The Masterwork Years and Living to 100 – Legacy is Longevity

Raise your hand if you want to live to 100. It's not as far-fetched as it once sounded. The number of Americans ages 100 and older is projected to more than quadruple over the next three decades.

Sherrie Rose has written about living to 100 in Happy 100th Birthday To You (2025), and explores this theme further at Legacy is Longevity . In her 2026 related book, The Masterwork Years: Why Masterwork Matters As AI Advances, she makes the case that your greatest contribution may still be ahead of you — a theme that lines up directly with what longevity researchers are now finding.

Welcome to the Longevity Movement: What to Do With a 40+ Year Career?

Kerry Hannon, Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance, recently sat down with Michael Clinton — former president and publishing director of Hearst Magazines and author of Longevity Nation — to discuss what this shift means for careers and retirement right now.

Retirement, Clinton explains, was a relatively recent invention. A century ago, when life expectancy hovered around 62, most people simply worked until they died. As life expectancy grew through the 20th century, governments, businesses, and developers built an entire "retirement industrial complex" around the idea of post-work years spent on leisure. But with life expectancy now stretching decades further, that concept has been turned on its head.

The new longevity movement starts from a different premise: someone who is 60 and healthy may have another 30 to 40 years ahead — an entirely new life stage that previous generations never experienced. At 60, a person can launch a new career, start a business, return to school, or begin a creative practice. It's an enormous gift of additional time, often spanning two or three distinct careers rather than one.

Clinton points out that today's five-year-olds have roughly a 50% chance of living to 100, and that the linear, single-career model is dissolving. Multiple careers, lateral moves, extended pauses, and returns to the workforce will become the norm — and organizations will need to restructure around this shift. Programs like L'Oréal's "For All Generations" initiative, which moves people across divisions to build new skills, point toward where workplaces are headed.

One of the most striking trends is in senior entrepreneurship. As people move into their 50s and realize they may have 30 or more years ahead, many step away from traditional career paths to launch their own ventures — often tied to a passion, hobby, or newly discovered interest. And the data favors them: older entrepreneurs tend to have higher success rates and longer run rates than younger founders, simply because of the experience and knowledge they bring.

Long-term learning will be essential for everyone. Universities, facing an enrollment cliff among traditional-age students, are beginning to pivot toward certificate programs and learning centers designed for midlife professionals looking to reposition for a second act.

Creativity plays its own role in this story. Participating in the arts supports brain health by encouraging more complex thinking, builds community, and creates genuine enjoyment — and unlike many careers, there's no timestamp on it. People can engage with creative pursuits for as long as they're able.

Looking ahead, Clinton sees AI, precision medicine, and longevity-focused investment converging to define the next era — a convergence of medicine, technology, and AI that will shape how people live, work, and contribute for decades longer than past generations ever could.

Adapted from a conversation between Kerry Hannon and Michael Clinton, originally published by Yahoo Finance, June 13, 2026.

Where This Leaves Us

The longevity data isn't just a demographic curiosity — it's a reframing of what a life and a career can look like. If a 60-year career is becoming real, then the years that once marked the beginning of "winding down" may instead mark the beginning of someone's most consequential chapter. That's the territory The Masterwork Years was written for: that stage named and defined by Sherrie Rose. The book offers a framework for stepping into this stage with intention.