Only a minority of baby boomers will be able to enjoy a “traditional” retirement. Members of this fortunate group will simply quit working at age 65. Then, by drawing on Social Security, a corporate pension, and their own savings, they’ll be able to maintain a standard of living close to the one they’d enjoyed while working.

A much larger number, lacking significant savings or any income other than Social Security, will face a radically different fate. They’ll be forced to work for many more years, perhaps until they’re physically incapacitated, or will face poverty.

But what of those in the middle? Most boomers will have significant retirement income, but it won’t be enough to maintain their lifestyles. So they’ll have to earn extra money.

Flipping burgers, or repeating the phrase “Welcome to Wal-Mart” a thousand times per day, is neither financially nor personally rewarding. So what are some other options? Here, based on information from the U.S. Department of Labor, are the most promising jobs for boomer semi-retirement, i.e. part-time working.
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Ask any financial advisor how to invest for retirement, and his or her answer will invariably include the term “asset allocation.” What, exactly, does that mean? And how can you apply it to your own situation? This article aims to answer these questions.
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Many baby boomers nearing retirement face an unpleasant dilemma: they haven’t saved enough for retirement, yet don’t have that many years left within which to do so.

If you’re in this situation and are self-employed, you may want to check out the possibility of opening a SEP-IRA, or Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Account.

Unlike regular IRAs, which have relatively low contribution limits of $5,000 or $6,000 per year, SEP-IRAs enable you to sock away as much as $45,000 annually. This can be particularly helpful for baby boomers who need to accumulate a lot in a relatively short amount of time.

Check out the Small Business Boomers Blog for more on this exceptional opportunity.

Most future retirees see the recent plunge in share prices as a disaster. They’ve watched their nest eggs shrivel, and are bracing themselves for even worse. Some have ditched their stocks altogether and are now in ultra-safe CDs yielding a few percentage points at best.

A few brave souls, however, are wondering whether the current crisis presents an opportunity. Following the traditional contrarian mantra of “buy when everybody else is selling and sell when everybody else is buying,” they’re looking for bargains amid the wreckage of the stock market.
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By now, the fact that the recent stock market volatility is wreaking havoc with 401(k) plans is old news. But the drop in asset values isn’t the only thing plaguing the popular accounts.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article,

• Many investors in the pre-retirement phase have far too much of their nest eggs invested in stocks. This means that if a downturn hits, they may suffer large losses with little or no time to recoup them.
• Companies have increasingly been pushing so-called “target date” funds as a simple solution to the asset allocation problem. But these funds have recently been performing poorly.
• Downturns scare many workers into dialing back or eliminating contributions to their 401(k)s. This means that they may miss out on the very buying opportunities that could help them recover from losses more quickly.
• Employers sometimes reduce or eliminate their “match” or contribution during difficult times.

The last possibility is particularly worrisome, since it entails, essentially, robbing employees of their safety nets just when they’re teetering on the tightrope.

At AAFR, we believe that the inherent risks in 401(k)s do not in and of themselves make them bad investment vehicles, but rather, that 401(k)s should only be depended upon for supplemental income. Workers should be able to depend on Social Security for basic income regardless of market conditions. This is why we stand in particularly strong opposition to Social Security privatization.