Baby Boomers: Are you retiring or not?
A lot of younger workers are standing around wondering if we baby boomers are ever going to retire. After all, they can do the jobs so much better and faster, and youth trumps experience, right?
But it looks like the recession, tight housing market, and health care concerns are keeping baby boomers from retiring. A recent Business Week article focuses on why baby boomers aren’t retiring as expected.
The biggest reason: We can’t afford it. With higher prices, falling retirement fund values, higher costs of health care, it just doesn’t make economic sense for a lot of people.
We should all step up and retire to help the economy and make room for those young people who need jobs.
OR, we could quit our jobs and start new businesses. I’m on a mission to encourage more baby boomers to start businesses.
2 Comments
Hi, Jean
Baby-boomers starting a business is an excellent idea –with all that stored experience, expertise, contacts. But, they really have to think through the business they’re going to put up. They don’t have the luxury of time for a second chance. One important caveat is: don’t put all your retirement money in the business; put in only what you can afford to lose.
Absolutely, Ren. If you’re 25 and starting a business, you have lots of time to start over, build up more money. Baby boomers don’t have that luxury. It’s a tough decision – use that money to start a business that can potentially bring you additional money, or save it for retirement.