The Platinum Years Network

Is Early Retirement Selfish? Unpatriotic?

2008-07-01T23:55:00.004-04:00

A while back, I saw an article that labelled early retirement as "selfish and unpatriotic." I didn't pass it along at the time, as I felt that people shouldn't be made to feel guilty about checking out of the workforce and living the traditional retirement. I want the Platinum Years Network to be about helping people pursue their passions, and ultimately that is a much better motivator than guilt.

But this article keeps popping up here and there, and often generates some pretty passionate responses, and tonight I came across another such article, so I thought I would open it up for discussion. The first and older article is called, "Early retirement is an act of selfishness," by Andrew Yarrow, vice president and director of the Washington, D.C., office of Public Agenda, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. Yarrow urges the nation's 78 million baby boomers to forgo traditional or early retirement and work for a few more years, for their own sake and the good of the country.

"When I hear my fellow baby boomers gleefully talk about their elaborate plans to retire ASAP, head for the Tuscan hills or otherwise continue their lifelong quest for self-actualization, I have to bite my tongue."

"Dropping out of the workforce while still in one's prime means ending one's contributions to America's strength, mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy."

Now I have to admit that I sometimes bite my tongue as well, especially when I hear someone paint a picture of an "all leisure" retirement, but rather than criticize, I try to draw out what, beyond golf or whatever, they are passionate about... and there's usually something. But certainly people who have worked hard all their lives certainly have the right to do anything they want, and they shouldn't have to feel guilty about it.

And that's probably why, even though Yarrow's main points ring true, his article generates an emotional response in many people. Guilt is such a poor motivator... Not that it doesn't work. It just generates a grudging response, as anyone with an Italian or Jewish mother will attest ... but I digress :-)

The second article, which pushed me to bring up this issue is from Bankrate.com, called "Is Retiring Early Unpatriotic?" The author, Jay MacDonald, quotes Yarrow extensively and then examines some of the demographics and trends in play as boomers begin to exit the workforce. MacDonald also quotes Ben Stein, economist, actor, and author of, "Yes, You can Retire Comfortably":

"I don't ever expect to stop working," he [Stein] says. "I love my work. I don't believe there is a meaningful life without work. You're not a whole person without work."

In this context, I would define work in its broadest sense, encompassing volunteer work, part time, full time, you name it. I think one of the reasons people react so strongly to these types of articles is that they feel "guilted" into a continuation of negative work experiences.

So I want to use these articles as a jumping off point for a couple of things I've been working on. First, a review of the book "Don't Retire, Rewire!" that I promised you a while back, and second, with an article about some of the fun "side jobs" that my friends and family, and I have had over the years. The kind of jobs that get you jazzed to go to work.

Hopefully, we can prime the pump to get us back on track and thinking positively about work in retirement, so we can all "chill out" with the guilt articles. - Bob

What Have You Done Lately to Pursue Your Dreams?

2008-06-22T22:24:00.007-04:00

I don't generally watch shows like American Idol, and I don't like opera very much, but I love seeing someone pursue their dreams, and I love it even more when they achieve them. So when I came across this video of 36 year old British mobile phone salesman Paul Potts' appearance on the "Britain's Got Talent" TV Show, I was mesmerized.

This clip is a little over a year old, so I apologize if this is old news to you. And Paul is not a boomer, either, although he is the type of underdog character that almost everyone loves to root for. You can easily see by the reaction of the judges, when Paul tells them what he's going to do, that their expectations are VERY low.

But then, a miracle happens. Paul begins to sing, the audience is transfixed, then moved to tears, and the audience erupts by the time he's finished. If you love the underdog as much as I do, you'll be fighting back tears. And no doubt you'll also want to see how it all turns out in this clip of his performance in the semifinals, where he describes how he was picked on as a little boy and how he lacks self-confidence. And if that's not enough, just search on his name and you can see his appearances on Oprah, the Today Show, etc.

The underdog subplot alone would make this story interesting. But the other inspiring aspect of this story is that Paul was laboring away at a humdrum sales job, with all this talent "hidden under a bushel." And that's the part that makes this story Platinum-worthy. Because I wonder how many of you are like Paul, toiling away in obscurity at some job you hate, having never even tried to break away.

I wonder how hard it was for Paul, with his low self esteem, to step out and expose his talents to the world. I'm sure he thought he wasn't good enough, just as beautiful people always seem to think they're ugly, and immensely talented people often think, "Anybody can do that."

Watching a video like that, welling up with emotion, makes me realize that I'm on track in pursuing my own passion, "helping you get the best out of the rest of your life." I'm glad I stepped out in faith a bit and started this blog. It was a small step, to be sure, but so many people don't ever even try. And as I always say, the nursing homes are full of those people. Remember from our last two blogs, it's not the failures or mistakes you'll regret. It's the roads not traveled and the opportunities not taken.

Unlike Paul, many of us (boomers that is) have the advantage of careers that are winding down, and some trailblazing resources like RebootYou and encore.org to help us out.

So what's YOUR passion? What step, however small, have you taken to pursue it? I'm rooting for you. - Bob

It's Unwise to Compare - But It's Human Nature

2008-06-18T22:44:00.007-04:00

One of my former mentors was fond of using that expression - "It's unwise to compare." And I believe that using it as a guideline has helped me retain a positive perspective and outlook. Because within me, and probably all of us, is a nagging feeling that someone is doing better than I am, someone is getting an advantage, someone is luckier, etc.

The examples above are all examples of "comparing up," that is, comparing ourselves to someone doing better than we are. And this common human trait contains within it the seeds of jealousy and envy, the drive to "keep up with the Joneses" in the pursuit of material wealth, and the uneasy feeling that "the grass is always greener in the other fellow's yard." There is even a common phenomenon called "schadenfreude," a German expression meaning "happiness about the misfortune of others." Why else would shows like Cops or Jerry Springer be so popular, or why would we enjoy watching a criminal being taken off to jail in what has come to be known as a "perp walk"?

These feelings have been around so long that the bible even covers it. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he states that "measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, they are not wise."

You can always tell when someone has a weak argument, as soon as you hear the phrase, "but what about so and so" creeping into the discussion. It means you're about to hear a comparison that is supposed to make your point invalid. For years, a discussion about business ethics could be sidetracked by, "but what about Enron." For over a decade, any discussion about government spending would involve the proponent of more spending saying, "If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can (fill in your pet project here)..."

So why am I bringing up this philosophical point at this time? Because I'm still thinking about my business acquaintance who died... and my reaction to it. You see, ever since my mentor cautioned me against comparisons, I resolved that I would try very hard to only allow myself to "compare down," that is, to acknowledge the pain of the less fortunate, and thereby count my own blessings... as in "there but for the grace of God go I."

After many years of practice, this now comes pretty naturally to Melanie (the Platinum wife) and me. Even when we were having a rough go of it ourselves, if we saw someone on TV who had lost a loved one, someone with a very sick or dying child, or someone themselves battling a pernicious disease, we would look at each other and say, "we don't have a care in the world." So it just came naturally the other day when I heard the news of that death.

So boomers, beware. One of the things about getting older is that there seem to be more opportunities to complain. Comparing the way things are to "the good ole days." Comparing the way I feel now to the way I felt in my prime. And there are still all those other ways to "compare up," as described above, that can apply at any age.

My mother used to spend the winter in Florida at one of those golf condo complexes. And I'll never forget the year I was visiting and the residents were at war with one another over whether the golf course tee times should be changed from seven to eight minutes apart... I'm not kidding.

Melanie's mother (which I guess makes her "the Platinum mother-in-law") often relates to us how much complaining goes on in her senior condo complex. This was a place designed to be as care free as possible, but she has to guard herself against entering into it. This phenomenon is so pervasive that the popular Seinfeld TV Series did several episodes about the microscopic lives of the elderly residents of "Del Boca Vista," where Jerry's parents lived.

Melanie works with a lot of 70-somethings and 80-somethings, and she has a theory that as we get older, our natural character traits and tendencies get stronger, and I think it's probably true. So the time to be vigilant, boomers, is now. This is another good opportunity for some "accountability buddies," (as described in "If You're Serious About Changing a Behavior - Do This!") to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Back in February I wrote an article called "Comparing Ailments - Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen," which described a very popular elderly resident of a nursing home I used to visit. That guy was positive, engaging, and appreciative, and was easily the most popular resident of the home. He lived in a place that usually smelled like urine, and from what little I knew, he had more than his share of ailments. But his positiveness stood out in stark contrast to most of the other residents. Thinking about him brings me back to that feeling again - "I don't have a care in the world." - Bob

I Don't Have a Care in the World(And Neither Do Most of You!)

2008-06-14T19:20:00.005-04:00

I've been thinking about death today. Not by choice. It was placed in front of me. Twice. And I've found that when that sort of thing happens, it's best to pay attention. So I wanted to write down some thoughts and share them with you.

I generally really enjoy Saturdays, but today got started on the wrong foot. I had to set the alarm to get up early for an appointment, but as it turns out, the other person didn't show up. And then other impediments kept popping up which seemed to be conspiring to keep me from accomplishing ANYTHING on my Saturday "to do" list, so by noontime, I was in full "annoyance mode."

And then I got the news of the death of a man with whom I had just started to do some business. I can't say we were friends or anything, but in our few business dealings, I liked and admired him. He was about 50 years old, and had been in perfect health until about six weeks ago, when he started to experience some symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath. The diagnosis of cancer came about three weeks later.

When I got the news, in the midst of my "annoying Saturday," my first thought was, "I don't have a care in the world." I finished up what I was doing, and headed home. When I arrived home, there was an email from a friend with this YouTube link. It is a video of a short graduation speech at Carnegie Mellon University. The speaker is Randy Pausch, a professor who was diagnosed with a fatal and incurable cancer and given 3-6 months to live, about nine months ago.

Randy's situation in turn reminded me of Eugene O'Kelly, the author of Chasing Daylight, one of my Platinum recommended books. O'Kelly was given a similar "death sentence," and wrote Chasing Daylight during that precious time period. The perspective that both Rausch and Kelly gained from their death sentences is remarkably similar. Here are Rausch's, from his speech:

It's not the mistakes we make in life that we generally regret. It's the things NOT done, and the opportunities NOT taken.
Whatever you do, and however long it takes, find your passion in life and do your best to pursue it.

Rausch cautions that you will not find your passion in money or things, but that every level you achieve will only cause you to want more. No, the passion he speaks of is "that which fuels you from the inside." And THAT passion will, without fail, be grounded in the people in your life.

I write a lot about pursuing your passion, because I firmly believe that doing so is the key to the Platinum mission of "helping you get the best out of the rest of your life." When I first read the O'Kelly book, the Platinum wife and I decided that we would periodically remind one another of its principles. The premise is that if we could live our remaining 20-30 years with the perspective of O'Kelly (and now Rausch), there will be no regrets when that day comes, no matter what the length of time turns out to be.

But I am well aware of how the day to day annoyances of "doing life" can bring us down, as was happening to me this morning. So my wish for all of us is that we can all learn from those who have experienced this kind of tragedy when they tell us what is really important in life. - Bob

"Number Schmumber"Here's Why I Don't Like Retirement Numbers

2008-06-11T23:23:00.007-04:00

My regular readers may recognize that "Number, Schmumber" phrase in today's title, because I've mentioned before that there's a tentative chapter called "Number, Schmumber," in my book-in-process, Platinum Living. My feeling is that one's retirement "number" is a moving target at best, and coming up with one requires a lot of static assumptions at a time when retirement itself is becoming more and more of a dynamic proposition.

To underscore my skepticism, here's a link to a June 9th article from Yahoo Finance entitled, "Is $1 Million Enough to Retire On?" I have recommended several Yahoo Finance articles in the past, but this is not one of them, except as an example of how narrow retirement thinking can get. Yep, this one really set off my "Retirement Hogwash Detector."

For example, the first heading has the scary title, "It's probably not enough," in bold, followed by a quote from the author, Michael Farr, of a book entitled A Million is Not Enough ... (Gee I wonder what his conclusion's going to be?) Although I don't disagree with Farr's recommendations, the little example he uses to make his point completely ignores social security in the equation. That is, since a million will only earn $50,000 a year, if your income needs are more than $50,000 a year, you'll eventually go under... duh!

The second section heading is actually accurate ... For security, try an annuity... It's just bad advice. This author recommends setting aside $200,000 of your million against "emergency medical expenses and buying an inflation protected annuity with the balance. In his example, the remaining $800,000 should be put into an annuity earning $45,000/year, and this, plus your social security (at least he included it) would amount to over $80,000/year and would replace a preretirement income of over $100,000. And actually, if you agree with his premise that the retirement income replacement rate is 80% (more about this later), this analysis is fine.

I have three problems with the annuity argument used here. First, I would never recommend that someone put 80% of their money in ANYTHING. Second, annuities really only make sense for older retirees, when life expectancies get low enough that there really is a premium for leaving your money to the insurance company. This guy is recommending that you do it for a return of 5.625% (45,000/800,000)! Thirdly, I believe that retirement, like the life that leads up to it, should be lived so as to give yourself maximum flexibility to pursue your dreams. And an annuity is one of the LEAST flexible of all investments.

There's a third voice in this article, a voice of reason. His name is Jonathan Pond, and his section is entitled "Stop worrying so much, and get out your golf shoes. Pond wrote a book called You Can Do It! The Boomer's Guide to a Great Retirement. "The financial services industry has made a good living for themselves scaring people," says Pond, a financial planner and author of You Can Do It! The Boomer's Guide to a Great Retirement. "For many people, $100,000 to $200,000 is enough to retire on."

That's certainly good news for many in the Platinum Years readership, and many of my middle income clients. Remember, one of our missions is, "Life planning for the rest of us."

There's another undercurrent of disagreement in the Yahoo Finance article. Just how much income does a person need to replace in retirement? Some say 100% or more, while financial planners like Pond and myself say much less. The financial planning industry in general is quite divided on this point, and yet it is key to the calculation of your retirement number.

I'll be blogging more on various aspects of this topic over the next few days, and I've also moved Pond's book up to the top of my reading list. Meanwhile, "stop worrying so much and go get your golf shoes." :-) Bob

BoomerTowne Update - I'm Rich!

2008-06-07T23:48:00.004-04:00

A while back, I reviewed the top ten Boomer web sites, and at the time, it turned out that my favorite happened to be PC Magazine's #1 rated site, BoomerTowne (see my review of April 19).

I can't say that I visit ANY of the others with any regularity, but BoomerTowne has stuck as a fun site to visit, play games and trivia contests, read jokes and quotes, etc. I used to play some of the games at Yahoo Games, but these are just as good, so now, when my brain is fried, I head to BoomerTowne games instead.

There was one other feature of BoomerTowne that intrigued me. They give BoomerTowne points for just about all the things you do there. Play a game? 10 Points. Rate a joke? 3 Points. Identify the song in the weekly contest? 100 points. They even give you 35 points for your first log in each day.

The reason that I'm bringing this up now is that I thought I'd see how long it took me to get to the threshold where the points had actual cash value. For me, that was a couple of days ago, when I passed the 12,500 points mark, which entitles me to a $25 gift card at either Target or Best Buy. Not bad for six weeks of mostly just having fun.

So much fun that I'm forging onward, because I don't need anything at Target or Best Buy right now and the 25,125 point threshold is worth a BoomerTowne VISA debit card charged with $50 of value. I'll keep you posted. - Bob

Four Legal Ways to Boost your Social Security Check

2008-06-04T22:38:00.004-04:00

There’s an article in today’s Personal Finance section of Yahoo Finance called “Secret Ways to Boost Your Social Security,” so naturally, it caught my eye. The author, Mary Beth Franklin of Kiplinger.com, outlines four strategies that do just that. For you faithful Platinum Years readers, the first one will sound very familiar, since it involves paying back your social security to obtain a higher monthly benefit, a topic we covered in a series in February, most notably here, here, and here. Franklin does a good job explaining it, though, so it's a good refresher. There's also an interesting example of someone who took out a second mortgage to repay benefits and is using the increased payment to pay back the second mortgage.

There is also a clarification of the tax consequences of paying back your social security. If any of your social security benefits that you pay back were taxed along the way, you can get a refund, either through a tax deduction or a tax credit, whichever works to your benefit. What could be more fair than that?

The other three "secrets" in this article are all variations on spousal situations. One of these we have covered in the past, where the primary breadwinner keeps working and the lesser earning spouse starts collecting. This works best where the primary breadwinning is the husband, because the main benefit occurs after the death of the primary breadwinner dies, and the surviving spouse's benefit steps up to a level based on his earnings. The reason it works best is that we men are much more likely to die first, and in many cases, the widow lives on for many years. Obviously, this strategy works even better for marriages where the wife is much younger than the husband.

The third is another "spousal tactic," which works even when spousal incomes are about the same. This one is completely new to me, and the Platinum wife and I may use this one ourselves. It seems that once we both reach retirement age, if one spouse wants to continue working, they can still file for spousal benefits on the other's earnings without compromising their own eventual benefit. This one seems to good to be true, but that's what the article says.

Fourth is a little more obscure, but has to do with the children of "Do Over Dads," who have had children in a second marriage or otherwise late in life, that is those who have children under the age of eighteen when they start to collect social security. If that applies to you, I'll let you read that one for yourself.

I continue to be amazed at just how flexible the rules of social security really are. The problem really is not the flexibility of the rules. It's the education of the recipients. Which is, after all, where websites like this one come in. And we have our work cut out for us. Do you know how many of the 32 million U.S. social security recipients availed themselves of the fantastic opportunity to pay back past benefits to increase their future ones? A grand total of 71 people. Of course that was before the financial websites like Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Kiplingers, and of course, Platinum Years, told YOU about it. - Bob

Retirement Hogwash

2008-06-02T23:51:00.002-04:00

I saw an article tonight that reminded me of the reasons why I started Platinum years. It was on MarketWatch.com and was entitled, "How to Spot Retirement Hogwash." The article wasn't new, but it's basically about core principles that do not change. And it includes this warning from author Robert Powell about being careful to discern what we really want out of life:

"The retirement industry wants to define your retirement for you," said Nelson. "Instead of choosing a way to live, they want you to buy a lifestyle. Instead of reflecting on your values, they want you to value consuming the right investments, the right insurance, the right real estate, the right travel, the right retail goods and the right anti-aging products. Instead of discovering your identity, they want you to simply identify yourself as a consumer. They want images of products and services dancing in your head so that you make acquiring them the goal and the purpose of your retirement. They want consuming to be your highest purpose."

I couldn't have said it better, and I have to tell you that some of the ads aimed at boomers are starting to make me angry. Encore.org, one of my platinum recommended web sites, even has an entertaining section called "Hit or Miss," where they let you rate ads as to whether they are hitting or missing the mark in helping boomers define their retirement.

So what should the "hits" look like? Just look back at the quote from that MarketWatch article and this time, focus on the "instead of" phrases:

"Instead of choosing a way to live..."

"Instead of reflecting on your values..."

"Instead of discovering your identity..."

And there you have it. That's what we need to be doing as we redefine retirement.

For that matter, that's what everyone should do at all different phases of their lives. My daughter has told me that 90% of what I write is applicable to any age. And although her percentage may be generous, I know she is reflecting on a basic truth. Who, after all, doesn't want to "get the best out of the rest of their life," which is the Platinum Years' mission.

The MarketWatch article concludes with a "retirement hogwash detector." I'd go a little long if I tried to cover that tonight, so let's leave that for tomorrow. - Bob

Doing Well by Doing Good (and Giving Back)

2008-05-29T23:55:00.002-04:00

Whatever happened to the "Me Generation," the not-too-flattering description of the supposedly self-centered baby boomer generation? It turns out we're not so bad after all, according to an article in yesterday's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

"Though sometimes referred to as the "me" generation, research is exposing boomers as "we" activists with a humanitarian focus. Sixty percent of boomers believe that work in retirement should help the community, according to a 2005 survey by Princeton Research Associates. Boomers name education, health care, youth, arts and culture and the environment as issues to tackle. Women in their 50s are especially mission-driven, with 70 percent saying it is very important that a job in retirement "give you a sense of purpose."

This is not news to us or our regular readers, but I just thought I'd mention it as a followup to my article on "paid volunteerism." - Bob

Paid Volunteerism -An Oxymoron Whose Time Has Come

2008-05-23T11:17:00.008-04:00

One of the main tenets of the "Platinum Years Network" is that the onslaught of boomers into their the so-called "retirement years" will have a huge impact on our culture. Many of us still have a lot to contribute, and a lot of us are a little short in our retirement funding. Both of these factors contribute to the statistic that I often repeat here, that over 80% of boomers do not plan to retire in the way our parents did, and many of us do not plan to ever retire in the traditional sense.

Now comes an article from Yahoo Finance via the New York Times that illustrates one of the first cultural changes brought about by boomers. Entitled "For Love and a Little Money," this article describes a rapidly growing trend toward "paid volunteerism" that I predict will snowball into a cultural norm. In many cases, such volunteers need some compensation to make up a retirement income shortfall, or perhaps build a war chest against the time when work will become impossible. But often, according to the article, it's simply a matter of insuring that their services are valued.

"Many retirees have learned, to their irritation, that what they give free is discounted as fluff. Ten years ago, Fabianne Wolff Gershon, now a retired public relations executive, did a pro bono marketing plan for a local botanical garden. It was never carried out. 'I made a mental note: If they had paid for the report, they would have taken it seriously,' Ms. Gershon said."

There are other stories of retirees, even those with rich skill sets and broad business experiences, having similar experiences, being assigned filing and envelope stuffing jobs that they found demeaning and unappreciated.

I encountered this phenomenon first hand during a twelve year stint as Treasurer of my church. At the time, we offered counselling services as an outreach to our community, as well as to our membership. But the counsellors soon realized that "pro bono" clients were much more likely to cancel or miss their appointments than "pay" clients. Too many people equated "free" to "of little or no value."

We even found that sometimes areas that staffed by volunteers would have increasing needs that would at some point exceed what could be handled by volunteer labor. At that point, we found it beneficial to first approach the volunteers with offers of a stipend for the extra hours. If this was handled discretely and sensitively, it often resulted in a transition from a "free" volunteer to a "discount" staff member who would then take on more formal and official responsibilities.

You regular Platinum readers will not be surprised that this article also liberally quotes Marc Freedman, author of our Platinum recommended book, Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. Yet another reason to head over to Yahoo Finance and stay on the cutting edge of this important trend. - Bob

Embrace Those Senior MomentsStudies Suggest They're A Sign of Wisdom

2008-05-21T23:20:00.008-04:00

Many of my friends began joking about having "senior moments" a few years ago. I generally joked back that I've been having them since my teaching days, which allowed me to use the convenient "absent minded professor" excuse. But today, the New York Times website carried an article, "Older Brain May Be a Wiser Brain," that suggests that senior moments may actually be a sign of wisdom. This has to be wonderful news for all of us who sometimes walk into a room having forgotten why we made the trip, or my personal specialty, beginning a sentence and forgetting where I was going with it.

In fact, according to a new edition of a neurology book entitled "Progress in Brain Research," what actually happens to adults as they age is a "gradually widening focus of attention that makes it more difficult to latch onto just one fact." I think this is true of my mid-sentence blankouts, as I tend to talk too often in parentheticals (something I also battle in my writing as well... wait... what was I talking about? Oh yes, senior moments.)

So when you forget that name at a cocktail party or business meeting, it may be because you are taking in much more about what's going on there. I'm reminded of a scene in the movie "Dad" (an excellent movie by the way, and one that proved that Ted Danson really can act ... wait ... what was I talking about? Oh yes, senior moments) Anyway, in this movie scene, Ted Danson brings his aging father to a high powered business meeting concerning a large merger. As the bright young executive was pitching the merger, Ted's Dad leaned over and slipped Ted a note that said "He's Lying!" ... which turned out to be true.

According to Lynn Hasher, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, "older adults, because they’ve retained all this extra data, [are] now suddenly the better problem solvers. They can transfer the information they’ve soaked up from one situation to another. A broad attention span may enable older adults to ultimately know more about a situation and the indirect message of what’s going on than their younger peers,” Dr. Hasher said. “We believe that this characteristic may play a significant role in why we think of older people as wiser.”

Jacqui Smith, a professor of psychology and research professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, concludes “These findings are all very consistent with the context we’re building for what wisdom is,” she said. “If older people are taking in more information from a situation, and they’re then able to combine it with their comparatively greater store of general knowledge, they’re going to have a nice advantage.”

Now I've been having some fun with this topic, but let's get serious for a minute. Think about the ramifications of these findings on boomer employability. I keep pointing you to books like Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, and their corresponding website, www.encore.org. And more recently, I recommended the ReBootYou website. I keep this topic in the forefront because so many of us (more than 80%) have no intention of dropping out of the workforce. Now, here are the research findings that prove the value that you and I know we still have. We bring a lot to the table, and it would be a crime to waste it. - Bob

How Much Do You Need to Retire?It's a Moving Target

2008-05-20T23:29:00.005-04:00

Last night marked the second segment in the Nightly Business Report Series, "Getting Your Finances Ready for Retirement." As promised, I am monitoring this series for you, and I was particularly interested in tonight's topic, "How Much Do You Need to Retire?"

This, of course, is the question on everyone's mind as they look ahead toward retirement. It is even the topic of one of our Platinum recommended books, The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life, by Lee Eisenberg. I'm pretty much of a skeptic when it comes to the obsession many people have toward their number. Why? Because it is such a moving target.

In tonight's show, Jonathan Pond, prominent financial planner and author of "You Can Do it," opined that in calculating your number, you should be able to maintain your lifestyle on about 65% of your work income. Following this, another financial planner, Patricia Houlihan, insisted that you really need 100% of your work income. Who's right? Well, probably both of them, which is part of the problem.

In my book-in-process, Platinum Living, I have a chapter tentatively titled "Number, Schmumber," which is my irreverent way of pointing out the dangers of "number obsession." But of course, knowledge is power, and the more you anticipate, the better prepared you are.

The reason that two perfectly capable financial planners can disagree so significantly over how much you need is that their client's wants and needs vary just as greatly. I have no doubt that a person who is motivated to hold down spending in retirement can do so, and live within Jonathan Pond's 65% threshold. But often, Patricia Houlihan's client's decide that, yes, the want to sell their home and downsize to a condo, but wouldn't it be nice if that condo had an ocean view, and before you know it, they are spending just as much for the condo as they get for the house.

We have all experienced in our lifetimes how wants can easily become needs. I even blogged on this a few months back. And I believe that it's this want/need tradeoff that accounts for the large variances in income needs.

But there are other variances, too. How much will your investments earn in retirement? I'm a big advocate of investing more aggressively than our parents did into our 60s and even 70s in light of our much longer life expectancies. I've blogged on this as well.

And finally, there is the hugely significant fact that 80+% of us plan to work well into our "retirement years," giving us the opportunity to alter our numbers as we go along.

And that is the essence of my "Number, Schmumber" argument. But if you must calculate a number, Monday's NBR show has an excellent companion article loaded with information, and a link to a great resource for making your number calculation, www.choosetosave.org. The "Chooose to Save" website has an excellent calculator on it.

Oh, and there's one last reason you need to be careful of number calculations. The most common response of those who actually reach their numbers, according to Eisenberg, IS TO RAISE THEM... as in "I got my $5 million, but now I find I need $10 million." Yet another example of wants becoming needs. That is not a game I want to play. - Bob

Shocking News About Social Security Solvency!

2008-05-19T23:51:00.007-04:00

“Reports that the Social Security system will soon run out of money
have been greatly exaggerated.”

So begins an amazing article from the Yahoo Finance Retirement pages. I say “amazing” because it contradicts what has become conventional wisdom about social security. I was lucky to find this analysis by Dr. Irwin Kellner, chief economist for Marketwatch.com and Capital One Bank. It is dated April 19th on Yahoo Finance, and supposedly came from MarketWatch.com, although I cannot find the original there.

I am always interested when I read a credible analysis that goes against conventional wisdom. It reminds me of Galileo daring to venture that the earth might not be the center of the universe, or more currently, almost any scientist who dares to risk his or her job by even questioning the popular global warming dogma … but I digress.

The conventional wisdom that Dr. Kellner is challenging is, of course, that social security is “running out of money,” and “will be broke by… (fill in the date). And since we all know that the 76 million baby boomer population bubble is just beginning to hit retirement age, this “wisdom” makes perfect sense. But the Social Security Administration’s most recent OASDI (Old Age Survivors and Disability Income) Trustees Report doesn’t paint that bleak a picture… at least if you read it, as Kellner did.

Consider this. In the 2000 OASDI Trustees Report, the Social Security actuaries forecast a trust fund “exhaustion date” of 2032, 32 years away from that time. Today it is 2041, 33 years away. So in the last eight years, we have actually GAINED a year of breathing room. And the Congressional Budget Office estimate is a more generous 2051. How can these vary so much? Well, it makes a huge difference what growth rate you assume for our economy.

According to Dr. Kellner, there are actually THREE projections made, with different assumed rates of growth. The most modest one actually forecasts two recessions in the next few years, and slow growth from then on. The other two project annual growth rates in Gross Domestic Product of 2.3% and 2.9% respectively. The 2.3% assumption is the one that generates the estimate of social security exhaustion of 2041.

Now here is the amazing part. Under the 2.9% GDP growth rate assumption, the Trust Fund NEVER REACHES AN EXHAUSTION DATE. Rather, it bottoms out at a few hundred billion and begins to grow again. So what is the likelihood of hitting the most optimistic scenario? According to the Trustees Report, between 1967 and 2006, our GDP grew at 3.4% (!!!), which makes 2.9% seem quite attainable. This revelation is HUGE! And it is one that you will never hear from the major media. Why? Because it isn’t scary or negative.

Now I am all in favor of being conservative when it comes to projections, especially that far out into the future. And I’m also on record as being in favor of making whatever changes are necessary in social security, especially changes that make the system more “work friendly” for those 80+% of boomers who plan to keep on working well into their so-called retirement years.

But what has me agitated is that this topic has been reported in such a fear mongering way, with terms like the “Silver Tsunami” and the “Population Bomb,” that a large number of younger Americans are now convinced that social security won’t be there for them, and a large number of boomers are making an ill-advised decisions by taking their benefits as soon as possible out of the same conviction…

….when all we really have to do is grow our economy at somewhere between 2.5 and 2.9% per year, or failing that, tweak the system as necessary. What’s so hard about that? - Bob

A New NBR SeriesGetting Your Finances Ready for Retirement

2008-05-14T23:20:00.004-04:00

The only TV Show that I can honestly say I never miss is "Nightly Business Report" on PBS. My DVR is set to record it when it comes on every weekday evening at 6:30 PM. It is a great resource for my business, as it very ably summarizes the day's activity in the financial markets, and elaborates on "what went up and why." And even when each day's show is winding down, I usually leave it on until the Grandfatherly cohost Paul Kangas closes with his trademark double entendre, "wishing all of you the best of goodbyes."

On Monday night, NBR kicked off what they say is going to be a year long series for Boomers preparing for retirement. The series is cosponsored by U.S. News & World Report and is called "Getting Your Finances Ready for Retirement." It began on Monday's show with a segment called "Your Retirement Lifestyle." These segments will run weekly, so I suspect that I'll be sharing with you when there's a topic of particular interest.

In conjunction with this series, NBR's website is promoting a new retirement section of their website that contains the show transcripts and many other resources for boomers, including articles from US News, AARP, and the Social Security Administration. As such, I'm adding a link to that page as a Platinum website here on this blog and at www.platinumyears.net. And if there's anything in the "Don't Miss" category, I'm sure I'll call your attention to it here.

Monday's segment on "Your Retirement Lifestyle" was presented under the heading "Getting Started," and was pretty generic, pointing out the obvious fact that you should start thinking about the kind of retirement you want as a first step in retirement planning. But I wanted to give you an opportunity to head over there and check out their web site. I'm sure I'll be pointing you there again from time to time as the series continues.

Next Monday, I believe they're going to look at ways you can calculate your "number," the amount you'll need for the retirement you want. Stay tuned... Bob

How Long Will You Live? Just Click Here!

2008-05-13T20:02:00.006-04:00

I just came across a short blog article on the Seattle PI web site that it turns out was written by one of our Platinum recommended bloggers, Rita Robison. I recommended Rita's blog, The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, in an article on March 19th.

The title of Rita's article was "I'm going to live to be 97. How about you?" You can probably see how that caught my attention. Rita has found a website with a very neat "life expectancy calculator" that asks you a series of questions as it calculates your life expectancy.

One of the neat things about it is that it does these calculations as you go along, so even if the ultimate estimate is not accurate (it seems a little generous to me), it's very instructive to go through the exercise. There's nothing like watching your life expectancy drop as you move the slider down to "light exercise" from "moderate exercise," or admit to higher stress levels, how much alcohol you drink, etc., etc. I think we all know that these things affect our life expectancy, but watching it go up or down with each factor can be very motivating.

And as you regular Platinum readers know, a lot of our "end game" financial decisions depend on a reasonable estimate of life expectancy. A decision about a reverse mortgage can totally hinge on how long you (and your spouse?) might reasonable expect to live. The same holds true for IRA decisions. and remember the social security breakeven point that occurs around age 79? Will you live longer than that?

When I discussed mortality tables in January (here and here), I concluded that most of us have longer life expectancies than we think we have. As I say, I think the calculator is a bit generous. But I'd take anything close to what it said for me... 94!

So head on over to the life expectancy calculator and have some fun with it. And thank you, Rita, for a great find! - Bob

Is “Retirement” becoming a Dirty Word?

2008-05-06T23:54:00.007-04:00

If you’ve been around here for very long, you know that I’d just as soon retire the word “retirement” from the dictionary, even though we haven’t really come up with an acceptable substitute yet. But make no mistake about it, we are witnessing a cultural phenomenon that is rapidly changing the way we view the final 1/3 of our lives. Today’s piece of evidence is blog article from Contemporary Retirement called “Has retirement become a dirty word?” which in turn refers to a New York Times article, “Whatever You Do, Call It Work.” Both the blog article and the Times piece relate how uncomfortable many people already are at referring to themselves as “retired.”

In the past, it was fairly normal for such changes to take a generation or so, with holders of the old ideas literally having to die off in order for the new to take hold. Our attitudes towards such things as smoking and alcohol consumption, sexual mores, political ideas, etc. take years to work their way through the culture. But the internet age seems to have greatly speeded up such transformations. And globalized them. Contemporary Retirement is authored by UK retirement coach Ann Harrison, and some other recent articles I have read describing the same phenomenon were from Canadian blogs.

And so it is with the idea of retirement. I’ve already noticed the reluctance of friends my age to use the word, preferring rather to talk about the activities they’d like to pursue in this new phase of life. And we’re all trying out new cultural words like “downshifting” or "transitioning" to describe what we’re doing.

And so we have popular books like Encore:Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life, with its corresponding website, and other websites like ReBootYou and of course Platinum Years, all of which have within them other trial words to replace the “R” word.

But tonight I began thinking that maybe the “new retirement” will become so cultural that it will no longer need this categorical description. Do you remember in the early days of the internet how people struggled with the “www” in website names? It was so cumbersome to say, especially in advertising. I remember thinking that "www" couldn’t last, but wondering what we could possibly replace it with. But the internet became so ubiquitous that in the end, we just didn’t need to say it at all.

So maybe, in the end, we'll eliminate (or greatly downplay), the need to give "retirement," as we now know it, a category. We'll just need an umbrella word that can encompass all these other words that describe the exciting things we're doing with the rest of our lives.

But meanwhile, here's another potential umbrella word entry. It's in the title of best selling book I’ve just started reading … Don’t Retire, ReWire, by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. Here is the first sentence of the promo of this book:

"Through research Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners discovered that three out of four boomers said they hated the word retirement, and didn’t ever plan on totally retiring."

Now I ask you, given the above, is there ANY possibility that I'm not going to love this book? The authors have a website too, but I’ll save all that for the book review. Stay tuned. - Bob

When Will I Get My Stimulus Check?

2008-05-04T23:56:00.003-04:00

Having been through, um, "several" business cycles over my 40 years in the securities business, I can tell you that the rule of thumb is that by the time Congress does anything about a recession, the economy is already rebounding and the help comes too late. Occasionally, the help has come so late that, if anything, it probably has contributed to subsequent rounds of inflation and overheating.

I have to say, though, that this time seems different. Congress acted pretty swiftly (could the fact that this is an election year have had anything to do with that?), the President signed just as speedily, and direct deposit payments began going out this past week. They will continue through May 16, and the first cycle of paper checks will be mailed starting May 9.

The IRS will continue to issue the payments of up to $600 ($1,200 for married couples) plus $300 for eligible children younger than 17, through July 11, for all those that filed their taxes by April 15. If you are not a direct depositor, you will be issued a check according to the last two digits of your social security number, as follows:

Last Two Digits = Payment in the mail by:

00 – 09 = May 16

10 – 18 = May 23

19 – 25 = May 30

26 – 38 = June 6

39 – 51 = June 13

52 – 63 = June 20

64 – 75 = June 27

76 – 87 = July 4

88 – 99 = July 11

If you need more particulars, you can get them at the IRS website. And if you want to re-read my pep talk on why you should SAVE your stimulus check, just click here. - Bob

New Platinum Link - ReBootYou

2008-04-30T00:10:00.005-04:00

It is both encouraging and discouraging that there are so many boomer blogs and websites. It's encouraging because you know there are needs out there and people are trying to fill them. But then it can be discouraging because there are so many "fluffy" blogs and websites, many of them loaded down with ads, filled with 60s reminiscences or anti-aging beauty tips. Now I have nothing against this sort of thing per se. It's just that I don't think that anybody on their deathbed is ever going to say, "I wish I had reminisced more," or "I wish I had found a better anti-aging cream."

Lest I seem too callous, let me remind you that last week, I recommended the irememberjfk site to you, and about a month ago linked you to a 60s video retrospective. I like that stuff, really I do. But I don't want to get "stuck in the past" as I get older, as so many older folks do. I want to keep pursuing my passions and checking things off my "bucket list."

So when I find someone who is like-minded, such as when I first read Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life, I get excited and start passing out the 5 star book recommendations and pointing you to their websites. And it happened again yesterday.

Through a rather circuitous set of links and comments, I came across a great new website/blog, Rebootyou. And I use the term "new" advisedly. Because in addition to being very sympatico with my "pursuing your passion" ideals, this site is almost exactly the same age as Platinum Years. Rebootyou founder Lee Callaway began blogging last September, and other than a couple of test blogs in early 2007, I began Platinum Years in earnest with the article, "Let's Roll" on my 61st birthday last November. So I consider him to have a small head start. But hey, he's in his early 70s, so I'll spot him the two months.

Anyway, don't be surprised to see some Rebootyou articles referenced here soon, or perhaps even a guest article or two. Check out Rebootyou and you'll see why. And while you're there, read the "Rebooter Stories" for a healthy dose of inspiration.

Follow our progress, both here at Platinum Years where we try to "Help You Get the Best out of the Rest of Your Life," and at Rebootyou, where they help you in "Getting On With the Next Phase of Your Life."

Rebootyou is already listed as a Platinum Link on our website. What are you waiting for? Go there! - Bob

New Platinum Links Posted... and Why I Have a Website

2008-04-29T23:48:00.007-04:00

As promised during last week's review of PC Magazine's top ten boomer websites, I have completely revamped and expanded the Platinum Links page on our website. It was long overdue and therefore a pretty big project, but it's done - or at least done enough to post... Is anything on a website ever really done? ... but I digress.

For you newcomers, let me explain the relationship between this blog and the website. This blog, like most blogs, is sort of a stream of consciousness flow of writing. Many articles represent fleeting thoughts that stand alone. But sometimes, you get on a topic, you think about it, you write an article, then maybe a part two. You get some comments, you write some more. Then when you have thoroughly beaten a topic to death, um, I mean, covered it exhaustively, it sits there in chronological pieces on your blog.

But if you really have covered a topic to a conclusion, you may want to massage it into something coherent for posterity. That, to me, is what the web site is for. Blogs are good at many things, but they are not great at organizing information. Websites are, or at least can be better organized.

So that's what i did today. I organized the links I've been cranking out into something more coherent. It was a lot of work... but you're worth it. :-) Bob

P.S. In the process, I found a great new blog/website, very similar to Platinum Years, which I'll tell you about tomorrow.

“Retirement is Not Biblical”

2008-04-27T23:04:00.006-04:00

“Retirement is not biblical”

So said my Pastor and friend at Sunday service this morning. Actually, I must confess that he got that from me. He and I have discussed it several times over the years in terms of our own lives and futures. I don’t think it’s even controversial biblically. No one ever retired in biblical days, and God seemed to delight in calling people to great tasks at advanced ages – Moses and Abraham spring to mind immediately.

The context of this morning’s comment was in reference to a 79 year old mutual friend and mentor named Dow Robinson, with whom we just had contact. Dow maintains a schedule of teaching, learning and mentoring that could only be described as “whirlwind.” I’m not sure I could keep up with him, even though he is 18 years my senior. I remember the last time I was with him, I was relating my plans to start Platinum Years, and told the story of platinum wife Melanie always coming home from her job conducting sightseeing tours and telling me “we have fifteen good years left.” I was a little reluctant to use that particular story as he is more than fifteen years older than I am. But Dow looked at me and said, “I like to think I’ve still got fifteen good years left too.”

Can you think of a better attitude for someone about to celebrate an 80th birthday? And he lives his life with such energy and enthusiasm that I wouldn’t put it past him!

Anyway, back to “retirement.” You regular readers know by now that I don’t advocate staying in your humdrum job forever. Quite the contrary. It’s really about what you do next. That’s why “Life 2.0” won the recent contest for the word to replace the “R” word. And “Encore,” the title of one of our recommended books and platinum links, works just as well, too. And I just ordered a new book with the enticing title, “Don’t Retire, Rewire,” which has gotten good reviews elsewhere. It’s also probably why Retired Brains, a second career assistance website, is among the top ten boomer web sites.

Recently I got into a “comment exchange” with a gentleman who was taking some ill informed positions on social security payback on one of the major news websites. I called him on a couple of factual errors, and his response was to note that I am still working while he, on the other hand, was fully retired and leading a life of leisure. I was able to resist the temptation to start a “flame war” with the guy by pointing out the fact that yes, Warren Buffett and I are still working, and loving what we do. But clearly, he is in the generation that believes that full retirement is the culmination of the American dream.

So here’s my wish for all of us boomers:

May your “good years” number freeze right where it is until you’re 80 or beyond, and

May you have so much on your "Things To Do Before I Die" list that you'll need that many good years to accomplish it all.

And here’s a song for you, from Imeem.com, the free streaming music site. It’s the Platinum Years theme song, “Forever Young,” which I introduced as a Christmas blessing a few months ago, and expresses my sentiments almost exactly. – Bob

P.S. By the way, I am very thankful that, although retirement is not a biblical idea, VACATIONS ARE, in the concept of Sabbath and sabbaticals. Whew!

Final Reviews of Top Ten Boomer Web Sites

2008-04-24T23:41:00.007-04:00

Tonight I'll cover the last three of PC Magazine's top ten boomer web sites. I probably shouldn't have let myself cherry pick the list earlier in the week, because tonight I was left with the sites that interested me the least. But I slogged through, so that you, dear reader, won't have to.

Well, that's not exactly true, because the jury is still out on several of these sites. It's hard to tell in a quick visit, but one, and maybe two, of tonight's sites piqued my interest.

Let me start with an easy one. Easy for me anyway, because BoomerGirl is obviously a site for women. I looked around for a while, but in all honesty, I am incapable of evaluating it. There's lots of stuff there. I'll show it to the Platinum wife when she gets home from her current business trip, but she's not much for web sites and blogs (except of course for mine :-) So ladies, go for it. And let me know if you think it's worth recommending and why. One of you can be my first guest blogger.

The second site was more interesting. "Retirement Living TV" really is a website for a cable/satellite TV channel. I should have realized by the url, rl.tv. I believe that's the first time I've been to a site in the .tv domain... but I digress. There is a lot of interesting material on the site, but rl.tv necessarily has to cater to those who are already retires, so sometimes I got the feeling that I often get when I visit the AARP website. I feel like some young whippersnapper who is trying to relate to Mom and Dad's stuff. There just aren't enough retired boomers in the population yet, compared to the 70, 80, and 90-somethings. So sites like rl.tv are in transition. Yes, there's plenty of good stuff, but you may have to turn a blind eye to some "seniors" ads and articles.

Finally, we complete our top ten boomer web site reviews with BOOMj, which turned out to be a lot like BoomerTowne, which I reviewed earlier this week. Very similar, in fact, right down to the BOOMj points given for signing up, visiting amd participating there. However, at BOOMj, their points seem sto only be usable as discounts at the BOOMj Store, whereas at BoomerTowne, the points translate into discounts at stores like BestBuy or into generally usable VISA Gift Cards. After a quick visit to the BOOMj store, I think you may NEED some discounts to equal, say, an Amazon.com or EBay price. But as I say, they're easy to earn. This must be the (marketing department) approved way to get a social networking site going.

BOOMj has a more* modern looking interface, but I haven't dug much below the surface at this point. So I invite you to dig in there with me, and send me your comments. Or befriend me there. My user name there is bobmcd67, same as at BoomerTowne.

I will update you from time to time if I come to any conclusions. And this weekend, I plan to update the "Platinum Links" section at www.platinumyears.net, and here as well. - Bob

* P.S. As I was just about to "publish" this article, I went to BoomerTowne to confirm what I said about their gift cards, and lo and behold, they have updated their interface. So scratch the word "more" from the above. Both interfaces look great.

Tonight's Reviews: "Retired Brains" and "Boomer 411"

2008-04-22T23:56:00.004-04:00

Tonight I visited two more sites in our continuing review of PC Magazine's top ten boomer websites I'll take the easiest first.

"Retired Brains" is a very helpful site - provided you are looking for another job. My impression is that this site is much more for people who NEED to keep working or want to avoid idleness, as opposed to say a site like www.encore.org, that is more geared to helping you give back to your community or pursue a passion. The expressed mission of "Retired Brains" is "Helping Older Workers Find Jobs." There are also links to general information about government programs, health issues, retirement planning, etc., that you may want to check out, but I won't be recommending it except for people who are actually in the job market.

Tonight's other site is "Boomer411," whose expressed goal is to "help people access Trusted and Relevant content related to baby boomers quickly." And they do a great job at meeting that goal. Think of "Boomer411" as a boomer-specific search engine. It has a clean main page with links to recent articles of interest to boomers, and a cool intelligent search engine. When you enter a search term or phrase, you get results down the middle, and you also get suggested refinements to your search down the left hand side. Try it!

Boomer411 is definitely a valuable resource, and will be added as a "platinum link."

I'm still also having fun playing with the games and features at BoomerTowne. If any of you have joined, add me as a friend. My user name there is "bobmcd67."

That's it for tonight. Two more tomorrow. - Bob

Review of "TeeBeeDee" and "I Remember JFK"

2008-04-20T23:53:00.002-04:00

As promised, we're checking out the top ten boomer web sites this week. I already gave two thumbs up to BoomerTowne. Eons and AARP are already on my list. So tonight, I visited two new sites, "TeeBeeDee" (www.tbd.com) and "I Remember JFK" (www.irememberjfk.com)

TeeBeeDee, as they call themselves, stands for the letters TBD, as in "To Be Determined," which is an apt description of the rest of our lives. The description at PC Magazine led me to believe that it was more about finding a new career, something like www.encore.org, but it comes across as a pure social networking site.

To be sure, there are forums where you can discuss second careers, but this is one of about thirty discussion groups.

"I Remember JFK" is actually a blog, although the line between blog and website is pretty blurred by now. And I really didn't expect to like it, because there are so many "reminiscence blogs" written by boomers, but I can see why this one has risen to the top. I found myself connecting to the articles. They are very engaging and easy to relate to.

So I think I'll leave it there for now. I plan to check back to both of these sites and explore further. Meanwhile, Feel free to comment with your experiences. - Bob

Top Boomer Websites... Let's Check These Out Together

2008-04-19T23:55:00.006-04:00

Are you ready for some serious surfing? PC Magazine has just come out with a list of the top ten web sites for boomers. Actually, "just" is a relative word. It was actually about three weeks ago... I don't know how I missed it.

One of them, the AARP site, is already a "Platinum web site," and another, www.eons.com, is already a "Platinum Link" on our own website, www.platinumyears.net.

So what about the other eight? I have only gotten to check out one of them, BoomerTowne, which is a social networking, news, game, and resource site. It was number one on PC Magazine's list, and that's as far as I've gotten, since it mesmerized me for over two hours with games, jokes, news, articles, etc. In that respect, it is similar to eons.com, but BoomerTowne's menu choices and its "Main Street" layout seem easier. And BoomerTowne has something eons doesn't have.

For as long as you're navigating around BoomerTowne, you're earning points which, unlike other point-earning sites, can actually earn worthwhile prizes (many sites just allow points that earn entries into sweepstakes and such). Almost everything you do there earns points, even clicking on a link, rating a joke or submitting a question. In a couple of hours last night, I earned about 500 points. Now it takes 12,500 points to earn a $25 gift card, so don't expect instant riches :-) I figure that point total is worth about a buck, but the games are fun, many of the articles and links are interesting, and they even have some recognizable experts to whom you can submit questions. For example, their financial expert is Terry Savage, nationally syndicated Chicago Sun-Times personal finance columnist and a regular commentator on CNN, CNBC, PBS and NBC.

So BoomerTowne gets a thumbs up here, and I'll be checking out the rest as a project for this week. So by the end of the week, we should have a significantly heftier list of "Platinum Links." And if you want to join the fun and weigh in with your favorites, here's the link to the PC Magazine article. But you'd better allocate a couple of hours when you do. Judging by BoomerTowne, these sites are hard to pry yourself away from. :-) Bob

Top Ten Boomer Myths Exposed (Part 2)

2008-04-18T23:38:00.005-04:00

As promised yesterday, we continue the countdown of common myths about the Baby Boomer generation that were exposed in the AARP's Third Quarterly Boomer Report released on April 15th at www.aarp.org. The report, “How Well Do You Know Boomers? Counting Down the Top 10 Boomer Myths,” identified and investigated the top myths associated with Boomers in order to separate fact from fiction. My comments are in italics:

Myth #5 - Boomers are all wealthy

Collectively Boomers are the wealthiest generation in history, but only 9% are truly affluent (defined as having pre-tax incomes of $150,000 or more if working, or $100,000 or more if retired). In fact, one quarter of Boomers have no savings or investments at all. (It is for the other 91% that I created the Platinum Years Network... "Life planning for the rest of us.")

Myth #4 - Boomers are winding down with age

Actually, they are quite active, as the typical Boomer regularly participates in an average of 10 activities and the participation extends beyond going to church or gardening. They are traveling (60 million took at least one trip last year), attending live sporting events (22 million) and bicycling (11 million), among other activities. (We're not dead yet - Not by a long shot :-)

Myth #3 - Boomers are technologically challenged

Contrary to many assumptions, Boomers were in the workforce during the evolution of computers, e-mail and the Internet, and were the first to understand the value of technology. In fact, 82% of Boomers use the internet and their online activities extend beyond email to instant messaging, downloading music or movies, financial transactions and online gaming. (Some of us even have blogs :-)

Myth #2 – Boomers are the "Me Generation"

Boomers have typically been portrayed with the self-centered label the "Me Generation," but from their actions in later adulthood, this report reveals that a label of "We Generation" is more accurate. They are caring for others and caring for the world, with 70% saying they have a responsibility to make the world a better place. (I think this label comes from the stereotype that our parents indulged us as kids... remember that Baby and Child Care book by Dr. Benjamin Spock that a lot of our parents used? Personally, I didn't feel too indulged when I was working multiple jobs and going to night school.)

Myth #1 - Boomers are all the same

The media often portray the members of the baby boom generation as a monolith – 77 million people thinking, acting, behaving and buying all in the same way. Nothing could be further from the truth. More life events occur between the ages of 50-65 than in any other time in a person’s life, with the typical Boomer experiencing an average of two major life events around career, family, finance or health each year. These life events can have a major impact on attitudes, life goals and consumer behavior. It is a mistake to think of this cohort as all alike, and it is not all about age. Recognizing the differences among Boomers and understanding the truths behind the myths can help marketers craft products, strategies and messages that will resonate with this generation.

(So all generalizations are false, including these... but seriously, one problem with the term boomer, as I mentioned yesterday, is that somebody decided it should cover a twenty year band in age. Probably if we restricted it to true post war babies over a 5-10 year period, we'd look a lot more homogeneous.)

Hope you enjoyed this exercise. If you want more, you can access the whole report at https://www.focalyst.com/Sites/Focalyst/Content/KnowledgeCenter/ - Bob