Once you achieve Financial Independence, you may choose to leave salaried employment but with decades of vibrant life ahead, it’s too soon to do nothing. The new stage of life between traditional employment and Full Retirement we call Victory Lap, or Victory Lap Retirement (also the title of a new book to be published in August 2016. You can pre-order now at VictoryLapRetirement.com). You may choose to start a business, go back to school or launch an Encore Act or Legacy Career. Perhaps you become a free agent, consultant, freelance writer or to change careers and re-enter the corporate world or government.
Feeling overwhelmed? Everywhere I look, long-time couples are falling apart.
So I entirely sympathize with single parents who feel overwhelmed both financially and emotionally by the twin burdens of raising kids alone and of still having to bring in money, not to mention re-entering the dating scene.
If you’re in this situation, a good place to look for support is Emma Johnson’s Wealthy Single Mommyblog, which I discovered right here under the Hub’s Best Blogs tag, flagged as one of five “Best-kept secret personal finance blogs.”
No question living off just one income can be tough in the modern world. It wasn’t always that way, of course. Back in the Leave it to Beaver world of the 1950s, it was normal for one partner (usually the man back then) to bring home the bacon in the corporate world while the other played the role of Homemaker and raised the kids.
But those days are gone: it’s almost normal to have two salaries, which is why Continue Reading…
A piece from the New York Times should be encouraging for any older readers interested in Encore Acts: Finding Success Well Past the Age of Wunderkind. Flagged as an article on “Retiring” it profiles several late bloomers who discovered creative or literacy success only after retiring from their day jobs.
It starts with a Queen’s resident, Lucille Shulklapper, who was a teacher, homemaker and mother of three and didn’t pursue a literary career until she retired in her late 50s. While she occasionally wrote a bit for herself, only when she retired did she start to write poems and short stories seriously. She published her first book of poetry in 1996, at age 60. Now 80, she has published four small editions, with a fifth in development. Continue Reading…
Here’s my latest MoneySense blog, which they’ve titled Working to Live Better, Longer. Since it’s based on a reading of books about Longevity and even Immortality, we’re housing it here at the Hub in the Reviews, Encore Acts and Longevity & Aging blog categories.
Click on the red link above to reach the MoneySense version or if you want to see images of the book covers discussed, they are in the version posted below. (The two sites tend to use different images to illustrate): Continue Reading…
Young entrepreneurs seem to get all the attention, but there are also a lot of experienced Baby Boomers who are considering entrepreneurship for the next phase of their career or retirement plan. Are you one of them?
The first important point for you to recognize if you are considering this option is that past success in business or management, or even as a business owner, does not ensure you will succeed in a new business. You need to be smart and humble enough to seek support, advice and market feedback before you start.
I have worked with many entrepreneurs on new business start-ups. My advice is the same for any entrepreneur, young or old, experienced or not: Look before you leap.
Yes, that does mean you have to prepare a Business Plan, but remember, “It’s not about the plan, it’s about the process.” Preparing the document is much less important than the process of strategic analysis and testing the financial consequences for alternative business models and potential operating scenarios.
Interesting piece by financial TV guru Suze Orman about why she’s decided to quit her 13-year long TV gig. She sounds excited about moving on to whatever will happen after TV: clearly she’s ready for an equally exciting and influential encore career.
This week, MarketWatch zeroedin on 5 Disastrous Trends impacting future retirees. They are plunging savings rates, vanishing workplace pensions, lack of emergency savings, rising life expectancies [see the Hub’s Longevity & Aging section devoted to this theme] and over dependency on Social Security and Medicaid.
Well, perhaps retirement is overrated anyway? That’s the stance Lawrence Solomon takes in a piece this week at the Financial Post: Here’s a Retirement plan — Don’t! This is more or less what we’ve been arguing all along here at the Hub. I call it the JKW Retirement Plan: JKW stands for Just Keep Working.
However, as I’ve also argued, just because you never plan to retire, doesn’t mean you don’t need to seek Financial Independence. Findependence is always a desirable goal and the sooner the better. Retire by 40 asks the question How long will it take to achieve Financial Independence? It includes an interesting chart that reveals the hard reality: it all depends on your savings rate. If it’s low, it could take more than half a century to reach Findependence. If you could save 90% of your income it could take as little as three years. Note this observation:
The average retirement age in the U.S. is 62. That means most people have about 40 years to save and invest. If your saving rate is 5%, then you probably will not reach financial independence before retirement. Even 10% is iffy.
The Christian PF blog has an enthusiastic book review of a book that’s already a NYT bestseller: Living Well, Spending Less. The reviewer notes that while it’s not a “Christian” book per se, it’s packed with scriptural references but should resonate with anyone in this materialistic culture: it’s all about decluttering, being content with what you have, cutting your grocery bill in half and more. A bit like the phrase “guerrilla frugality” in Findependence Day!
North of the border, Boomer & Echo takes a look at how the financial advice business is going to be shaken up by a term that may make your eyes glaze over: CRM2. Sounds like inside baseball but read why Robb Engen says CRM2 will usher in A New Age of Enlightenment for Investors.
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