing to them will become easier.
• Have excellent customer service.  Be sure a human representative is available during extended business hours to answer questions.  And if it’s outside of business hours, have an email address for questions, and BE SURE to answer the question within 24 hours.

Boomers should be the sweet spot of financial institutions online products.  They are have the time and money and are mobile and flexible—they just need to feel more comfortable.

Don’t let the USPS push Boomers backwards.  I understand its dilemma.  It needs more people sending letters and packages through the mail.  But if the financial institutions don’t take heed, they will be headed in reverse as well.