Chattanooga Times Free Press features reporter Casey Phillips spoke with financial, fertility, health and career experts about issues people face at age 30.
FINANCE
Paul Fitzgerald, managing director at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
CP: What are some things people should be thinking about at age 30 to ensure a healthy financial future?
PF: I think there has to be a commitment to savings, first of all. That’s not something we hear everywhere else. That’s a big issue. A commitment of savings needs to be a minimum of 10 percent, but the reality is, for most people, it should be closer to 15 percent of your gross income.
The second thing is to protect their income. For young, married individuals, even if they’re making money, if they become disabled, they’re right back where they started, or worse. Having disability income insurance is key, even for single people because they have no one to depend on. For them, the only other option is to go back home to mom. That’s not his choice or mom’s choice. Doing some defensive planning is as important as offensive planning.
What I teach these guys is that the key elements to saving is not about where you save it. That’s almost irrelevant. It’s about how long you save, how early you start and how much you save. Is it 5 percent, 10 percent or 15 percent of your income? Those two elements are the key to long-term savings. When you think about rate of return, you have zero control over rate of return, which is why you can almost ignore where you put it. You want to understand it, but if you do the first two correctly, you can take less risk and have less volatility.
CP: Is 30 years old a critical age for beginning to save? Should it start earlier?
PF: It’s about forming habits. If you teach somebody at 21 or 22 to start saving consistently, whether it’s a dollar or two, it’s just getting them in a habit of building a lifestyle that includes 10-15 percent into your savings for the long term. We’re not very good at savings. You have to teach them to do it, and do it systematically.
The first and foremost thing is to help them understand that they need to save money permanently. They don’t need to be saving for a sofa and then saving for a trip, pulling it in, pulling it out, pulling it in, pulling it out. Some of your money has to be saved for long term. The earlier you start that habit and get into a consistent method of doing that, the less you have to worry about rate of return.
I see people all the time in their 40s who say, “OK, I educated my kids and got into the house, but now I don’t have enough money to save, and I only have 25 years to do it, so I’ve got to save twice as much as when I was 25.” That’s impossible, so they lose hope.
We’ve got a whole generation of people who have not learned that lesson. That’s the secret to guys in this generation whose parents didn’t teach them to save money. That’s the first thing my dad ever told me when I was 19 and ready to graduate, that I needed to save 15 percent of my income every month. Thank goodness I did those basic defensive moves, other wise I would never have gotten in the habits. If you do it earlier, you don’t have to save as much.
STARTING A FAMILY
Dr. Kirk Brody, OB-GYN at the OB/GYN Centre of Excellence
CP: Is age 30 a critical point for deciding to start a family? Does it become more difficult after age 30?
KB: Really, I see more 35-year-olds, and that’s because we OBGYNs define advanced maternal age as 35 years old. People sort of see 35 as more of a benchmark around here. The right time to have a family is when it’s right for you. I don’t delve into that with people. I tell them that, beyond 40, it requires a very serious discussion prior. From an OBGYN point of view, fertility declines as you get older, starting at16 years old, but it’s not declined significantly by 30. Again, 40 is a mental benchmark for me of thinking about getting pregnant. Certainly, by 30, if you want to have more than one child, it’s time to start thinking about it.
CP: Why does pregnancy become more of a health concern after 35?
KB: The risk of chromosomal abnormalities. Bottom line, it used to be that the risk of Down syndrome equaled the risk of amniocentesis. What happens as women get older as far as reproduction goes is that the risk of chromosomal abnormalities goes up fairly significantly, starting at 33 or 34 years old.
CP: Why is it that some people perceive 30 years old as a benchmark for starting a family instead of 35?
KB: I think it’s just an easy age. Those ‘zero’ birthdays are traumatic. That’s true whether it’s 30, 40 or 50. By 50, they want to be financially stable. By 30 they want to start a family. By 40, they want their families completed. It’s the mental benchmark they set for themselves, based on that ‘zero.’
CP: So 30 is not a do or die date?
KB: No, and I will take a healthy 30- or 35-year-old over an unhealthy 25-year-old any day.
CP: Does anything about male fertility change at age 30?
KB: No. Men can reproduce well into our 80s.
HEALTH
Dr. Richard Moody, Chattanooga Family Practice Associates
CP: What are some things that change, physiologically, at age 30?
RM: Metabolism does tend to slow somewhat after 30, and it becomes harder to lose weight, so it’s important to maintain weight so you don’t have to work to lose. That’s more important. Also, if you’ve already gained the weight, working on losing it is a critical part to this age because it becomes harder, particularly after 35.
In terms of health maintenance, after 30, the usual applies. After 30, you need to pay closer attention to risks, so family history of coronary artery disease, cancers and diabetes need to be looked into closer. It’s a good time to start doing screening tests such as fasting glucose and fasting lipid profiles.
You’re still relatively young, so the risks in the general population for cancers are pretty low. The exception to that is testicular cancer with young men. This is a prime time for that. The age for that is 20-40. Men need to be aware of that and be checking on a monthly basis and notifying their doctors of any changes.
CP: What about vitamin deficiencies and bone health?
RM: I hate to say ignore it, but really, at 30, that really shouldn’t be an issue. What I would say is that good nutrition is critical. Really, multivitamins are not necessary at this age. If there’s a specific vitamin deficiency, then yes, but what I tell my healthy 30-year-old patients is to take the money they would spend on vitamins and spend it on produce, lots of fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables.
There’s never been a study to prove that shows that multivitamin use prolongs life or improves quality of life. Marketing has been so good that it’s kind of second nature that “You’ve got to take your vitamins.” That’s why I sit down with people and tell them to focus on good nutrition. That’s where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck.
I think sometimes we over-utilize testing in certain groups. It’s probably overkill to screen people for these at 30s unless there’s a specific issue.
It’s also a good time to look at habits like alcohol use – no more than two drinks nightly – and tobacco use – if you haven’t quit, it’s time to think about it. I think it’s a time when you’re realizing you’re not 18 any more, and hopefully, you’re mature enough to be thinking about the future.
CP: Are there any particular types of exercises that are particularly beneficial at this age?
RM: I do think that since you’re maturing, you’re not in a situation where you’re not doing a lot of team sports anymore, so you need to be ensuring a regular schedule of aerobic activity on a routine basis. At least three days a week, you need to be getting your heart rate up for 30-45 minutes at a time.
In terms of other activities, I think it’s important to weight train once a week to maintain muscle strength, but the primary focus needs to be on aerobic activity. That’s what’s going to be important for maintaining cardiovascular health and possibly reduction of cancer risk. Obesity is associated with numerous cancers, such as endometrial and breast. For women, of course, it’s important to go in for gynecological exams, pap smears, in particular.
CAREER
Ruth Robbins, career coach with the Five O’Clock Club Guild of Coaches in New York City
CP: What are some realistic expectations to have at age 30, in terms of establishing a career?
RR: In the olden days, young people wanted to have some direction when they hit their 30s. I don’t know what to say as a general rule, but when I work with people, they tend to want to benchmark something. They want to get into something they can begin to call a career. It’s so different now because of the economy, and these days, young people out of college want to hit the ground running because they know it’s not going to be anything fixed.
I think it’s fair to say that, by 30, they want to have a sense of where they’re going, but these days, young people know it’s not going to be a forever thing. They want something where they can reasonably say to the world, to their parents, to their conscience, “I’m on some kind of path. I’m not sure where it’s going, but I’m on a path.”
At the Five O’Clock Club, we’re always asking people to look a minimum of five years ahead. We do that through a framing exercise called The 40-Year Vision. As soon as someone works with us, we have them do an assessment. One of them is the 40-Year Vision, and we break those up into five years from now. Five years from 30 is like another world. At 35, people want to know about families. I can’t say from my experience, that too many men and women are focusing on families.
It’s a very broad question. It could vary. There are different expectations. By 30, in some areas, people are already married with kids. Rural people may work in factories or marry early, so their expectations are different.
CP: So the lesson is that there’s no such thing as a uniform career benchmark at age 30?
RR: I think that’s so true. 30 does loom for some as a benchmark, and it’s something that needs to be thought about and accomplished at that point. What we do at the Five O’Clock Club is actually force people to do some planning. We don’t twist their arm, but we call it the 40-Year Vision, and we have a benchmark for five years out and 10 years out. It’s very sobering for people to think about where they’re going to live, who their friends are and their physical health and many other things, as well as the work they want to do. That’s where everybody falters. They don’t know what work they want to do, but they want to live in the suburbs. As coaches, we have to ask, “Well, how do you want to get to that point? What kind of income are you going to need?”
“What are your values?” That’s another thing we ask. We call that career maturity. Some people are career mature by 30. They’ve gotten fairly advanced when other people haven’t even started. Really, it’s not as hard and fast a guidepost as it used to be. If we read about young people having to stay with their families now, coming back to the nest, that’s complicated. 20 years ago, graduating from college used to be a real launch, and now it’s not so much that way. That has a big impact on what happens 8-9 years out. At this point, some people are still doing internships, especially in creative fields. There are a lot of young people who are willing to take slim stipends or no money at all just to get going.
CP: Is it too late at age 30 to make a career change?
RR: We at the Five O’Clock Club say that people change careers three or even four times since people are working longer. Sometimes people think they had a pretty stable growth career and economic changes pressed in on them, so they have to be much more flexible and give thing up in order to get stuff. No, it’s not too late. We don’t feel that at all. It’s nice to establish a path. For example, we know people in their 50s who are going back to school for various things like social work.
I don’t want to make a comment on what the market perceives as a slow starter. There is something to be very vaguely attributed to early- to mid-30s. I don’t think that 30-year-old button needs to be pressed, but by your early- to mid-30s, you want to be moving towards something that sounds like you could pull it together as what we call “a professional brand.” That morphs and changes, sometimes radically changes.
CP: What is personal branding?
RR: I like the concept of personal branding. If you look at a resume or see somebody’s pitch, whatever their age, hiring managers like to have a sense that they can sell that candidate. The way they sell that person is that “This person has been in this area for X years.” That begins to look like a career path. They’re calling it “professional branding.” You’re not so all over the place.
For the most part, it really depends on the market. If you start early enough, then, by 30, what looks like a career path can evolve. If whatever happens on the early end after college graduation is not happening the way it should, than more likely than not, 30 as a benchmark becomes not as hard and firm. We feel that people do change careers, tweak careers and morph in and out. They’re more flexible than ever; they have to be.