Hippies

What does the word hippy mean to you? For many boomers, it is a reminder of a better time. Hippies were the forefront of great change. We were very naive. The word hippy is somewhat odd and old-fashioned now but it had enormous energy in the mid to late sixties. The word and the concept carried with it the impact of colossal social change as well as an extensive shift in public decency and knowledge. So, while this was often a time of a bit of discomfort for the baby boomer generation, it is also a part of our story and deserves respect for that reason.

I was not a hippy, but I had a few friends that embraced that lifestyle. As is often the case, the hippie movement was something that got tremendous media coverage but it represented only a small portion of the baby boomer population at the time. Very few of our age actually joined the “tune in, drop out, turn on” society. Hippies were seen as colourful, eccentric, flamboyant and immoral, they aroused public concern. Any time there was a public display the public media covered the event because they thought it might be a hippie gathering.

The hippies were a small minority, but they did change society because the hippies were white, middle-class children who were rejecting their parent's lifestyle. Part of the rejection was a discontent with the Vietnam War. Many hippies embraced the antiwar movement. Over a few short months, the two blended to where there was virtually no distinction. These changes in youth culture were brought on by the eruption of new music and changes in lifestyle. We thought a new worldview was emerging and we saw the leaders in the rock music world being seen as cultural leaders. All of this combined in our minds enough for us to see the hippie movement as a shift of our social values from the previous generation.

While on the surface we now associate hippies with drug use and free love (e.g. sex), the actual movement itself was grounded in a tremendous sense of value, morality and social responsibility.

The youth movement at the time held a mirror up to society and demanded we look. Moreover, for the first time ever, it held public figures accountable for actions that were taken that harmed the public good. Too bad, we as seniors have not continued that focus on holding government and its officials responsible. Holding people accountable is a good thing and one that hippies gave us and one we gave away.

There was a strong thread of ethics and philosophy in the hippie social system that, while different from what previous generations were used to, it was grounded in a fervent love and sense of right and wrong. Hippies did not reject the values of their parents but they and others who wanted change were bold and determined in their enthusiasm to put themselves on the line to see their values translated into government policy. 

Because the youth movement was so willing to demonstrate and make extraordinary and colourful public statements to emphasize their political, ethical or moral outrage, things changed in a way that the country had never seen before.

The youth movement of the sixties gave the power for change into the hands of the ordinary men and women. This is something we can be thankful that the hippie movement started. It is time for my generation to remember this legacy.

Creating Retirement Wealth

We are all looking for a comfortable retirement, but as we approach our retirement many of us are concerned that we will not have enough money to fund a comfortable retirement or we will not have enough money to fund our retirement for as long as we live. There have been plenty of rumbles from Governments that the Social 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.

Our parents had an interesting working life, they could work for the same company for life and retire with a nice pension, we don't have those opportunities anymore. Long ago corporate America began to eliminate retirement packages as a straightforward benefit.  So many baby boomers find themselves approaching retirement age with insufficient retirement monies to support them.  What you need is a solid plan to attack this problem while you still have a good 10 to 15 years of working potential in you.  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 raise 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.  Returning to a lifestyle of just you and your spouse discovering life together can be exciting.  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 breadwinner 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. 

Paying taxes are a fact of life, but you should be able to shelter extra income until you are ready to use it and then you will pay tax on the money.  Revenue generation at any time, but if done as you collect your retirement income can lead to a healthy retirement lifestyle that can only benefit you.

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. There are many potential “careers” which you can do after you retire to generate additional income.  Writing or doing work online is a good way to set up a home-based business that you can continue to work for 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 caregivers, 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 bookstore. These jobs have the benefit of adding to your revenue while keeping you active as you enjoy life in retirement. And that is what all of us want.

Career at Craft Shows

The Second you retire, you may be thinking about what can I do with my free time, perhaps turning your career into a money making activity could be something to think about. Baby boomers are a very creative people.  But so often the demands of career and raising a family leaves little time for creativity in your middle age years.  But as more of us baby boomers complete our years of service in our careers and move toward retirement, we have plenty of energy and creativity left for a new passion in life, one that expresses all that creativity of our youth.

This is one reason we have seen such an explosion of craft fairs in the country which provide an outlet for all of that creative talent boomers are expressing through their arts and craft.  The great thing about crafts shows is you can start wherever you are in your creative arts and continue to grow and become more skilled each passing year.  To get started, you should take on this new hobby and small business with the same enthusiasm and passion you did when you were employed in your former career.  That is the great thing about baby boomers having this kind of free time in the retirement years.  There is so much talent and energy available that do not make it available to the public would be a crime.

It is going to take some preparation to get ready for your first craft fair.   The preparation will be on three fronts.  One is making contacts with the organizers of upcoming fairs and getting on the schedule to be able to display a booth there.  The easiest way to find out how to do that attends the new craft fair that comes up in the area.  They are often associated with special events such as Oktoberfest or a food or music festival.  By attending several as you are in your preparation period, you can accomplish several good things…

·       You can look at booths of many different vendors to get ideas for your booth when you are ready to take the plunge.

·       You can talk to vendors who are selling there and learn about how to go about getting on the program for this fair and to learn about upcoming events you can participate in.  Don’t worry about you seeming to pose a threat to future competition for sales.  There is a camaraderie among crafters and you will enjoy the social aspect of mixing with other creative people.

·       You can talk to the people who organize the show and get a feel for how you will fit into their next event.

Another line of the preparation is booth creation.  It’s good if you are starting early because it will take some time and a bit of expense to get the materials together and for you to build the skills to put the booth up, take it down, move it and store it between shows.   Again, your contacts with experienced craft show veterans will be invaluable for this.

Finally, but this is the most important part of your preparations is your talent and craft that you will be preparing to sell at the craft shows. You can purchase some examples of similar crafts you see doing well at the fairs you scout out.  These can be templates for what you want to do.  But you will impose your own creative vision on the craft so what you offer when you finally get to the craft fair will be uniquely yours and speak of your vision.

Along with these preparations, think about how you will customize your booth to draw customers in.  From craft fairs, you have attended in the past and the ones you scout, you will witness that there are certain booths that draw crowds and others that just don’t seem to get the customers.  So you want to make your booth inviting to customers so you will reap a good return on your effort in the form of sales.

There are a variety of ways to draw customers.  From candles to contests, to videos playing, to using music or live talent to making your craft as people watch, there are many ways you can experiment around with to draw customers.  You will get a unique thrill from the sales you make each day.  But more importantly, you will be expressing that creative side of you and getting that fulfillment that you had to wait for this phase of life to express.  And that’s a wonderful benefit of learning to sell your crafts at craft fairs.

Self Insight and Growth

Retirement is a time for self-reflection and hopefully a time of self-insight and growth. When it comes to trying to find the answers inside yourself, you have to dig deep into your soul and your mind to find the answers you are looking for. It is a long process and no one will tell you that it is easy, yet you can accomplish much by putting forth the effort.

Retirement is a new phase of life and a new opportunity to change, grow and develop new dreams. Searching for insight will help you to find your dreams as well as to feel motivated enough to make them come true. This is all having a better insight of yourself.

Sometimes it takes some time to become the someone you want to be in retirement but as you grow, you will find that it will be easier for you to handle your lack of responsibilities or new responsibilities. This will help you to be able to define who you are and what you want in life as a newly retired person.

You may have experienced some hard time but you have learned how to overcome. How do you find the right path for you and how do you get on the right path? It will all depend on you and your mind frame on how fast you will progress. It is going to take some time but as you learn to work on it, it will come to you faster than someone who only thinks they want it. In order to become that successfully retired person that you want to be, there is work that you are going to have to do.

Create some goals. It does not matter how long they are or how short they may be. Once they are down on paper, then you are going to have to learn to work at achieving your goals. You could even hang them in the kitchen. This way you can see them and read them each day to keep your mind fresh. When you recently read something, it will soon sink in and this will make it so that you will always be working on your goals. Once you have your goals you will see that the rest will come, natural to you and it will help you to become a very successful retired person.