By Salman A. Kureishi For boomeryearbook.com
We Baby boomers are a lucky bunch as we were born just as America was setting itself up to become the world super power, both financially and militarily. Ironically enough, we are also the generation who currently has a front seat view of America’s financial decline. We as baby boomers were the lucky generation who witnessed the dying days of the industrial age and welcomed the dawn of the information age – in more respects than one; the baby boom generation is a transitional generation.
As the baby boomers grow older the rift between the rich baby boomers and the poor ones will widen and how they fare in the years to come will depend entirely on how aggressively they embrace the information age (and its economic mechanism). The fact of the matter is that the road is only going to get bumpier from now on in. In the years 1971-72 when most of the boomers were finishing college, the price of gold per ounce was $35 and today its price is somewhere around $700 – that is how much the dollar’s buying power has slipped. On a similar note the per-barrel price of oil was a meager $3 in 1973 but today it hovers around the $100 mark. According to estimates, in the next few years, around 80% of the baby boomers will not be able to retire comfortably – it wouldn’t be so bad had these boomers invested in understanding how the rules of the game changed with the dawn of the information age.
But if you are a baby boomer with little or no savings then you don’t need to hang your head and drop your shoulders just yet. There is still hope and this is what you need to do:
Invest in whatever you love: most people invest in things they know nothing about at all, and the reason they do so is simply because “the experts said to” – well that is a sure shot way of losing money. The best thing to do is to look within your self and try to uncover your true interests (estate, gold, education, stocks etc) and then to fuel that interest by studying that subject aggressively. You will soon find yourself making decent money and relishing the process as well. Finances and investments have everything to do with your in-depth knowledge of the subject and the only way by which you can get that in-depth knowledge is by being positively obsessed by it.
On a slightly similar note, investments don’t necessarily have to be stocks, bonds and estate. It can be anything you have a natural ability and inclination towards. And investments don’t just mean “money”; it means everything – time, effort, imagination, love and dedication etc. What I mean is beautifully summed up by Steve Forbes in one of his books, “the real source of wealth and capital in this new era is not material things – it is the human mind, the human spirit, the human imagination and our faith in the future. That’s the magic of a free society – everyone can move forward and prosper because wealth comes from within.” This is truer today (in the information age) as compared to any other time in history. As baby boomers we have the best chance to capitalize and maximize on the opportunities presented by these times.
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