Baby Boomers – Coming of Age or What I'm Going To Do When I Retire

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I’ve been reading a lot about baby boomers lately. I find myself being a part of the largest group of people in history. Baby Boomers are the generation of people who were born between 1946 and 1964. The oldest baby boomers are celebrating their 61st birthdays with many of them beginning to consider retirement. If the boomers haven’t planned carefully, they might find themselves stuck between taking care of their children who are still living at home and their aged parents who are for the most part in their 80s. Many boomers are realizing their retirement means simply transferring from one lifestyle to another as they search for jobs that hire senior citizens to help them meet the rising cost of living. If boomers haven’t had adequate time to build a retirement plan or just simply didn’t think of it in time, they might find themselves the largest group of citizens having to depend on their children or possibly the government to take care of them in their golden years. I’m especially pleased that my husband has worked enough years and paid into our retirement account long enough to at least keep us from starving to death as we begin to meet our retirement years. We have been able to plan aggressively toward our retirement as we realized the value of a solid retirement account many years ago. It would certainly be a financial plus if we are fortunate enough to keep our Social Security but in the event that goes by the wayside, our retirement account is secure and will hopefully be adequate to carry us through as many years as we hope to enjoy. The face of retirement for boomers is certainly painted differently as we, being the largest single group of individuals, prepare to meet our retirement. There are different views on every level, depending on who has prepared the survey. For the most part, we are healthier than generations before us and in many instances, after us. We are living longer and staying fit longer allowing for more recreational retirement than ever before. Instead of following the retirement paths our parents and grandparents took, some of us are making arrangements now to be able to afford a more active retirement when it does find us. We are taking up activities such as golf, boating and hiking or camping in our old age. Some boomers are preparing to sell everything they have in order to purchase a home on wheels and make their permanent address somewhere out in the wide open spaces of our beautiful country. It’s certainly not outside the possibilities of this old gal and her baby boomer husband to be found in the next few years driving our new F250 pulling a fifth wheel and bass boat. There’s too much to do and see inside the United States to think about sitting home in front of the television for the rest of our lives watching reruns of Andy Griffith. I’m not quite ready to do that and want to hopefully, finally do the things we’ve worked for all our lives. So, if you see a bright red F250 pulling a 28’ fifth wheel with a red bass boat tied on the end, give us a wave and a fair weather blessing. It’s just a couple of old folks enjoying their retirement and having a good old time in the process. Gas prices be damned.