Retiring For Fun And Profit

If you're a Baby Boomer or older, your retirement will likely be different from the way your parents retired. In the old days, late last century, most people expected to be in a job--and in a career--for a very long time. And then, after working hard and loyally for the same company for that entire time period, the company would pay a "pension." The most unique thing about a pension is that it rhymes with tension, which is what most retirees felt--or are now feeling--as their pensions either trickle away, or just get flushed away altogether.
There were many reasons for this but one of the most common was that the company from which the retiree retired had difficulties being responsible with all of that pension money. Sometimes the money was used for "business purposes" which could be anything from lunches to Lear Jets. Sometimes it was because the company "went out of business," and as the senior execs landed safely elsewhere under the protection of their "golden parachutes," the people depending on their pension for retirement were left with nothing. There are probably retirees somewhere living their life happily ever after and who are receiving every single penny that they deserve from the pension that they worked so hard for--they're hard to find, though. And even those folks who still actually have a pension may not be all that comfortable anyway, because a pension that looked good back in the sixties today looks more like a child's allowance--a meager one at that.

Many people facing retirement today are looking at it in a whole new light, from an entirely different perspective. They have come to two realizations, in some cases startling ones. First, the reality is that it is expensive to live today, and trying to make a go of it on a fixed income--when costs keep going up--may not be all that realistic, and certainly not all that fun. Second, these people, for many reasons, seem to have a lot more energy as they approach retirement age than our forefathers did. This is perhaps due to a better diet, maybe because of a heightened focus on personal health and wellness. For whatever reason though, today's new retirees don't seem to be all that excited about the prospects of an endless amount of idle time.

The solution seems to be retiring comfortably into a second career. A growing number of career professionals, as they move into middle age, are hanging up their corporate suits and ties, and hanging out entirely new shingles. Many are finding opportunities on the internet to make money--sometimes lots of money--and which keep them industriously occupied and mentally focused. Most importantly though, they're having fun.