Boomers Dealing with Wall Street Jitters

I've been reading a lot online about what is happening on Wall Street. I wish I had something positive to say about it, but I'm not actually sure that I do. It seems the $700 billion government lifeline to our failing financial institutions hasn't exactly stabilized Wall Street. In fact, it appears shakier than ever.

So, what is a close-to-retirement-maybe boomer to do? It'd be nice if there were some pat answer to that. The cure-all potion, the red-hot button that would just fix everything. But, there isn't. Even as it stands, the majority of 55+ Americans have less than $250,000 in assets. And with what just happened on Wall Street, that number probably just grew.

My mother initially retired at 65. She was really happy about it. She was tired of her job and wanted to spend her time drawing and enjoying her farm. What she found out is that she was comfortable with her income. So 2 years later, she went back to work. She didn't officially retire again for another 5 years. Finally, at 73 she stopped working. The good news, is that she was considered such a vital part of her organization, they called her a few months later and asked if she would please at least consult for them. She refused and we went to Indonesia for a month instead.

Watching my mother work until she was 73 certainly made me want to watch my money a lot more closely and start planning for my retirement. With, yes, the mixture of investments both in real estate and on the market. Because of my desire to save heavily now, I often find myself not wanting to spend too much money just to 'have fun'...

BUT, of course, what is the point if we aren't having fun?! I recently heard of a woman who died alone in her home. She had $3million in the bank.

I know that in my life there has always been food on the table, a roof over my head, a sunrise or a sunset to enjoy and, most importantly, there has always been my friends and family with laughter, love and good cheer.

I do know that my true needs in life are very few and I am blessed with abundance in those areas.

As you probably know we have a MoneyWise track at our conference in December. Our concept is to look not simply at balancing the check book, but at changing our perspectives on money.

http://www.festivalofthewise.com/conference/moneywise.html

The World According to Wall Street

So, after taking a deep breath, I look at the wall street journal... And, well, as we all know, it's not pretty out there. In fact, I don't even really want to look, but, you have to right? You've got to keep track of your finances and know what's going on in the world, in your business and in your retirement accounts. And mine took the worst hit in the last month they've ever taken. Thank goodness I have the better part of my money in real estate. While it's definitely taken a hit, if I keep it for another 15 or 20 years, chances are it'll bounce back.

Well, let's face it, we've got to make ends meet and to do that, we've got to not only understand more about money, but we've got to know about where we are in our lives and, even, about our own mental financial blueprint. These are some of the topics we're going to be looking at in our MoneyWise conference track. We realize money isn't all about numbers. While numbers are important, the psychology of your past experiences and your future goals are intricately connected to your financial manifestation. So, while yes, some sessions are going to look at counting money, earning money and investing money, others are going to be about you and how you interact with money.

You can see some of the sessions we're offering here:
http://www.festivalofthewise.com/conference/moneywise.html

Green Boomers

As someone who has been known to get upset by the amount of plastic wrapping vegetables in the grocery store, I was terribly pleased when it became obvious that we needed to add a green track to our conference program! With 1 out of every 2 Boomers in America considering themselves 'Green Boomers' it only makes sense that we respond.

We've called it the GreenWise track and it's going to incorporate some great topics such as: 

"Going Green on a Budget"

"Simple Ways to Lessen Your Carbon Footprint"

"Can I really Save Using Solar Paneling?"

You can read the press release here:

http://www.festivalofthewise.com/news/press/pressrelease4.html

We're also looking for additional presenters for this conference track so if you've got something you want to talk about fill out a presenter for and send it in. You can get the presenter form here: http://www.festivalofthewise.com/conference/conference.html

Other conference tracks include: health, travel, lifestyle, technology & money.

Boomers : Finding Passion and Purpose

So, it's 6pm and I finally turn to our BoomerWise blog, which is fun for me to write. But, my head, when tossing around ideas of what to write about, only seems to be giving me one word:

Work

Well, I guess that's because for me, its been one of those work days. The day when the minute you get off the phone - it rings again and again and again - and five phone calls later the 2 projects you started the day with are buried beneath 5 new urgent items. 

Fortunately for me, I'm extremely passionate about my work and believe in the value of what I'm working on everyday. I made the decision in the last couple of years to switch industries and roles and take up my current position. More and more we are seeing this type of mid-career switch is also true for boomers. They want to be in a job they truly care about.

Boomerz is the Scottsdale boomer association that is specifically focused on recareering and the Festival of the Wise is very fortunate to have Cindy Cooke, the director of Boomerz, moderating a panel they developed called:

Passion & Purpose: Finding Flexible and Meaningful Opportunities in Mid-Life

This panel will feature boomers who will share their personal journeys, the reasons for the major changes they made in mid-life, their doubts, sacrifices, and joys they encountered along the way.

You can find out more about this talk here:

http://www.festivalofthewise.com/conference/lifewise.html

And more about Boomerz here:

http://www.boomerzwork.com/