Serve, learn, earn
Deborah Greenberg had her own business doing career counseling for  executives  and laid-off workers when she moved to Cedar Crest from Teaneck, N.J., three years ago, but that was put on hold to take care of her  ailing husband. She restarted the business about a year after he passed away, mainly because “I always thought my work was a fun an interesting way to be of service,” she said. “I was always learning things. I liked earning money. One of the reasons I went back was because I felt I wasn’t finished earning money.”

Greenberg sees clients at an office/residence she has in New York City but is adapting her work to embrace new technologies. For instance, she is currently setting herself up to counsel clients in the Far East via a webcam and an Internet phone program called Skype. “I can continue to control my time, and talking with people (via webcam)—I have the advantage of doing it face to face, but I can do it from my home.”

Time with friends
Some Cedar Crest  residents, though, think the camaraderie of the office is a big reason to go to work. “It’s probably one of the greatest pleasures of my life,” says Don Hubner, who co-owns Central Shippee, Inc., a Bloomingdale, N.J.-based company that distributes textiles and manufactures fixtures for display applications. His nephew runs the company, but he still goes to the office most days to be  the “old sage,” in his words. “I have some ladies here who’ve been with me for 35 years. I come here, and I’m more with friends than I am at work.”

Bob Krause, a lawyer who still does estate planning for a nominal fee, feels that working, whether it’s on a paid or volunteer basis, is a great way for seniors, especially the diverse population at Cedar Crest, to stay engaged. “The more they stay active, I think the longer they’re going to live,” he says. “Some of [the work they do] is not in line with what they did  before, but their ingenuity and intelligence is transferred in other ways.”

Elwood likes to work so much he decided to take a job driving cars at an auto auction yard to fill the time after tax season ended this year.

“I’m very happy doing what I’m doing,” he says. “My wife seems to be happier because she tells people, ‘You never see Frank as happy as when he comes back from work.’”