Lou Weiss sells carpet in Pittsburgh. He's 70, and he wants to be an influencer. In one poll, 57% of Gen Z said they wanted the job, so he figures there's room for an elder. He makes his pitch in Wednesday's Journal, and it's funny. It's also smarter about money and aging than most things with that title.
His credentials go back more than 60 years. As a boy he pulled apart two Oreos and pressed the crème halves together. He called it Extra Icing. Years later the Double Stuf came along, and he'd like the credit. He was a mediocre athlete who idolized Willis Reed of the 1969-70 Knicks and wore the same Pro-Keds. Marketing people say older shoppers are hard to move off a brand. Weiss, at 70, thinks this may be his seventh Subaru. He admits a self-driving Tesla has caught his eye anyway.
His trends run cheap. Sleeping Late means setting the air conditioner to 66 degrees and staying in bed. He notes that the American Heart Association added sleep to its health checklist in 2022, and he was there first. C-Span 2 on Saturday night means Book TV, which is how he learned most of his American history. Penny loafers round it out. He's worn them since seventh grade and has them resoled several times. The savings, he says, fit the theme he's picked for his influencing. He calls it “Spending Less.”
The walker
The one that matters is what he calls Living With Illness. He's had multiple sclerosis for 25 years, plus what he calls assorted other maladies. So he uses canes and trekking poles, sometimes a walker, and he takes the wheelchair ride to the airport gate. His rule is GOTH, “Get Over the Humiliation” of using the gear. A fall, he points out, can finish you. Then he asks, in effect, whether that was so hard.
Our read
This is Retirement (M10) with a Health Costs edge. Weiss buries the serious point under the jokes, so we'll dig it out. Falls are often what turn a manageable retirement into an expensive one. The gear that prevents them is cheap, and it sits in a closet because of pride. Weiss has 25 years of practice at swallowing that pride, and he's still traveling, still working, still writing op-eds. That's the brand. His other theme, Spending Less, is the oldest retirement plan there is, and resoling the shoes is a fine way to say it.
The line in your plan this story touches is the health-costs line, and the pride that keeps part of it at zero. This week, ask one honest question of yourself or a parent. Ask whether there's a cane, a grab bar or a walker that's been put off because of how it looks. If there is, call the health plan and ask what it covers when a doctor orders the equipment, then buy the rest. A walker costs a lot less than a fall. You buy the umbrella before you're soaked, and you bring the walker before the floor finds you. If the budget has no line for this yet, that's a five-minute fix the next time we sit down.