I found a keg of beer and used it to bribe Chad and Cheese to let me back on their show. Enjoy…
THE SHRED – What’s Scarier than a Chucky Doll?
Hollywood is rebooting the “Child’s Play” horror movie franchise. That’s right coming soon to a theatre near you, the doll Chucky will be wisecracking and stabbing his way into your heart; figuratively, not literally speaking. That would hurt. As scary as the new Chucky doll will surely be, I read something today that was even more frightening.
Americans increasingly say that they are unprepared for retirement, with about 25% of retirees forced to stop working because they can’t find jobs or they are in poor health, according to a Bloomberg report that cites Federal Reserve data. That same Bloomberg report pointed out nearly half of those who retired in 2018 did so before the age of 62; which is really scary when you consider that the official retirement age to collect social security is 67.
Now if the retirement train is chugging down your track and your retirement funds are looking mighty, mighty low, you are not alone.
According to Bankrate’s May Financial Security Index survey, 76% of Americans say that when it comes to their finances, the #1 Regret is – Not saving for retirement early enough.
So, what’s the problem America. How did we get into this mess? Was it…?
- School loan debt
- Credit card debt
- Irresponsible spending (I’m guilty of some of that.)
- Ridiculous healthcare costs
- Overly optimistic that your Uncle Sam will bail you out
- Rapidly increasing cost of housing
Probably all of the above and more, whatever, its water under the bridge now. Where do we go from here? Because, we have to do something America. And right off the bat, I can think of 2 options. Option one, start a new career.
Don’t let the idea of starting a new career overwhelm you. After all, you don’t have to teach an old dog new tricks. The old dogs can do the same tricks, just in a different arena. Here are some ideas to get you thinking.
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- Start a Mentorship Firm – Someone could start a company matchmaking young entrepreneurs with retired captains of industry; people with connections and experience to guide entrepreneurs on their journey. What inexperienced entrepreneur would not take advantage of that?
- Start a charm School – If I search on Indeed for jobs that include the word “interpersonal,” there are over 600,000 jobs available. A search on “empathy” returns 37,000+ results. The word “collaborate?” Over 320,000 jobs had that desired ability. Somebody needs to teach today’s generation how to connect and work with people. Who better than the a generation of retirees for whom these skills tend to come naturally? I imagine there’s a lot of money in that.
- Start life coaching – If you are good at giving advice, helping people identify goals and developing an action plan to achieve them then, you could be a life coach. In case you’re curious, there’s never been a better time to be a lifecoach.
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- The International Coach Federation boasts a whopping 53,300 members and is on a steady growth trend.
- Average income for life coaches ranges from $27,100 to $73,100, with specialty coaches commanding greater than $100,000 annually.
- Growth projections for the life coaching industry are an estimated 6.7%, taking revenue to $1.34 billion by 2022.
- More and more corporations are hiring life coaches instead of mental health counselors to work in-house with employees (no stigma). Zappos and Shopify comes to mind.
Okay, all of those ideas were under option one, of things to consider, if you are approaching retirement age with little to no retirement funds. Option two is this… buy a lottery ticket.
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