Tail End Boomers, Retirement Plans, and The Upside of Everything

Countdown to retirement – especially if you’re over 55 – is probably on your mind. But unlike watching the ball drop during the most famous of annual countdowns, there’s more than just cause for celebration when you finish the work day; there is also cause for concern if you’re not set up for life after a steady paycheck.

Those at the end of the Baby Boom generation – so if you’re between 55-65 – are seeing the brunt of this lack of readiness, thought it’s not their fault. When America began pulling out of the recession, it was great news for younger members of the workforce. But for the tail end of the Boomers, it was actually not.  According to Fortune, “These families do not have time for an economic turnaround to improve their situation. They must rely on the wealth they have accumulated to date to support them in retirement, and that is it. This is not a pretty picture.” And unfortunately, they don’t have a lot of wealth.

To understand what got these Boomers in a financial pickle, we have to look back in time. Ten or twenty years ago, many Boomers purchased homes, which preceded to first skyrocket in value, then plummet in value when the bubble burst in 2008. As the housing market tanked, so did economy – and so did their investment retirement funds. For the younger workforce, this wasn’t a huge problem; they still had plenty of time to recover their losses (and market stats prove that over long periods of time, the market does go up). But the tail end of the Baby Boomers might not be in the workforce long enough for the economic recovery to impact them enough to save their retirement funds.

Thankfully, your retirement future is not all doom, gloom and flying monkeys (in fact, we decidedly live in a flying monkey free zone, so that’s a bonus right there) – promise. First, almost half of Americans anticipate working into their 70’s – which gives the 55-65 crowd more time to recover anything they lost. Couple that with smart investing – maximizing your 401(k) perhaps, or looking at alternative options – and suddenly your financial retirement future is looking a lot brighter.

There’s a lot of negative news out there about retirement, investments, and the economy. Remember, it’s all just that: news. It’s not set-in-stone, and it’s not determining the course of your retirement. What we read and hear about retirement is just information we can do something with – like change how we’re set up financially.

If you’re interested in hearing more about how to get the most bang for your savings buck, please contact us today!

 

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