Over-50

Retirement: (Mostly) Unafforable in Any State in US

Retirement has passed the threshold of affordability.

That's even in low-cost cities such as Cleveland, Ohio. According to GoBankingRates.com, there, over-65 households need $38,147 annually to just make it.

And retiring has become nearly impossible for households over-65 in locations such as New York City, where they need about $100k a year.

Here are more details in MarketWatch. 

The conclusion: Maybe retiring shouldn't be on a bucket list. Instead of envisioning total freedom from work during The New Aging, it might be more realistic financial planning to just save for some fun travel on vacations from work or between gig contracts.

More and more of the assignments for my two communications businesses are associated with preparing work-search materials for those who assumed they were retired.

Here is my guide, free to download, on how to navigate that shift.

And, here, also free to download, is my book on how to get, hold, and move on to better work, no matter one's age Download Outwitting ageism.

One day those who have retired wake up and have that brutal moment of clarity: They are sliding into debt. To pay off that debt and prevent its return in the future, they need more funds coming in.

Yesterday, a 67-year-old currently unmarried male came to my office. During the past week we had discussed options for marketing services he could provide. The best shot was a niche within higher education.

For several hours we knocked out the must-needed promotional material, then moved on to retrofitting his social networks. The next step would be to set up a website, along with a blog. This weekend in the loop will parachute a friend of his to produce podcasts for the enterprise. 

Like so many retired he had come to the fork in the road: Return to working, even full time or research relocating to overseas locations such as Ecuador or Mexico.

Regarding the latter, the International Living folks are operating a very successful line of business. The chatter on social networks among my age peers is increasingly about permanently settling near a beach outside the US. Some of those are also looking into launching online businesses in their Expat Paradises.

Meanwhile, some over-65 could wind up to be in the front lines of what could be a new trend: Nomading.

They bite the bullet and relocate from, say, ABC to X or Y. But that first plan doesn't pan out. They can't take the heat. They miss the familiar lifestyle. They are unable to develop new friendships. The rentals surge in price. They want to be closer to the grandchildren.

So, they move yet again.

The typical example is the couple who left Pennsylvania for Louisiana. The wife still picks up personal-care gigs. To make ends meet more easily, they recently sold their motor home. Now they are in Ohio. Will you settle in here? That's what I asked them. Their response is becoming typical. It's: We don't know. 

In 2014, I pulled up roots in the New York Metro area and assumed I was going to make my new life in Tucson, Arizona. That got pricey and too careerist. In 2016, I drove four days to Northeastern OH. Here I earned enough from my businesses and invested enough to afford to try again at finding Paradise. That will be at the end of August. If that disappoints, the next stop will be outside the U.S. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Starting out on FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), No Matter Our Age, Or External Circumstances

In 2003, as I chronicle in this e-book, I was lugging around 6-figure debt.

My industry had collapsed. So, obviously, I had to do a career change.

I was over-50 and feared age bias.

Meanwhile, genius cognitive therapist Amy Karnilowitz, LMFT, based in West Hartford, Connecticut, mandated I get a survival job, any job. That's where humor kicked in. Five-foot me somehow wound up doing security in inner city retail. 

For about 6 months now, I have been doing a FIRE (financial independence, [semi] retirement). That is, my customized version of it. I continue to work about 45 hours a week. But it's totally on my terms. I only agree to accept work I decide is stimulating, with clients who are simpatico, and where the fee structure is fair. 

How did I go from being a pawn in the system of capitalism to one of its masters? Here is how I interpret the key steps in the journey:

Took a vow of poverty - now called "radical saving" - and stuck with it. Even for professional attire, I shop (carefully) at Goodwill and higher end consignment stores. Although I can afford to buy a house again I don't take on the financial uncertainty associated with the American Dream.

Picked up fast that I had aged out of doing business in New York Metro area. Actually, it took 3 trips into Manhattan from CT to pitch for accounts for my two startups to get it: The "they" perceived me as old. Therefore, paying that high rent wasn't paying off. I retrofitted my businesses to being totally telecommuting and relocated to the lower cost of living Arizona. 

Picked up even faster on what else was changing. Where I residing in AZ was becoming gentrified by those relocating from California. Of course, the cost of living was no longer low. I researched other locations and, again, moved.

Another shift I sensed and acted on was that I had to purge my network of people who were not good fits - probably never had been. Here is how that process played out. And, here is my more recent insight on the need for an ongoing Network Cleanse. 

Invested. That was scary. There are no sure things. Those safe investments might not track with inflation. The ones in equities could be total losses. But, now I have enough of a locked-in reserve not to have to worry. 

Navigated emotional lows in cost-efficient ways. It doesn't take a trip back to Manhattan to shake off whatever. I can't explain the dynamics but a day trip to a large lake in the worst of winter can unleash the same mood-lifting magic.

Learned extreme self-forgiveness. Damn it, I got played two weeks ago by a brandname in my industry. I invested lots of work at the front end. The expectation was getting a piece of action in a big project. Humans plan, the gods laugh. Had I not been able to forgive my gullibility, I wouldn't have been able to reach out for help. The best advice I received was: Pray he gets what he deserves. I pray that every day. 

What specific advice would I give to other over-50 who feel they will never be able to row to the Promised Land of being whole again, emotionally and financially? 

Answer: Take that leap into self-love. It's never too late. And, all too often, it takes the worst of times to see and accept the best in ourselves.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Planning to Retire? You May Be Double-Screwed

Who can forget the residential real estate crash that brought those fire-sale prices around 2012?

Even the most optimistic about the American Dream of home ownership were re-thinking if the financial straightjacket mortgages put you in was worth it. In short, faith was deeply shaken in a house as a smart investment, along with providing the joys of privacy. 

That was then.

Soon enough, it could happen again. MarketWatch discusses how home price growth has already shut down. What could follow next is the ongoing decline in the price sellers can propose until 2025. 

The reasons behind this second nightmare include:

•  Rising interest rates ramp up the amount of money buyers have to lock in.
•  Wages have been stagnant, making income not aligned with traditional selling prices.
•  Millennials with student debt are unable to buy.
•  The Chinese buyers have left the market.
•  The run of high prices over a sustained period has triggered the decision to just give up the American Dream and rent.

Not that renters are sitting pretty.

With fewer able or willing to buy homes, landlords have the upper hand. It really is LandLord Nation. Across the nation, rents keep going up. 

Double-screwed are those near retirement who need to unload the family home and will go on to rent. They will likely have to continually lower the selling price and they hit a rental situation in which renewing the lease means absorbing a hefty increase annually.

Likely, housing will be a major issue in Election 2020.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Eating Out May Be Beyond Your FIRE (financial independence, retire early) Budget

You will get push-back on this one.

People enjoy eating out with other people. It's almost a guaranteed feel-good. Rarely can that particular social situation go wrong.

So, when you inform your networks you no longer are eating out they will inform you that is not good for you. Yes, there will be dogmatism.

They probably will cite all kinds of research (likely made up) and anecdotes (the woman who cut out eating out and went into a clinical depression) documenting how humans need to eat out, at least every now and then. 

Why you will decide to halt the luxury of dining in a real restaurant where you are served and pay a tip is that you have opted to do a FIRE, that is, Financial Independence, Retire Early. 

Eating out has to be axed when on a FIRE plan because, as MSN reports, the cost of dining in a restaurant has gone up faster than the rate of inflation. For example, last January, according to the consumer price index, it went up 2.7% from the year before. Restaurants are charging more because their own expenses have escalated.

In April 2014, I committed to radical savings so I could control my financial destiny as I aged. My goal was not retirement but what is probably thought of as "semi-retirement." That is, I wanted to be in the financial position that I could choose what work I wanted to do, for what kinds of clients, and at what fee I was willing to accept.

My particular FIRE approach was to exit the New York Metro area and half my rent by relocating to the Southwest. Immediately, I liked what was happening in my money matters. The cost of gasoline, car insurance, hair cuts, and more also went down. After one meal out with new acquaintances I recognized how that threw off a budget. That was that. Now, I simply tell people that's not how I want to spend my money.

Friends don't make friends eat out. At the end of 2018 I was able to semi-retire.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Tax 29 - Tax-Preparation Upstart Saving You Hundreds of Dollars (in OH, PA, CA)

Money talks.

So, it was the loudest voice in the room when Andrew Reigstad at Tax 29 told me the bill for my 2018 was $50.

Last year for a similar tax return for 2017, H&R Block charged $440. Reigstad looked over that 2017 return done by H&R Block. He estimated that at Tax 29, that would have cost about $80.

In these uncertain times, tax preparers, such as Reigstad at Tax 29, are superheroes.

I can sock away the $390 I would have ponied up had I returned to H&R Block. That brings me closer to FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).

Or, I can blow off economic angst, take care of my homesickness, and travel back to the New York Metro area where I had grown up. I had re-located from there five years ago. How I long to get stuck in traffic on I-95 all this coming weekend. 

I found out about Tax 29, which serves Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California, through a clever television commercial.

A guy shuffles in, saddled with doom and gloom. A friend asks him what is the matter. Then the sad sack bellows in pain that he had just paid a king's ransom to have his taxes done. And, overall, his tax situation is fairly simple. The buddy tells him about Tax 29.

What an ah-ha moment. That $440 fee had been haunting me. I couldn't shake it off. So, even though I hate leaving my comfort zone, I decided: Hey, why not try out Tax 29. The rest is a totally happy ending to the usual cost and trauma of doing taxes.

Reflection: Tax 29 can disrupt the tax-preparation industry just like Netflix ate Hollywood's lunch (dinner, and breakfast).

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374 Need @gmail.com. 

Experienced - Employers Snatch in Welcome Mat

A digital economy has revered youth. After all, they are digital natives. 

With that has come the denigration of anyone over 45. AARP documents age bias can begin at that age.

Yet, experience can be the significant variable in success - whether it be the Super Bowl or bet the ranch litigation.

In a seminal The Wall Street Journal article, Sam Walker argues that spectacular failure frequently results from the lack of enough experience. 

Walker presents the recent example of Super Bowl 53.

Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay is 33. He is known for being innovative.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick is 66. To win the game, and this might have thrown McVay off his game, Belichick used old-line defensive measures. That blocked the Rams from getting more than three points.

In a sense, this phenomenon might be summed up as: Belichick had seen it all and could anticipate it all. He was not locked into a preoccupation with innovation per se. 

In lawsuits, with good reasons, clients want seasoned partners guiding the strategy. In fact, increasingly they are mandating that rookie associates not be part of the legal team. 

After Steve Jobs got more work experience he could return to Apple and put the then-floundering corporation on an upward trajectory. 

Andrew Bachman, who took a plea for mobile cramming, might have avoided considering going rogue had he more business experience. In the Babson dorm he started Tatto, which he and his startup team sold for $60 million. Had he, for example, a couple of years employed in the Fortune 5o, he might have got how much the federal government scrutinizes business. Therefore, he might have kept his startup legit.

Yet, age bias is growing. In addition, more and more employers and clients are unwilling to pay for experience. Their help-wanted ads and in-person conversations indicate they prefer to hire or contract with someone with only a few years experience in a niche such as legal marketing.

Of course, the experienced could become set in their ways, rebuff fresh strategic thinking and technologies, and not be open to just-in-time training. There are too many of them, trying to milk the past, especially their former brandnames, to keep producing revenue. They give all older professionals a bad name.

That is why, those hiring have to assess experience on a case-by-case basis. If they do, they will be able to increase the odds of success by partnering with professionals who keep updating their mindsets and skills.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374 Need @gmail.com. 

Life, Including Retirement, Needn't Be Expensive

"You should have a garage."

That's what some Gilded Age types told me on the Gold Coast of Connecticut.

There had been snow, then a freeze.

I was struggling to extricate my car off the ice. Yes, there was alternating rocking/shoveling.

No, of course, they didn't pitch in and try to help.

Five years later, here in the Youngstown Metro area of Ohio, there had been snow, then a freeze. My car wasn't going anywhere.

First, one neighbor came over to help. Then a second.

They directed how much I should turn the steering wheel, how hard I should step out on reverse, and then how fast I should propel onto the road. 

Soon enough I was on my way.

Where I now live is an area conditioned to suffering. The steel mills had shut down years ago. Things don't look good for keeping the GM Lordstown plant open. 

Does adversity soften hearts?

I am not going to go abstract.

All I do know is that here in this region down on its luck I have made the most progress in healing. To me healing = liking myself, finally. That was after chasing enlightenment for decades. Throw in some old-line psychoanalysis too. The self-hate kicked in at a nearby college in 1963. 

Perhaps the Youngstown region can reposition and repackage itself as the ultimate startup.  

Here careerists can reconnect with their humanity.

Retirees who didn't play it smart about money can live with little comfortably. Large one-bedroom apartments with dens, all utilities including heat covered, run for about $575. There may be a pool too. No, they don't have to journey out to 122-degree heat in the Arizona desert to make it on peanuts.

iGens can receive an excellent education at public universities. The community college is offering free career retraining for those who might be laid off at Lordstown. 

And, in WalMart, despite all the new self-service technology parachuted in, they know your name.

Takeaway: There are pockets of the U.S. which haven't been taken over by extreme materialism. If these values are contagious there could be an end to the Gilded Age. And that can occur w/o a severe recession.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

How Easily Do You Make New Friends? - Relocation and Retirement/Semi-Retirement

"You have several solid networks in Connecticut."

That's what I continually remind a lawyer I coach who is obsessed with the notion that she could save a bundle by locating to a lower cost state such as South Carolina or Arizona.

Even given her high social intelligence, it could be two or three years before she can put together networks in the new area. Meanwhile she could suffer profound isolation.

The tradeoff of saving about $500 a month in another state might not be worth it. Instead she can reduce her spending and/or pick up a weekend job. Currently she works part-time weekdays in real estate law. Where she could downsize spending is by not eating out as frequently, buying clothing in consignment shops, and taking day trips, not weekend ones, which require bunking in a motel. 

That same warning applies to the growing number of budget-challenged aging in the U.S. who are researching relocating to Mexico, Ecuador, or Belize. Sure, the lifestyle would be more affordable. But, I hammer them with one question: How easily do you make new friends?

Working part-time may be the realistic solution for making ends meet when aging. Here is my new book, free to download, on how to land those income opportunities Download Outwitting ageism.

We humans are social. 

Coaching and Thought Leadership Ghostwriting about Issues Associated with Aging.

Complimentary consultation, sliding scale fees. Please contact Jane Genova at janegenova374@gamil.com.

 

Financial Independence, Retire Early - Yes, You Can Pull That Off

FIRE is an increasingly misunderstood concept.

FIRE is short for Financial Independence, Retire Early.

Expert on personal finance Suze Orman declares that is only possible if you have $5 million socked away. FIRE advocates roll their eyes. 

Arguments on the two sides have become so intense that Michelle Singletary has covered them in a piece for The Washington Post. Here you can read it. 

And read it professionals might be motivated to do with all the suicides of middle-aged strivers such as Kate Spade. The exhaustion-triggered temporary leave of head of law firm Baker McKenzie Paul Rawlinson. And the grim faces on the Metro North commuter line from Greenwich, Connecticut to Manhattan.

FIRE does not mean stopping work and embracing bliss. Instead, it maps out a way of life in which people don't have to work at what they don't like or what's making them crazy or killing them. They make it their business to exit what they perceive as a rat race. 

They become able to do that by becoming quite frugal and investing as much as they can. Then they can choose how they might want to live their lives. It may or may not include work.

Meanwhile they will continue to be frugal. What they are retiring from is the traditional notions of what work is, how it is to be done, where it is to be, for whom it is to be performed, and how much it is supposed to pay. The BigLaw partners might put together a FIRE by establishing a boutique law firm specializing in animal rights. 

Orman sets the $5 million figure for FIRE because of all the unknowns in life. Those who opt for FIRE, she points out, can get sick, see their portfolio tank, have Social Security and Medicare eliminated or significantly reduced, and more.

However, given the chaotic 21st century, most of us have already experienced reversals in our portfolios and/or careers. And many of us have gotten on the other side of all that.

Also, it's useful to recall that our parents, grandparents, or great grandparents did get on the other side of immigrating to the U.S., the Influenza epidemic, The Great Depression, and World War II. 

In 2014, I embraced FIRE. Instead of calling it FIRE, I labeled that mindset The New Minimalism. The ethos is one of enoughness. Banished is the hunger for moremoremore.

My version of what many prefer to refer to as FIRE was to only take on assignments which I liked and for clients who treated me with respect.

To set that up I relocated from the pricey New York Metro area to an efficiency apartment in the desert of the southwest. There I discovered dental tourism. In Mexico dental procedures are one-half the cost in the U.S. I have made it my business to have my car last to 200,000 miles. More recently, I cut $300 a month from my budget by shopping cautiously for groceries.

FIRE can bring as much freedom to a professional life as The Pill brought to physical intimacy. To make that happen might require several years of reducing expenses and investing. If there are children to put through college, it might take longer than that.

But just knowing that someday FIRE is possible can get stressed-out professionals on the other side of traditional work. Work can be joyful.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Thank You for Not Sending Holiday Greetings

During the past several years, Bob Dilenschneider publishes his reflections on every major public holiday in third-party media.

The next will probably be a placement in establishment media for Thanksgiving. 

One would probably assume that the objective of so much effort is selling his services, at least partly. After all, resources are invested in that outreach. Resources represent a business expense.

However, Dilenschneider is not alone.

Beginning in mid-December, just about everyone I had purchased a car, house, or computer services from will be expressing holiday sentiments to me. Of course, more and more of us dread that glut of good wishes. 

In this over-communicated/media-surplus era, publishing anything is not often in the public interest. Neither are all those emails, phone calls, and texts.

Most of us need a hug rather than one more article on whatever or a message from any medium. In addition, if someone wants my business, rather than simply emailing a copy of a published article, attach a five-buck gift card for coffee and sweet. 

Anyway, in his 2017 reflections on Labor Day, Dilenschneider got a fact wrong. That was saluting America as having the most productive workforce. Actually, in 2017, according to the OECD, the U.S. ranked fifth. Lack of fact-checking does not help the public interest.

Dilenschneider founded public affairs firm The Dilenschneider Group. Given his expertise, the odds are he knows what he is doing in leveraging holiday greetings as possibly a selling platform.

But, my gut, seasoned by coaching sales, raises the question: Has the tactic of holiday greetings become a counterproductive kind of outreach in reaching and bonding with prospects? 

Here is what I know: A growing number of my clients, colleagues, and close friends have the fantasy of fleeing the rat race and taking up residence in a secluded cabin.

The only difference of opinion among them is whether that refuge should be on or off the grid. Those favoring the latter indicate they are willing to search the location for a hotspot to link to the internet. 

In short, America's new signature trait could be mutating from universal gregariousness to the status symbol of being able to be left alone. That could be the emerging meme in advertising: You can and will be left alone.

More of us who can't pull the plug on an over-communicated society, at least not yet, are making it our business to stock the moat with alligators and pull down the drawbridge. The technology of gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter assists in that.

Often the epiphany comes that the more folks we block, unfriend, and delete the less bleak our little lives seem. Believe me, those wanting to purchase our services or products have no trouble finding us. And, aside from a few stimulating colleagues and caring friends, those are the only other humans I want to hear from. The film "Alpha" killed it because it created a sci-fi explanation of how wolves evolved into man's best friend. 

This holiday season, please remove my name from the emails, phone lists, and texts. I will be off the grid in a cottage near Lake Erie. Two two-legged friends and one four-legged one will help me snatch pure joy from the meaning of Christ's birth and the start of a new year.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com