What Season Best Describes You?

Guest Blog Post by Ivette Harris

The changing colors of fall best describes me. This is the season where the heaviness of years gone by fall down and blow away. The weight of leaves, the nest of newborns, and over-ripened fruit all drift aside and forge into new beginnings.  For me, it is the time to shed the used portions of life, to rest, and regroup in the enchanting fragrance of new-found time. Fall is a charming season in life – like a shedding of the old life, the old career, the old routine, and the old thoughts. 

Retirement reminds me of fall, the season of life filled with a zealous spirit for upcoming celebrations spiced with the perfect décor for the quirky part of my journey. My limbs are bare of career responsibility, my nest is empty of children, both mine and others, and I have discovered a euphoric feeling in my home. 

In this season, I find a vivacious view for life to come, like sowing the seeds to learn creative writing skills, and I plan to do more.  

What season best describes you?

Are You Running Out of Time or Money?

 

As most of my friends and I come closer to retirement, the questions looms:  Will we run out of money first or die without being able to spend it all?

According to a recent survey conducted by the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association of America (TIAA), more than half of all Americans (55 percent) believe they will run out of time before they get to do all of the things on their "bucket list." These people believe they have enough retirement savings to last them another 20-30 years and that's why they say they want to make retiring early a top priority  

On the other hand, 45 percent say they worry about running out of money and they say making savings last is their top priority.  Another 30 percent say the events of 2020 have negatively impacted their feelings about their retirement savings and, as a result, they have fallen behind in their retirement savings progress.

More than 70 percent of those surveyed believe it's important to have guaranteed lifetime income, such as an annuity, to make sure your essential expenses are covered and it will allow you to be more flexible in your spending.  So what is an annuity?  It is a long-term investment that is issued by an insurance company and designed to help protect you from the risk of outliving your income.  Learn more here:  Annuity

The top barriers of saving more for retirement include:

Outstanding debt

Low wages

More need for emergency funds

Other savings priorities

So where do you see yourself when it comes to retirement?  Do you think you'll run out of money or time? 

Will You Outlast Your Retirement Savings?

It used to be when you retired you got a gold watch (or some other trinket), a send-off party, and a nice pension to rely on every month in addition to your social security check.  At one time nearly 90 percent of private sector workers had a pension as their workplace retirement plan which was FULLY FUNDED by the employer.  Today that number is down to 33 percent.

These days the idea of collecting a pension from your employer is practically non-existent. Unlike our parents, most baby boomers aren't likely to spend their entire working lives on one job to benefit from a pension.  In addition, more employers have opted to offer 401K retirement plans where you have to contribute a portion of your salary if you expect to get anything in return. 

According to a survey by the Insured Retirement Institute, only 24 percent of baby boomers were confident their savings would last throughout their retirement years.  That's a dismal thought considering the fact that we are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day through at least 2030.  What's even more dismal is the survey also indicates approximately 35 million of us lack any retirement savings today.

Admit it.  If you knew then what you know now, you would've been saving like crazy.  Back in the 80's I had a retirement savings plan.  I had no real clue of its value so I used it as my personal spending account.  I FAILED to plan for my future life expectancy and even though I pride myself with being smart I was financially illiterate.  I had a lack of knowledge about what it meant to do retirement planning and saving and when you have a LACK OF KNOWLEDGE you have a lack of savings and investments.

 Financial Investment Advisor, Chris Gure says "Baby Boomers have spend the last 30 plus years in the workforce accumulating their savings in order to retire.  It should be imperative to them to have a trusted financial advisor to help alleviate their financial stress." And while the 401K may help jump start your retirement, Gure says it may not always be tailored for a retiree's changing investment needs, transitioning from accumulation to distribution isn't always easy and that's why it's important and helpful to have someone guiding you through the process.

There's an old Chinese proverb that says, The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now (or 40 years depending on how old you are).

How Long Will You Have to Work Before You Can Retire?

The news is not looking good if you take stock in a new survey regarding retirement.  According to research conducted by GoBankingRates.Com, 1 in 5 Americans fear they may never be able to stop working because there won't be enough money to live on.  Although the survey doesn't address why these fears exist, is is safe to say lower wage-paying jobs and fewer job opportunities are having a significant impact.  What should also be duly noted here is the fact that, because of a tight job market, you may find Millennials and older adults competing for the same jobs.

Baby Boomers, between the ages of 55-64 reflect the largest group that is skeptical of being able to leave the workforce at retirement age (27 percent), followed by Generation Y (25 percent) and Millennials (20 percent).

In addition to retirement woes, those surveyed are also worried about:

1)  Living paycheck to paycheck

2)  Living in debt forever

3)  Losing their jobs

4)  Losing all of their money in the stock market

5) Never being able to afford a home

6) Always having a low credit score

When it comes to gender, more women than men fear living from paycheck to paycheck, while more men are worried they will never be able to retire.  Both men and women say their least fear is always having a low credit score.

If you break it down by region, it appears people living in the South have the greatest fears of never being able to retire and always living from paycheck to paycheck----in comparison to people in the Northeast whose biggest fear is living in debt forever.

What are some of your biggest financial fears as you age?

The South Offers More than a Place to Retire for Baby Boomers

What do Abilene, TX, Asheville, NC, Athens, GA, Blacksburg, VA and Cape Coral, FL all have in common?  Forbes has named these cities among the Top Ten Best Places to Retire in 2015.  And, in case you don't now your geography, all of these cities are located in the South.

But there's even more good news about the South according to the results of a newly released Harris Poll. More people below the Mason-Dixon line have a positive attitude about the future of the job market.

Here's how it breaks down according to the Harris Poll:

·  Positive attitudes toward regional job markets are strongest in the South and the West (34% each, vs. 29% in the Midwest and 23% in the East).

·  Easterners are the most pessimistic about the job market in their region, with 46% describing it as bad (vs. 38% each in the Midwest and South, and 33% in the West).

Additionally, men (35%) are more likely than women (27%) to rate the job market in their region positively.

Millennials are more likely than their elders to anticipate that the job market will improve in their region (31%, vs. 24% Gen Xers, 22% baby Boomers and 25% Matures).

Meanwhile, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this year, the African American unemployment rate was 10.4 percent, compared to the white unemployment rate of 4.7 percent and national average of 5.5 percent.

  

Boomers and Retirement Worries

High medical expenses are Americans' biggest financial worry about retirement, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. 28% of Americans gave this response; the highest-income households (over $75,000 per year) are actually more concerned about high medical expenses than the overall population. Running out of money is the biggest fear for millennials (18-29 year-olds) and a close second overall.

One-third of Americans say they can't save more for retirement because they have just enough money for their day-to-day expenses. 14% blame other family obligations and 10% lay fault with their student loan debt (millennials were more than twice as likely to give this answer than other age groups). 29% are satisfied with the amount they are currently saving.

Working Americans are realistic about Social Security's role in their eventual retirements: just 13% expect it to account for all or most of their retirement income, while another 14% expect it to account for half their retirement income. About one in four believe they won't get anything.

"The average Social Security payout is only around $15,000 per year, so people are realistic to think they'll need to supplement that income," said Sheyna Steiner, senior investing analyst at Bankrate.com. "But despite all the gloom and doom about the future of Social Security, most Americans are optimistic that they'll get at least something from the program. That even includes millennials – 63% of them think Social Security will fund at least some of their retirement several decades from now."

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/survey-americans-racked-by-retirement-fears.aspx

Job or Career After 50

If you're at least 50 years old chances are you've had a few jobs over the course of your lifetime. As for me, I'm going on job #11 (not including my own business start-up). The overwhelming number of those jobs were supposed to lead to advancement on my career track. A few did, while others simply moved me into another tax bracket.

So here I am, closer to retirement, working in a JOB that has moved me totally out of my comfort zone and into a world that I have been totally unfamiliar with: time clocks, micro-management, and younger bosses. My ego-driven personality would find this job unbearable but the "thankful for the opportunity" side of me is prepared to suck it up for the greater good.

So what is a job?

A job is something you do simply to earn money.

A job has minimal impact on your future work life.

A job offers few networking opportunities.

A job can stunt your growth mentally and physically.

The good news is you can turn a job into a new career after 50.

Although I was hired for a specific job, I have set my sights on another position inside the company. My plan is to use the skills I've developed over the years and make them marketable for that department. Not only do I see my my skills as an advantage, but I also see my age AND race as bonuses based on the hiring practices of this particular company.

The truth of the matter is, over our lifetime we've acquired many useful skills, whether it was in a previous career or through other life experiences. You'd be surprised to see how skills can transfer across occupations.

Although you may be hired for one position (like I was), you can use your experience to move into a position that will showcase your talents. Many older workers are led to believe that age works against them when, in essence, it can be your trump card. Age is only a factor if you make it one by being a know-it-all, difficult to communicate with and someone who thrives on telling everyone else how to do their jobs.

You can shine in a new career after 50.

Baby Boomer Women Not Prepared for Retirement

The financial picture for single baby boomer women is looking bleak. According to the latest research, single female baby boomers are the least-prepared to financially navigate their way through their senior years.

About 40 percent of female baby boomers are single now -- up from 30 percent in 1989. Nationally, there are about 17 million single females ages 46 to 64; about two-thirds of them are separated, divorced, or widowed.

Although many baby boomer women stayed home, at least for a time, to raise their children, the generation brought the first sizable number of women to the workforce. But those who joined the work force earned less than their male counterparts, nationally about 77 cents to the man's dollar.

And many who devoted their prime to motherhood find themselves divorced and returning to a work force that doesn't have space or patience for them. These women have less time to build up their Social Security savings or 401(k) plans.

The Federal Reserve Board found in 2001 that only a third of single women had any sort of retirement savings account; at the same time, fewer than 10 percent of single women had pensions through their jobs.

The AARP says boomer women are ill prepared for long-term-care needs. According to a survey of boomer women, more than half of female baby boomers do not have a long-term-care insurance policy, and two-thirds said they couldn't afford the premiums.

Click here to read more: Boomer women and retirement

Where will you retire, baby boomer?

AARP, The Magazine recently announced its top five retirement communities. Since I’m a baby boomer who will eventually retire some day, I was eager to see the cities named. After reviewing the list, I wondered how they came up with those particular cities. Editor Steve Sloan says they looked at a variety of things including: "mass-transit systems so residents can drive less, expanded sidewalks to encourage walking, better health care, and a wide range of mixed use housing."

See for yourself:

Top Five Cities to Live in for 2007:

Atlanta, GA: A sophisticated metropolis with southern charm, Atlanta offers abundant volunteer and cultural opportunities. Retirees also appreciate the wide range of housing options.

My thoughts: Atlanta is, indeed, a metropolis---way too busy for me with traffic that would make you want to commit road rage or have a heart attack.

Beacon Hill in Boston, MA: This historically genteel part of Boston is full of culture and great restaurants. The Beacon Hill Village provides concierge style access to a network of support services for aging residents including transportation, healthcare and entertainment.

My thoughts: I’ve lived in Boston and know exactly where Beacon Hill is. It was EXPENSIVE to live there back then and I can’t imagine that its changed much. I certainly don’t want to use up all of my retirement money just trying to keep a roof over my head.

Chandler, AZ: Gracious desert living combined with an activist twist that encourages residents to get involved with the spirit of the town. A city climate and plenty of parks and open space provide ample recreation opportunities.

My thoughts: Never been there but the word “desert” doesn’t sit well for me with “hot flashes.”

Milwaukee, WI: An example of urban renewal at its best, Milwaukee features picturesque river walks and affordable water-front living.

My thoughts: Beer is brewed there, isn’t it?

Portland, OR: European charm meets environmental nirvana in this environmentally progressive city. 50-plus residents love the miles of safe bike lanes and the revitalized Pearl District.

My thoughts: I can’t see myself riding for miles on a bicycle; besides, I haven’t been on one in years.

OK…so here are my Top Five Places to Retire---in no particular order:

Asheville, NC
New Bern, NC
Merrimack, NH
St. Lucia (in the Caribbean)
Sedona, Arizona

What are YOUR Top 5?

Can I Afford to Live after Retirement?

An interesting study released today by Scottsrade has me thinking very seriously about my future as a member of the "retirement community." The study makes me question whether or not I can afford to retire or will I have to keep working well into my 70s--maybe even 80s--just to be able to survive from paycheck to paycheck.

According to the study: Forty-two percent of American Baby Boomers (1), those between the ages of 45 and 64, say they will not have enough money to do the things they want to do when they retire and nearly one-third (31 percent) say they will have to cut back on their current lifestyle in retirement, according to the 2007 American Retirement Study by Scottrade, the leading branch-supported online investment firm. With over 78.2 million Baby Boomers, this aging population may soon find itself in dire straits.

According to Scottrade’s 2007 American Retirement Study: * 65 percent believe they have not saved enough for retirement * 29 percent have saved less than $25,000 for retirement * 23 percent of Boomers say they will never be able to retire and not need to earn an income * 41 percent will have to keep working during retirement “There’s a disparity here in that while most Boomers feel very unprepared financially for retirement, this demographic remains keenly aware of the problem but is not addressing it properly,” said Chris X. Moloney, Scottrade’s chief marketing officer. “This may be a case of doing too little, too late. Three in ten have saved under $25,000, which is concerning.”

According to the study, the biggest financial concern among Boomers (62 percent) was having enough money for retirement. Boomers also expressed other general financial concerns, including: * Having enough money to cover healthcare related costs (50 percent) * Paying for unexpected, major expenses (50 percent) * Protecting family in case of premature death/disability (43 percent) * Getting a good return on investment (44 percent) * Protecting wealth (38 percent) * Having too much debt (36 percent) * Caring for elderly parents/relatives (35 percent) With 51 percent of Boomers relying on 401(k) plans to provide the necessary resources in retirement, 37 percent also have IRAs, SEPs or similar retirement plans, according to Scottrade.

Aren't we supposed to be the generation who's making enough money to be able to save for a rainy day? Or are we the ones who have the attitude, "Since I can't take it with me I might as well spend it!"

If this study is accurate, I'd say there's going to be a whole lot of baby boomers living on welfare in the not too distant future.

What a mess, huh?

Baby Boomers are Getting the Shaft

Corporate America is responsible for pitting the younger workers against the older, more experienced employees. We are being shoved aside for younger, but not necessarily brighter, employees. It’s a disturbing trend that is bound to make matters worse as businesses look for cheaper way to run their operations.

Corporate America must take some of the responsibility for pitting the young against the old. Many companies don't want to pay for experience. They would rather hire someone with the ability to do the job for less money than pay top dollar to a more experienced older employee. Some businesses aren't as interested in quality as they are in the bottom line: PROFIT.

Young people, eager to get a foot in the door, often times will accept less money and learn just enough to move on. What some businesses fail to realize is knowledge and years of experience go a long way in keeping them from making the same mistakes over and over again.

According to a researcher from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, potential employers are more likely to discriminate against older workers. Johanna Lahey sent out 4,000 resumes, of people between the ages of 35 and 62, to firms in Boston, MA and St. Petersburg, FL. Her findings indicated younger workers were 40 percent more likely to be called back for an interview than an older worker, defined as 50 years and older. Furthermore, she cited the top ten reasons why employers said OTHER employers might be reluctant to hire older workers:

1) Shorter career potential
2) Lack of energy
3) Cost of health and life insurance and pensions
4) Less flexible/adaptable
5) Higher salary expectations
6) Health risks/absences
7) Knowledge and skills obsolescence
8) Block career path of younger workers
9) Suspicion about competence
10) Fear of discrimination lawsuit

The truth of the matter is baby boomers are living longer and need to make ends meet just like their younger counterparts. Corporate America must be willing to recognize the pool of talented applicants no matter how old they are.


Beverly Mahone is an author who writes about issues affecting baby boomers in her book, "Whatever! A Baby Boomer's Journey Into Middle Age."

Can You Afford to Live after Retirement?

We Baby Boomer Divas love to shop til' we drop! But I've recently discovered that I may end up passing out and be in need of some serious resuscitation when it comes to looking for a place to live out my golden years.

Unlike the old days when people just migrated South because of the nice, warm weather, I'm not necessarily looking for the warmest climate but I am looking to go where the action is. Retired does NOT mean dead so I want to make sure I'm in a place that is thriving with lots of night life and entertainment. But it looks as though the places I would be considering at this time are way out of my price range.

Take SAN FRANCISCO for example:

Typical monthly mortgage payment: $3,536. And that's only to live in the house. Never mind the furniture, transportation, groceries, parties, etc.

Then there's the beautiful suburbs of OXNARD-THOUSAND OAKS where the typical monthly mortgage payment is $3,252.

Dionne Warwick once asked the question, "Do you know the way to SAN JOSE?" Well, looking at a monthly mortgage payment of $3,668, coupled with a property-tax payment of $308 makes me glad I don't know how to get there!


And why is it that 7 out of the top 10 most expensive places to live in the U.S. are all in California? Hasn't anyone told real estate developers out there that the whole state is going to fall into the ocean soon? Shouldn't that mean we could get record deals on housing?

It doesn't get any better if I want to retire in the city that never sleeps. The typical monthly housing payment in New York is $2,262.

Well at these prices I might just have to stay right where I am.

To read more about the most expensive paces to live, please visit my website: http://www.thebabyboomerdiva.com