10 Ways Baby Boomers Will Reinvent Retirement

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As the article points out, Boomers have less saved for retirement. Boomers are rethinking how & where to retire. Lake Weir Living (LWL) in Central Florida has evolved the active adult/retirement lifestyle concept to answer the needs of today's Boomers. Boomers can still have fun and play hard. LWL, is a "Toy-Friendly" Community (8 miles from The Villages & 55 miles to Orlando), for Boomers frustrated with oppressive HOA restrictions & fees. New custom-homes from the $90s with no HOA and toy-fitted garages for "Toys" such as boats, motorcycles, RVs, and more. Visit their Blog for videos of new homes:
http://www.lakeweirlivingblog.com

lakeweirliving of FL 8:47PM July 18, 2010

As soon to be retirees, my husband and I have been planning for this since we relocated south to be near grandchildren. He has a substantial pension and works a part time job. I have a small pension and work full time. We have been socking away the majority of my paycheck, all of his and living on exactly what we will have to live on when we do retire. We will be debt free except for a small mortgage. Have no plans to help our adult children. We paid for their college educations and they are on their own, working and providing for their families. Our one surviving parent has sufficient funds to meet her needs.
We are truly blessed, but then we have lived frugally all of our lives and plan now to do all those things on the BUCKET LIST--starting with the Passion Play in Oberamergau Germany this fall and a 20 day Mediterranean cruise next fall.
My advice to young couples is to save, stay out of debt and watch your investments carefully. Make wise choices and sacrifices now to be where you want to be in the future. You can live without granite countertops and stainless steel appliances and believe it not, your children can even share a room. I know this is counter culture, but who says the culture is correct.

Deb of SC 8:07PM July 14, 2010

Deb, Deb, Deb, please?...Obama? ...Really? Where have you been over the 8 years during the past regime? Where? Go back and look at your economic and wartime timeline...see who the investors are in companies set to rebuild, how many politicians invested, how many special interest groups brought politicians. Who's family have been crippling this country since the turn of the century and has been involved in this country's political structure multiple times. Double dipping on tax payers, right before our eyes...that's where the problem is...self-interest, so that the money it takes to get into office is far less that they're going to steal from the people once they get into office. The American Dollar has never been so weak...the fix will take much longer to work out of, there will be many casualties...because it's been going on for so long. Washington white collar criminals need to be expelled from the Cap City and banished to the island of lost, where their money will do them absolutely no good...for their greed.

Des of PA 1:35PM July 06, 2010

Spend a little before retiring. Buy new appliances. New appliances will last roughly 10 years. Re-roof with a roof that will last throughout your retirement. Have trees removed that could damage your home if they fell. Have any structural damage to your home repaired. Replace drafty windows and doors. Add more insulation. Last but not least, replace your heating and air conditioning system. We were doing this and we planned on me retiring at 66. Thank God most of it was done before I had to retire for medical reasons.

Mark of KS 2:19PM June 30, 2010

The biggest thing to do is to pay your house off. Monthly put the house payment into a savings account. Move your savings into a certificate of deposit once the account reaches a predetermined amount. This rebuilds your nest egg. If you use a 401-k to pay it off, be cognizant that the government is going to call it earnings and tax you for it. It has taken us two years to rebuild the savings the government took as taxes. It will take another 5 years for us to rebuild the savings to our pre-medical retirement amount.

Mark of KS 1:45PM June 30, 2010

As an RN with fibromyalgia and numerous other health related problems, it will be a real struggle for me to work until full retirement age. As a matter of fact, it will be difficult for me to work until I qualify for Medicare...and I will soon be 62. I, like many others, would encourage young people today to learn to live within their means, learn to live on less than what they make and above all to start saving early. One never knows what kind of health problems might be right around the corner that will prevent one from working full time until Medicare eligibility is reached.

Janie Richard of TN 1:58PM June 19, 2010

Before my husband retired
we knew retirement was around the corner, so we put all we could into our 401k, hoping to make some money for retirement. We charged a lot on credit cards, thinking we would pay it with our 'earnings' from the stock market. We had a zero interest rate card, but they changed the date and I didn't notice and paid it on the regular date which made it late. Suddenly our interest was 18% on the credit card and the market had already fallen.
Once we paid off all debt, then it freed up money that had been going to payments on what we owed. That freed up money gave us a lot of 'spending' money.
the rest is under Jo of AR above...

Jo of AR 3:10PM June 01, 2010

we new retirement was around the corner, so we put all we could into our 401k, hoping to make some money for retirement. We charged a lot, think we would pay it with our 'earnings' from the market. We had a zero interest card, but they changed the date and I didn't notice. Suddenly our interest was 18% and the market had already fallen.
We were getting 1% on our 401k savings and didn't want to invest in the market, by then. We decided to cash out enough from our 401k to pay off everything we owed.
We paid off the high interest card first thing. One thing about paying off high interest rate cards is that you are 'saving' but don't have to pay interest on the savings.
It is unbelievable how being debt free gives you more money to spend. Those payments we were making on the car, credit card etc, are enough to give you some 'real spending' money.

Jo of AR 3:02PM June 01, 2010

is the way to should have been used.
Most people want to work as long as they can, so the retirement age should be left alone. Some do well to work until they are 62, but others will work until they are 80 unless they are laid off.
Some are good at their job at 80 and others can be pitiful at their job at 30.

Jo of AR 2:52PM June 01, 2010

Before she starts throwing rocks at the writing skills of people who leave comments on the internet, "Laura MS, BSMT, M/CLS (ASCP) of AZ" needs to step out of her glass house.
Laura ought to have said "grammar," not "grammer," and "to see this," not "too see this."
Unless she used a cleaver to edit her resume, she is wrong to write that she "literally" chopped material from it.
And, needless to say, words in which one must substitute asterisks in place of letters before they can be posted in public are not evidence of a particularly elevated command of English.
We all make writing errors -- young and old, those who post on the internet, and those who never do. Most of us are able to communicate well enough to get our point across.
I posted about this yesterday, but that post seems to have disappeared. I wonder why?

Larry Cooper of AR 6:13AM May 31, 2010