The phenomenon of a worker who may have been in the work force for 40 years suddenly starting a new career at 50 or over is a trend that is exploding as baby boomers hit that age bracket.  There has always been a phenomenon of older workers trying something new but the trend has hit such a new high in the baby boomer retirement picture.  So you have to wonder what about baby boomers makes them want to start new careers late in life.

Part of it has to do with the way business has functioned in the last few decades.  In our parents working years, the norm was to work for the same company and be a “company man” for 40-50 years, get that old watch and retire with a handsome retirement package.  That formula just doesn’t work any more.

For one thing, retirement plans supported by employers have become a thing of the past.  Savings for retirement have plummeted as the financial demands of life are all most people can keep up with.  So the concept of working on into what used to be called retirement years is now a given if for no other reason than financial necessity.

The model we just laid out of employees staying with the same company for their entire adult lives is simply no longer a reality for all but a few in the modern work force.  Most baby boomers have worked for dozens of companies in their adult lives so their retirement packages, if they exist at all, are small.  Part of this can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of baby boomers.  But there has been a discernable shift in the way American business works as well.  Companies don’t like the idea of keeping employees that long.  Add to that the fact that so many companies have gone out of business been absorbed in huge corporate buy outs or undergone drastic downsizing that by the time most boomers hit their 50s and 60s, the idea of keeping one single career moving forward is pretty hard to sustain.

But these negative explanations are not all there is to why baby boomers are starting over late in life.  Boomers never did accept that the rules of life or aging applied to them.  They are ambitious, adventurous and willing to strike on new paths with much less fear than previous generations.  As boomers have faced some of the challenges of the economy and the modern business world, they have responded aggressively by starting businesses or changing their careers entirely late in life.  And they are just as willing to pay their dues and stick with that new career until they are successful as they were when they were 30.

Many workers find a line of work and learn they can pay the bills and raise the kids early in life but they do not follow their dream career at that time.  So when the time in life comes that the kids are out of the nest, the house paid off and the adventure of living has settled down somewhat, many baby boomers see that as the chance to finally throw off that boring old career and go after their dream career once and for all.

It’s inspirational to see someone in that stage of life setting the standard for not settling for anything less than realizing their dream by launching a new career doing what they always wanted to do all along.  Who can fault boomers from wanting that kind of gratification of finding success in a career that fulfills their passions?  So God bless the late in life boomers who go for the brass ring in their golden years.  They will be an inspiration for many coming behind them to be as bold about their lives as well.

It seems almost absurd for baby boomers to think about retirement as the next stop in their long and eventful lives.  But the absurd has become a reality.  As the baby boomer generation moves into their mid fifties and sixties, that specter of retirement looms ever closer.  So it’s natural and appropriate to sit back and review exactly what that means to each of us.

For many, the traditional attitude toward retirement has been one of joy.  The concept of laying down your worries and bringing your work life to a comfortable end is something to look forward to.  The image of a life of sleeping late, golfing as much as you wish, taking up two or three hobbies and living a life of leisure is an idyllic vision in our minds for sure.

But the reality of retirement can also be a source of anxiety and fear.  If the baby boomer who approaches that threshold is not financially prepared or the affairs and concerns of their work lives are not ready to be set aside, the idea of having go retire simply due to age seems to be a harsh and an unpleasant prospect.  In both of these visions of a future retirement, we are probably working under as much myth as we are reality about what it will be like to retire.  But one thing baby boomers are good at is debunking myths and defying conventional wisdom and defining each era of their lives in their own terms.

We can expect the same as baby boomers move into retirement.  This is a generation that did not have the benefit of employers who were loyal to employees and kept the same staff from college through their retirement party and from whom they could expect a hefty retirement package.  But boomers are not the kind of generation that lets things sneak up on them.  Working with such excellent organizations as AARP, there are resources and options baby boomers can tap into to create a secure financial future despite the lack of participation by past employers.

But as with all other phases of life however, financial security is not what makes life worthwhile all by itself.  And as baby boomers see retirement coming at their next stop, another myth that has to go is that retirement is the end of the productive part of life.  This image of living a life of leisure, never working and letting others take care of us is not necessarily a healthy approach to retirement any more than it would be at any other phase of life.

Human beings are at their best when they are useful, creative, productive and pursuing a dream.  It has been shown time and time again that when a senior citizen can no longer be part of something larger than themselves and see themselves as productive in life, their will to live declines with the inevitable result of an end of life that is earlier than it has to be.  So the financial demand that some baby boomers face that they may have to work on into what is considered to be the “retirement years” may have a hidden blessing of extending their lives in a healthy way because these will the baby boomers who know they must stay fit and active because, just like always, they have to get up and go to work.

For those who do lay down their labors at retirement age, second careers are often a great way for aging baby boomers to not only create a second revenue stream but to pursue a career path that had always been a dream in life.  Another alternative as well for staying active and useful in retirement is to become passionate about a cause in life that has always been important to you.

Baby boomers have always been a people driven by causes.  So what better way for baby boomers to use their retirement than to become activists to make a difference in the world, just as they did in youth when they did so much to make a difference?  The world will be a better place for their involvement and the retired baby boomer will live a happier senior life as well.

As baby boomers are rapidly approach what used to be defined as “retirement age”, a big concern often comes up about whether there will be enough retirement savings in place to be able to live a comfortable life later in life.  There have been plenty of rumbles from Washington that the Social Security system will not be able to bear up under the huge demand the boomer generation will put on it.  So few baby boomers are looking to depend on that money being there, even though we are all paying into it every month.

On top of that worry, the method our parents used of working for the same company for 50 years and retiring with a hefty financial package and a gold watch has gone the way of the dinosaurs.  Long ago corporate America began to eliminate retirement packages as a straight forward benefit.  So many baby boomers find themselves approaching retirement age with insufficient retirement monies to support them.  What is needed is a solid plan to attack this problem while boomers still have a good 10 to 15 years of working potential in them.  Some principles of that plan might be…

Simplify Your Life.

When the kids finish college and get out on their own, you may find your life could be simplified considerably.  You might not need as big a house and many of the extras that were important when you raising a family in that house.  Do a thorough review of your assets and your expenses.  You will find you can cut costs significantly and even begin to cash in on some of the extras you have had all these years and put all of those savings into the bank as a hedge for the day when you are ready to retire.

Pack the Bank Account Now.

The empty nest syndrome isn’t all bad.  There are some real benefits to returning to a lifestyle of just you and your spouse discovering life together.  You have conquered many challenges raising a family in this tough world and you deserve to be proud of your life of accomplishment.  But now you and your spouse can take on a big challenge that is just for you which is to get out there and generate income for retirement.

Mom can go back to work and both members of the union can take on as much work as can be found.  Often in the mid to late fifties, the primary bread winner may be able to retire from that job they have held down for several decades.  But instead of beginning to live off of retirement funds, get another career going that can generate another ten to fifteen years of income.  With good budget management, it’s very likely you will be able to bank at least one entire income if not more and put all of that money back into retirement.

Working with your investment counselors you can find ways to shelter that extra income so it stays out of the tax system until you are ready to use it.  The good news is that this push for productivity and revenue generation late in life can lead to a healthy retirement budget that can benefit you well as you finally sit back to enjoy your leisure years in the rocking chair taking care of the grandkids.

Identify a Money Generator that Can Stay With You

There are second careers that you can find that will become a good source of supplemental revenue even after you retire.  Start now looking for a potential “retirement career” which will be a line of work you can do even after you retire to generate additional income for you.  Writing or internet work is a good way to set up a home based business that you can continue to work at as long as you can type, see reasonably well and your thinking capacity is sound.

Other examples of retirement careers are part time jobs as apartment managers or care givers, sales jobs in using the expertise from your primary career or jobs that are somewhat non-taxing such as greeting customers at a Wal-Mart or working in a book store.  And these retirement jobs have the double benefit of adding to your revenue resources and keeping you active and enjoying life in your retirement years.  And that is what all of us want.

There is a certain romance to trading on the stock market.  Wall Street and all the drama of what goes on there seems exciting and a place where millionaires are made in a day.  Fortunately, for most of us, Wall Street is a far away place and we would be too intimidated to actually try to trade in that complex environment.  If you get a chance to visit and watch the frantic trading floor in action, that’s plenty.

Baby boomers are notoriously self confident and have a generational attitude of, “If someone can do it, so can I.”  When this attitude is brought to investing, that can set up a dangerous situation for the baby boomer from a financial perspective.  The explosion of the internet which has put virtually every kind of transaction at our fingertips has spawned this new phenomenon of “Online Trading.”  In theory, any baby boomer could sit down with their retirement money and with a flew clicks on their favorite stock investment web site, make a fortune over night.

Well, at least that is the allure of online trading.  There are some very good things about the movement that has been afoot in the last few years to put your financial world at your fingertips on the internet.  Some of those advantages are…

You can stay in touch with your bank balances and your investments on a daily or even hourly basis by having updates delivered right to your desktop.  This is unprecedented access to your own money.  It can be a blessing because it raises your awareness of your investments or a curse because it makes you less tolerant and willing to “ride out” market fulgurations.

Online trading services have reduced broker’s fees by putting the power to invest in the market right at your fingertips.  But by taking the brokers out of the loop somewhat, you also lose their valuable expertise and advice to keep you from making disastrous mistakes.

Online trading has made management of your financial picture part of your online entertainment.  But it also could lead to becoming obsessed with investing rather than putting your money in a solid long-term plan and moving on with your life.

The sudden interest in online trading has made more people knowledgeable about the stock market and what their money is doing.  There is no downside to becoming educated about this important part of your financial planning.

But like anything else, particularly when it comes to the internet, using some common sense is crucial to not letting yourself go crazy with online investing.  Baby boomers, as they move into the retirement years, very often find themselves with some but not enough retirement funding.  So it’s easy to see online investing as a way of supplementing that income and retiring in luxury as we all dream to do.

If there was any mantra, we must have about investing, especially if we are using online tools, it is, “Be prudent and be informed.”  There is no substitute for getting some education and doing some reading into the mechanics of the stock market and into the strategies that are most likely to be a success for you.  The stock market is no place for “get rich quick” schemes because they are more likely to result in “get poor quick” outcomes.

But for the smart baby boomer who does his or her homework and knows what they are doing and gets good advice from investment analysts that know the market, online investing can become a good addition to your financial planning arsenal and be a lot of fun for you as well.