I came across this fantastic article by Liz Pullman Weston, and wanted to share it…..

“If you lose your job in your 50s, you may have a tough time finding a new one — and that’s a game changer if you had planned to work (and save) for a few more years.”

“Carol Friery thought she was doing everything right. The warehouse manager loyally stuck with the same company for 17 years, contributing 10% of her income to her 401k and avoiding credit card debt.

Then the company announced it was closing the Rhode Island warehouse where she worked, and Friery was laid off at age 58. Now, after 18 months of fruitless job searching, Friery believes she’s involuntarily retired.

“I’ve applied anywhere and everywhere,” said Friery, who lives in Somerset, Mass. “I’ve applied in my field and out of my field. . . . I thought I was doing OK with retirement planning and savings, but I didn’t expect this.”

Americans increasingly are working longer, but Friery is part of a significant countertrend: older Americans who lose their jobs and can’t find replacements, forcing them into early retirement.

The unemployment statistics are grim for those over 55. The typical duration of joblessness is nearly 30% longer than for younger workers, and half of those who lose their jobs are still looking for work six months later.”   Read the balance of the article here…..

All the more reason to work for yourself.  If you haven’t been, then start now.  Even if only part time to supplement your income.

“Take control of your destiny or someone else will”

Until next time,  J.

I know this isn’t the business type info you’re accustomed to seeing here, but it does pose a significant question.  Are you prepared financially?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We have had what I call a “placeholder” site up for a while now at For Life’s Next Phase while communicating with clients and service providers to determine new offerings.  We are growing and are very interested in making this site “bigger than just us”.  I would love to hear your comments and suggestions as a part of my valued community.  Please either comment directly here or if you’re one my Twitter friends, please send a DM so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

We work directly with seniors and their families, and we’re very interested to know what information you may need.  Here are some examples:

• How to find assisted living, adult communities, and aging in place information
• How to find non-profit organizations providing eldercare support
• How to find senior movers and those who specialize in working with seniors when they relocate
• How to find services to support a family member move when living out of town
• How to find products that will assist the senior in your life maintain their independence

What other topics or categories would be helpful to you?  Be sure to check out our blog as well.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond. All of your comments will be taken into consideration as we develop our new site!

Here are some interesting statistics regarding baby boomers nearing retirement from moneycentral.com, which you can read in full HERE.  Please let me know your thoughts about them…  Can you relate or are they far from the mark in your opinion?

• Now nearing retirement, the oldest baby boomers face perhaps the most challenging economic environment since the 1930’s.
• Boomers’ 401k plans were battered in the 2008-09 market meltdown – just as the first wave of boomers prepared to retire.
• About 15% of homeowners 55 to 64 recently owed more on their homes than the homes were worth.
• More than half of affluent 60 year olds (with about $1 million in investable assets) are revamping their retirement plans.  The most popular strategy – work longer.
• Today’s 50 year old boomers anticipate retiring four years later (at age 67) than 50 year olds did in 1996.
• Among 50 year olds, 41% say they will never be financially capable of retiring; 23% have not started to save.

If you are concerned at all about your retirement have you considered learning new skills to begin an online business?  Take a look at this before searching anywhere else.

Until next time,  J.
“Take control of your destiny or someone else will”

It is no surprise whether you are retiring and looking for another career, or whether you’re stuck with this economy, more and more people are looking to start home based businesses.  This article by Cheryl Kimball and Entrepreneur Press list 55 business startup ideas. These are separated into 3 categories:

• Startups under $1500
• Startups under $3000
• Startups Over $3000 (but might not exceed $5000)

It’s worth looking at because they don’t just list the idea, but provide a short comment on how to get started.  It was interesting though, that I didn’t see much having to do with online marketing, most were service related.  Lots of great food for thought though!  Visit: www.businessonmain.msn.com

Until next time, J.
“Take control of your destiny or someone else will”

There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “be good to your kids as they get older, because they’ll be choosing your rest home”.  Of course rest home is a pretty old term, now there are terms (plus options) such as assisted living, adult communities, eldercare, and in unfortunate circumstances convalescent homes.  But have you thought about who will be the one to make such a decision for you?  What if you aren’t capable of making the decision yourself?

I know this is a bit off topic of business building for baby boomers, but I would love to hear your responses.  What information do you think is important to you to make such decisions?

Until next time, J.

This is for everyone who could use a laugh today! A friend sent me this today…. here’s what he had to say:

“The town of Naniamo is where my family lives and the Naniamo river is were where we fished and swam, as kids, which is not too far from the bungee jump. My mom’s family, the Manca’s, Bosetti’s, Dadies,and the Zapotichinie’s, owned the property on one side of the river from it’s inception to the bay, through land grants, when my Grandparents came from Italy at the turn of the 20th century. We sold the last parcel of land in the late 70’s and one of the new owners built the second tallest (at that time) bungee jump in the world over the river.

A tradition was born when several people, men and women, mostly my cousins including one of my brothers Dennis, who were all turning 40, decided to bungee jump in the nude. Now if you arrive on the day of your birthday and jump nude, it’s free. And no, my birthday is in October-it’s to damn cold, and no I haven’t tried the jump.”

If you have never heard Jeanne Robertson, she tells stories about herself and her husband whom she refers to as “Left Brain” – never mentions his name, he’s always Left Brain. That’s enough of an introduction.

I could not stop laughing!  Now how many of you have ever bungee jumped and/or are you interested in trying?

The phenomenon of a worker who may have been in the work force for 30 years, suddenly starting a new career at 50 or over is a trend that is exploding as baby boomers hit that age bracket.  There has always been a group of older workers trying something new but the trend has hit such a new high in the baby boomer retirement picture.  So you have to wonder what about baby boomers makes them want to start new careers late in life.  Possibly it is out of necessity these days, but it can still be fun and rewarding.

Part of it has to do with the way business has functioned in the last few decades.  In our parents working years, the norm was to work for the same company and be a “company man” for 40-50 years, get that gold watch and retire with a handsome retirement package.  That formula just doesn’t work any more.

For one thing, retirement plans supported by employers have become a thing of the past.  Savings for retirement have plummeted as the financial demands of life are all that many people can keep up with.  So the concept of working on into what used to be called retirement years is now a given if for no other reason than financial necessity.

The model we just laid out of employees staying with the same company for their entire adult lives is simply no longer a reality for all but a few in the modern work force.  Most baby boomers have worked for dozens of companies in their adult lives so their retirement packages, if they exist at all, are small.  Part of this can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of baby boomers.  But there has been a discernable shift in the way American business works as well.  Companies don’t like the idea of keeping employees that long.  Add to that the fact that so many companies have gone out of business been absorbed in huge corporate buy outs or undergone drastic downsizing that by the time most boomers hit their 50s and 60s, the idea of keeping one single career moving forward is pretty hard to sustain.

But these negative explanations are not all there is to why baby boomers are starting over late in life.  Boomers never did accept that the rules of life or aging applied to them.  They are ambitious, adventurous and willing to strike on new paths with much less fear than previous generations.  As boomers have faced some of the challenges of the economy and the modern business world, they have responded aggressively by starting businesses or changing their careers entirely late in life.  And they are just as willing to pay their dues and stick with that new career until they are successful as they were when they were 30.

Many workers find a line of work and learn they can pay the bills and raise the kids early in life but they do not follow their dream career at that time.  So when the time in life comes that the kids are out of the nest, the house paid off and the adventure of living has settled down somewhat, many baby boomers see that as the chance to finally throw off that boring old career and go after their dream career once and for all.

It’s inspirational to see someone in that stage of life setting the standard for not settling for anything less than realizing their dream by launching a new career doing what they always wanted to do all along.  Who can fault boomers from wanting that kind of gratification of finding success in a career that fulfills their passions?  So thank goodness for the late in life boomers who go for the brass ring in their golden years.  They will be an inspiration for many coming behind them to be as bold about their lives as well.

If you haven’t considered working for yourself yet, maybe now is the time.  Regardless of what business you choose to pursue, it would behoove you to learn how to market online, and create your million dollar destiny.

Until next time,  J.

“Take control of your destiny or someone else will”

Meditation became part of many lifestyle choices and a source of a lot of conversation as far back as the 60s for baby boomers when there was a big interest in eastern religions and things that were exotic and new.  But while many of the flash in the pan interests in exotic religions during that time frame faded away in the progressive life style of baby boomers, meditation itself has endured and become a common practice and resource that has benefited numerous practitioners in every decade of their lives.  If you’ve never tried meditating before, why not consider incorporating it into your daily practices for 60 days and see if you notice any differences in how you feel and think, you may find yourself having a richer life for doing so.

There is a good reason meditation has endured and even grown in popularity far beyond any religious context.  People seem to be under even more pressure as the economy is changing and many are looking for an alternative way to release stress.  Meditation has tremendous benefits for virtually every aspect of life and those who integrate it into their daily lifestyles can experience those benefits almost as soon as they start.  You don’t have to be a guru at meditation to realize benefits from the very first time to give it a try.  Some of those benefits include…

• Meditation is calming.  Because the act of meditation calls for you to quiet your thoughts and to still your mind and focus it, that sense of your soul being in turmoil eases and you are able to see a solution more clearly because your emotions are not clouding the issue.

• Meditation helps you focus and concentrate.  The great thing about meditation is that the effects of meditation continue past those few moments when you are actually meditating.  Those few moments of calm create an atmosphere of focus and clarity of thought that goes on throughout your day helping you focus your mind and more easily concentrate when you need to.

• Meditation reduces stress and mental anxiety.  So often the stress that comes out of problems and difficulties (especially in these tumultuous times) is dominated by emotional reactions even more than by the problem itself.  Meditation clears away the effects of the stress making it easier for you to solve the problem itself.

• Meditation helps reduce physical anxiety.  The process of meditation involves extended periods of quiet deep breathing.  This simple action floods the brain with oxygen and energizes blood flow throughout the body which refreshes tired muscles and causes your entire physical system to relax and release pent up anxiety.

• Meditation helps you sleep and digest your food.  The refreshed blood flow, rich in oxygen that comes from the session of meditation, takes action immediately on the digestive system often reducing or eliminating digestive problems and even easing the symptoms of ulcers.  Because the mind is relaxed and well supplied with vital oxygen and blood flow, sleep comes more easily and is more recuperative.

Some successful role models in all walks of life that come out of the baby boomer generation credit meditation to why they are able to accomplish such great things.  In addition to all of these benefits, meditation is easy to integrate into your lifestyle and you can go at your own pace learning to become better at meditation and grow in your ability to use it.  Take a class, find a book, or a CD that will walk you through the concepts to get you started.

Meditation is profoundly easy to do.  The image of a meditation practitioner in painful “lotus position” going into a virtual trance is the extreme of the discipline.  Because meditation has been adapted so that any of us can benefit from the health benefits it brings, you can begin meditating immediately and see the benefits from the very first session.

Small wonder many baby boomers have continued down through the decades to be enthusiastic proponents of meditation.  And there is no reason baby boomers cannot continue to enjoy the tremendous benefits as they move into their late middle age and retirement years as well.

“Take control of your destiny or someone else will”

It seems almost absurd for baby boomers to think about retirement as the next stop in their long and eventful lives.  But the absurd has become a reality.  As the baby boomer generation moves into their mid fifties and sixties, that specter of retirement looms ever closer.  So it’s natural and appropriate to sit back and review exactly what that means to each of us. (Especially since times may be more trying than in the past).

For many, the traditional attitude toward retirement has been one of joy.  The concept of laying down your worries and bringing your work life to a comfortable end is something to look forward to.  The image of a life of sleeping late, golfing as much as you wish, taking up two or three hobbies and living a life of leisure is an idyllic vision in our minds for sure.

But the reality of retirement can also be a source of anxiety and fear.  If the baby boomer who approaches that threshold is not financially prepared or the affairs and concerns of their work lives are not ready to be set aside, the idea of having go retire simply due to age seems to be a harsh and an unpleasant prospect.  In both of these visions of a future retirement, we are probably working under as much myth as we are reality about what it will be like to retire.  But one thing baby boomers are good at is debunking myths and defying conventional wisdom and defining each era of their lives in their own terms.

We can expect the same as baby boomers move into retirement.  This is a generation that did not have the benefit of employers who were loyal to employees and kept the same staff from college through their retirement party and from whom they could expect a hefty retirement package.  But boomers are not the kind of generation that lets things sneak up on them.  Working with such excellent organizations as AARP, there are resources and options baby boomers can tap into to create a secure financial future despite the lack of participation by past employers.

But as with all other phases of life however, financial security is not what makes life worthwhile all by itself.  And as baby boomers see retirement coming at their next stop, another myth that has to go is that retirement is the end of the productive part of life.  This image of living a life of leisure, never working and letting others take care of us is not necessarily a healthy approach to retirement any more than it would be at any other phase of life. Many of us want to continue working and stay productive, but now it’s redefined as wanting to make our “work count”, and we’re either volunteering more, or turning our passions into income generating businesses.

Human beings are at their best when they are useful, creative, productive and pursuing a dream.  It has been shown time and time again that when a senior citizen can no longer be part of something larger than themselves and see themselves as productive in life, their will to live declines with the inevitable result of an end of life that is earlier than it has to be.  So the financial demand that some baby boomers face that they may have to work on into what is considered to be the “retirement years” may have a hidden blessing of extending their lives in a healthy way because these will the baby boomers who know they must stay fit and active because, just like always, they have to get up and go to work.

For those who do lay down their labors at retirement age, second careers are often a great way for aging baby boomers to not only create a second revenue stream but to pursue a career path that had always been a dream in life.  Another alternative as well for staying active and useful in retirement is to become passionate about a cause in life that has always been important to you.

Baby boomers have always been a people driven by causes.  So what better way for baby boomers to use their retirement than to become activists to make a difference in the world, just as they did in youth when they did so much to make a difference?

If you’re considering the option of continuing to work, have you thought about increasing your skill set and learning how to market online?  If not, you’re missing a huge opportunity…. To see how you can get started with an incredible education that you can use for any venture you pursue, check this out!

“Take control of your destiny or someone else will”
Until next time, J.