More about Me

Posted by: Gene M. | Dec 13,2007

Married with Children has several good ideas about trimming your budget, which can also trim your waistline.  This is probably more important for Boomers, as we have to look after our health much more diligently, as well as looking at our current debt portfolio as we are nearing retirement.  

There’s also the issue of Boomers needing to live below their means.  This week I’ve taking Boomers to task for being part of the Me generation.  Boomers spend like crazy.  They’re no better than college students who rack up huge student debt without regard to their future.  As a result, a lot of Boomers are being met with the cold, hard truth: they don’t have enough saved for retirement and need to start saving/investing fast.  

Cutting corners on a budget has two-fold uses.  First, it ensures that you’ll save up for retirement and filter some of those funds to investments.  Second, it will get you in the habit of living a more ascetic life come retirement.  The fact is that most retirees aren’t living it up, traveling 365 days a year.  Sure, there’s a cruise every now and then, or some other type of travel, but many retirees live a spare life.

Baby Boomers, though, are a different breed of retiree.  As they are more apt to enjoy the fruits of life (sometimes to their own financial detriment) they are looking to travel more post-retirement.  If this is the case for you, you need to think about saving aggressively now. This means cutting down on unnecessary expenses, paying off long-term high-interest debt, and funneling money into any available matching funds. It’s not unheard of for people to even take on a new job late in life – perhaps a part-time, at-home business.  If you don’t, you may not be able to continue on with your current quality of life.  

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