Baby Boomer Retirement at 62?

I am going to give a brief bio on us and our situation that will, hopefully, explain who we are and where we want to be.

Our names are Mike & Gloria.  We've been married 41 years and have 3 adult children.  Mike turns 62 this month; I will turn 62 in April.  Mike had his own business in New England for many years (I did his bookkeeping from home) but the economic downturn that hit hard in 2008 hit New England earlier and just kept building and getting worse.  (He repaired and put chemical-resistant coatings on concrete floors for industry.  Many of his customers either moved South, left the country, or closed their doors permanently.)

Mike had to close his business at the end of 2008.  We'd already sold our house 3 years earlier (just before the housing market soured).  We were left with no nest egg when the dust settled.  He was offered a job here in the Mid-West so we said good-bye to our kids and grandkids and headed West the end of 2008.  The position he was given was eliminated this past July with no warning.

For the first time in his life, Mike is on unemployment.  He has been unable to find another job that will keep us afloat.  While he's been job hunting the past 6 months, we've been doing a lot of researching and talking about how we're going to handle this situation long term.

I found an article from the July 10, 2010 Chicago Tribune that said:

"Following the job and investing horrors of the last three years, many Americans fear they will end up in retirement like Old Mother Hubbard.

But while their cupboards are likely to contain more than a bone, a sobering study released Tuesday shows the fantasy isn't far off the mark. About 47 percent of early baby boomers, now 56 to 62 years old, are not expected to have enough money to cover basic living expenses like food, utilities and health care through retirement."

47 percent! That's huge!  And we're part of those statistics.  Very sobering - and yet in a strange way kind of comforting that we're not the only ones in this 'boat'.

In August we spent some time in British Columbia visiting with one of our sons as well as friends from various parts of the world.  We discovered that many people in our age bracket from other countries are going through the same problems that we are.  So, it's everywhere, folks.

Economists have been talking for a while that there is a larger economic crisis looming on the near horizon that will be far worse than what happened in 2008.  From the research we've done, we think they're right.

So we're trying to figure out how to cope...... We're on unemployment, renting a house but barely making ends meet.   We have good friends here but our children and grandchildren are on either side of the continent.  It really hurts to not be able to spend time with them on a regular basis.  At the same time we don't want to be a burden to them.  What to do, what to do.

This is what we've come up with that we're hoping will solve our problem and still allow us to do what we want....

Starting tomorrow we're going to start pricing and listing for sale just about everything we own to raise money to buy a used 5th wheel and used truck to pull it.  We've been crunching #'s and we think we can manage to live very cheaply while being full-time RVers....IF we can find the right rig and truck at the right prices.  We will have to do something to earn extra income (Mike has filed for Social Security) while we're on the road.

By becoming full-time RVers, we can spend time with the family in New England, time with the family in British Columbia, and time with friends around the country.  While we're traveling around, assuming we can earn some extra income on the road, we will keep our eyes open for an inexpensive piece of property that we can 'settle down' on if need be.

'Til next time

Gloria - The Internet GADabout