Should You Start a Business After Retirement? You May Have No Choice
November 17, 2008 by Jean Murray
In response to my post last week about “Should you start a business after retirement?“ Charlie from Circledog commented, “You may have no choice.” He’s right.
- No Retirement Income. Most of us (with a few exceptions like my husband) will have no guaranteed retirement income. Annuity pensions have gone the way of the carrier pigeon (long gone, never to return).
- No more company contributions to 401(k)s. Many companies are using the downturn as an excuse to save money by cutting their contributions to 401(k) plans. We won’t be getting any help from our companies in contributing to our retirements. It will be up to us.
- Don’t count on Social Security. We have all known for a long time that the Social Security system is in serious trouble.
We have all been living in LA-LA land if we think our employers and the government are going to help us in retirement. We can’t wait around for the new administration or anyone else to hand us money or to give us back the 30% many of us lost on our retirement funds. The only way we will all survive is to help ourselves, by building our own companies and, as Charlie says, “making our own economy.”
I will continue to use Small Business Boomers to give you ideas for possible businesses you can start, to show you ways to save money on start-up and growth, and to help you find ways to make those businesses profitable so you can put away money for retirement. Thanks for listening.
This brings up another point – as the adult child of retired boomers, I am comcerned about how much of their savings/retirement funds they have lost. I am hesitant to bring it up, but since their care could ultimately fall on me, I sure would like to be kept abreast of their situation.
I think Charlie is right. Luckily, owning your own business can be fun! In fact, I started my Virtual Assistance business so I could work from home and never retire
Thanks for the kind words. I’m a big believer in figuring out how to make it on your own–make your own breaks. That’s what we’re doing–really tough environment but we’re figuring out ways to create value. That’s going to be the next year or two of messaging from US companies–more value, more economical, etc.
Posted about it over here. http://blog.circledog.com
Retiring boomers have a LOT to offer younger companies–advice, consulting, insight–beyond a simple product or service. Just make sure you position it as extra value.
Another thought–healthcare isn’t going away,and there are a lot of well-paid healthcare providers…(now I’m just rambling…moving on!)