Retiring Baby Boomers: Prepare for Your Future Now!

Are you one of the $80 Million or so retiring baby boomers planning on those golden years to begin between now and 15 years from now? I am. As such I am interested in issues surrounding baby boomer retirement, healthcare and many other topics that are facing the aging baby boomer population.

I remember when I graduated from college and how excited I was about my future. I am finding myself in the same situation now as I get closer to my retirement. I am finding that one of the characteristics of the baby boomer generation is we are considered to be highly self reliant and rather than looking forward to a classic sit on your duff retirement, the aging baby boomers are looking at this time as a time of reinvention and excitement in learning and accomplishing. We are already planning and getting ready for what to do in retirement.

After all, we deserve it. Baby boomer statistics show that we, the people born between 1946 and 1964, commonly referred to as the baby boomer years, are about 80 million strong and comprise about 28% of the U.S. population. We are the wealthiest and the most accomplished demographic in the recorded history of mankind. There are lots of reasons for this. We are the young ones and the teens of the 60s. We are the yuppies of the 90s. We are the ones who have taken mankind into a new realm of technology and enlightenment.

One of the big questions that is often asked is how the economy will be affected when the baby boomers generation heads into retirement. That is a good question. Baby boomer characteristics are self reliance, generally an active lifestyle, and expected to be longevity because of the medical advances we have seen and will continue to see.

With all the retiring baby boomers, there is still expected to be a decrease in the working labor force when the boomers really start to retire in mass. To me this opens opportunity for baby boomer jobs that may otherwise not have been there. I don’t really expect Social Security to be able to keep up with inflation, nor to I expect Social Security to payout at the percentage it does now. That is a double whammy on our finances. As such we need to be prepared.

Boomers are expected to live to about 85 on average. That means, on average, a person will need enough money to live about 20 years beyond retirement. This can come in two ways. Either we save enough to live off the principal and interest or we create revenue streams other than savings to survive well into our older years.

My recommendation for all the baby boomers out there beginning to see retirement is to focus on both. I believe we need to save for the future and also stretch ourselves to figure out how to create ongoing long term revenue from other sources. This multiple streams of income is not a new idea, but I believe it is more important than ever for the baby boomer generation. In addition, with technology the way it is it is easier than ever to figure out how to do it.

I hope this article has been informative for all of my fellow retiring baby boomers out there. I will continue to add informative information to this site as long as there is a need, which as I see it is far into the future.

My Best to You.