This week, approximately 75,000 Americans will celebrate their 65th birthdays.  Another 75,000 will do so next week. And the week after that. And the week after that…

What does this mean?  More than 10,000 people turn 65 each day, over 300,000 each month, and roughly four million each year. The last members of the Baby Boomer generation will turn 65 in 2029. Then Generation X will begin crossing the same threshold in 2030.

The names of the generations will change, but the flow of people entering this new season of life will continue at about the same rate for years to come.

The Meaning of 65

For many years, age 65 was viewed as the normal retirement age. It remains the age when most Americans become eligible for Medicare, but it no longer necessarily signals the end of a career. Some people retire at 65. Some continue working because they need to. Others continue because they want to. Others continue because they don’t know what else to do.  Still others leave one kind of work only to begin another.

There is no bell that rings on our 65th birthdays telling us what to do next. We do receive quite a bit of Medicare mail, however.

Less a finish line than a marker, our 65^th birthdays tell us that we have entered a different season, whether we are quite ready for it or not.

From Building Value to Living It

For most of our adult lives, the emphasis is on building.

We build careers and businesses. We build families, friendships, reputations, and financial security. We buy homes, educate children, save for retirement, and try to prepare for a future that always seems comfortably distant – until it isn’t.

By 65, most of us have accumulated more than financial assets. We have experience, judgment, relationships, memories, abilities, and stories. We have learned some things the easy way and quite a few more the hard way.

The key question we ask ourselves begins to change.

Instead of asking only, “What am I still trying to build?” we begin asking, “How should I live with what I have built?”  That may be the right question, but it is not always an easy one to answer.

This key question is not really a financial question. A well-constructed retirement portfolio can help finance the years ahead. But it cannot tell us what to do during those years.

The transition from building value to living it requires a broader understanding of stewardship – and recognition that our identities are changing.

We must become better stewards of our physical health if we want to remain active and independent. Strength, balance, mobility, and endurance take on increasing importance.  Abilities that once seemed ordinary, like walking up a flight of stairs, or getting out of a chair, or carrying groceries, begin to look like assets worth preserving.

We must also care for our mental and spiritual lives. Aging gratefully requires curiosity, reflection, faith, and a willingness to keep learning. Growing older does not automatically make us wiser. It merely gives us more time to work on it.

Our financial stewardship changes as well. Accumulation remains important, but so do thoughtful spending, generosity, preparation, and the question of how much is enough.  We might also need to consider managing our wants.

Relationships deserve more attention, not less. Spouses, partners, families, friends, former colleagues, and younger people who might benefit from our encouragement all represent forms of value that cannot be shown on a personal balance sheet.

Purpose and work may also need to be redefined. Retirement does not have to mean the absence of productive activity. It may mean doing less of what we were previously required to do and more of what we are uniquely able or even want to do. Teaching, mentoring, serving, creating, helping, and simply being available can all become meaningful forms of work.

And then there is legacy. Financial assets matter, but they are only part of what we leave behind. Character, example, faith, gratitude, stories, and the way we treat others may prove to be our most valuable inheritances.

Aging Gratefully

None of this means that aging is easy.

Health changes. Abilities narrow. We can also do what we reasonably can to reduce the risks that might diminish our independence or shorten our active lives.

People we love are lost. Plans are sometimes interrupted by realities we neither expected nor invited.

Aging gratefully does not require us to deny those losses or pretend that every day is wonderful. Gratitude keeps the losses from becoming the whole story. It helps us recognize what remains and reminds us to use it while we can.

Next week, another 75,000 Americans will turn 65. They will not all retire, and they will certainly not follow the same path. But each will have entered a new season in which living the value already built becomes increasingly important.

I am already well into that new season and still learning what it asks of me.

The central question is no longer simply how much value we have built. It is how intentionally we will live it, share it, and ultimately pass it along.

Until next time, be well, and age gratefully,

Chris

P.S. The table below puts the demographic transition into perspective. A few observations and questions follow.

Several observations stand out:

• The Baby Boomer and Generation X cohorts each contain approximately 65 million Americans.
• The oldest Boomers turn 80 in 2026 and will turn 88 in 2034.
• The oldest Gen Xers turn 61 in 2026 and will turn 69 in 2034
• Approximately 20 million Gen Xers will reach age 65 between 2030 and 2034.
• Altogether, more than 36 million Americans will reach age 65 between 2026 and 2034.

Questions for Reflection

• Where do you fit in this continuing demographic transition?
• As you look toward the next five to ten years, what changes should you be preparing for now?
• What have you spent your life building – and how do you want to live, share, and preserve it?
• What would aging gratefully look like in your particular season of life?

Last week I paid for two hotel rooms on the same night.  One was in Raleigh.  The other was in Greenville, North Carolina.  Carol and I slept in only one of them.

It wasn’t because of an airline cancellation, bad weather, or a mistake by either hotel.  It happened because I wasn’t fully aware of who I was actually booking the rooms with.

Carol and I had just spent several enjoyable days in North Carolina visiting good friends and attending a family wedding.

I booked our Thursday night hotel in Raleigh directly with the Marriott. Everything went exactly as expected.

For the next three nights, we planned to stay at the Hampton Inn in Greenville. I searched online, found what I believed was the hotel’s reservation information, and made the booking. Or so I thought.

Then, our plans changed. We decided to spend Friday night in Raleigh and drive to Greenville on Saturday morning. I assumed one phone call would take care of everything.  Instead, the Hampton Inn explained that they couldn’t change my reservation.  I hadn’t booked the room with them.  I had booked through a third-party reservation service.

The cancellation policy of the reservation company said changing the reservation would cost one night’s room and tax. Since we still needed the room for the remaining two nights, I checked in remotely at the Hampton Inn in Greenville while Carol and I spent Friday night in Raleigh.

That’s how I ended up paying for two hotel rooms on the same night.  Fortunately, I could afford the extra expense.  Not everyone could.

After returning home, I became curious about what had happened.

The confirmation from the reservation company showed the $128 nightly room rate, but it also listed “Tax Recovery & Fees” of $93.30 per night, or $279.90 for the three-night stay.  It is less than transparent.

Hotel taxes in Greenville are approximately 13 percent of the room rate. On a $128 room, that’s only less than $17 per night. The receipt doesn’t explain how much of the $93.30 taxes represented and how much the fees represented. It simply combines them into a single line item.  See the “Tax Recovery & Fees” above of  $279.90.

For three nights that is $93.30 per night.  Compare that with the “Nightly Rate” of $128.00 per night (the posted rate at the hotel those nights).  Simple math suggests that “fees” were about $77 per night on a posted rate of $128 per night.  So the “fees” were about 60% of the nightly rate.

I still don’t know how those charges were determined.  You be the judge of their reasonableness.

Then, I searched again. On my desktop computer, finding the Hampton Inn’s official website wasn’t difficult. On my iPhone, however, sponsored listings dominated the search results, making it much harder to distinguish the hotel’s website from third-party booking services. Looking back, I suspect that’s how I ended up booking through an intermediary rather than directly with the hotel.

A few months ago I wrote a series of posts about situational awareness. I was thinking about driving, walking, pickleball, and the challenges that become increasingly important as we grow older.  I wasn’t thinking about hotel reservations.  Maybe I should have been.

The internet has made booking a hotel easier than ever.  It has also made it easier than ever to believe you’re dealing directly with someone when you’re not.

There are search engines, sponsored listings, comparison sites, affiliate marketers, booking services, and AI-generated summaries. They can all be useful. But they also create layers of friction between us and the businesses we think we’re contacting.  That means awareness matters before we ever click a link.

Looking back, the lesson wasn’t really about hotels.  It was about awareness.

In a world filled with sponsored links, intermediaries, and websites that look similar to the real thing, paying attention has become a life skill.

Last week, my lapse in awareness cost me the price of an extra night’s hotel room.

Next time, it might save me one.

So, until next time, be situationally aware, and age gratefully,

Chris

Mercer Capital was born in June of 1982. At that time, I made what I now think of as my first good business decision. I decided to put the business first. Let’s call it my “business first” decision.

My goal was simple. I wanted to treat Mercer Capital as a business rather than as a vehicle to support my personal lifestyle. That meant spending first on what the business needed, and accepting whatever remained as my personal income or return on the business.

From the beginning, I wanted to build a company that created value for clients, employees, and owners. Looking back, that decision shaped much of the next four decades. It encouraged long-term thinking, disciplined reinvestment, and a focus on building an enduring enterprise rather than maximizing current income and distributions for owners in the short run.

For many years, I assumed that way of thinking would always serve me well. It did. But it has taken me more than forty years to realize that every important decision has its season. The decision to put the business first was exactly the right one in 1982. It is no longer the decision I need to make.

The transition began during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mercer Capital was approached by a large financial institution interested in acquiring the firm. While those discussions ultimately did not lead to a sale, they accelerated conversations about my ownership transition through our ESOP.  Management succession had occurred years earlier when Matt Crow became President in 2009. What remained was completing my ownership transition.

As part of that process, I moved from being an employee to serving as a contractor. I expected that change would naturally lead to slowing down. It didn’t. I often described myself as “semi-retired,” but I wasn’t acting like it.

Old habits are remarkably persistent. Everyone at Mercer Capital encouraged me to slow down, but changing decades of routines proved much harder than I ever thought.

By early 2024, I found myself writing less about business valuation and more about walking, health, motivation, and aging. In hindsight, that shift reflected where my heart and mind were already moving.

The real turning point came in early 2025. I decided to separate my monthly living expenses from any personal income generated at Mercer Capital. My financial adviser began depositing a monthly amount from my investment portfolio into my operating account, while any income from Mercer Capital flowed directly back into my portfolio.

Looking back, that wasn’t primarily a financial decision. It was a psychological one. It finally broke my mental dependence on Mercer Capital as the source of my monthly cash flow. Once that happened, I found it much easier to think differently about how I wanted to spend my time.

Only then did I begin to recognize what my second important decision really was. If the first decision had been “business first,” this one was “living value first.” Instead of asking what the business needed from me, I began asking how I could best use the freedom the business had given me.

The journey from “business first” to “living value first” has been much deeper than simply slowing down or retiring. It has been a transition of identity.

For more than forty years, my identity was wrapped up in building Mercer Capital into a national business valuation firm. The psychological shift wasn’t just about income—it was about recognizing that my purpose needed to expand beyond Mercer Capital.

This may be the most important idea in this essay. For many aging professionals and business owners, the transition from building value to living value is ultimately a transition of identity.

I’ve often told younger colleagues that one of the keys to financial independence is to spend less than you earn and productively invest the difference. I’m grateful I followed that advice over many years. It created the freedom to make this second decision.

Today I believe I have finally (well, almost finally) settled into semi-retirement. I continue to work with a handful of long-standing clients and enjoy projects that are especially interesting or challenging. Most new opportunities are better served by the outstanding professionals at Mercer Capital. I still enjoy speaking and writing about valuation when interesting opportunities arise, but I no longer feel compelled to do so.

In April 2026, I rebranded ChrisMercer.net from a business valuation blog into “From Building Value to Living It – Aging Gratefully.” Looking back, the new title was less a rebranding than an acknowledgment of where my life was already headed.

This week Carol and I will fly to Raleigh to spend time with my best childhood friend and his wife. We’ll then drive to Greenville for a nephew’s wedding, visit family, and spend time wandering around eastern North Carolina.

Not long ago, I might have talked myself out of making that trip because there was work to do – or even if things weren’t so pressing.

Today it feels like exactly the right thing to do. Forty years ago, I probably wouldn’t have recognized that as progress. Today I do.

Perhaps that’s what living value first really means – not necessarily completely stopping the work of creating value, but making sure we also take the time to live it.   And we can do this whether retired or not.

Until next time, be well, and age gratefully,

Chris

A few weeks ago my Garmin watch quietly informed me that I wasn’t really 78. At least not in one important respect.

The watch displayed my “Fitness Age,” and I was intrigued. Until then, I hadn’t even known the concept existed, much less that my Garmin was calculating it.

Chronological age addresses the question: “How old are you?”  One thing about chronological age – it is fixed at any point in time and we cannot change it!

Increasingly, scientists, medical professionals, and technology companies are now asking a different question: “How old is your body?”

Background

I’ve been using wearable fitness devices since buying one of the original Fitbit clip-on trackers shortly after it was introduced in late 2009. Over the years I’ve watched these devices evolve from simple step counters into sophisticated health monitors measuring heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen, stress, recovery, and much more.

Today, a few major concepts addressing aspects of aging are available from the major wearable device manufacturers.  They are concluding that “age” is a more meaningful way to communicate health than raw physiological measurements.

The trend is unmistakable: wearables are moving from measuring what you did today to estimating how well your body is aging (or living).

Current products and concepts (as inclusive as I know) are shown in the figure below for perspective and not discussion.  Garmin is first because that is my watch.  The rest are in alphabetical order.

Below the table, I’ll discuss Garmin’s age measure concept and how it relates to me (and you).

Fitness Age

Garmin describes Fitness Age as an estimate of how your cardiorespiratory fitness compares with that of other adults. The concept is based primarily on your estimated VO₂ max – the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise – which is widely recognized as one of the best measures of aerobic fitness and an important predictor of long-term health (see the table above).

Garmin’s calculation also considers factors such as your age, sex, resting heart rate, body composition (or BMI if body fat percentage isn’t available), and your recent activity levels. The result is a number expressed in years – and it relates to you (or me).

Unlike your chronological age, your Fitness Age can move in either direction. As your aerobic fitness improves, your resting heart rate declines, your body composition improves, and you maintain an active lifestyle, your metric may decrease. Conversely, inactivity, declining fitness, or weight gain can cause it to rise.

Of course, Garmin’s measure is only an estimate. It isn’t a medical diagnosis, nor is it intended to predict how long you will live. Rather, it is a practical way to summarize several important measures of health in a single number that most of us can understand.

We may have little intuition about whether a VO₂ max of 38 or 42 is “good.” But we immediately understand the idea of having the fitness of someone younger—or older—than our chronological age.

That simple translation is what captured my attention. For years I’ve tracked my daily steps, walking distance, resting heart rate, sleep, weight, and more. Fitness Age doesn’t replace any of those measures.

Instead, it pulls several of them together into a single, easy-to-understand indicator of how well my body (or yours) is aging.

My Fitness Age

When I first noticed Fitness Age on my watch, it informed me that my metric had been lowered from 68 to 67.5.

That got my attention because my chronological age is 78.

I wasn’t looking for another number to track. I was intrigued because this one attempted to summarize several aspects of health into a single measure I could actually understand and relate to intuitively.

Based on the fitness measures Garmin uses, my cardiovascular fitness resembles that of the average healthy 67½-year-old rather than the average 78-year-old man.

Before I put too much of a new spring in my step, I looked at what Fitness Age does not mean.  Since we are on it, I’ll personalize the response.

It does not mean:

• My entire body is biologically 67½ years old.
• I have added 10½ years to my life expectancy.
• I have the athletic ability of every 67-year-old.
• I am protected from age-related disease or injury.

Garmin is estimating one important dimension of health: cardiorespiratory fitness. They are not measuring memory, bone density, joint health, vision, hearing, muscle strength (except indirectly), or many other aspects of aging.

The fact that Garmin lowered my metric suggests that it is a range concept.  One’s Fitness Age can be lowered or it can be increased.

I do not know the algorithm Garmin uses to calculate the metric, but they leave clues with their “recommendations” when providing my (or your) Fitness Age.

Per my Garmin Connect app, my metric is 67.5 years.  The chart shows my chronological age on the right as 78, which it is.  It also provides a Target age of 61 years on the left.  How would that be possible?  Garmin provides me with four “Recommendations” to help lower my Fitness Age:

1. Increase Vigorous Minutes. 6w average 42.6 min per week. Higher Priority

2. Increase Vigorous Days. 6w average 0.5 days per week.

3. Reduce Body Fat.  Weekly avg 28.7%

4. Resting Heart Rate.  Maintain 59bpm (beats per minute). On Target

When I saw these recommendations, I remembered that my recent activity has been unusual. During a trip to Peru with my son in May, we spent much of our time at elevations between 4,500 and 7,000 feet, walking only when necessary. I also picked up a lower GI illness that slowed me down for several weeks afterward. My vigorous activity—and pickleball—had dropped considerably.

So I understood recommendation #1 of Increasing Vigorous Minutes.  If I accomplish it reasonably during the coming days and weeks, I’ll also be focusing on recommendation #2, that of Increasing Vigorous Days.

To reduce Body Fat, or lower my Body Mass Index, I’ll need to lose some weight – or increase muscle mass.  We will see.

Finally, it says to maintain my Resting Heart Rate.  If I do #1 and #2, that is likely.

Final Thoughts

Reviewing my Fitness Age information led me to think about aging more generally.

Chronological age is something we receive or achieve as we live each day and year.  It is fixed at any point in time and cannot be changed.

Fitness Age, on the other hand, is something we can influence.

Our measures can improve—or worsen—depending on the choices we make over time. That makes it different from our birth certificates. It reflects the cumulative effect of thousands of ordinary decisions over time: whether we walk today, whether we play pickleball, whether we do strength and balance exercises, whether we maintain a healthy weight, and more.

We cannot determine how long we will live.  But, we can influence how well we live and the odds of avoiding the bad things that can happen to any of us – or the odds of surviving if they happen to us.

Chronological age tells us how long we’ve been alive. Fitness Age asks how well we’re living.

None of us can change our chronological age. Every birthday moves us forward another year. But Fitness Age reminds us that many of the choices we make every day still matter. We may not control how many years we are given, but we can influence how well we live those years. To me, that’s a hopeful message—and one worth paying attention to.

Until the next post, be well, and age gratefully,

Chris

Jeff Webb founded Varsity Spirit and the Universal Cheerleading Association in 1974.  He was instrumental in the development of cheerleading as a sport across the nation.  The business, headquartered in Memphis, is highly successful.

In early March, Mr. Webb fell and struck his head on the court while playing pickleball in Memphis.  Public reports say he was hospitalized and placed on life support.  After a couple of weeks, that support was withdrawn, and he died on March 19, 2026.  Little else is known at this time.

See the YouTube video, Jeff Webb, Charlie Kirk’s Mentor, Dies Following Pickleball Accident , prepared by Inside Edition. The video has had 517 thousand views as of today.  It is a bit more alarmist than I’d like, but it helps to make the point that a single fall can change everything.

On the video, a pickleball coach illustrates the proper way to address a ball lobbed over one’s head.  This is likely the kind of shot that Webb was attempting at the time of his accident.

The details of Mr. Webb’s accident are not important for purposes of this post, and they may never become public. What matters is the reminder it provides for pickleball and for life: a fall can change a life in an instant.

Most of us think of falls as things that happen to other people.  We may picture nursing homes, walkers, and advanced age. Yet many serious falls occur during recreation, exercise, sports, travel, or routine daily activities. They happen to active people who consider themselves healthy, capable, and independent.

For aging professionals, that reality deserves attention.

Many of us have spent decades building careers, businesses, financial security, relationships, and plans for retirement. We focus on investments, estate planning, taxes, healthcare, and long-term goals. Yet a single fall can undo years of careful planning in a matter of seconds.

A fall may result in nothing more than embarrassment. Or it may result in a broken wrist, a fractured hip, a concussion, a traumatic brain injury, months of rehabilitation, loss of independence, or worse.

The older we become, the more likely it is that a fall will have lasting consequences. Recovery takes longer. Balance may not fully return. Confidence may be shaken. Activities that once seemed routine can suddenly feel risky.

I have seen this firsthand.

A couple of years ago, while playing doubles pickleball, my partner hit a lob. A friend on the opposing side moved backward to retrieve it, lost his balance, and struck the back of his head on the court.  He suffered a mild concussion and was unable to play for quite some time.  My friend’s fall was a warning to me.

Not long after that, I experienced my own lesson. While chasing a lob, a teammate and I both went for the same ball (it was mine to get). We collided, and I was thrown onto the floor and into a wall. Although I escaped a head injury, I spent months dealing with injuries to my shoulders, hips, ribs, and confidence.  That fall was another warning to me.

The physical pain eventually subsided.

The mental impact lasted longer.

To this day, if a lob is hit over my head, I often just let it go. Losing a point is preferable to risking another injury. I am practicing some and trying to regain my confidence.  But, I still let some lobs go.

Letting a lob go may not be the most competitive approach, but it reflects a reality that many of us eventually discover. At some point, preserving health becomes more important than winning a point, a game, or even a tournament.

The lesson extends far beyond pickleball.

Falls occur on stairways, in parking lots, on wet floors, in gardens, while traveling, and while performing ordinary household chores. They occur when we are distracted, in a hurry, overconfident, tired, or simply unlucky.

The challenge is not to eliminate all risk from life. That would be impossible.  The challenge is to remain aware that risk exists.

Maintaining balance, strength, flexibility, reaction time, and situational awareness is increasingly important as we age. See my three-part series on situational awareness:

1. Situational Awareness: Learning to See
2. Situational Awareness: When We Stop Seeing
3. Situational Awareness: Paying Attention as We Age

Exercising good judgment is key.  Sometimes the smartest decision is not to chase the difficult shot, hurry down the staircase, or attempt the task that places us in an unnecessary position of danger.

Many successful professionals have spent their lives believing that determination and effort can overcome almost any obstacle. Often they can.

Gravity is different.  Gravity does not care how successful we are, how intelligent we are, or how many accomplishments we have accumulated. Gravity treats all of us equally.

That is why I believe discussions about awareness about falls deserves a place alongside discussions about fitness, finances, healthcare, and longevity.

Aging well is not merely about living longer. It is about preserving the physical capacity and independence that make added years meaningful.

Jeff Webb’s tragic death in a pickleball accident that prompted this reflection is a reminder of that reality. Not because it was unusual, but because it was all too human. A momentary loss of balance can have consequences far beyond what any of us imagine.

In future posts, I plan to discuss practical ways to improve balance, strength, and fall prevention. Those topics may not seem exciting, but they are among the most important investments we can make in our future selves.

In the meantime, be well, stay upright, and age gratefully,

Chris

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A couple of months ago, I had one of those restless nights.

I woke up again and again. Five or six times at least. Each time, I checked the time on my watch. 1:40. Then 2:25. Then 3:10. And on.  Every glance started the same quiet calculation. How much time was left before morning? How tired would I be tomorrow?

What surprised me most was not how often I woke up. I am of an age where waking up at night is fairly common.  What made me think was how hard it had been to fall back asleep. The more I checked the time, the more awake I felt.

I counted sheep.  I counted breaths. I tossed and turned.

By morning, I was not just tired. I was frustrated. It seemed I had spent as much energy worrying about sleep as I had actually sleeping.

That clock-watching thing had happened to me many times before, so it made me think.

Years ago, I had already made one change. I removed clocks from the bedroom after learning they could disrupt sleep. But I still wore a watch at night. First a Fitbit for many years, and now a Garmin. The time was always there, easy to see with a small movement.

The next night, I tried something different. I turned off the night light on my watch so I would have to make a conscious effort to see the time. Then I decided not to look at it at all. If I woke up, I would simply turn over and settle back in.

It felt like a small thing. Almost insignificant.

But it changed the night.

Without the clock, there was no calculation. No quiet countdown. The night no longer felt like something slipping away. It just was. And mostly, I just drifted back to sleep.

Over the past month, I have stayed with that simple practice. I still wake up some nights. They say it is an age thing.. That has not changed. But it is easier to rest again. The edge of frustration is gone.

After a bit of research, I learned there is actually a name for what I had been doing. Sleep experts call it “clock watching anxiety.” When we check the time, our minds engage. We start thinking, estimating, even worrying. That mental activity works against sleep rather than with it. In fact, one of the basic recommendations in treating insomnia is to avoid watching the clock.

It turns out a minor change I stumbled into by chance aligns with what science already knows.

There is something here that reaches beyond sleep. We often think improvement comes from adding more. More effort. More control. More awareness. But sometimes it comes from letting go. From removing a small habit that quietly works against us.

For me, it was not a clock on the wall, but a glance at my wrist.

I still wake up at night now and then. I just do not check the time. And more often than not, I fall back asleep easily.

A small change. A better result.  I’m grateful for adopting it into my daily routine.  Isn’t that part of what aging gratefully is all about?

As always, be well, and age gratefully,

Chris