Baby Boomers and Retirement

Baby Boomers, we have finally reached the ultimate milestone in our lives - retirement. A milestone we have waited for many years to reach.

The first month or two, life is wonderful. At first we might forget that we don't have to watch the clock to get ready for the day. Or watch the clock to get ready for bed to be sure we are rested for the next workday.

Then reality sinks in - "I don't have to get up early to go to work. I can do whatever I want." By the way if you are one of the baby boomers who has been in the corporate work force for 20-30 years, you now have the time to get some much needed rest. You have the time to do so many things that you did not have the time for before.

Baby boomers, now is the time to decide what direction you are going to venture into to make your retirement both enjoyable and rewarding.

Now is the time to use your time to benefit you, not an employer. Now is the time to set another standard of living that most people only dream of. Now is the time for us baby boomers to enjoy life to the fullest in retirement.

Don't you think it is time for you to put all of your focus on you now? All of that time and effort you put into making money for someone else, you should use that same time and effort to make money for yourself. Use your free time to start a home based business to make money for you and your family.

Being one of the baby boomers who has already retired and really looking closely at the fate of other baby boomers who are contemplating retirement, I wonder if the newly elected president will help our situation. Does the new president-elect (a baby boomer himself) have the stamina and fortitude to help all of us as we face a dire future if the economy of 2008 continues on the path it is going?

I am glad to know that our new president is a baby boomer in that perhaps he already has seen the plight we are facing. It is my hope that baby boomers will fare very well with the new president elect and that we will take action now to ensure a more prosperous future. When the baby boomers decide to retire in record numbers, this will be a great burden put on the federal government. I just hope that the social security will be in tact for them.

Keep in mind, baby boomers, this does not alleviate any pre-planning on your part. You hold the key to what your future will be when you retire. Start on a path right now that will give you a stress-free retirement.

One of the most significant drawbacks of retirement for baby boomers is less income. This can prove to be most frustrating, overwhelming and depressing, especially without pre-retirement planning.

Rearranging your finances becomes a futile effort when you realize there are more bills than income. After retirement, trying to rearrange your financial obligations seems impossible. There is but so much rearranging you can do with less income.

When you were working, you set and got accumstomed to a certain standard of living. When this standard was set, you were not remotely thinking about retirement; much less how you would make ends meet when your income decreases. You were not even thinking about what would happen if your income decreases because you were not anticipating this to happen.

If you want to get an idea of what you can do to make this situation better, read my posts under "Supplement Retirement Pension." There is some very helpful information there for baby boomers.

Baby Boomers must start to think now how they will adjust their lifestyle once they have retired. Everyone knows that you can not continue the same lifestyle with less money and yet the same obligations. Baby Boomers must turn their attention to creating another stream of income after retirement. This focus must begin NOW.

More than seventy million baby boomers are either at retirement age or reaching it. Take a look around you at the economy right now. Everything within this economy is going up, whereby the retirement pension is either staying the same or shrinking.

The economy does not look too promising, does it? Does this make you want to continue working? Do you think you should rethink your decision of retiring?

Before you go that far in your thinking, perhaps you should do a little bit more research. You see, the job market is not that great either. Companies are downsizing, companies are being taken over, and just look at the recent shake-up in the financial world.

As I see it, we as baby boomers must look toward other avenues for survival. We have to find ways of supplementing our retirement pension. One of the most lucrative ventures to look into is a home based business. Owning your own business has tremendous rewards for baby boomers in retirement during this ailing economy.

More on the rewards of owning your own business to follow.

Baby Boomers, owning your own business gives you a sense of self-worth. The positive aspects of owning your own business far outweigh the drudgery and repetitiveness of working outside of the home for someone else.

Owning a home based business gives you the same sense of accomplishment as a traditional business. Owning your own home based business gives you many opportunities you could not find elsewhere. Some of the positive attributes of a home based business are:
~Time freedom - time to spend with your family, time to do all the things you never had time to do before, time to travel with the family
~Less out-of-pocket expenses - no more gas to purchase to go to work, no more meals at expensive restaurants for lunch, no more wear and tear on your vehicle from driving to and from work
~You are your own boss - no more walking a tightrope to satisfy a supervisor
~You set your own work hours - you decide when to start and when to stop working, you decide what days you will work

This is one of the most lucrative methods to earning an income for baby boomers after retirement. This is also a great way to supplement your retirement pension. Owning your own home based business has the potential of creating an income far above the income you were making before you retired.