Baby Boomer Retirement Plan

Lately I’ve seen an ad on TV where people are carrying around a big orange number. The idea is that this number is the amount of money that person needs to save so he or she can retire comfortably. The ad generated a strange response in me – one of anger – and I wasn’t exactly sure why.

Then I came up with the reason. I was feeling depressed and anxious, not exactly mad. Which is probably why they created the ad campaign in the first place. Research has shown that the best kind of advertising is that which makes you feel desperate and stressed. Negative advertising. Needless to say, it worked for me. But when they did give their solution, it didn’t really work for me.

This financial company wants you to become a client of theirs and they will advise you on how to save and invest so that you can reach your orange number. While I’m sure they are very good at what they do, I think this ad is more geared toward those in their twenties and thirties. What about those of us in our fifties? My savings are minimal, and I just don’t see the possibility for me to increase them to one million dollars plus in the next 15 years, even I had Warren Buffet as a financial advisor!

So what’s the answer? For me it’s going to be having a stream (or multiple streams) of income coming in until I die. I believe that’s a viable solution for most baby boomers, especially in these uncertain and volatile times. But how do we accomplish that? Here’s a list of 6 possible solutions.

1. Get a reverse mortgage on your house. If you’ve got substantial equity in your home, you can refinance it with a reverse mortgage and take out a lump sum or monthly payments until the day you die.

2. You could get a job. Maybe all you’ll need is a little extra to supplement your pension, savings, and social security. A part-time job might fit the bill to help you stay afloat.

3. Franchises. There are lots of different franchise opportunities available if you don’t mind putting up some money up front. Some of them aren’t that expensive, and they encompass a huge range of businesses. A restaurant, a cleaning service, an auto repair place. If you’ve got some money saved up, this might work for you.

4. Start a home-based traditional business. If you’ve got hidden talents, this could be a great option for you. Maybe you know how to work with wood, and you can build birdhouses, or furniture, or guitars. Then, you can sell them on Ebay.

5. Look into a home-based online business. There is a lot of money to be made doing affiliate marketing, where you promote other peoples products and earn commissions based on sales that are made because of your recommendation. This is pretty cool, because it can be a residual type of income, where the money keeps coming in month after month, which leads to time freedom.

6. You could start a network marketing business.I really like this idea because it offers two types of income – residual and leveraged. By residual income I mean income that comes in every month, whether you work or not. Most network marketing companies have consummable products that the customer buys every month. Leveraged income comes when you sign up a distributor underneath you. Then every time that person makes a sale, you get a piece of their pie.

These are just a few suggestions on how baby boomers can retire with a good income. I encourage you to do some research, and figure out what works for you.