Do Retiring Baby Boomers Just Want To Have Fun?

According to the Palm Beach Post, Retiring Baby Boomers do just want to have fun:-

“Baby boomers like to relax — not mow the grass.

From Boynton Beach to Wellington to Jupiter, Realtors report baby boomers are not looking for giant homes with bells and whistles. They want lifestyle.

They want to live in young neighborhoods. They want access to golf, club houses with the fitness areas, teaching kitchens and classrooms. They want wired homes so they can control heat and lights with their I-phone.

Condos and villas are what baby boomers like. They’ve had their share of taking care of yards.

“They don’t like the terms ‘senior community.’ They prefer ‘active community,’” said one Realtor.”

Get the details from Post contributing writer, Lynn Kalber.

If you are a Baby Boomer reading this, you may be thinking this is true. You may also be thinking nothing could be further from the truth.

As a Baby Boomer myself, living in a second home in Portugal, amongst a lot of ex pats, I can relate to some of this. Many Baby Boomers moved out to places like Portugal and Spain for the sun, sea and sand, the opportunity to play more golf, laze around tiny cafes and bars drinking gin and tonics all day.

A great many love to host BBQ’s for their friends and generally socialise with many people. Sounds idyllic doesn’t it? It can be and as the title says, many Baby Boomers just want to have fun.

The downside of course, is that many of them have suffered financially since the crash of 2007 and when the exchange rates went down, their pensions went down with it. Quite a large number of British people sold up (if they could) and moved back home. Plenty have stayed however.

Baby Boomers and Finance

If Retiring Baby Boomers are looking to have fun, then money has to come in to play. Its a fact that we are living longer and any money we put aside for our retirement really does have to stretch further and longer. My Husband and I lost income after the crash plus, we had a retail business that didn’t perform as well as we hoped.

Looking for an alternative way of earning an extra income, without physically going out of the house to work became one of our options.

I wanted to be able to still enjoy our lifestyle while being able to earn extra money……….. a scenario, I believe, many Baby boomers are looking for.

You may be someone who has enough money and doesn’t need to earn any more, which is a grand position to be in. My gut feeling tells me there are more Baby Boomers who do need to have a way of finding those extra pennies. Sad but true in these tough economic times.

You may find a previous article Will Baby Boomers Have Enough Money For Retirement an interesting to read.

Retiring Baby Boomers and Having Fun

I don’t know about you but the thought of having fun is quite appealing. You reach a stage in life where you almost believe you deserve it. Is it selfish to want that? After all, you have probably worked hard all your life and believe you have reached a stage where yes, having fun is no more than you deserve.

Whats wrong with playing more golf, having a second home, drinking and socialising with friends, enjoying your grandkids coming over, travelling the world to places you dreamed of when your were working? ………… sounds awesome doesn’t it.

The other important thing on our minds as well, is keeping our health and making sure we are fit enough to have fun. We also have to bear in mind, that although we are living longer, so are our parents and many Baby Boomers are care givers to their older parents as well.

Whatever life throws our way, hopefully, we have many years ahead of us and you will choose how you want to spend your retirement. Everyone will choose differently, depending on their circumstances. However, the bottom line is we still need an income coming in to help us, what ever we choose to do.

I hope you enjoyed todays post Do Retiring Baby Boomers Just Want To Have Fun… I really would like to hear from other Boomers and get some views on the extract above, that I found in the Palm Beach Post. It got me thinking, so I wondered if it did the same for you. Leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you.